A few questions concerning the MCAT...

[PreMed86]

Hi, I'll be a pre-med student this fall and I was just pondering a few questions about the MCAT.

For one, when do students usually take their first MCAT test? Also, what books would you recommend studying for each part of the test?

And how does the essay/writing portion work? I was looking at a "sample" and it used a 1-6 scale, but then just a minute ago I saw a letter scale... can someone explain?

Oh, and finally, about how much time to you get for each part of the test?

Thank you so much for taking time to respond.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[chopper]

If you look at the stats, it's evenly split. About 20,000 people take for the first time in both April and August. August has more takers total because they outnumber retakers about 3:1 over April.

Lots of books and classes. Read some of the other threads.

J-T = 1-12 = 1-6 with half point increments. I don't know why they make it so hard. Why not just 1-12?

Physical Sciences: 77 questions, 100 min.
Verbal: 60 questions, 85 min
writing: 2x30 min blocks
Biological Sciences: 77 questions, 100 min