Is the MCAT THAT hard of a test?!

[Bmewriter]

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At my school, I know about 5 people that had above >3.7 GPA and they scored in the high 20s/low 30s of the test. One of them is the #1 student in our major.

I mean, is the MCAT supposed to be this hard!? I feel super nervous now seeing that I took my thing yesterday.

 

[Wheee]

low 30s is not bad. even high 20s can (and does) get you into med school, especially with a good gpa.

I didn't think it was super super hard, but it definitely wasn't a walk in the park. I scored well, but I've always been good at standardized tests. It is supposed to be hard--come on, nothing about applying to med school is easy! It shouldn't be easy to become a doctor.

 

[muhali3]

It's not hard if you know how to prepare for it. Most people don't know how to prepare for it. They'll just walk in straight to the test without any review of MCAT material, or they'll take a Kaplan course.

 

[chicago88]

It's not hard if you know how to prepare for it. Most people don't know how to prepare for it. They'll just walk in straight to the test without any review of MCAT material, or they'll take a Kaplan course.

really well said.

although, i wouldn't say it's not hard.. i mean even if you do prepare for it i'd still say it is a challenge, but it is much more manageable if you prepare the right way ;-)

kaplan is not the answer to all our woes... nor are any of the other prep courses without the right approach from the student.

 

[Doodl3s]

haha, i luv how kaplan pops up immediately. (im sure with underlying snickers about how terrible it is lol) I have a friend at TPR, she says its alot better cause they teach you the stuff like a class. Kaplan is just that though, a REVIEW. I actually like it. I only took it because it forces me to study their books and then when I'm ahead of what I have for kaplan (which is not often since they have so much) I do the EK books. I feel that if you did well in the subjects in college you should be fine with just reviewing. Except verbal, thats just practice practice...

 

[Bmewriter]

I hope the right approach involves taking lots and lots of practice tests and doing VR passages...

Blah, August 2 is the date when the stuff comes out, so I'll check then...

 

[capn jazz]

I feel that if you did well in the subjects in college you should be fine with just reviewing. Except verbal, thats just practice practice...

I don't know about your personal situation but this reasoning is EXACTLY why a lot of people are otherwise smart and do well in the pre-reqs but BOMB the MCAT. The MCAT is NOT NOT NOT about "review", it's about doing practice passages and practice questions. You can read EK until you're blue in the face and if your only practice is their 30 minute exams, you will be nowhere near as well-prepared as someone who focused on practice rather than content review. Especially since every test date ends and people post about how the test barely required memorization and how companies like TBR were so useful because they give you hundreds of practice passages.

The MCAT is about practice, not about memorization/general knowledge.

 

[DocHomer]

low 30s is not bad. even high 20s can (and does) get you into med school, especially with a good gpa.

I didn't think it was super super hard, but it definitely wasn't a walk in the park. I scored well, but I've always been good at standardized tests. It is supposed to be hard--come on, nothing about applying to med school is easy! It shouldn't be easy to become a doctor.

The scale may go up to 45, but 32 is still around 90th percentile. So with a good gpa and all-around solid application, an applicant has a very good shot at getting in somewhere.

 

[linkin06]

i think if ur smart, u can get low to mid 30's on any given day. a little bit of luck gets u the higher tier scores. it's just the curve is pretty harsh, so one day you are missing just a lil bit more than avg and instead of the upper 30's you'll get 10's and 11's.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

At my school, I know about 5 people that had above >3.7 GPA and they scored in the high 20s/low 30s of the test. One of them is the #1 student in our major.

I mean, is the MCAT supposed to be this hard!? I feel super nervous now seeing that I took my thing yesterday.

The MCAT is relatively easy for some and impossible for others. Why? It's a reading test.

There is no variability (completely passage based), but a well designed empirical test should have a mixture of everything. Almost every other standardized test in the world takes measures to do so, but the MCAT (and our whole application process, for that matter) gets away with being archaic because it's a rite of passage. The MCAT also has almost no predictive power. It does not correlate strongly with grades, or how smart your are, or how successful you'll be as a doctor, or anything really, except for your performance on the USMLE. Since they are written by the same company, this isn't much of a surprise.

That said, the MCAT does function pretty well as a "genius finder." I think everyone would agree that a 40+ means you're quite smart...but a mid-20 doesn't really say much at all.

 

[lofski12]

http://www.fairtest.org/healthy-medical-school-admissions

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

http://www.fairtest.org/healthy-medical-school-admissions

Great link 👍

The article basically confirms all my theories about the MCAT. The end is a little bit weak, though. Instead of doing away with testing, why not design a more predictive and fairer (non-reading-based) test.

Regarding the racial inequality...

I grew up in an affluent white community, went to boarding school and a top college, majored in a non-science, and am well-read. Still, I struggled with the verbal section. I can't imagine how impossible it would be for someone who grew up in Compton around broken English, or whose parents are non-native English speakers.

 

[Dr Gerrard]

I don't know, I actually find the MCAT to be a very very well made exam.

It tests on knowledge, yes.

But more than that, it tests on reasoning. Every time I miss a problem, it is either for two reasons.

1) Didn't have the knowledge
2) Didn't reason through the problem well enough, but after seeing the answer choice, it all makes sense.

Now the only thing with me is that I think reasoning is an important skill.

 

[HelloGoodbye]

I don't know about your personal situation but this reasoning is EXACTLY why a lot of people are otherwise smart and do well in the pre-reqs but BOMB the MCAT. The MCAT is NOT NOT NOT about "review", it's about doing practice passages and practice questions. You can read EK until you're blue in the face and if your only practice is their 30 minute exams, you will be nowhere near as well-prepared as someone who focused on practice rather than content review. Especially since every test date ends and people post about how the test barely required memorization and how companies like TBR were so useful because they give you hundreds of practice passages.

The MCAT is about practice, not about memorization/general knowledge.

I think the way you study has to do with who you are. I did content review like crazy and only took 5 AAMC FL and got a 33P. This worked well for me, but taking tons of exams could work equally as well for someone else. I actually felt by the end of taking 1 FL for 5 weeks in a row I was burned out.

 

[capn jazz]

I don't know, I always found that in classes like physics and chem, I would feel like I totally understood the lectures and chapters, but doing psets and exams was an entirely different experience. Plus, I don't know about you guys, but taking MC science exams is SO WEIRD for me. It's very different from short answer exams.

 

[lofski12]

The reason I posted that link was to state my opinion that the MCAT DOES and DOES NOT predict your success in medical school. Basically, from that article and from what a few doctors have told me, the MCAT is designed to make sure students won't drop out during the first years of basic sciences. But... the fact is, a test like the MCAT is very different from taking classes. Some kids are excellent at studying hard for a class and doing well but are uncomfortable with standardized tests in general, and vice versa. But in regards to how well you do in the clinical setting, during your last years of medical school, the MCAT gives practically little or no indication. Which is why medical schools decide to interview a person with a high gpa and low mcat, just to see a glimpse of their personality and determine if it makes up for that low score.

 

[Omni]

MCAT is all reading comprehension and critical thinking, even the science sections.
Knowing the material is one thing, but practicing with questions is a completely different thing and this practicing part is what I think a lot of poeple don't do. Yes, a lot of time should be devoted into learning the material but just as much time should be devoted to practicing and doing the questions, etc. etc.

 

[lofski12]

In all honesty, I sincerely believe the MCAT "is that hard of a test" because medical school is one hell of a mountain to climb.

As far as the difficulty goes, I've noticed some things about background and success on the MCAT. Like Omni said, it's all reading comprehension and critical thinking, two types of knowledge that develop over a long period of time. I have friends in a big city that attended an awesome public school and had a rigorous education and they studied for the MCAT about a month before and both received 30+. I'm from a south Texas city and our education is notorious for being underpar. I studied for the MCAT about 6 months ahead of time and received a 24, not very good. In my opinion, if you're taking the MCAT, you need to be honest with yourself and determine whether or not you have critical reading skills. If not, then start reading journals and publications NOW. That's because critical reading and comprehension are something that you don't develop in a month.