When to Take the MCAT

[ShySpliceosome]

Hello all,

I am wondering when the best time is to take the MCAT, and whether or not it is good to take it multiple times. I will graduate in May 2014, so I will need to take the MCAT either spring or summer of 2013. My original plan was to begin SN2ed's fantastic 3-month study plan at the beginning of May of 2013 and then take the MCAT at the beginning of August of the same year. However, I will have to take an Ecology class that summer as well, so that will interfere with MCAT study time, unfortunately. I am concerned, however, that it may not be a good idea to take the test at "the last minute" like that and possibly have to wait an entire year to take it again (if my score happens to be less than satisfactory)!
Anyway, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to go ahead and take the MCAT in the spring of 2013 (even though I will not have taken Physics II or Cell/Molecular Biology) just to get an idea of what the test is like and to know what sections I need to focus my studying on...or would it be just as sufficient to take a free online practice test? Is there a limit to the number of times you can take the MCAT?
I would greatly appreciate any comments/advice! Thanks!

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[Lollygag]

Hello all,

I am wondering when the best time is to take the MCAT, and whether or not it is good to take it multiple times. I will graduate in May 2014, so I will need to take the MCAT either spring or summer of 2013. My original plan was to begin SN2ed's fantastic 3-month study plan at the beginning of May of 2013 and then take the MCAT at the beginning of August of the same year. However, I will have to take an Ecology class that summer as well, so that will interfere with MCAT study time, unfortunately. I am concerned, however, that it may not be a good idea to take the test at "the last minute" like that and possibly have to wait an entire year to take it again (if my score happens to be less than satisfactory)!
Anyway, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to go ahead and take the MCAT in the spring of 2013 (even though I will not have taken Physics II or Cell/Molecular Biology) just to get an idea of what the test is like and to know what sections I need to focus my studying on...or would it be just as sufficient to take a free online practice test? Is there a limit to the number of times you can take the MCAT?
I would greatly appreciate any comments/advice! Thanks!

No there's no limit to how many times you can take it, but you only want to take it once and taking it too many times can look unfavorable to an adcom.

Some people might disagree with me but I personally think you can take it without physics II provided you will learn the necessary material on your own. I wouldn't recommend that for biology, chemistry or organic or even physics I but going without physics II is definitely doable IMO. If you are the type of person that does not do well learning on your own then it would be a problem.

You don't need cell and molec to do well on the MCAT, it can certainly help reinforce certain topics but all of the biology on the MCAT would have been covered in your biology pre req's. The MCAT covers basic biology material, it's not meant to test so much your recollection of difficult topics as it is to test your reasoning and critical thinking which is what makes it difficult.

When is your ecology class exactly? You could could always start MCAT prep april, continue until may and take the mcat end of june or some time in july if your ecology class doesn't start until the middle of the summer. You could trying taking an extremely light load spring semester (12 credits) and maybe add another class in the summer and an extra one fall or spring semester to make up for it.