Students who plan to take the Medical College Admission Test in 2015 or later will be facing a longer and possibly more difficult test.
The MCAT will see major changes starting in 2015, and the test will now include sections in biochemistry and behavioral and social sciences. This will be the first time in 25 years that the Association of American Medical Colleges, will make revisions to the exam.
The MCAT will last a total 7 hours and 10 minutes, an increase from the currently allotted 5 hours and 10 minutes.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the test will add a critical analysis and reasoning section in order to reflect medical schools’ desire to accept students from a variety of backgrounds. The new sections are also constructed to gauge test takers understanding of the social and cultural impacts on health.
“An article in a philosophy journal will necessarily be dealing with more abstract topics and will not typically contain such clearly delineated sections,” said Sara Nicholson, Raleigh-area manager for the Princeton Review. “Students in the humanities therefore spend more time reading, questioning an author’s argument [and] breaking down an article into claims and support, which are all skills that are tested heavily on the MCAT.”
A clinician’s bedside skills and ability to empathize with the patient is a huge part of being a doctor, but also caretaker, according to the AAMC.
The MCAT will add social science oriented sections to encourage atypical applicants to apply to medical school and to find applicants who have the ability to understand a wide variety of topics, not just medical knowledge, according to the MCAT prep guide.
Nicholson said the new test will be more difficult, regardless of the other changes.
Although the writing section of the MCAT has been removed, Nicholson said the length of the test is still a factor in considering when to take the exam.
Nicholson said she urges students, if possible, to take the test before the 2015 changes increase in length.
Dr. Anita Flick, director of N.C. State’s health professions advising, said the MCAT is a vital part of applying to medical school.
“The number one thing is that they can fix the GPA issues, but if they can’t pass the MCAT, they may not achieve their dreams,” Flick said.
Flick said that medical schools only accept 40 to 45 percent of applicants each year. Although the MCAT may be intimidating for students pursuing a medical degree, N.C. State offers a variety of resources to help students prepare.
N.C. State has partnered with the Princeton Review to offer students a class to help get ready to take the MCAT.
Flick said 75 to 80 percent of students who use all the tools that N.C State offers get into their desired graduate program. This puts these students at approximately twice the national average.
Flick said that the class is not designed to reteach students what they have learned throughout college, but rather to teach them how to take the test.
According to a report by the Chronicle for Higher Education, the number of medical school applicants increased by 6.1 percent to about 48,000 in 2013. The number of students enrolled increased as well, exceeding 20,000 for the first time.
