MCAT- An Important Medical School Requirement

Anybody who aspires to become a doctor has to appear for the medical admission test or MCAT. This is a mandatory medical school requirement in most of the colleges. This test is held twice a year- in spring and in autumn.

MCAT is regarded as one of the most difficult entrance tests. This test requires that a student to not only have expertise over subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics but also native intelligence and also a bit of analytical bent of mind.

The admissions committee of a medical school takes the MCAT to distinguish students. They regard the MCAT as the only way to objectively compare a brilliant student from the crowd of students who aspire to become doctor.

Experts say that the best time to appear for MCAT is in the spring season. This is because in the final semester, the load of academics is already high. Besides, if you plan that you want to become a doctor then you should utilize your summer and winter breaks appropriately. Also, you should try to clear the exam in the first attempt itself.

This is important as the admission committee of the medical school will definitely look at the number of attempts that you have taken to clear the exam. Even if you cleared the exam in your second attempt, they will look at the amount of improvement that you have made. So, this makes the MCAT the most important element in a medical school admission process.

Now, let us take a look at the test pattern of MCAT. The most interesting aspect of the MCAT paper is the one that has two essays that a student has to write apart from the Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Verbal Reasoning. Regarding the essays, you require to do three things- explain the topic, present it in a lucid way and also bring out some exceptions to the topic.

You get 85 minutes for 60 Verbal Reasoning and Writing questions. You are required not only to demonstrate your ability to comprehend but also apply it. For Physical Sciences you get 100 minutes to answer 77 questions. Here questions are basically on Physics and Chemistry.

This part is regarded as the toughest section of the MCAT exam. The Biological Sciences part also has 77 questions to be answered in 100 minutes which contain questions from Organic Chemistry and Biology. All questions in this paper except the essays offer multiple choices.

To clear this critical part of a medical school requirement, the wisest thing to do is to take up papers from previous years MCAT and practice as many questions as possible.