Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) – Its format

MCAT which stands for Medical College Admission Test is a standardized examination that is basically computer based. This examination is taken by prospective students who are pursuing their careers in medical science. The MCAT is a specially designed examination which assesses critical thinking, scientific knowledge, writing skills and concepts or principles of the medical students. Before 19th August 2006, MCAT was a written test. At present the administration of such examinations have become entirely based on computers. In Canada and the U.S, in order to get admission in medical schools, it is mandatory for all the applicants to undertake MCAT examination and emerge successful. In fact the MCAT scores are also required to be submitted in the application process. Hence the MCAT must be taken seriously if one wants to get admission in a medical school. The duration of the MCAT is usually 5 to 5 and a half hours and it covers a large variety of topics such as organic chemistry, physics, introductory biology, chemistry, etc and also assess the writing skills and the comprehending skills of the medical students. In North America, the MCAT is held for about 14 times a year in all testing centers and it is administered by AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges). In order to take this test, all the registrations must be done in advance because thousands of medical students appear for the exams and hence in order to ensure availability, the students have to register in advance. The format of the MCAT is very simple and straightforward. There are four sections and for each section, a specific time period is allowed. The first section is Physical Sciences, which covers both physics and chemistry topics. There are 52 questions in this section and the time allowed is seventy minutes. The next section is Verbal Reasoning, it has comparatively less questions (only 40) and the time allowed is an hour. Next is the Writing Sample section where the students are expected to write two essays and the time allowed is thirty minutes for each essay. The last section is Biological Sciences, which deals with Organic Chemistry and Biology; this section has 52 questions and seventy minutes are provided for writing the answers. The resources that can be used to prepare for this examination can be found both online or in textbooks. Because it is illegal to sell the real MCAT questions which belongs to AAMC, many companies prepare sample test questions that are written in house. Hence the only resource that offers questions from the real MCAT examinations is the AAMC practice test that can be accessed online at their site. A lot of students rely on university textbooks as well as free web resources for their preparation for MCAT.