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Medical
College Admission Test (MCAT) is a pre-requisite for admission
to nearly all the medical schools in North America. Designed
by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the
exam is administered twice a year, in April and in August.
It is a full day exam composed of four sections, Verbal Reasoning,
Physical Sciences, Writing Sample, and Biological Sciences.
MCAT
is a standardized, multiple-choice examination designed to
assess problem solving, critical thinking, and writing skills
in addition to the examinee's knowledge of science concepts
and principles prerequisite to the study of medicine. Scores
are reported in each of the following areas: Verbal Reasoning,
Physical Sciences, Writing Sample, and Biological Sciences.
The MCAT assesses mastery of basic concepts in biology, chemistry,
and physics, facility with scientific problem solving and
critical thinking and writing skills. The skills and concepts
tested by the MCAT are those identified by physicians and
medical educators as prerequisite for the practice of medicine.
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Duration: The MCAT is a 5¾
- hour test.
There are four sections of the test. Two sections are given
in the morning followed by the remaining two after a lunch
break.
The schedule for the test day
and allocated times for each section are as follows:
| Section |
Questions |
Time
(in Minutes) |
| Physical Sciences |
77 |
100 |
| Break |
10 |
| Verbal Reasoning |
60 |
85 |
| Lunch
Break |
60 |
| Writing Sample |
2 |
60 |
| Break |
10 |
| Biological Sciences |
77 |
100 |
Verbal Reasoning
The Verbal Reasoning section
of the MCAT is designed to assess your ability to understand,
evaluate, and apply information and arguments presented in
prose texts. The test consists of several passages, each 500
to 600 words long, taken from the humanities and social sciences
and from areas of the natural sciences not tested on the MCAT
Physical and Biological Sciences sections. Each passage is
accompanied by 5 to 10 multiple-choice questions based on
the information presented in the passage. Since the humanities,
social sciences, and natural sciences include a vast range
of subjects and since courses in these areas differ greatly
in content, test questions will not cover a specific set of
topics. You will not be tested for specific subject knowledge
in the disciplines covered on the test.
The Writing Sample consists
of two items, each composed of a brief topic statement and
a set of writing tasks designed to elicit a unified, coherent,
first-draft essay exploring the meaning and implications of
the statement.
The Physical and Biological
Sciences sections contain multiple-choice questions. Most
of the questions accompany brief informational passages; a
smaller number are independent of any passage and of each
other. Questions assess knowledge of basic concepts in biology,
chemistry, and physics through their application to the solution
of science problems.
The content tested on the physical sciences section of the
MCAT is drawn from physics and general chemistry. Questions
are roughly divided between the two and are mixed throughout
the section. Tested physics concepts include Newtonian mechanics,
thermodynamics, magnetism, light and optics, nuclear physics,
and atomic phenomena. Chemistry concept that you can expect
to see include quantum numbers, the Periodic Table, bonding,
phases of matter, and acids and bases. In mathematics you
need to know are the basics, like algebra, exponents, logs,
and a bit of trigonometry. There isn't any calculus, differential
equations, or matrix mechanics.
Questions in the Biological
Sciences section are drawn from biology and organic chemistry,
with a slightly greater emphasis on biology. Tested biology
concepts include cell division, muscular and skeletal systems,
the lymphatic system, respiratory and circulatory systems,
enzymatic activity, viruses, and the nervous system. Organic
chemistry concepts that you can expect to see include nomenclature,
stereochemistry, spectroscopy, hydrocarbons, amino acids and
proteins, laboratory techniques, and hydrolysis and dehydration.
At a Glance
| Papers |
Time |
Format |
Topics |
| Physical Sciences |
100 minutes |
77 total questions
10-11 passages
4-8 questions per passage
15 stand-alone questions |
General Chemistry
Basic Physics
Analytical Reasoning
Data Interpretation |
| Verbal Reasoning |
85 minutes |
60 total questions
9-10 passages
6-10 questions each |
Critical Reading |
| Writing Sample |
60 minutes |
Two 30-minute essay questions |
Critical Thinking
Intellectual Organization
Written Communication |
| Biological Sciences |
100 minutes |
77 total questions
10-11 passages
4-8 questions each
15 stand-alone questions |
Biology
Organic Chemistry
Data Interpretation
Analytical Reasoning |
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The MCAT is a "standardized"
test. A standardized test is simply one that is sensitive
to differences in capacity or aptitude in specific areas and
not sensitive to other (extraneous) factors or attributes.
The MCAT Physical Sciences section, for example, attempts
to measure facility with introductory chemistry and physics
without giving the examinee a "bonus" for calculus
or advanced courses taken.
Your raw score is "scaled"
to a curve of how the entire group of people taking the test
performed (and in some cases, how everyone who took the exam
over the past few years did). Thus, your final score is based
not only on your individual performance, but on the performance
of the testing group as a whole. Your MCAT score indicates
how far above or below average your raw test score is.
The Verbal Reasoning, Biological
Sciences, and Physical Sciences sections are scored on a 1-15
scale with a target mean and standard deviation of 8 and 2.5,
respectively. However, in practice the target mean and standard
deviation are not met exactly, since scores are assigned to
try to meet certain other criteria (e.g. a 15 corresponds
to the 99.9th percentile, or there are as many 10+ scores
as 1st year openings).
The results should arrive in
the mail 8 to 9 weeks after the test.
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