Washington, D.C., October 16, 2008—The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) announced today that it was launching its fifth comprehensive review of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT®). An advisory panel of 21 medical education, student, and undergraduate representatives from the United States and Canada has been appointed by the association to conduct the review. The "MR5 Committee" will be chaired by Steven Gabbe, M.D., senior vice president of health sciences and CEO of The Ohio State University Medical Center; Ronald Franks, M.D., vice president of health sciences at the University of South Alabama, will serve as vice chair.

"I am extremely honored to chair this important effort to review the Medical College Admission Test," said Gabbe. "As this process moves forward, we will work hard to gather broad input from pre-health advisors, admissions officers, and other stakeholders in the medical education community to help us determine how we can make this national test an even more valuable tool for evaluating applicants."

Charged with reviewing the current content of the MCAT and recommending changes that are likely to increase its usefulness to medical school admissions committees, the MR5 Committee will consider the knowledge, skills, and other characteristics that admission committees look for in applicants. They will examine these attributes in the context of information that is already available to admissions committees through applications, transcripts, letters of recommendation, interviews, and other sources.

The review of the MCAT is expected to take several years and is unlikely to be completed before 2012. Final recommendations from the panel will provide the AAMC with a framework for developing an updated MCAT and supply pre-health advisors and medical school admissions officers with better tools to help prepare students for the MCAT, and refine student selection systems as warranted.

"As the medical profession continues to undergo rapid change, it's critical that the tools we use to select future doctors also evolve," said AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D. "This comprehensive review will ensure that the MCAT has the most current and effective content to assist medical school admissions officers in their efforts to select the best qualified applicants."

The AAMC currently administers more than 80,000 MCAT examinations each year, at more than 350 locations around the world. The MCAT is a standardized exam designed to assess an applicant's facility with problem solving, critical thinking, and writing skills in addition to his or her knowledge of science concepts and principles prerequisite to the study of medicine. Medical college admission committees consider MCAT scores as part of their admission decision process.

In standardized testing, periodic reviews of examinations are considered a best practice. This new review will be the fifth time the MCAT has been evaluated since it was first administered in 1928. The last full-scale review of the MCAT exam was completed in 1990.

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The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 131 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and nearly 90 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 128,000 faculty members, 75,000 medical students, and 110,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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