Preparing for the MCAT Exam FAQ

Related MCAT Essentials (PDF) Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR™) The Official Guide to the MCAT Exam Application and Admission Timeline

When should I take the MCAT exam?

Medical school admission officers usually suggest that you take the test in the calendar year prior to the year in which you plan to enter medical school. They generally recommend a winter or spring testing date because receipt of winter or spring scores allows for summer or early fall completion of (January–May) your application. An earlier test date is also recommended because it permits examinees who feel that their scores do not accurately reflect their abilities to retest in the summer or fall. Later scores may then be submitted to medical schools in the same application year as the earlier scores.

Am I ready to take the MCAT exam?

You may have taken the SAT or ACT as part of the college application process. The MCAT exam is different from these tests in that it goes beyond testing general knowledge. The MCAT exam also tests knowledge of specific subjects: biology, chemistry, and physics; it also assesses communication and critical thinking skills.

Ideally, your undergraduate education has prepared you for the MCAT exam. If you have taken the requisite science courses, as well as classes in the humanities and social sciences you should be skilled at reading a wide range of material. Rigorous coursework and extracurricular reading expand your vocabulary, develop your reading pace, and increase your familiarity with texts and arguments in various disciplines.

If you have already completed an undergraduate program, but need to take more science courses to meet medical school admissions requirements, you should explore Postbaccalaureate Premedical Programs.

Do I need to take a commercial review course?

Hoping to improve their scores, some students enroll in MCAT prep courses offered by commercial firms. The material here, along with a rigorous undergraduate education, should make enrollment in such courses unnecessary.

Some review courses imply that they will give their students the opportunity to see and study questions that may appear on the MCAT exam. We make strenuous efforts to ensure that this is not the case.

One study involving over 20,000 students during a five-year period compared the MCAT exam performance of those who had enrolled in commercial review courses with that of those who had not. The study results indicated that gains derived from commercial review courses are small. The small differences in the scores of individuals who received such coaching could be due simply to the time devoted to reviewing the relevant material.

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