Ok. A friend suggested to me that i should consider taking the MCAT in april for 2 reasons.
1) Apparently there is a better curve as more college students in the middle of exams take it then.
2) it gives me an extra shot at aug 2007 entrance.
So here is my dilemma. I am currently taking bio/phy I and will be taking Bio/Phy II in january. These 2 classes will be done about May (though I may be able to finish early)
I would be taking the mcat without any Organic Chem at all except what i can learn from the EK material.
Obviously it isnt the best plan. However, the reason i consider it is that I really want to start aug 2007 and if i write the MCAT in aug 2006 I have been told i have a much worse chance of getting in based upon how long it will take for MCAT scores and app submission. It seems alot of schools do 70% or more of their offers on rolling admissions and those with april MCATS will have a better chance of getting accepted than those with aug MCAT for the same year.
So does it make sense to take the april MCAT just to “see what happens”? From my understanding you cant apply to schools until you have the MCAT and a certain percentage of class work done. I will hit the class work part by april but in my current plan i wouldnt write the MCAT till aug. Whats everyone think? Is it worth it to try for april?
Although it is never really advisable to take the MCAT without ever having one of the prereqs on the test, I personally felt that I may have scored the same with or without ochem. On my test, there was a lot more biology than ochem. On many of the ochem passages with questions, I felt like I was just guessing. I dont think it is b/c I didn’t know Ochem (b/c I got "A"s both semesters)–it just the MCAT is soo twisted! 
I scored an 8 in that section so it is not like I was off the charts or anything.I must tell you however, that there are varying amounts of bio/ochem and others test administration to test administration.
Best case scenario is that you would have/in the process of completing all the prereqs study hard and take it once–just sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.
I would be more concerned about trying to do well in your courses and on top of that putting the hours needed into studying for the MCAT. I supposed you could give April a shot, but then you better know for sure if you didnt do so great on it that you will improve your score for August.
Yup. This is a hard call.
I am not sure how diffuclt i will find bio and physics. I think i will know better how much time i have to study for the MCAT when im a little further into the year. Is there a cutoff time to register to take the MCAT?
By april, you will probably have covered most of the necessary material for the MCAT. I took the MCAT without the last quarter of physics. With a good review book, you should be fine. The bigger question is: Do you have enough time to devote to MCAT study with your courseload?
I’ll go out on the other side of this. I think it is a mistake to take the MCAT without OCHEM. While the trend is to put more Bio than OCHEM on the MCAT (I’ve heard to the point of a 70/30 split), individual forms can have much more Orgo than others. Some in my Princeton Class this year said they had over half OCHEM. I also don’t agree with the statement that MCAT Ochem is twisted. I think most OCHEM is easy points for the picking, if you have a basic background in organic.
I also think that the whole ‘My chances go way down if I take the August MCAT’ are way overplayed. There were tons of people on the interview trail who took the August test. In fact, more people take the August test than in April.
Given a choice: No OCHEM/April MCAT vs August MCAT/OCHEM completed - I would take the August test every time. You are risking something very important (the MCAT score) for something that won’t give you THAT much of an advantage (early application).
good points everyone.
I hate these type of decisions. Depending on where I sit by end of this semester with physics and bio ill know if i can be prepared to write the mcat. If i do very well in both and find them easy, then i think ill be cool. If not… then august here i come 
Just for clarification: I didn’t say the MCAT ochem was twisted, I said the MCAT is twisted. I felt I had a good background knowlege base in ochem, especially since I was just finishing Ochem2 as I was writing the MCAT. Out of the many, many ochem reactions, it is impossible to remember all of them. I was asked questions about a 3rd step in a not so common rxn mechanism in which there was no structure drawn and asked to name it–I guessed right on that one (looked it up when I got home)but it was sheer luck. My organic chem professor (PhD) took the same test and also said they made it much more trickier–just food for thought.
Yes, there is a deadline. Usually about 3 weeks before the test administration date. About 5 weeks before test date if you don’t want to pay an extra 50 bucks. If you wait too long you may not get your first choice testing center.
I also come down firmly against pushing to take the MCAT before you’ve done all the coursework, for several reasons.
1. While it is true that apps can be considered with some prereqs still pending, the truth is that MOST of the apps I saw during my time on an AdCom were complete. That is your competition, like it or not. I don’t remember the rest of what you bring to the table, but your application is definitely better if it’s in September with completed prereqs vs. June with pending prereqs.
2. MCAT is not to be taken lightly and NEVER “just to see what happens.” This is not like any other test you have ever taken or hopefully will ever take. While I advocate some degree of escapist thinking - as in, “The worst that could happen is that I’d have to take it again,” believe me, that is a terrible thing to wish for. That is one b!tch of a test and you want to be as well-prepared as you can possibly be. Folks who’ve been on this board for awhile are groaning and rolling their eyes about now because I always say the same thing, but I don’t care. Man, you do NOT want to have to take the MCAT more than once if you can help it. You want to go in there determined to kick its a$$ and only take it once.
3. Disregard all that crap you’ve heard about the curve being different in August. It isn’t. In my former life I learned quite a bit about standardized testing and how tests are scored, and I couldn’t explain any of it now to save my life. But the psychometrician who advised my agency also worked with USMLE and just take it on faith, they standardize that thing until it squeaks. The folks who posit the “curve is different” idea just do not know all the different ways that tests can be standardized. Curves are a simplistic application for ordinary tests; the MCAT is not an ordinary test. No way is there a difference between April and August. Again, puh-leeze don’t ask me to try and explain it but I am sure I am right.
4. Aside from the easy points you could score by knowing orgo, and I agree with that observation, I also think that there is a good bit of synthesis on the MCAT where the different disciplines are blended into a passage and series of questions. By completing o-chem prior to taking the MCAT, you’ve got more of the big picture of the biological sciences that they’re looking for and it is worth that.
5. Finally, and you knew this was coming, this is a marathon, not a sprint. (more groans from the assembled crowd) I am as impatient as they come, and generally a procrastinator who loves to hurry up and do stuff at the last minute. For my prereqs, for the MCAT, for my applications, I was the tortoise in the old tortoise-and-hare fable and ya know what, it’s true: “slow and steady wins the race.” Plot out your strategy step by step, no shortcuts, no quick fixes, and I strongly believe that you are more likely to get to your destination quicker. Many of the folks I’ve seen who’ve ended up applying again, or NOT applying again, are the ones who took shortcuts.
This is one you want to do right the first time, because it really is a monumental pain in the posterior. And you won’t get any sympathy from me about age, and time flyin’ by! 
Mary
Quote:
I would be taking the mcat without any Organic Chem at all except what i can learn from the EK material.
Oops - I missed this part of the original post. I would like to clarify that my statement was based soley on the concept of taking the MCAT with just a few weeks left in the course. I wouldn’t take the MCAT without taking any Ochem at all.
Quote:
1) Apparently there is a better curve as more college students in the middle of exams take it then.
Well, you could also argue that the August exam has a better “curve” since more students take it during their summer vacation when their brains are dulled and they’ve forgotten their physics equations, or that more slackers wait til August. I don’t think there is any merit to any of those ideas and you should definitely NOT choose your exam date that way.
I would agree with people who are saying you should take orgo before the MCAT. Yes, the amount of orgo on the MCAT varies and I think it’s getting smaller, but what they will probably do is just try to weave more orgo-type thinking into some of the newly added “bio” questions. Organic chem gives you one more way of thinking about science, and will help you overall as you approach many of the passages. Also, it is very concrete, since you actually look at so many structures of molecules. I know this helped me to get a better understanding of both gen chem and bio prior to the MCAT.
And it is so true that you don’t want to take the MCAT twice if you CAN avoid it. It is such a long, grueling exam! Studying for it totally consumes people during the months beforehand–and not in a way that would be fun to repeat!
Thank you everyone!
I am very glad for the information you have all given me and it has made the decision easy to write in Aug 2006 right after the MCAT. WooHoo (cry)
Mike -
Taking the August MCAT will not put you at as big of a disadvantage as the neurotic premeds on SDN would have you believe. You can go ahead and submit your AMCAS, have all of your LOR’s ready and be ready to go as soon as those scores come out in October. Some schools will even send you a secondary prior to receiving any MCAT scores.
The risk is that your end up doing poorly on the MCAT and eating the $$$ you spent on the AMCAS, but its probably better to do this than wait until November to have your applications complete.
My applications weren’t complete until October/November and I was accepted at all five of the MD schools I applied to. I was initially waitlisted at the most competitive school (probably due to interviewing in Feb), but as soon as the May 15 deadline rolled around, I got in off the waitlist.
Good Luck!
Amy
Hey amy!
Thanks! While SDN is helpful, i do often find the 20 somethings who are in university without life experience of any kind over emphasize certain stuff, this appears to be one of them!
Thanks again!
I am trying to decide between April and August myself, Mike. I’m going to base the decision more on how I’m doing on the practice tests around the time of the deadline to register. If I don’t feel I can make a great score in April then I’ll wait for August. So far I’ve realized from the various samples I’ve looked at that the questions don’t necessarily assume you’ve had every subject…since the test is designed to be taken during not after you finish your requirements that only makes sense. I think it’s crucial that you have great critical thinking skills and don’t panic if you see a question that sounds like something you know nothing about. A lot of times the hints are in the question to answer it correctly even when you don’t fully understand the science yet. I’ve been surprised having already taken the GRE at the end of my BA degree how much more focused on real useful skills the MCAT is than on remote pure theory. I guess this is why they put so much emphasis on this test in deciding who to admit.
Great advice, Mary. Slow, steady, planned progress wins the Med School race. Better to be well-prepared and do well on the MCAT than be under-prepared and risk doing poorly. True, we all have heard of veritable MCAT prodigies who got 35+ with little or no studying – but they are the exception, not the rule. And even these smart people didn’t know how they would fare on the MCAT before they took it.
Quote:
Ok. A friend suggested to me that i should consider taking the MCAT in april for 2 reasons.
1) Apparently there is a better curve as more college students in the middle of exams take it then.
2) it gives me an extra shot at aug 2007 entrance.
So here is my dilemma. I am currently taking bio/phy I and will be taking Bio/Phy II in january. These 2 classes will be done about May (though I may be able to finish early)
I would be taking the mcat without any Organic Chem at all except what i can learn from the EK material.
Obviously it isnt the best plan. However, the reason i consider it is that I really want to start aug 2007 and if i write the MCAT in aug 2006 I have been told i have a much worse chance of getting in based upon how long it will take for MCAT scores and app submission. It seems alot of schools do 70% or more of their offers on rolling admissions and those with april MCATS will have a better chance of getting accepted than those with aug MCAT for the same year.
So does it make sense to take the april MCAT just to “see what happens”? From my understanding you cant apply to schools until you have the MCAT and a certain percentage of class work done. I will hit the class work part by april but in my current plan i wouldnt write the MCAT till aug. Whats everyone think? Is it worth it to try for april?
Don’t take the MCAT until you are ready. The ADCOMS will not be impressed by a 1st score that is low and then you would explain “But I needed Orgo”. Better to take it when ready to than rush it. Med school is a marathon not a sprint.
Cheers.