Tackle the MCAT With Confidence

Now you are ready for crucial step number 2, the MCAT. This test is extremely scary to many medical school applicats. It is the first of many exams that you will need to kill in order for your career to move forward. Not even the SAT or ACT had as much weight as this test does. Even with a bad college admissions test score you can get in somewhere and the college you go to, with few exceptions, isn't going to effect your chances of getting into medical school. The MCAT will, good or bad. Scared enough? OK now you can relax...

Here we will give you all the tools you need to master this test. Before your preparation begins you should take most (all if you can), the science prerequisites to medical school. Those are Physics, Biology, and Chemistry. The test's content is made up heavily of those subjects. Let's take a look at the basics of the MCAT, we'll look at the content, how to register and what you'll need for test day. Got that? Ok lets move on...

Now, you need to get prepared. Let's take a look at what options are available for you. First, a word of advice. This is the most important test you will have taken up to this point in your career. DO NOT SKIMP on this part of your application process. It will NOT go well for you. Let me further explain what I mean here. Answer this question, how much help do you need? Maybe you are a 4.0 student, you understand very well the concepts taught in those science classes and you are very confidant, you may need a less comprehensive review program. On the other hand, are you a 3.3 Student that has really had to work hard in the science classes? Maybe you need a little more of one.

Here is what I advise. Take a look at the practice tests available here, then pick one of the sources and take one of the tests. Are you where you want to be? If not, consider a more comprehensive program, if you need 1-3 points, maybe a less involved system will work for you.

Alright lets get down to it. You should have an idea now of how much improvement you need. By the way, my first diagnostic was 11 points lower than my actual score, so if you did poorly DON'T WORRY. There is still time to do better. Alright, you need review options. By far the most famous review courses are
- Kaplan, as well as
- Princeton Review and
- Examkrackers.
If you want to look at other good review courses that I know of, this is the place for that. You should, by the end of reading those pages, know exactly what you are going to do with your review program...

Now that you know which program you are going to use, take a look at these study tips for general advice no matter which program you are using. And as always, don't forget to time the study of your MCAT well using the timeline described in step 1.

And that's it!!! You are well on your way to organizing and getting ready to tackle Step 2: The MCAT...Be sure to move on to Step 3 - Researching Medical Schools. This step can be done before or after you actually have your MCAT scores but I recommend at least looking at it so you have a good idea based on your practice exams.

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