MCAT 2014
144 questions
3 hours and 20 minutes
MCAT 2015
261 questions
6 hours and 15 minutes
Added social and behavioral sciences section
Pre-med students now have to take additional courses before they can test into medical school due to a change in the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) this year.
The exam will include a new section covering social and behavioral sciences, requiring students to take additional psychology, sociology, biochemistry and potentially statistics courses.
The Association of American Medical Colleges will use this section to decide how well the student can interpret information to patients and colleagues, according to their website.
"If you’re a biology or chemistry major, it doesn’t add any additional credits since most of them cross over with pre-med,” said Clare Chatot, a Ball State biology professor.
Chatot said she is also working on adding statistics as a requirement.
Although not all students are double majoring in a biology-related field, Chatot said they may have to take additional summer classes to prepare for it.
Currently, the exam consists of 144 questions to be completed in three hours and 20 minutes. With the added section, the test will be 261 questions to be done in six hours and 15 minutes
The point system will also change from a scale of 1-42 to 118-132, leaving some student unsure about what to aim for.
“I knew that I needed to score between a 32 and a 37 to meet the average scores for the medical schools I’m interested in," said Kelsi McCauley, a freshman pre-med and biochemistry. "Now that the scores have been changed and new sections added, I do not know what the accepted scores will be until a year from now when the next group of medical students is accepted.”
Peter Beerbower, freshman pre-med and biology major said he is currently taking PSYCH 100, CHEM 111 and BIO 112 for his major and said he has been busy preparing for the exam with the new requirements.
“I’m just trying to focus on my classes right now," he said. "As a freshman, I'm also nervous about adjusting to college.”
The MCAT will be administered in the spring of 2015. For students who plan on applying to medical school, they should take the exam the in the spring of the year previous to the year they plan to enroll.
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