 |
|
 |
MCAT
Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)
Applicants are required to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). The MCAT must be taken within four years of the desired year of admission, e.g., for the 2008 entering class, the MCAT must have been taken no earlier than 2004 and no later than September 2007. This policy will vary from school to school.
The MCAT consists of four sections: verbal reasoning; physical sciences; biological sciences; and a writing sample. The verbal section is designed to assess your ability to understand, evaluate and apply information and arguments in prose text. The physical and biological sciences sections evaluate reasoning in physics, general chemistry, biology and organic chemistry, as well as scientific problem solving and critical thinking. The writing sample assesses skill in developing and synthesizing concepts and ideas, and communicating those ideas in a clear, cohesive and logical form.
Each section of the MCAT is scored 1-15, with 15 being the highest. For several years at UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the average for the entering class has been approximately 10 for each section. Minimum scores of 7 verbal, 7 physical science and 8 biological science are required for consideration, as is a GPA of 2.80. The essays are given alphabetical scores to emphasize the statistical dissimilarity between the essays and other exams and to discourage averaging the writing score with the scores of the other tests.
Additional information and registration for the MCAT is available at http://www.aamc.org/mcat.
|
