<p>okay i know this is getting too far into the medical track, but what kindof test is the MCAT?</p>
<p>is it like the SAT, where its kindof your innate intelligance, or like the ACT which is accumulated from what you learned in school (or this case, college).
if you do well in all your college courses, are you guaranteed (if you study your ass off), a good grade on the mcats?
can anybody answer my question?? x_X</p>
<p>You're always going to hear stories of people with 3.9 GPAs who can only manage a 28 or 29 but those stories are relatively rare. Last year, 50% of Cornell applicants with 3.8+ GPAs had MCAT scores of 35 or above so while I like to think that I did amazing on the MCAT, I probably got the score that was expected for my GPA. </p>
<p>The best thing you can do in HS is to pay attention in your bio/chem/physics courses. Once you get to college, REALLY pay attention in your intro bio/chem/orgo/physics courses. If you retain a good portion of what you learn in those classes and you did well in them, you should do well on the MCAT.</p>
<p>Doing well in your college science courses is not enough. You've got to understand the test itself. Plenty of people do great in class, then choke on the MCAT because they can't focus for 5+ hours straight or have bad test taking skills. It's worthwhile to pick up a review book just to understand how the test works.</p>
<p>Understand that a great MCAT score is not dependent upon getting great grades. It's a test that uses the knowledge base developed through pre-med courses as a vehicle to test your critical thinking ability. The majority of the test is NOT asking you for basic science facts - so it's not regurgitation - but to take what you know and apply it in different ways. </p>
<p>The emphasis needs to be on understanding.</p>
<p>I would argue that looking at a single school (especially one as selective as Cornell) is a poor indicator of the relationship between grades and MCAT scores for all test takers. Students at Cornell are probably pretty good at taking tests so it's hard to generalize to a population in which many people are not. Further if you just want to look at the GPA/MCAT correlation just at Cornell, that data is not considering what people's major is, nor whether they took a test prep course - there's probably a lot of other variables.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong. Knowledge is only half the battle. The other half is to learn how to take the test. I myself took over 10 practice tests the summer I spent studying (this was back when each practice test was 8 hours long). The number one advice I give to people studying for the MCAT is to take as many practice tests as possible.</p>
<p>However, for a high schooler or a college freshman, I think the best thing they can do is to make sure they have the knowledge part down and worry about test-taking strategies later.</p>
<p>While grades do not have a perfect correlation with MCAT score, they have a strong correlation within a school (and I use Cornell because it's the only school I know of that breaks down its applicants by both GPA and MCAT). This shouldn't be surprising since it takes knowledge, understanding, and good test taking skills to get good grades and to succeed on the MCAT. This is why around 60% of Cornell applicants with 3.9+ GPA's had 35+ MCAT scores while only 10% of Cornell applicants with 3.2-3.4 GPAs had a 35+ MCAT score. These percentages obviously vary drastically according to school but the trend should hold true within any single school.</p>
<p>for the biology section of the mcat, is it necessary to take an intro to bio course at your undergrad institution? Or can you learn just as well from a prep book or textbook (I've heard that the bio is just a lot of memorization). The problem is that I took AP bio in high school, got a good score on the ap test, and am now exempted from entry-level bio courses at my undergrad institution (the courses that advisers recommend in preparation for the mcat material). Taking these courses over would not garner me any credits and would just take up space in my schedule, so I guess I'd like to avoid the trouble if I can...</p>
<p>I know that it is probably important to take courses for the physical sciences section of the mcat (chem, phys) because this kind of material is difficult to learn straight from the book, but is it possible to study adequately for the bio section of the mcat with just a prep book? or is it similar to the phys science material in that you should prob just take the class</p>