<p>Hi, I am a first time poster and want to discuss my plans. It's pretty much decided that I will enlist in the army for 4 years after college (for my own reasons) but I would like to ask how I can best approach med school when I come out of active duty? Med school has always been there as the main option and I don't see myself doing anything alternative to it. How can I prepare basically? I'll be 26 when I get out and possibly apply for med school. This is a much older age than what I had planned (21) for applying. I have gotten details from recruiters but I would want to know how the army experience is seen by medical admissions. I will be doing a medicine related task in the military to show that I am fully committed to the idea but I am still new to it and would like second or third opinions on what path I should choose. This is a big commitment for me since it is my first that I'll be making as an adult. Something I worry about constantly is the material that will change in the new MCAT. The loss of knowledge or perhaps the gain (in some areas) are still not clear to me. I wasn't hoping for my classes to help me any since I tend to forget much of my courses after the semester ends. Would it be fine if during my gap years, I just read the MCAT books and possibly read a bit of first year med school. I just don't want to come out of my service absolutely lost and having to take post bacc despite having completed a majority of my premed courses at my university.</p>
<p>For the most part military experience is looked at positively by med schools. I don’t think your service committment will be an issue. Thank you for your service.</p>
<p>The bigger issue for you will be the new MCAT that goes live in 2015. It will include new materials not currently included on the MCAT. Specifically there will be a new human behavior section which will cover topics from intro level sociology and psychology, with perhaps some medical ethics and medical anthropology. Also the BS section will include biochemistry. (Some early reports suggest that biochem may represent as much as half of the questions in the revised BS section.)</p>
<p>You ought to be able to take these classes during your enlistment, either through a university offering courses on base or through a reputatable online university. Biochem does not require a lab. (I know our state flagship offers on-base and online courses at 2 of the 3 AF bases in the state. The third is served by a different [closer location] state U. I suspect this is true at most military bases.)</p>
<p>As for forgetting material, everyone does. Your best option would be to enroll in MCAT review course and work diligently at reviewing material and learning the test’s stratagies in the 3-6 months prior to sitting for the MCAT.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about reading first year texts. Med school assumes everyone coming in doesn’t know any of that material. You won’t be any more lost than any other first med student.</p>
<p>Thank you WayoutWestMom, I appreciate your advice. I have yet to take psychology 101, primarily because I am not a psych major, but I am a little lost on sociology because I have taken anthropology courses; however, I know that a test like the MCAT would want a specific class to fulfill that knowledge requirement. Would the sociology requisite mean sociology 101 more directly speaking?</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the new MCAT preview guide:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/266006/data/2015previewguide.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/266006/data/2015previewguide.pdf</a></p>
<p>The guide discusses what topics will be included in the human behavior section and (I believe) gives some sample questions.</p>
<p>(If it doesn’t, hunt around the MCAT 2015 pages on AMCAS. I know there are some sample questions.)</p>
<p>Generally, yes, intro to sociology and intro to psychology should adequately cover most of the kinds of the questions included in the HB section.</p>