<p>ace550–</p>
<p>Be aware that if your son will applying for 2016 med school admission, he may be required to take the new 2015 MCAT.</p>
<p>AAMC and the admission offices of all US medical school will issue a binding policy decision regarding this sometime in June or July.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/faqs/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/faqs/</a></p>
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<p>I took a Kaplan course during the spring (Jan-Apr) of junior year and took the test in May, then applied that same cycle. I would probably recommend taking in in April because then you’ll have scores by May, so if you need to retake, you can probably retake in July (which wouldn’t push your application back too far). Taking it in the end of May makes it nearly impossible to retake and then apply the same cycle.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s unreasonable to take an MCAT class during a regular semester if you have some flexibility in your schedule. I typically took 15h semesters, but was able to whittle that down to 12h when I was also taking the MCAT class. That way, I could treat the MCAT class like a “real” class, which made it easier to dedicate the proper amount of time to it. Good luck!</p>
<p>DS1 is a rising sophomore and plans to apply by June 2014. I think that Kristin’s schedule looks good too. So the Plans could as as follows:</p>
<p>Plan 1 - take MCAT course in summer 2013 and take the test after summer. NCG recommended this one in a previous post. It should be doable to take the prep course on top of a full time research job during summer, right?
Plan 2 - same as above except for taking the test in January 2014.
Plan 3 - MDreams’s schedule which requires taking MCAT course in Fall 2013 and MCAT after winter break.
PLan 4 - Kristin’s schedule which requires taking MCAT course in Spring 2014 and MCAT by May. </p>
<p>Plan 2 allows DS1 to take a normal course load and a couple more Bio courses before MCAT. What are the drawbacks with Plan 2? It is odd though to take the prep course in summer and wait for 5 months to take the test after winter break.</p>
<p>Plan 1 ought to be do-able. D2’s summer roommate did exactly that only he was working 2 research jobs (in 2 different labs) for a total of 50-60 hours/week while taking his Kaplan class and studying for the MCAT. He scored a 33 or 34. (But decided not to go to med school and is now working on his PhD in neural engineering.)</p>
<p>The drawback to Plan 2 is the delay between the end of the prep class and the exam date. It requires enormous self-discipline to to continue prepping. Also with the long lead-up there is an increased possibility of burn-out/brain fatigue due to over-preparing. </p>
<p>And I’m not sure how long your online access to practice exams lasts once you complete the course. Maybe someone else knows?</p>
<p>Re: online access, my Kaplan instructors regularly told our class that if we pushed our exam date back that it would be no big deal to keep our online access open. In fact, one of the girls in my class opted to retake her test, and they helped her prepare for her retake at no additional cost–this “deal” was offered to all of us. There are so many resources on the Kaplan prep website it is unbelievable. You would have to be a very diligent student to work through all of it!</p>
<p>I personally was not disciplined enough to continue prepping a long time after my class ended. Preparing for a huge test is exhausting, and in my experience, once you’ve finished the prep class, you just want the stinkin test to be over with. I think I finished my class in like…the end of April…and I took the test in the end of May (giving myself time to study for finals and take a few weeks off). If I were doing it again, I’d shoot for taking it within two weeks of finishing the class. With that in mind, I probably would not personally want to follow plan 2.</p>
<p>Then again, the whole reason I took a prep class in the first place was to have someone organize my studying for me and more or less force me to study methodically rather than blow it off or just browse a review book, like I did for the SAT and ACT (and scored 99%ile on both). I needed the discipline!</p>
<p>Does he need the discipline, or is he more looking for content review? If it’s the latter, and he has plenty of test prep discipline, then perhaps 2 (and 1, 3, and 4) would work just fine for him!</p>
<p>I did plan 1. For me the school year was so busy (my two main ECs which didn’t really exist in the summer were easily 50 hours/week) I couldn’t imagine adding on MCAT and to finish a course in August but then not take the test until January just wouldn’t have been possible for me. That summer won’t be a party summer like it could be if all you were doing is lab work, but it shouldn’t be too much to handle at all.</p>
<p>Kristin,</p>
<p>He had the needed discipline during the last two semesters. It is not so this summer. It is all about NBA, French Open, parties, movies, tennis, limited volunteering, and some reading assigned by his PI. Fortunately, he is going back to school starting his lab research for two months. I am sure he is ready for more good times with his pals there. </p>
<p>Plan 1 does make sense. The only drawback is that he will not have the chance to take some upper level bio courses before MCAT. He said that he will not be home for more than two weeks next summer. I am not sure if that is for real.</p>