<p>Does it matter when you take the MCAT, or do you have to take it your junior year? For SAT/ACT, you can take it whenever you want and the scores will count in the end. But is it the same for MCAT?</p>
<p>Also, what about the GRE subject tests? Do you have to take those even though you're not taking the GRE? How many should you take then?</p>
<p>I hope someone can come along and clear up my confusion. Thanks very much for your help!</p>
<p>You can take MCAT anytime but when you apply to medical school, your MCAT score needs to be recent enough. (I forgot how many years it is, but it is probably around 3 years.)</p>
<p>Also, although it is not confirmed, the rumor has it that some medical schools may look at your lowest test score, or at least taking the tests too many times is frown upon. It is generally recommended that you should not take MCAT before you are ready. There is no “kiddie game” like SAT superscoring here.</p>
<p>GREs are not taken by most students who are interested in getting into MD programs. Its importance for PhD track students is less significant, as compared to the importance of MCAT to medicine track students. A student rarely takes both MCAT and GRE.</p>
<p>Thanks MCAT2. So that means if you take the MCAT you don’t need to take the GRE subject tests, right?</p>
<p>MCAT is specifically for medical school applicants.
LSAT is for law school applicants.
GREs are for masters and PhD applicants for business, science, math, engineering, blah, blah applicants.</p>
<p>So if I take the MCAT right before Junior year, I only have three years with those scores to apply to med school?</p>
<p>Correct. MCAT scores are only valid for 3 years from the date of testing.</p>
<p>You take the MCATs when you are ready.
You push all your chips in.
Optimal times to take is once.
Mostly depends on completion of key courses , prep time to study, when you plan to apply to med schools and financial situation.
MCATs are good for 3 years,with a few exceptions so you can use the same set to reapply if you get shut out.</p>
<p>In a hypothetical case, if I wanted to apply a year or two after college, and I wanted to take the MCAT right after Orgo, I should wait to take orgo junior or senior year so it’s fresh and I should take the MCAT right after that?</p>
<p>If you are not going apply during your senior year of college or immediately after graduation, then you need to delay taking the MCAT until at least spring of your junior year/summer after junior year since your score will expire otherwise. </p>
<p>Taking OChem immediately before the MCAT isn’t particularly important since you’ll need to do a substantial review of EVERYTHING beforehand anyway.</p>
<p>Okay thanks a lot! For future reference, have you found any prep books for the MCAT to be better than others?</p>
<p>^ As far as I learned from here, many premeds take a prep course. Most common ones seem to be Princeton Review and Kaplan. There seems to be another in some cities in California (Berkeley Review?)</p>
<p>A single data point: DS took Kaplan, mostly because of its location (maybe another reason is he was not interested in finding out which one is better, at all. He was very “allergic” to all the craze related to being a premed most time in college. We were glad he was at least willing to take a prep course which could help organize his study.) Also, the time between he took orgo (spring of the freshman year) and he took MCAT (end of the senior year) could not be longer. He was still doing fine after some review.</p>
<p>what else do med schools look at besides MCAT scores? Extracurriculars, awards in college?</p>