Old MCAT or New MCAT test?

Pre-Med & Medical School MCAT Prep
1

<p>Students in 2015 will be taking the new version of the MCAT. The test will include biology, biochemistry, psychology, sociology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics.</p>

<p>I am trying to get into medical school by the fall of 2016. I am a sophomore right now, and I was thinking of either taking the MCAT in January of 2015 OR study the whole summer and take the test in August of 2014.</p>

<p>So my question is, according to when I am planning to take the tests, am I taking the old MCAT (not the test before 2012- the one in 2013-3014, which include the same regular test subjects without writing section) test or am I taking the new MCAT (the subjects I mentioned at the very beginning) test. </p>

<p>Also, I bought Examcrackers for verbal section and Kaplan for the other subjects.</p>

2

<p>January 2015 is the last date when the “old” MCAT will be adminstered. Any test date after Jan 2015 will be the “new” MCAT.</p>

3

<p>Thank you so much! I was so confused! </p>

<p>I have taken all of pre-med required classes, except organic chem. I think I should just self-study that subject.</p>

4

<p>Also, one more question, am I allowed to use my 2014 fall scores for my fall 2016 medical school admission (if I get into one)? I heard somewhere that 2016 med applicants are allowed to either use “old”, which i am taking, or “new” scores.</p>

5

<p>Students who will matriculate in the Fall 2015 may use either the old MCAT or the new MCAT. </p>

<p>For fall 2016, each medical school will determine its own policy w/r/t which version of the MCAT it will accept. You will need to consult the 2016 MSAR (which is not yet available) and/or consult with the admission staff at every medical school you plan to apply to. (Do not rely on med school admission sites for this info since most med schools have not yet updated their website to reflect 2015 and later admissions.)</p>

<p>Please be aware that a number of medical schools (including Harvard, Indiana, Duke, Johns Hopkins and others) have already announced changes to admission requirements for fall 2015 and later so that their admission requirements better match the new MCAT’s coursework requirements. Even though you may not need biochem, psych, soc, and stats to take the MCAT, you will still need the coursework on your transcript to be eligible for admission.</p>

<p>~~~</p>

<p>OChem makes up 50% of the bio science section and covers the material from both semesters of OChem in depth. I personally believe it would be extremely foolish to take the MCAT without first having taken (and passed) 2 semesters of OChem.</p>

<p>When you go to apply to medical school each and every MCAT score you have ever recieved will be reported to every med school you apply to–even old and expired scores. A bad MCAT scores will be with you forever. And the MCAT is not like the SAT or ACT. Med schools strongly frown on repeated MCAT attempts.</p>

<p>See pp. 13-17 for a list of OChem topics included on the current MCAT.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/85566/data/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/85566/data/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Thank you for your response^. I will be taking classes like biochem and other classes that reflect changes in medical school requirement during my junior year. Most sdn forums have told me that organic chem varies between 50%-15%. Tons of students received only 1 passage and 2 discrete questions while others received up to 3 passages. I think it is foolish of me for not taking organic chem classes before mcat. However, everything changes when you mentioned how students in 2015 can use old and new scores, not 2016. What if medical school during 2016 matriculation don’t accept my scores for old mcat score of 2014? This sucks! I had everything planned out and now it is going down hill. I was thinking of taking 1st organic chem semester and take the MCAT in jan 2015, which will be the last month for “old” mcat exams. However, the whole uncertainty with 2016 matriculation blows everything away :(</p>

7

<p>I searched the forums today for this exact topic. Just last night my son mentioned that he wants to take the MCAT this summer while Orgo and Bio from this year (soph year) are still fresh in his mind. He has taken lots of chem and physics in the past (AP and freshman year). Wondering if there is anyone who is going to choose this route? If he has taken all of the premed courses would this be a wise move? I suppose it can hurt 2 ways - 1, if he doesn’t do well and 2, if the med school won’t accept the old version.</p>

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<p>I know how your son is feeling right now! It is so frustrating! I think he should contact his pre-health advisors, maybe they will help him out. Since he has taken all of his pre-reqs, he is in good shape. I haven’t even taken orgo chem yet!</p>

9

<p>3) if he doesn’t apply between junior and senior year, but chooses to do a gap year and his MCAT expires. (MCAT scores are good for 2 or 3 years [school dependent] even without the new vs old version issue.)</p>

10

<p>WayOutWestMom,
My S is graduating from college in June, and was planning on taking the MCAT in September 2014. However, he plans to work in the medical field for a couple of years and apply for fall 2016 admission. He really is in that gray area, it seems. He wouldn’t have the required coursework for the new MCAT version, but I wonder how the med schools could require him to have it based on when he graduated. I thought that taking a gap year or two was fairly normal nowadays, but I wonder if he is going to be out of the running for some of the highly selective medical schools because of this “gray area.”</p>

11

<p>WayOutWestMom, just curious how you know these things, you seem to have a wealth of information, thanks. If the scores expire and you retake the MCAT do you think that would be a significant issue? I’m thinking my son is better off taking the current MCAT since it is a known quantity with practice exams available. He is going to a meeting on Monday night with some med school admissions people, hoping they can help clarify all of this.</p>

12

<p>How do I know these things?</p>

<p>1) I have two kiddos who are either currently in med school or currently applying to med school (So BTDT, and more than once.)</p>

<p>2) I am a librarian (and a biomedical research librarian at that!)–I find answers for a living</p>

<p>3) I know an individual or two who have been on med school admission committees for many years</p>

<p>~~~~</p>

<p>RE: coursework</p>

<p>Med school can and do change admission requirements all the time. They have been known to do it at very short notice. (lLike after the application cycle had opened. OSU did just that about 2 years ago.) It’s quite within their rights and perogative to do so. Any institution that can easily fill every one of its available seats multiple times over with qualified candidates can make applicants jump thru whatever hoops they want.</p>

<p>So it doesn’t matter when one graduates from college–it only matters what the admission requirements are at the time of application.</p>

<p>(For the record, both my kiddos had/will have 2 gap years before they started/will start med school. Both understood this meant they need to keep on top of any changes a specific school might invoke.)</p>

<p>RE: which exam? </p>

<p>I honestly don’t what to tell you. </p>

<p>I’d researched this for D2 who decided to apply a year sooner than her original plan just to avoid the 2015 MCAT confusion. AMCAS has changed its collective mind at least 3 times in the past year and a half about what will and will not be allowed.</p>

<p>(Originally AMCAS said that for Fall 2016 and later only the new MCAT would be accepted. The most recent revision says it will be a decision left up to the individual schools.)</p>

<p>My personal opinion is that if there’s any chance the old MCAT will either expire or be not considered—take the new one. I know how much time and effort went into both kiddos prep for the MCAT: hundreds of hours and lots of sacrifices. Both kiddos said, once they’d taken the exam, it’s something they never wanted to have to do again. (Except, of course, they will….the STEP exams are like the MCAT x 1000. Or D1 has told me.) I think it would be quite disheartening to spend all that time preparing, get a good score, and not have it be considered.</p>

<p>Remember that the exams are scale scored–this means that an individual’s scores from the new exam will be dependent on how well/badly their test-taking peers do on the same exam. So the new test—everyone will be on an equal footing about knowing/not know what will be on the exam.</p>

<p>BTW, AMCAS will release prep materials for the new exam to test prep companies in January 2014. Question banks for the new section/subsections have been extensively piloted and refined on students who took the MCAT this year. (D2 took the pilot for biochemistry and stats since she’d taken both classes. State med school already requires biochem. And she was a math major–so stats were trivial for her.)</p>

<p>RE: top med schools (and I detest that term since USNews med school rankings use lousy methodology)</p>

<p>Some top schools (Harvard, Duke and JHU) have already announce different coursework expectations for student entering in fall 2016. Jut a friendly heads up.</p>

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<p>Thanks WOWMom for explaining your background :slight_smile: I am also pretty good at researching things, but the decision to be made based on this particular research has me stumped. My oldest daughter took the SATs the year of the change to the new version. It was more stressful than necessary. My son is a psych major with significant AP credits and will therefore have plenty of room in his schedule junior and senior year to take additional recommended courses. The one thing I know he doesn’t want is a gap year. Don’t you think if he took the MCAT this summer and did well on it (that of course is the key part of this question haha) that it couldn’t hurt him? I’ll let you know what he learns from the meeting he is going to.</p>

14

<p>RE: AP classes</p>

<p>Be careful in assuming med schools will accept AP credits in lieu of actual coursework–even if its recorded as credit on his transcript. Many schools will accept some (usually in math), but not all will accept science AP credits or will expect higher level coursework instead of intro level classes. This is especially true in CA. </p>

<p>RE: MCAT this summer. </p>

<p>I don’t think it will hurt his chances if he does well. At worst, he’ll just have to take the 2015 MCAT. </p>

<p>But if he doesn’t score well on it or if he scores well on the old MCAT but not as well on the new version….it can hurt his chances a great deal. </p>

<p>Either scenario makes him a bigger than necessary admission risk since for the STEP [USMLE] exams unless a student actually fails the exam, he’s not allowed a retake. And a failed USMLE, even if he score very well the second time–closes so many doors in specialty and residency choices.</p>

15

<p>I understand the AP situation. Even though he had AP chem and AP calc credits, he still took those courses last year in college. He also has lots of history, english, etc credits from AP exams. That is what is freeing up his schedule. </p>

<p>I’m thinking he should take an MCAT review course this summer (probably an online version) and if he does well on the practice exams he should take the MCAT before the change. Maybe he won’t need to retake it?</p>

16

<p>Be aware that there are MCAT practice exams and there are MCAT practice exams. If possible he should buy access to the old AMCAS exams. Then assume his actual score will be 2-3 points LOWER than the average of his last 3 full practice exam scores. (Rule of thumb, not always accurate, but a good place to start.)</p>

<p>BTW, the free practice MCATs offered by AMCAS are reputed to be unusually easy. Don’t rely on them for score prediction.</p>

17

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/350130/data/whichexam.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/350130/data/whichexam.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I found this link. Students in 2016 can use old score or new score.</p>

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<p>very helpful link, thanks!</p>

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<p>I am trying to stay out of the way of my kid’s MCAT studying, but this whole old vs new test is suddenly really confusing to me. Honestly speaking, I have not involved myself in this process mostly because any advice is definitely better than what I would offer. This said… I’d like to feel a tad more confident.</p>

<p>So… he’s taking the MCAT in like 10 days. It’s the old test. On practice tests (he’s paying like $35 for them, but I have no idea who they’re officially thru, but were recommended) he’s been scoring between 38 and 40 fairly consistently. </p>

<p>The plan is to apply fall 2014, for entry 2015. (Shooting for applications to be in for early decision without applying early decision). So… as is often the case when I check into CC, lots of information to decipher, but I checked that .pdf and it doesn’t really all schools will accept either.</p>

<p>So if you’re applying fall of 2014 for admission in 2015, is there a list of which schools won’t accept the old test or would you have to look up every school? But since his plan to take the test won’t change, perhaps the schools to which he can apply will? </p>

<p>S had originally planned on taking the MCAT in August, but was doing research this summer that didn’t really give him time to study as he wanted, so he changed the date to better prepare - knowing that in all likelihood, he’s only got one shot to do well. </p>

<p>But I will be heartbroken for him if his options will be to either not apply to certain schools or risk the ding in taking the new test.</p>

20

<p>AAMC has left the decision about which MCAT to accept up to the individual schools so each can act in accordance with its own policies. </p>

<p>Although AMCAS holds MCAT scores as valid for up to 3 years from date of testing, not all individual schools do. Some require MCAT scores (IIRC, about 40% of all allopathic schools) to be no more than 2 years old at the time of application. </p>

<p>If your son is applying for Fall 2015 admission with a MCAT score that is less 2 years old, it’s likely all US schools will accept his old MCAT as valid. However, he should always check the admissions webpages of the specific school he’ll be applying to for the most accurate and up-to-date information. (But please be aware that med schools won’t update their admission pages until after the current application cycle finishes up in May/June.) </p>

<p>I will note that several med schools (Duke, Indiana, Harvard, plus handful more) have already announced a change in pre-reqs for those entering in Fall 2015. Those changes include new requirements for biochemistry and one or more social science classes. Regardless of which MCAT he takes, your son must still fulfill all pre-reqs to be eligible for admission.</p>