The most important test for pre-med students is changing.
The Medical College Admission Test, better known as the MCAT, will be entirely computer-based starting in 2007. The August 2006 testing will be the last one offered in the old format."The driving force [behind the change in format] was the desire to provide examinees with more test dates and to be able to return scores more quickly," said Dr. Ellen Julian, director of the MCAT.
Besides the substitution of computer screens and keyboards in place of paper and pencil, there are also significant changes to the length of the exam. The total number of questions, originally 214, will be reduced by about 33 percent. The new test will also be shortened from between eight and 10 hours to approximately 5 and a half hours.
The difficulty and type of questions, however, will not change significantly, said Julian, who is also the assistant vice president for student applicant assessment services at the American Association of Medical Colleges. She added that the computer-based MCAT has several advantages over the current paper format.
The new exam will be administered on 22 different testing dates each year, as compared to the two dates currently offered once in April and once in August. The new version will return scores as soon as 30 days after taking the test; the paper version takes roughly 60 days to score and return. The testing sites will also be smaller and better organized, Julian said.
The AAMC has offered the MCAT in its current paper format since 1928. Roughly 60,000 medical school applicants take the test every year.
Many students are concerned with the transition, including fears of eye strain and computer malfunctions. Matt Johnson, a freshman who plans to pursue a career in medicine, said he also has concerns about the ability for students to prepare together for the exam. "Before, students all took the MCAT at the same time, so pre-meds could study together, and administrators could work with them together and have practices," Johnson said. "Now, they won't be able to do this because of the larger number of test dates when kids take it." He added that he would prefer the paper-based test. "I would feel a lot more comfortable working with paper and pencil, like I did on every other standardized test I've taken in my life," said Johnson, who plans to take the exam in the spring of 2008.
A m j e d Mustafa, the MCAT program manager for the Kaplan test preparation company, agreed the changes will have an effect on students. "For typical students, the change [to a computer-based format] will drastically affect the way they prepare and take the MCAT," he said.
Mustafa cited a Kaplan survey as evidence that students are apprehensive about the computer-based MCAT test. The survey revealed that 80 percent of students had never taken a college- level test on a computer and 82 percent of students think they will perform worse on a computer than on paper.
The concerns of pre-med students about the new MCAT come at a time when the the test may be of increasing importance to medical student admissions officers.
In the October issue of Academic Medicine, a study found that the MCAT is a much stronger predictor of success in medical school than undergraduate GPA, another main factor in medical school admissions. "The MCAT is definitely forming a larger portion of predicting how students will perform once they get into medical school, and admissions will look at that," Mustafa said.
Julian said that feedback from medical schools has been very positive. She noted, however, that AAMC is aware some are apprehensive about the change. "Advisors and students are more wary, but we are working closely with the advisors to provide them accurate information for their students," she said.
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