Applying to medical school may become even harder for the class of 2015 and beyond, thanks to proposed changes to the Medical College Admissions Test.
The Association of American Medical Colleges announced Thursday that it is proposing a series of changes to the MCAT, slated to take place as soon as four years from now. The new exam would test students on almost twice as much science material and require institutions to change their existing pre-medical requirements, which have been in place for more than two decades.
The test would include a new behavioral and social sciences principles section; more advanced sciences, including cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, research methods and statistics; an updated verbal reasoning section; and would eliminate a writing sample requirement. If the new test is approved, students interested in applying to medical schools would have to spend more than seven hours taking the exam, rather than the current five and a half.
Amjed Saffarini, executive director of pre-health programs for Kaplan Test Prep, said the AAMC realized the test was outdated after a regular review, since the last time it undermajor changes was 20 years ago.
“One of the big things that happens with a standard exam of any kind is it has to be evaluated every so often to make sure the test is effectively doing what it’s supposed to be doing, and that’s one of the main reasons the MCAT is changing,” Saffarini said. “When [the AAMC] looked at it, they realized the basic sciences weren’t in very good shape.”
Saffarini also said physicians today need to know far more material than they did two decades ago, but the current MCAT does not fully prepare students for medical school.
“There’s been a recognition and unease amongst the profession, especially those in medical education, that the amount of content a typical doctor needs to know multiples more than the amount of content doctors needed to know 25 or 30 years ago,” he said. “That content has to be taught somewhere, and the medical schools have historically taken on that load, and they’re recognizing that it’s too much. Students need to know certain competencies and sciences before they enter medical school, and as a result of that recognition, they added new material.”
Although administrators from the pre-health advising office said they are aware of the probable changes, science professors said they don’t yet know how the university will tackle such dramatic changes in a matter of months if the new test is approved.
“This sounds like it requires massive reorganization in undergraduate programs, and those take a long time to get through,” chemistry professor Lee Friedman said. “It sounds to me like they need to do more integrated courses earlier on, but our department is designed to service our majors, and I couldn’t see the biology department or my department making changes to accommodate the new MCAT.”
But Saffarini said this university and other large institutions are well-equipped to accommodate the mandatory changes.
“The University of Maryland has a large group of students, so the university is going to be in great shape to handle this specialized curriculum,” he said. “Large schools in general are better able to handle these changes than smaller schools.”
Some students said they’ll rush to take the exam before the changes take place.
“That’s kind of scaring me — I’ll need to take it before these changes,” said Natasha Featherstone, a post-baccalaureate student on the pre-med track. “There’s already so much pressure because you need to be a really well-rounded student and carry a heavy courseload, so making the curriculum harder would just drive somebody insane.”
Friedman added that the amount of material students will need to cover in their undergraduate curriculum may be too demanding.
“You have to worry about information overload,” he said. “When you get to something like biochemistry, the assumption is that people have already taken intro chemistry and intro biology courses and they’ve taken physics, so there are things you assume people can already do.”
But other students said the changes are necessary, noting that it may weed out students who are not serious about attending medical school.
“[The changes] would be beneficial,” said junior Dia Windhoffer, who is on the pre-med track. “It’s probably necessary. It might drive away some students, but it would deter the students who aren’t already serious.”
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