The Association of American Medical Colleges recently recommended significant changes to the Medical College Admission Test to occur in 2015, potentially affecting the hundreds of University students who apply to medical school each year.
The prospective changes include adding a behavioral and social sciences principles section, adding more advanced sciences and expanding critical thinking but eliminating the writing sample. The changes would make the exam more of an endurance test.
“While these are the preliminary recommendations, I think we have a certain level of confidence that these changes will be in the final version,” said Jeff Koetje, Kaplan Test Prep’s director of academics for pre-health programs.
Samuel McClugage, assistant dean of admissions at LSU School of Medicine at New Orleans, said the test will change to four sections: molecular, cellular and organismal properties of living systems; physical, chemical and biochemical properties of living systems; behavioral and social sciences principles; and critical analysis and reading skills.
Kevin Carman, College of Science dean, said it is “premature” to begin making changes to pre-med curriculum now. He said the University will be “responsive to all changes.”
McClugage said each section test will be 90 minutes long, so the exam will be 6 hours with a lunch break. A news release from Kaplan said the “total seat time” will be more than 7 hours.
Koetje said the behavioral and social sciences principles section will hone in on students’ abilities to understand research, statistical methods, psychology and sociology. Carman said many University students take psychology as an elective, so while the University may see greater demand for psychology electives, the section’s addition will not particularly impact the pre-med curriculum.
Baret Bercier, a biological sciences senior who will attend the LSU School of Medicine at New Orleans next year and a Princeton Review MCAT tutor, said adding behavioral sciences gives students more preparation for dealing with patients.
Koetje said the physical and biological sciences sections will change their names, but the content will not change aside from being updated.
Koetje said while the additions of biochemistry and cell biology appear to double the amount of coursework for pre-med students, he said most pre-med students already take those courses, so the timeline in which they take them may change.
Carman said pre-med students generally take biochemistry their junior year, so its addition to the exam should not be a problem, and while many students take cell biology their senior year, they can take it earlier.
Carman said because there are so many biology majors at the University, an influx of cell biology demand will probably cause the department to open more class sections. With budget cuts looming over University departments, Carman said the College of Science will have to “shift resources,” because adding more cell biology forces reductions of other classes.
Bercier said the current exam has biochemistry and cell biology in small portions, and he had a cell biology passage on his exam which he previously covered in class.
Koetje said the verbal section will remain in the exam, but it will now encompass more critical analysis and reasoning skills, such as cross-cultural studies, population and health.
The writing sample will be eliminated. Koetje said medical school administrators, who sat on a subcommittee to recommend changes to the AAMC, said the writing sample was not useful for admissions or predictive of medical school success.
Carman said he is not overly concerned about the MCAT changes affecting students majoring in the sciences, but is concerned about students majoring outside of the sciences trying to attend medical school. He said the situation has “a bit of irony,” as the objective is to broaden the pool of possible medical school candidates, yet the new requirements may deter other students from applying, particularly those with stringent curricula like engineering.
Koetje said the exam will become “truly a test of endurance” and demand more difficult coursework.
 
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]