When you’re applying to medical school, it can be hard to know when you’re ready to take the MCAT. The MCAT is the exam that is required for you to get into medical school. If you want to learn more about the MCAT, then please read my latest article.
As you get closer to your exam, you may be nervous about your preparedness. You may also be asking yourself if you would be better off pushing your exam back. The rest of this blog post serves to help you in making that decision.
Ultimately, the choice is yours. However, “kicking the can down the road” as they say may not give you the benefit you think it will. Having a solid exam date provides you with a bit of pressure to motivate you to study hard. Constantly delaying that removes that incentive, increase chances of burnout, and overall is fairly costly.
Those are just some things to consider as you are making your decision. Below are some additional factors that can help you know when you’re ready to take the MCAT.
Efforts towards preparing for the MCAT
The first indicator that will help you know when you’re ready to take the MCAT is that you’ve put full effort towards preparing for the MCAT. This means that you’ve taken the time to truly give yourself the best shot.
Preparing for the MCAT is multifactorial. It includes content review, memorization, and practice problems. A healthy combination of all these factors has to be applied to seven content areas. This is a lot of preparation that cannot be crammed in just a few months.
You are ready to take the MCAT if you have dedicated the time to really preparing for the MCAT. That looks different for everyone, so you have to have your own personal gauge of what hard work looks like for you. Once you decide that, measure your efforts against it.
If you have not given yourself the chance to fully prepare, then you may want to consider delaying your MCAT.
Exposure to all topics
In addition to putting forth true effort, another way to know when you’re ready to take the MCAT is that you’ve gotten exposure to all the general topics. Now, the MCAT is super long. There are over 7 content areas to cover. That is a lot of material. So, are you going to be exposed to every last detail that you need? Absolutely not.
But, you want to ensure you’ve at least covered the main topics from each content area. You can’t afford to blow off one section in favor of the one at which you’re good. Schools don’t just look at your final score, but at your individual content scores as well. Some schools will red flag your application for lower scores on various sections of the MCAT.
Therefore, if you want to feel truly ready for the MCAT, you’ll need to have done a pretty thorough review of each content area, and have a good grasp on the general or overarching topics from each.
If you have ignored a full section, or don’t feel confident on any general topic area, then you may need to re-evaluate your MCAT readiness.
Number of practice MCAT exams
The only way to truly prepare for the MCAT exam is through practice full-length and content exams. Full-length exams serve two purposes: expose you to MCAT-style questions and test your endurance. The MCAT itself is mostly a strategic exam, mixed with content and endurance. Taking numerous practice exams helps train your body for a 7-hour exam.
The number of practice exams also helps you with your question exposure. You want to lay your eyes on as many questions as possible. Topics can only be asked about in so many ways. The more questions you see, the more styles you get used to which helps you learn how questions are being asked. After digesting several hundred, or even thousands of questions, you’ll know when you’re ready to take the MCAT.
Performance on practice MCAT exams
Taking multiple practice MCAT exams is not enough. Your performance on them is important as well. If you do eight practice tests, but consistently score in the 400s, then you may not be as prepared to take the MCAT as you need to be. If you sometimes score in the 400s, and other time score in the mid 500s, then it’s important to determine the root of your inconsistency.
Practice tests can either overshoot or undershoot your projected performance. However, a lot of money goes into the metrics of these practice exams. Therefore, their projection is not off by many points. So, take a look at your performance on these practice tests to know when you’re ready to take the MCAT. If you’re in your target range, then go ahead and take it! If you are consistently below your target range/a passing score by a large margin (+5 points), then you may want to consider postponing your test.
Timing on practice MCAT exams
Another crucial part of taking the MCAT is getting your timing right on questions. You get 95 minutes for 59 questions on every section except for the CARS sections, which is 90 minutes for 53 questions and various numbers of paragraphs. Therefore, that’s about 1.6 minutes per question. Some questions will be faster than others, while other will take more time. It’s up to you to pace yourself accordingly so you are not leaving it up to chance at the end of the exam.
If you are consistently practicing on untimed/tutor mode, then you aren’t accurately giving yourself a picture of how test day will go. Unless you apply for accommodations, you will be expected to complete your exam in a certain amount of time. The last thing you want is unanswered questions as you have 0% of chance of getting those questions correct.
As you go through practice exams, determine what your timing situation is. Are you always running out of time? Which questions take you the longest? How can you speed up your test taking skills and reading of the paragraphs?
If you always have extra time, but perform poorly, then maybe you can take a bit longer on certain questions to avoid making silly mistakes. These are all ways to analyze your test taking skills so you can better know when you’re ready to take the MCAT.
Mental preparedness for the MCAT
Half the battle about knowing when you’re ready to take the MCAT is your mental preparedness. Confidence is vital. If you think you’re going to fail, then you’re increasing your chances of failing. If you think you’re going to do well, and you’ve done the work to make that a possibility, then you’ll increase your chances of doing so.
The hardest part of taking the MCAT is if you’ve taken it before and not performed as well as you wanted. You have to shake off the anxiety and doubt that comes with a lower score. It’s a new test. You have new knowledge and skills. It’s vital that you pump yourself up to believe that you will get a good score.
As you gear up for the MCAT, take a look at your overall readiness. Look back over this list and determine where you fall under each category. If you’ve truly done the work, have good performances on your practice tests, and have good test taking skills, then there’s no reason to doubt yourself. You have to get mentally prepared to knock that test out of the park. You also have to get mentally prepared to sit for an exam for 8 hours and keep yourself engaged the whole time.
If you are overly anxious and very doubtful, then you may need to postpone your exam until you can overcome those thoughts. I don’t think that anxiety in itself should cause you to push your test back because everyone gets anxious. You never feel totally prepared for the MCAT. But, if your anxiety is debilitating, to where you will have a breakdown during the test, it’s best to work on your mental health and coping skills before sitting for the exam.
Medical school application timeline
The other thing to keep in mind while determining when you’re ready to take the MCAT is your medical school application timeline. The timing of your test is important because you’ll get your scores back about 30 days later. If you are applying for medical school, this is important as your MCAT score has to be back before your application is considered complete. The earlier your application is turned in, the better. So, your MCAT application may be your rate-limiting factor.
Think about your ideal date for when you want to turn in your application. Then, work backwards to see the latest date you can take the MCAT. You should shoot to take it before then, if possible, just in case you have to take it again for a better score. But, you at least know when the last possible exam is that you can take in order to hit your application goal.
Main Takeaways
No one ever feels 1000% ready to take the MCAT. Therefore, know when you’re ready to take the MCAT can be challenging. However, if you put in the work, then the MCAT is a manageable test. It takes endurance, confidence, and strategy to do well on it. Once you figure out the perfect formula for you, then you are ready to sit for the test. Review your prep against this list for an objective determination of where you are in your MCAT readiness so you feel good when you’re finally ready to sit for the test!
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