did anyone take the MCATs after first year?

[Guest anytiff123]

If so, how did you do? Would you have done it later if you could do it all over again? How did you prepare (take a course, books, etc)?

 

I'm contemplating taking it this summer, after first year (I'd take a course). I haven't taken physiology, organic chem (but I hear the mcat questions on this are really easy anyway) or cell biology. Do taking these courses put one at a great advantage? What about biochem?

[Guest peachy]

If you haven't taken organic, and you want to do very well, you WILL have to study the stuff. There are explicit questions on the material (eg "Is this an SN1 or SN2 reaction?") that you can't get from the passages.

 

On the other hand, if you just want to do okay, and you're a good test taker, then you'll be probably be fine. This was my situation - I hadn't taken any of the courses you mentioned, I just wanted to do well enough to make the cutoffs for Ontario schools, and I did fine.

 

You should take a practice MCAT (princeton review and kaplan websites have free ones), and see how you do, before deciding.

[Guest aneliz]

I agree with Peachy...take a practice exam first and see how you do...if it goes well and you would like to get the MCAT out of the way, go for it. If it doesn't, you might want to wait a year rather then making a charitable donation for $175 US to the AAMC.

 

That said, the organic chem material is NOT easy but it is not ridiculously hard IF you have taken some organic chemistry... you are going to have to study the stuff and you are going to have to know the stuff at a level consistent with a university level intro to organic chem course. There are explicit questions like peachy mentioned on reaction mechanisms, likely products of reactions, NMR spectra of molecules, etc. Not stuff that you can BS your way through or get from the passages.

 

Another thing to consider, MCAT scores are only good for five years...if you don't get in when you plan to, (ie you do a masters or take some time off after your undergrad and before med) your scores may lapse and you may have to write a second time anyway. I know a couple of people that were in this boat.

 

In my opinion, I wouldn't write until at least after second year...I wrote after third year. I think that it is possible to do well if you write after first year but it is going to take a lot more preparation on your part...I found that I didn't have to do anywhere near as much 'content' review writing after third year as friends that wrote after first or second year did. Ultimately it is your call...but what is the rush?

 

Good luck!

[Guest summervirus]

I wrote the MCAT after first year (and never rewrote).

 

I think it's helpful to have a good background. I was privileged to have been in the IB program during highschool so I already learned organic chemistry. Apart from organic chemistry, I think most of the material on the MCAT was covered by my first-year courses with the exception of optics (which I taught myself) and basic physiology (which I learned in highschool biology).

 

You'll need to put in some time to study for the MCAT if you're planning on writing it after first year. From my personal experience, the biggest advantage to waiting to write it later is that you'll have taken university-level organic chemistry by that time.

 

Good luck!

[Guest Jerika81]

I took the MCAT after my third year, but since I didn't decide to apply to med until late in the game, I hadn't taken organic chemistry yet. Originally I thought I could learn most of it on my own over the summer but this proved to be very difficult to instead I decided to use a different strategy.

I studied bio, general chem, and physics all summer and completely left organic chem out of the picture. Then when I wrote the MCAT I randomly guessed on all the o-chem questions, but this left me with a LOT of time to spend on the bio questions, so there's no reason why I shouldn't have gotten all the boi questions right.

I ended up with a 9 in the BS section of the MCAT, and because I'd had more time to study for physics and general chem I got a 12 in that section. I did well in VR and WS too, so I have no regrets about guessing on the o-chem because I did well enough in BS to meet the cut-offs and my other scores were high enough that overall I did pretty good.

So I think its a good idea to take the MCAT after first year, especially since physics, gen. chem, and bio will still be fresh in your mind. The only forseeable problem would be the 5 year thing mentioned above.