whoithinkyouare Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 So, woke up early today to register to take the MCAT in July as I will be out of the country for the rest of the summer. Three minutes after AAMC orpened registration, all spots in BC were full, and I didn't get a spot. Guess I'm not writing the MCAT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ouchitburns Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 blows. there has to be a solution to this problem though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seemamb Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 same in Winnipeg and many other Canadian cities :mad: .... Since CBT is introduced, I am not able to register for the MCAT... Are they giving 5 seats per city or something??? I don't understand why Canadian universities still depend on this US exam while the AAMC is not serving the Canadian needs... Can't Canadian universities have their own exam like Australia, or we do have to depend on the US for everything beside politics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ouchitburns Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 I just kept trying and eventually got a seat in july. Not optimal (I wanted to take in Jun), but at least I have a seat. so, keep trying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Try outside the province. I'm driving to Sask from Southern Alberta. Sucks, but at least I don't have to fly somewhere. Try the US as well, if you are a Canadian citizen and won't have a problem crossing the border. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Say, does anyone know if they actually kept the same total # of seats for a year when they switched to CBT? I wonder if the total # of seats per year decreased. I know for sure the # of possible sites to choose from decreased. Not sure about other provinces, but I know last year, when it was still paper-based, it was offered right here at the university I'm sitting right now, but this year there are only 2 test sites in AB as opposed to 3 last year. Of course, my town was the one that lost a spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webshy Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 To me is seems like there are fewer seats this year. When I registered for the April 16 exam, all seats in Canada other than Saskatoon were full. Thus, I'm traveling to Watertown, NY, about a 4 hour drive away. I keep hoping that someone will switch out of a seat in Markham, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, London or Ottawa between now and the exam! However, if not, I'll be making the trip to the US to write. I wonder how many people won't be able to write this year if the shortage of spaces is how it seems? People being prevented from applying to most med schools because of not having the means to travel to write the MCAT would be most unfortunate. How will people from the north write? Weren't there spaces further north than Toronto in previous years? Elaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notregistered Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Spoke with a kaplan lady and she said that Alberta has 6 seats in Edmonton and 6 in Calgary for each writing. So the # of seats available in the computer format compared to written format are way less. Sucks, I have to drive to saskatoon to write mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Spoke with a kaplan lady and she said that Alberta has 6 seats in Edmonton and 6 in Calgary for each writing. So the # of seats available in the computer format compared to written format are way less. Sucks, I have to drive to saskatoon to write mine. What day are you writing? I'm writing on April 12 in Sask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jixe Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Uhhh...I didn't get a seat either in Ontario for July 24th or 13th. Now what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Check out of province or in the US.... You guys, I think we should send a petition to the AAMC. I think it's unacceptable that they are doing this. First off, they are inconveniencing EVERYONE by making people travel ridiculously far and/or change their dates. Second, they are preventing people who cannot register for their chosen date whether because ALL test sites are full or because they can't afford to travel 1000 miles to write it from being successfully admitted to US medical schools (rolling admissions issue) and have the potential to do the same for those applying in Canada. Third, this is especially detrimental to underprivileged individuals who do not live in a major geographical area and/or do not have the financial resources to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to write the exam - thus specifically filtering out underpriveleged individuals AND individuals from rural areas from the medical school admissions process. Their website says they make "every effort" to have people travel no more than 100 miles....it sounds like MOST people are driving for 300+. I think it's unacceptable and may even be reported to the legal system due to the 3rd factor (which is pretty much flat out discrimination). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 If you agree that there should be a petition, post here, and if people are interested, I will draft one and post here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 I agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jixe Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Yeah, I'm down. These should go out to medical schools so that they are aware of what AAMC is doing. Medical schools pay AAMC for organizing this whole thing. AAMC's a monopoly. Who else is willing to create a medical school entrance examination? It's too much work for individual schools to create their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 OMG so registration for August isn't open yet, right? Does anyone know when it'll be open? I'm having trouble accessing the site right now.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Registration Opens Apr 11, 2007 for the tests in Aug & Sep 2007 That was as of Dec 17. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostintime Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Omg, I thought it was just because I checked the website at 2 p.m. But if people couldn't even get on for 9:00 a.m., then I'm REALLY screwed. If I knew this, I would've studied a LOT harder last year if I knew it was my last chance...ARGH this is soo damn stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notregistered Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 I agree with petition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lost__in__space Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Hey I got my seat here in London for the 24th..... but after getting extremely scared because when I logged on at 9:00am EST to the website, ALL seats in Ontario were already booked solid. However, if your credit card payment didnt go through, your seat was given up and I managed to grab a seat in London probably because of that (I kept trying over and over until a seat appeared for London). I had gotten a seat in Toronto but my credit card didnt go through the first time and my seat was given up. So my roomates woke me up to get a spot but I really didnt think it would be this bad or necessary! yikes!! :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 This is SO STUPID! The AAMC saw this coming, they should have been more prepared. Idiots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 OK, I'm gonna write this up probably on the weekend (I'm working for the next 6 days, which complicates things a bit). I'm pretty much gonna write what I had mentioned in my post, albeit in a better-phrased way, of course. However, first I'd like to call the AAMC and speak to someone in person and see what they say - or any of you can do that if you'd like. I just wanna know what the **** they are thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoithinkyouare Posted February 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 OK, I'm gonna write this up probably on the weekend (I'm working for the next 6 days, which complicates things a bit). I'm pretty much gonna write what I had mentioned in my post, albeit in a better-phrased way, of course. However, first I'd like to call the AAMC and speak to someone in person and see what they say - or any of you can do that if you'd like. I just wanna know what the **** they are thinking. I think that's a great thing to do. It is not right that the AAMC has a monopoly, and that most Canadian med schools require the MCAT, and that there are so few spots for examinations administered, and that the MCAT requirement may exclude applicants unable to fund travel to an open spot. The latter issues stem from the MCAT being switched to being computer administered. .. And NONE of the Canadian med schools thus far recognize this is a real issue. I think every med school should be forwarded this information - that people, like myself, cannot even register to take the MCAT within the first couple minutes registration opened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 I personally think that the appropriate way to let med schools (as opposed to AAMC) know would be to write an article in CMAJ....if we just sent a letter to the adcoms, they'd probably just toss it, they got lots of other things on their hands. It's probably perfect for them actually, since fewer people able to take the MCAT = fewer people applying = fewer apps to sort through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muchdutch Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 Spoke with a kaplan lady and she said that Alberta has 6 seats in Edmonton and 6 in Calgary for each writing. So the # of seats available in the computer format compared to written format are way less. Sucks, I have to drive to saskatoon to write mine. 6? as in six? as in 06.00000? holy crap! I know that there are, what, 22 writings per year in each city? Times 6 is 132? So 132 peoople per year in each city can write? And that's it? And when I wrote, they had four full lecture halls full (at least 100+ people in each hall), and there was another site in my city that had more people too! So, if my city is the norm, they have decreased the number of people writing each year in each city by about 80%? That is incredible! Who is this benefitting from this? Is the CBT administration more expensive than paper? I am in on your petition because that is total bull. Now, instead of the competition being for spots to get into medical schools, the 'pre-med' competition will be for spots to write the mcat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 6? as in six? as in 06.00000? holy crap! Yeah, Kuantum said there were 5 people at his test center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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