August MCAT Holiday Inn Toronto Location

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi all,

 

Last August, I wrote the MCAT at UofT. Held in multiple Galbraith Building (Engineering) classrooms at St. George, the exam attracted a horde of writers. Although I've little clue as to the specific number, there were probably ~60-80 people in my room, and at least 3 rooms in total. Most probably due to the large numbers, the adminstration of the exam was lengthy and consequently we didn't actually get down to writing the exam until close to 10am. It made for a day that was a little lengthier than expected.

 

I have chosen to undergo the luxurious experience again this year (in hopes of boosting a mediocre VR mark) but opted for the Holiday Inn on King experience instead. This was partly a result of some less-than-perfect test conditions (wobbly desks, and incessant, otherworldly pinging noises, the former of which was remedied) and hearing that testing locations with smaller populations tend to get off the mark a little more quickly, making for a relatively short day.

 

For those of you still in flux as to where to write this August, I just spoke with the Catering/Functions Dept. at the Holiday Inn on King, and here are some details:

 

a) The room has been reserved for 120 people.

Format is classroom-style, that is, all tables in rows facing the front of the room.

c) A big difference between UT and HI is that at HI they are going to be using 6' and 8' tables to accommodate test writers. That means that at HI, each student will share a table with a neighbour, with a minimum of 3' between each student. (At UT each student was allotted their own ~3'sq. table.)

 

When asked about asked about the location of the exam room relative to the rest of the hotel, she stated that the MCAT room will be part of a ballroom that has been sectioned off. Next door will be another conference, but there should be absolutely no problem with extraneous, ambient noise. (At least, they've never had a problem with this in the past.)

 

Cheers

Kirsteen

[Guest Akane200]

Wow, I never knew that they held MCAT in a hotel in downtown toronto too. But I want to make a note that the MCAT held at U of T is not always in the Galbraith engineering buildings.

 

I sympathise with kirsteen, the galbraith building is one of the "not so good" places on campus to have an exam. Quite uncomfortable (I've had three finals taken there in undergrad), and complete with sensory deprivation (no windows in most exam rooms). Yours probably took a little longer to begin with too since your last name may have begun with C (lots of people in those rooms).

 

But the year I wrote it in august, we had the MCAT in the woodsworth auditorium (much much nicer). We didn't start until around 10 am and didn't finish writing until about 6 pm that day (our room was really large, and lots of people). The year before us, the MCATs were always held in the nice classrooms in Sidney Smith.

[Guest JSS02]

Speaking of the MCAT, has anyone received an admission ticket yet? I registered back in April (for the Holiday Inn Toronto location), and received confirmation from them about a week later, saying I'd receive the admission info in early July...

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

When I spoke with an AAMC person last week, they said that they were currently in the throes of allocating exam writers to locations, and that the admissions tickets should be sent out within ~2-3 weeks. No worries yet.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

 

PS For anyone considering switching their test-taking location, (the reason for my call to the AAMC), you must wait until you receive the admission ticket, then send it back to AAMC with your request to change. If space is available, they will allocate you at that time.