prerequisites before mcat

[pezeshkbartar]

Hello,

 

I am planning to enter medical or Do schools in states in september 2014; I have finished my bachelor degree in health scineces; I have taken courses such as organic1, oranic 2, bio 1, bio 2. However, I have not taken physics 1, physics 2, General chem 2. I am not very sharp with science courses as well.

 

now I am debating what would be the smarter thing to do. taking physics 1 in fall and physics 2 and gen chem 2 in winter and then write mcat in the end of the summer. or write mcat first and then take the prerequisites; the reason I like to do mcat first is that I know American application starts in june first and they give admission on rolling basis; so I assume if I dont have my mcat ready by the end of the june, it would not look good on my application.

Furthermore, I am done my bachelor degree and I am working only few hours a week and my time would be totally dedicated to studying as well.

 

Thanks a lot for all the future responses

[HC8]

Most schools REQUIRE you have your pre reqs completed before you enter medical school. I would take the courses first and then write the MCAT, they will help you alot. Also you can submit your application WITHOUT writing your mcat, there is a section where you enter the date you're planning to write your test and the schools don't review your application till then.

 

Or if you're confident without taking the courses, then you can go ahead and write it. You need to assess how confident you are in your abilities in those sections.

Good Luck!

[Cass]

You're right about the US being on a rolling admissions and I think it's in an applicant's best interest to write their MCAT as soon as possible such that the schools can receive the scores because without these, your application is on hold and can't be evaluated (as far as I know). Is there a reason you're writing the MCAT at the END of summer (presumably from this, you mean August?) when you would be finished your prereqs by the winter semester? I would think it best to write the test soon after you complete your prereqs because the information from the courses would be fresh in your head and you wouldn't forget it.

 

Regarding prereqs for med school, my understanding is that as long as you have completed the prereqs prior to beginning medical school, you're good to go. You can even be taking them in the same year you'd be applying.

[pezeshkbartar]

thanks for both of your responses. Cass the reason I was planning to write the mcat at the end of summer was that I wanted to take courses such as calculus 1, calculus 2, biochem, genetics, and english as well; they are prerequisites for some med school in states . However, I think I should just take courses that help me with the mcat and write mcat in april as you said and take the rest of prerequisites next year.

I dont think calculus 1 and 2 would help me with the mcat at all. However, do you guys think taking biochem, genetics and english would be a big help to mcat or not?

thanks again cass and thanks to all the future responses as well