Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Proposed MCAT Changes Lengthen Test

The MCAT, a dreaded step aspiring physicians must take when applying to medical school, may present a new challenge for the Class of 2016.

The Association of American Medical Colleges recently released 14 preliminary recommendations for the Medical College Admission Test that would affect both the structure of and the material tested on the exam.

The elimination of the writing section and the addition of 90 minutes to the exam, which would increase the total test time to about seven hours, are the most significant of these proposals.

The proposed changes will be reviewed over the next few months by the AAMC and will face final judgment in February 2012. If passed, the recommendations will be introduced in the 2015 exam, affecting the Georgetown pre-med Class of 2016.

The purpose of many of the recommendations, according to the AAMC, is to balance the exam’s focus on the natural sciences with the inclusion of behavioral and social science material. This shift in attention might necessitate the inclusion of behavioral and social science courses in the pre-med curriculum.

Georgetown currently requires that students in the program take one year each of biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics and math.

Emily Miller (COL ’11) said that, having gone through the pre-med curriculum and taken the MCAT, she feels the inclusion of additional content in the test would be taxing for students.

“I actually disagree with the changes, because when you add up the credits, pre-med already counts about as much as a major, credit-wise,” Miller said. “So I feel like adding more to pre-med, which doesn’t show up on your transcript as anything, would be actually ridiculous.”

Program Coordinator for Pre-Health Programs Vikki McGuire said that Georgetown’s current requirements already cover many of the suggested changes.

“I think it’s going to be more an issue of how to advise students to approach their courses than [one of] changes to the curriculum,” she said.

The new MCAT would require students to focus on more material from the advanced sciences by testing them on cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, research methods and statistics.

“Biochemistry will probably become more of a portion as more medical schools require, as opposed to recommend, the course,” McGuire said.

Thomas Brooke (NHS ’14), who plans to take the MCAT in 2013, felt the additional requirements might foster the development of better physicians.

“I think that, overall, it probably would be better for doctors, because it would make them more well-rounded in philosophy, ethics, sociology — all these different courses, which, to be honest, I want my physician to have [a background in],” Brooke said.

However, Brooke also felt the test would put a lot of strain on pre-med students.

“I would not look forward to having to add all those on top of the requirements that are already in place for being pre-med,” he said. “It would make it shy of impossible to do another major or a minor in something else.”

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