More on the MCAT - Test Day and Tips

Hey MCATers,

While I wrote a lot about how to prepare for the MCAT before, here's an entry going more into detail about the actual thing and what to expect.

Check the AAMC website for the details on section length, number of questions, and all that, though, since anything I write here regarding numbers will probably change.  In fact, when the MCAT became computer-based, the number of questions was reduced, and the test is now around 4 hours (as of 2009).

Known as the Medical College Admissions Test, the MCAT covers: general chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, biology, a verbal section, and 2 essays.  I'm getting flashbacks just writing about this, haha.

Anyway, the whole point of the exam is not only to test how well you know your basic sciences from undergrad, but how good you are at applying that knowledge base to new, never-before-seen situations in the aforementioned subjects.  A term I use is "bridging" or "bridging the gap," to describe the MCAT, and you'll get to know why as you do practice passages and tests.  Simply knowing how to do problems is not enough, you need to be able to reason and find creative ways to solve questions from time to time on the test.  One example is: to solve a problem in chemistry, you might need to solve 2 equations separately (not hinted at in the question) or 2 questions with 2 variables where you solve for the first variable using one equation, plug that into the next one for an answer, and then plug the next variable you get to solve the main question.  It can be a little convoluted, but they don't overdo it.

Structure

The MCAT is mainly passage-based, with stand-alone questions referred to as "discretes."  In the Physical Sciences section and the Biological Science sections, you'll see a lot charts and graphs embedded in a passage with a lot of text.  In the Verbal section, there won't be graphs or charts or anything, it's all just long passages that can range from cool stuff like art, to really, really, really boring passages like weather phenomena.

The essay-writing consisted of 2 essays, in separate 30 minute sessions.  The cool thing is, you won't really need the full 30 minutes if you've prepared well and are a good writer (My liberal arts education did help me in real life!).  I would finish probably with 10-15 minutes to spare and kind of rest my brain a little bit and daydream, and then shoot into the next essay.  Although you might finish an essay in 20 minutes, the 10 minutes you "saved" after continuing to the next essay doesn't carry over.  Be sure to finish early and do some proofreading though, it's not brain-intensive and can help a lot.

The Run Up to Test Day, and the Big Day Itself

When I scheduled my MCAT, I took the 8am morning slot, instead of the afternoon (I think 2pm) slot.  I feel the most active with the highest energy stores in the morning, but go with what your body and brain feel best with.  If you are dead tired at 2pm or later in the day even though you eat and sleep right, don't ruin your chances of performing well.

The more I blog about MCAT prep, I continuously discover how intense of a person I am, haha.  That's because about 2 weeks before my test, I did as many AAMC practice exams I could at the hour of the day my real MCAT would be.  In addition, I re-programmed my sleep schedule for "test mode" from "study mode."  During the days I did study for the MCAT, but for me, "study mode" means just maximizing your study hours during the day and just sleeping when you can.

"Test mode" sleep should be started 2 weeks before your test, and be very restful.  For my 8am exam, I went to bed at around 9:30-10pm and woke up a little before 6am to be up and at 'em.

Food is really important too.  For breakfast I had pancakes, blueberries, milk, orange juice, and a protein source like lean bacon and turkey (I have a huge appetite and absurdly active metabolism: I lose at least 1 pound in my sleep).  I don't know if blueberries really do help as brain food, but you can always get the placebo effect like I did, hah.  You can also take a lunch to the MCAT, and I really recommend carbohydrates and protein in the optimal ratio for your body (you should determine what's best for you before the 2 weeks before entering Test Mode.).

I did take caffeine the morning of the MCAT, but I took 1-2 cups at 6am (to give my body time to deal with the diuretic effect of caffeine) instead of just before 8am because I know I'd be diuretic-ing all over the place during the test, hah.  Be smart about your caffeine use, and try not to take it during the exam.  I avoided the need for exam-coffee by sleeping well the night before and having just a little bit early in the morning.

The 2 weeks before the exam and the day of, I listened to some pretty high-energy music like Andrew WK, Bloc Party and some other bands to get me pretty pumped.  I've heard people say 50% of the MCAT is psychological, and I really agree a big portion is being in a positive mindset, studying enough to feel confident on test day, and just being pumped for it.  Good luck, test takers.