MCAT changes require additional courses of undergrads

Starting January 2015, the Medical College Admission Test will include a new section that will test pre-medicine students' knowledge of psychology and sociology and incorporate biochemistry and statistics into previous sections of the exam.

The changes to the exam will require pre-med students to take college-level courses in biochemistry, psychology and sociology, increasing the number of prerequisite classes from eight to 11, according to a press release from Kaplan Test Prep. The exam will also include new question types and skills. The current MCAT focuses on content knowledge and critical thinking, but the 2015 MCAT will include questions based on research design, graphical analysis and data interpretation, requiring students to have a basic knowledge of statistics as well, according to the press release.

Because of these additions, the length of the exam will increase. Students will have six hours and 15 minutes to answer 261 questions, compared with the current test, which consists of 144 questions over a three hour and 20-minute period, according to the press release.

Although these additions make the exam more intensive and demand more from undergraduate students, the changes are largely positive, said John Vaughan, the director of pre-health education for University of Richmond.

The addition of the social and behavioral section to the 2015 MCAT provides pre-med students with the opportunity to take courses that will help them understand health disparities and behavioral disorders, and generally provides a more holistic view of health, Vaughan said.

The inclusion of psychology and sociology will also help pre-med students become well-rounded and may help in social bedside manner, said Caroline Upshaw, the local campus manager for Kaplan Test Prep. Medical school faculty members also consistently rate biochemistry as one of the most important subjects for incoming students to be familiar with, Vaughan said. It's generally a course covered within the first year of medical school, so it's necessary for students to have seen the material before, he said.

The exam has not changed since 1991, Vaughan said, and because advances in science have led to a deeper molecular understanding of disease and illness, the changes are also necessary to refresh and update the exam on other subjects as well.

With careful planning, Vaughan said, there's no need to be nervous about the changes to the MCAT or the additional courses it requires. Many Richmond pre-health students already take a biochemistry course during their four years here, and psychology or sociology can be taken to fulfill the university's social analysis general education requirement, Vaughan said. In case students are worried about being able to get into a psychology or sociology class, he has been meeting with those department chairpeople to consider adding more sections.

For further peace of mind, the university offers a free, semester-long MCAT prep class to students during the spring semester, Vaughan said. The course is team-taught by four experienced full-time faculty members and includes previously administered MCAT exams as practice tests. As an additional resource, Kaplan Test Prep also provides free pre-med informational events on campus, as well as its own MCAT prep course, for a registration fee.

Contact reporter Mia Webber at mia.webber@richmond.edu