<p>Uh… because - for just one example - the passage will give you experimental results and ask you to interpret them. Sometimes the experiments are old. For example, in physics, if you’re interpreting the gold foil experiment, quantum physics may be true, but it won’t be the right answer to any of the passage questions.</p>
<p>Sometimes, passages will present a new theory, or an old theory, or something that’s very obscure.</p>
<p>Sure, in theory, you could learn all the science ever known to man or believed by man… but goodness, what a waste of time.</p>
<p>Why not limit yourself to just the sciences? Why not extend the same principle to Verbal, and just learn every single written, nonfiction passage mankind has ever put to paper?</p>
<p>In fact, humanities majors suffer no hardship on the MCAT since mean scores for humanities majors exceeded those for biological science majors on all 4 subsections of the MCAT in 2005 and for every year since 1991.
<a href=“http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/pubs.htm[/url]”>www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/pubs.htm</a></p>
<p>wow…
but how, i don’t get it. science major students work so hard, and spend a lot of time on those stuff. but how come…?</p>
<p>is that because all the MCAT takers from humanity majors are those who are really good that science, but MCAT takers from science majors are like all kinds of ppl, even though they are not good at it, but they still take it, becuz their majors are SCIENCE? so the mean score for science was dropped down?</p>
<p>bluedevilmike, Do you recommend reading more to prepare for the verbal seciton of the MCAT’s? I did fairly decent on the SAT verbal but not sure how it compares to the MCAT’s verbal. Any by verbal-based do you mean that it’s just a reading comprehension test? I like reading certain types of ficiton/science books but would magazines like The Economist or National Geographic help improve me reading speed and prepare me for the MCAT verbal section? Does this post even make any sense @_@?</p>
<p>First, I would simply urge you to read as much as you can - for your own intellect, for the adventure, for your undergraduate career, for med school, for the MCAT, for everything.</p>
<p>Second, I would urge you to put the MCAT off, mentally speaking, until test day is, say, 6 months away. BRM is a Kaplan teacher for all the neurotic premeds out there, and I’m sure he’ll tell you the same thing. (By the way, I vote that all new people on this board have to adopt the B_M format.)</p>
<p>Third, I do mean that the entire test is a reading comprehension test, at least mostly. The science sections, of course, need background knowledge as well, but reading comprehension is still a huge (I would argue majority) component.</p>
<p>Fourth, there’s very minimal correlation between the SAT and the MCAT, simply because the MCAT is so much harder that it’s an entirely different ballgame.</p>
<p>Reading all you can like BDM said is just important for your life in general. Don’t do it just b/c you want to do well on the MCAT - read b/c it makes you a better person (not that illiteracy makes you a bad person).</p>
<p>I would say that being able to read fast can be a big advantage on test day - so long as you can think about what you read obviously. But reading fast allows you more time on the questions no doubt.</p>
<p>Alright, let me see if I got this right. If I’m a graduating senior in May 2009, Ill take the MCAT in April 2008? then apply to schools in Sept 2008?</p>
<p>First, if would be June 2008, not September. Second, the timing is going to change dramatically with the addition of new MCAT testing dates - in a fashion that I am unable to predict. My guess is that you will probably still take the MCAT late in your junior year… but probably before April (avoid the finals crunch).</p>
<p>I actually took the MCAT in what would be your equivalent of August 2007. The timing works out great for that session.</p>
<p>hiii…i’m kind of in a dilemma…i narrowed my choices down to pre-med at NYU or the 7 year BS/DO program at NYIT…I have to take my MCATs either way–but I have some leniency with NYIT…but with NYU–i have the name to pull it up…I’m sooo confused…any suggestions??</p>
<p>Don’t worry about name, it’s doesn’t make any difference and is completely worthless if you don’t back up it up with strong performances in all areas of the application. At most, in the future it is possibly, possibly going to help you in some sort of situation in which you have the EXACT same stats as some other applicant (including interview) and they needed a tiebreaker.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m against all accelerated programs, but if you’re heart is telling you to go that route, then go.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know that new tests to old tests have to correspond. After all, they’re not comparing applicants across years per se. The SATs get recentered pretty often so that they DON’T correspond.</p>
<p>Well, since MCAT scores are good for three years, the scores have to be comprable for any three year set. Given the overlapping nature, that would mean that one exam must be comprable over the course of 5 years. Extrapolate those out, and it only continues to give a fairly even measure…of course changes in the test do occur, but on the whole a 10 this year should represent the same place relative to others that 10 in 2004 did.</p>
<p>year -2
year -1
year 0 <----year any particular person takes the exam
year +1
year +2 </p>
<p>The SAT’s of course are a different beast because it’s not like thousands of people each year get rejected from every school they apply to.</p>