Proposed MCAT changes focus on social sciences

Future pre-med students may face a longer and more extensive Medical College Admission Test.

Last Thursday, the Association of American Medical Colleges released recommendations for a new MCAT to be adopted in 2015.

Proposed additions to the exam include a behavioral and social sciences section, a critical analysis and reasoning section, and advanced science material. The recommendations also eliminate the writing section and add 90 minutes to the current exam, bringing the total exam time to seven hours.

Amjed Saffarini, the executive director of pre-health programs for Kaplan Test Prep, explained that the suggestions reflect changes in the practice of medicine since the MCAT was last revised in 1990.

Saffarini noted that though social science concepts lie outside the traditional pre-med curriculum, it has become increasingly obvious to medical educators that compassion and understanding of different populations are skills that have “a lot to do with whether you’re a good doctor.”

Saffarini added the proposed addition of biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology concepts reflect the vast medical advances in the past two decades.

College senior Vishesh Agrawal, who was recently accepted to Harvard Medical School, said the changes mirror a trend in medical education toward more coursework in “specific sciences that relate to the context of medicine.”

In addition to psychology and sociology, Saffarini explained the inclusion of these advanced science concepts could result in “essentially a doubling” of pre-med coursework.

If the new test indeed requires additional pre-requisites, College sophomore and pre-med student Emily Schapira said she would be concerned about space for electives in future pre-med students’ schedules. “Some of my best academic experiences so far have been in classes that don’t apply to what I’m going to be doing professionally,” she said.

While Agrawal felt these changes would not have a “very large impact on a person’s undergraduate career,” he noted that pre-meds would “have to devote more attention and time to their pre-med career.”

Schapira, a biology major, added that students majoring in the humanities could have more difficulty balancing their pre-med and major requirements.

Peter Stokes, senior associate director of Career Services, was more hesitant to make predictions about the new MCAT and wrote in an email that “it’s not yet entirely clear how pre-requisites for medical school might change—if indeed there will be additional requirements, or if requirements might just be structured differently.”

Because medical schools value majors outside the sciences, Stokes wrote “it is hard to imagine them instituting requirements that would make pursuing such majors impracticable.”

The preliminary recommendations will be reviewed by the AAMC Board of Directors in February 2012.

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