Potential medical school students will no longer able to hide poor entrance examination scores from prospective graduate schools. Medical schools will obtain all of their applicants' Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores beginning with the April 2003 test, when several other changes to the MCAT will also take effect.
These changes, according to the official MCAT website, "are meant to improve the usefulness of test scores while making the test more user-friendly." The remaining changes will be of relatively minor importance, leaving the basic structure of the MCAT the same.
The movement to what is termed "full disclosure" of test scores is the change of greatest concern to many students, who feel it may cause additional stress. Under this policy, all scores received on tests taken from April 2003 on will be released.
In addition, medical schools will see every date on which students took the MCAT from 1991 to 2002, although the scores will be withheld.
According to Carol Baffi-Dugan, the University's Program Director for Health Professions Advising, the movement to full disclosure is likely to have little effect on most students who will take the MCAT and especially Tufts students.
"The majority of our students only take the MCAT once, and those that repeat it are usually only repeating it once," Baffi-Dugan said.
"Students have had the option of not releasing scores, but our students rarely played that game. Students work hard to prepare for the MCAT and want to release their scores so they can go right ahead and apply.
"If by chance they do not do well, they have the option of retaking the test, and most medical schools use the highest set or the most recent set of scores to evaluate their candidacy."
Senior Grace Mitchell, who wants to take a year off before going to medical school, plans to take the MCAT after the policy changes take effect.
"Although it makes me more nervous that medical schools can see all my scores now, I don't plan to take the MCATs more than once," Mitchell said. "[Taking the exam several times] is not as common as [with the] SATs. So hopefully I will do well the first time around and not be affected by this change."
The April 2003 MCAT will also feature several content changes. Three questions on DNA and genetics will be added to the Biological Sciences section, and the biology portion of that section will now cover the molecular biology topic of eukaryotes _ organisms with nucleated cells.
"I don't think the additional genetics questions will hurt Tufts students since they get such excellent preparation in Biology 13," Baffi-Dugan said. "In fact, it may work in their favor."
To make up for the additional questions, other sections of the test will be shortened. The organic chemistry portion of the biological sciences section will have three fewer questions because alkenes, benzene, phenols and ethers will no longer be covered. The verbal reasoning section will be reduced by five questions.
The order of the test will also change, with the physical sciences section administered in the morning. Previously, students first tackled the verbal reasoning section.
Students tend to score slightly lower on the verbal reasoning section than other sections, according to Baffi-Dugan.
"Reducing the number of verbal reasoning questions should help," Baffi-Dugan said. "I am also pleased to see that they changed the order of the sections, since I always wondered if the lower score on verbal reasoning might be partly due to the fact that it was the first section."
Other changes to the MCAT include a $5 increase in the registration fee, to $185, and registration will be conducted only online. However, students will no longer pay a $10 per-school fee to send their scores to more than six schools.
This may save a significant amount of money for some students, as it is not uncommon for students to apply to between ten and 20 medical schools.
"This is definitely a positive aspect to the changes in the MCATs because I plan on applying to somewhere around 15 or 20 medical schools," said Mitchell, the senior who plans to take the test in April.
There will also be slight changes in scoring. The top scores will be higher and scores from the different sections of the test will be combined.
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