Applying to medical school is tough. Really tough. There are more qualified applicants than there are spots. The number of applicants is increasing every year (and subsequently, the number of qualified applicants) while the number of medical school spots isn’t keeping pace.

But if you want it bad enough, with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, you will get there. No matter how good an applicant you think you are, there is always room to be better, and ways to increase your chances of getting that medical school acceptance.

Feel that you’ve done everything you can? Looking for the next thing you could work on? Then this article is for you. I present to you: 10 things you can do right here right now to make yourself a better applicant to medical school.

1. Study
Whether it’s for tomorrow’s exam, the MCAT, or for a quiz five days from now, studying a bit more can’t hurt – it can only help. The truth is GPA and MCAT are the two most important factors for getting your foot into the door of a medical school, so academic excellence should be at the top of your list of priorities.

2. Review your application and identify areas of improvement
It’s always a good idea to review your progress as an applicant and find holes in a future medical school application. Are you very involved in your community but lacking direct leadership experience? Are you missing 1 or more of the 3 strong referees you need for letters? Are you overly-involved in the community but struggling in your university courses?

I am strong believer in self-reflection to figure out what your next steps should be. If you have extensive leadership experience, there’s no point joining the executive of another club (unless you really want to). Try something else and make yourself an even more well-rounded and interesting applicant. Not to mention trying new things will increase your skill set and often give you added perspective on life.

If you want to know what you need to work on as a medical school applicant, don’t ask me – I won’t know the answer. You need to spend time looking at your own progress and identifying what’s missing from your application.

3. Look up the latest information on medical school admissions
Admissions requirements can change from year to year. The MCAT cutoffs are the University of Western Ontario’s medical school change every year. In the last few years alone, McMaster added the Verbal Reasoning component of the MCAT to their admissions process and McGill University completely removed the need to take the MCAT.

Smart students are resourceful students. Keep up to date with the latest admissions information and don’t miss out on opportunities. I wonder how many potential future doctors didn’t apply to McGill this past year just because they didn’t realize they didn’t need the MCAT anymore.

4. Ask friends and family members to review your application
As the authors of our applications, we know exactly what our words and sentences mean, even if they aren’t necessarily written well. It’s always good to get a second (or third or fourth) pair of eyes to read over your essays and applications. From small things like spelling and grammar to large things like ideas and themes, it’s good to get someone else’s perspective – someone other than you is going to be evaluating your application, right? So it makes sense to see that your work is understandable to complete strangers.

5. Keep track of your activities and accomplishments
Even if you’re not applying to medical school for a year or two, I highly suggest keeping track of your accomplishments and activities, both academic and non-academic. It could be as simple as a list of these items or a professional resume, whatever you like, as long as it includes pertinent information such as dates, name of activity/accomplishment and brief description of activity/accomplishment.

I suggest this for a few reasons. 1.) It’s easy to forget all of the amazing work you accomplish over the years and you’re bound to forget something as time goes by. 2.) Having all of this prepared makes completing your medical school application a lot less of a pain (especially the 48-item OMSAS autobiographical sketch).

6. When you experience an event in your life that impacts your interest in medicine, take time to reflect and write it down
“Why medicine?” is the toughest question you’re going to have to answer when you write your essay, when you take part in interviews, and in fact, is a question you’re going to keep asking yourself even throughout medical school as you realize it doesn’t actually get easier. The reality is that the answer to this question is rarely going to be one obvious thing. For many of us, the answer to this question is going to be a myriad of reasons and experiences, and if you can keep track of any key revelations you go through, it will make answering this questions (and understanding yourself) easier as you go through the admissions process.

7. Read HealthyDebate.ca
I have been asked about my opinion on the Canadian health care system at both traditional and MMI medical school interviews. Clearly, having a basic understanding of how our health care system works and some key problems we are facing today would be useful for both your interviews and for practicing as a future physician.

In retrospect, I actually think it’s kind of funny that we are expected to answer questions like this. In my first two years of medical school, I have basically learned next to nothing of significance about our health care system, which I think is actually concerning, but I digress and that rant is for another day. I have spent my summer so far working on a project that has significantly increased my understanding and shaped my current perspective on our health care system. If I had to answer those interview questions all over again, questions like “what are the biggest problems facing health care today”, my answers would be extremely different.

In any case, a newly developed and excellent resource for learning about Canadian health care issues is HealthyDebate.ca and I highly encourage you to read their articles. I admit I am probably biased because I know some of their authors, but based on my conversations with them (who by the way have terrific credentials/qualifications), I am confident they are providing you with good information.

8. Work on your ECs
We all have unanswered volunteer emails, club events to organize, and 99 research papers to read for our lab work. Get off this blog and spend an extra 30 minutes today and take care of one of those things!

9. Plan ahead for the future
Getting into medical school is hard. It’s important to have a plan for both getting in and for what happens if you don’t get in at your next attempt. Think about how you are going to spend your summers, how you are going to spend your non-academic life during the school year, and what you might do if you graduate and do not get into medical school. If you are in your fourth year of undergrad, realize that grad schools have deadlines. If grad school is something you are thinking of, make sure you know those deadlines. The same goes for any other opportunities you are thinking of, even if it’s just for a summer – all opportunities have deadlines, keep track of them, and plan ahead.

10. Start completing your application
The earlier you start your application, the less work you have later on, and the more time you have to fix any bugs and fill any holes. Inevitably you’re going to find yourself stressing out the night before your medical school applications are due and telling yourself “I wish I started earlier”. Well, earlier is now, so get cracking!

Any more tips to add to the list? Let us know!

Related posts:

1. Is there a “perfect” medical specialty?
2. Stanford Admissions Video – Medicine, Business, Education and Law

In recent days, Canadian medical schools have begun spreading joy (through interview invites) and crushing dreams (through rejections) among students everywhere. Great for those invited to interviews, but feelings of disappointment, sadness, and sometimes anger for those who received bad news. As we all know, it’s never fun to be rejected for anything.

When you receive a rejection, many thoughts can go through your head, like: What did I do wrong? Was I not good enough? Boy, they really screwed up!

While some of these thoughts can end up leading to something positive (e.g. you work harder for next year’s application cycle), some of them can be quite destructive (e.g. you blame the medical school admissions process solely and spread a lot of negativity).

In perusing the Canadian premed forums this past week, it’s quite clear that all kinds of thoughts formed in response to rejections. In reacting to rejections, I think it helps to stand back and take an objective look at the medical school admissions process.

What happens every year around interview invite time is that students who hear back from medical schools post their “stats” and a status update for their application. For those unfamiliar with I’m talking about, here’s an example:

Rejected!
4th year applicant
3.91 GPA
PS12/VR14/BS10/WSQ
EC’s: 2 summers of research, started a club, lots of leadership positions, volunteered at a hospital every week
Application: Strong essay and reference letters

There are lots of good applicants with really good “stats” who get rejected from medical schools every year – stellar GPA, strong MCAT, lots of extracurriculars and leadership experience, etc. In their mind, they have put together a pretty darn good application and are shocked when they don’t get an interview – especially when they see other students with similar or even lower “stats” moving on in the admissions process. So what’s going on?

The easy way out would be to blame the admissions committee and say they screwed up. I see this a few times every year and unfortunately this is an unhealthy attitude. It suggests a sense of “entitlement” to the applicant when the reality is that there isn’t one. Understand this: the admissions committee can do whatever the heck they want. It is their process. Their goal isn’t to get you into medical school. Their goal is to create a medical school class that they and the medical school are happy with.

What do we really know about the process? Really, a whole lot of nothing

We are told some things about the medical school admissions process, but not a whole lot. We know that GPA matters more at UofT than it does at Western, for example, but there are many things we still don’t know. How is GPA scored? How much of a difference does it make if I’m a graduate student, 4th year student, or 3rd year student?

The same goes for other parts of the application. Sure we might be told that a school looks at our essay, reference letters, and autobiographical sketch – but in what way? Is the essay worth the most or the least? Are reference letters worth something or are they just a flag?

The truth is that as an outside applicant, you really have no idea. You might be an outstanding candidate, but if personal statements are your weakness, and you so happen to apply to a medical school where personal statements are, unknowingly to you, worth the most, then you might just not make it – unfortunately, you won’t know this. Which is why your goal should be to put forward the best application you can in all aspects.

Subjectivity in the process

Unless a computer does everything, there will always be subjectivity in the admissions process. Human beings read your applications and will have their own subjective interpretations of you as an applicant. It’s the reality, and we just have to deal with it. Maybe if you’re lucky you will have an evaluator who identifies with the same issues you speak passionately about, and maybe if you’re unlucky you will have someone who completely disagrees with your point of view.

Realize that there is only so much you can do as an applicant. All you can do is put your best foot forward, and hope things work out.

Is the process fair? It depends on how you look at it. If you look at it theoretically, it’s fair in the sense that everyone has an equal chance of getting lucky or unlucky. You just have to hope you’re on the right side of the coin when your application gets read. That’s not to say that the admissions process is completely based on luck (it’s not), but let’s face it, everyone needs a bit of luck sometimes to do well.

Being honest with the quality of your application

When people post “stats” like the example above, I often read things like “strong essay, good reference letters, stellar EC’s” – however, realize this is just your opinion and not necessarily a reflection of that of the admissions committee. What you might think is a strong essay might not hit any of the points the admissions committee is looking for. Just because you had a strong relationship with your referee doesn’t mean that they know how to write reference letters well (just like with essay writing, reference letter writing is a skill). And just because you had medical students and medical professors give you a thumbs up on your essay still doesn’t mean your essay is good enough to get in – the only people who decide that are the people who are assigned to read your essay and mark it. I am sure there are medical students who got in with their essays being the weakest part of their application, and medical professors who are now quite far removed from the current admissions process. And even if these are medical students and professors involved in the process, well unless they are the actual people reading your application for marking, then their subjective interpretation is only worth so much.

The admissions committee knows exactly what they are looking for in applicants. They might not agree with your perspective, but this is the reality.

My advice is to reflect on your application experience and work towards making your application better for the next cycle. Many people apply more than once before getting in, have a healthy attitude, and don’t give up!

Related posts:

1. 10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Medical School Application
2. A is for Attitude – maintaining a positive attitude even when everything goes bad
3. Is there a “perfect” medical specialty?

Over the past year and a bit, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the medical school admissions process. As you can imagine, a lot of students have the same questions. I figured it would make a lot more sense to just compile these common questions and my answers for everyone to see. Overtime, as we get more questions and write more answers, we will keep adding to the list. Enjoy!

• General
• Undergrad
• MCAT
• Extra-Curriculars / Non-Academic Experiences
• Reference Letters

General

Could you give a general timeline of how the med admissions process went for you?

It’s a pretty basic process, but keep in mind that this won’t be the same for everyone, and there’s no “correct” way.

Summer after 1st year – took MCAT prep course during May to July, then MCAT in August

August to Sept of 3rd year – apply to Ontario medical schools through OMSAS (Google this if you want to learn more, this is the online application service)

January to February of 3rd year – hear back about possible interviews (and rejections)

Late Feb. to Early April of 3rd year – interviews

May 15 of 3rd year – first round offers from medical schools (as well as waitlist and rejections)

What courses would best prepare me for medical school?

The best courses to prepare someone for medical school are anatomy and physiology (and maybe a few other ones, like immunology, genetics, biochemistry, etc.). That being said, these are NOT prerequisite courses for med school. I’m just saying that these types of courses are most relevant to the type of information covered in medical school.

Undergrad

Do students from universities like York stand just as much chance of getting into medical school as a student from UofT with similar GPA and MCAT scores? Do you know of any other York peers that were accepted to medical school?

Which university and program you attend in undergrad does not matter at all in the medical school admissions process. There are at least 5 students in my UofT med school class from York undergrad and I have many friends from York at other med schools. Medical school classes are full of students from many undergraduate programs and universities.

Why does York have fewer students in med school than say UofT? Honestly, I think it’s a combination that York has fewer medical school applicants in the first place, and from my experience, it seems that most students who go into university serious about medical school end up at more popular undergrad schools for science like UofT, Queen’s, etc.

Does it matter what program I take?

As long as you take any necessary prerequisite courses for specific medical schools, you should be fine. Sure, it’s a lot easier for a health sciences major to explain that they have prepared themselves for medicine than a music major. That doesn’t mean a music major has no shot – it just means that when you write your application and go to your interview, you need to make sure you have a good explanation for how your undergrad experience will contribute to your medical training.

What courses do I need to take?

Some medical schools have a few prerequisite courses. You should spend some time researching the medical schools you are interested in to find out what you might need to take. For a quick glance at Ontario medical schools, check out page 14 of this document.

Should I take a full English course?

It depends on which med schools you would consider applying to in the future. If you only plan on applying to Ontario schools, then there’s no need to take english. However, I know some schools in Western Canada (e.g. U of Alberta) require English, and I believe a lot of American med schools also require a year of english. That being said, if you do want to take english, you don’t have to take it this year, particularly if you think it will be one of your lower marks (as a lot of science students might believe). So instead of taking english earlier, you can take it the year you apply so that the mark won’t show up on your application if you’re worried about it being a bit low compared to your other courses.

What happens if I’m in a 4-year undergraduate degree but get into medical school after 3 years? Do I just stop doing my university degree and start med school?

Yup, you just leave your undergrad program and start medical school. However, at some undergraduate institutions, you can apply for a 3-year degree if you have achieved enough credits. For example, I was in the 4-year Biomedical Sciences program at York. After getting into med school, my science counsellor found out I had enough credits to graduate with a 3-year Bsc (general science) and I got a degree.

What elective courses did you take in university?

In general, I took a few economics, one psych, and a lot of philosophy. I took two economics courses over 1st and 2nd year because I knew I could do well in them, and I wanted to get as good a GPA as possible since I was planning on applying to med schools in 3rd year. In 2nd and 3rd year I took a lot of philosophy courses because I was really interested in those topics. I didn’t pick them for marks (getting an A+ in an essay based course is pretty tough), but I thought I would do okay in them too.

Should I just go to a university program that is “easier” to get marks in?

It depends on what’s most important to. A lot of factors come into play: location, other opportunities (e.g. research), campus life, etc. It really depends on how you balance your priorities and interests. Some people care about getting a higher GPA less than others, some people care more.

MCAT

When should I take the MCAT?

I wrote a whole article about when you should take the MCAT, but here’s a short answer. My general advice is to plan to study and take the MCAT after having taken your science courses like 1st year physics, biology, and chemistry, as well as 2nd year organic chem. Which is why I would suggest taking it after 2nd year, or even after 1st year if you think you can figure out organic chemistry without having taken the course. Taking it after 3rd year is okay too, but you have to keep in mind that a lot of the science material won’t be fresh in your mind anymore, and you will have more review to do.

Should I take physics in university to prepare for the MCAT?

I would say that in terms of the physics material you need to know for the MCAT, it is basically high school physics plus a bit more – however, this doesn’t mean the difficulty of the questions are the same. All I’m talking about is the type of material covered.

The advice I always give when people ask me this is to pick up a MCAT prep book, go over the physics material, and see if you can understand it on your own. If you can, then don’t take 1st year physics (unless you want to, or think you will do well in it). However, if you have trouble with the MCAT physics in your own, it may be worth taking a physics course.

What courses should I take to prepare for the MCAT?

I would say that you should take 1st year biology, chemistry, and physics, and 2nd year organic chemistry courses to prepare you for the MCAT. Physiology, biochemistry and genetics would also help.

How did you manage to participate in EC’s while studying for the MCAT?

I volunteered in a lab part time (2.5 days a week) one summer while taking a MCAT prep course and studying for the MCAT. I also spent the following summer doing research full time.

Personally, I highly suggest NOT committing to anything like a full time job while preparing for the MCAT if possible. A lot of people end up burning themselves out doing both at the same time, and as a result, some people don’t do as well as they can their first time on the MCAT and end up retaking the next summer. I’m sure there are some people who can handle full time commitments and preparing for the MCAT – if you’re one of those people, great, go for it. But it’s important to be realistic about how many things you can juggle. Don’t just burn yourself out because you think everyone else is volunteering, doing research, and preparing for the MCAT at the same time. The MCAT is an important test, and not a particularly fun one – you want to aim for taking it once and once only.

What MCAT score should I aim for?

The real answer is that you should try your best and get the best score possible for you. But if you really need a number to aim for, I would suggest aiming for something like a 11/11/11/R so that you are eligible at pretty much any Canadian medical school. It’s not fun when you miss the chance at an automatic interview at Western or Queen’s because of being one point short in a section.

I want to caution that each school uses the MCAT differently, and everyone should be aware of this when considering which schools to apply to. For a lot of students just starting to think about medical school, there seems to be some misconception that all medical schools are the same and perhaps have the same admissions process, when that really couldn’t be further from the truth. Each medical school has the same basic components (e.g. a combination of GPA, MCAT, application/essay, interview, etc.) but they all use and value these components differently, and may even administer them differently (e.g. some schools use the Multiple Mini Interview format while others have stuck to the traditional style interview).

Which MCAT prep course did you take and was it worth it?

I took the Princeton Review prep course. I would say that if you already have a background in science (e.g. you are a science major who is already taking 1st year physics, bio, chem, etc. in your program) then it’s not worth it. The prep books are pretty easy to follow if you’ve taken those courses before, so I think you’re just wasting a lot of time showing up to class to be taught stuff you could review on your own much more quickly. However, if you have never taken science before or haven’t reviewed it in many years, a prep course might be helpful. Prep courses also usually give you access to practice tests, which are useful.

What books would you suggest for studying for the MCAT?

If you’re going to study for the MCAT on your own and just get the books, I think Princeton has the best book for the Physical Sciences, Kaplan’s is probably better for Biological Sciences (Princeton is better if you want all the details, though I think that is unnecessary), Princeton has the best book for Writing Sample, and Exam Kracker’s has the best book for Verbal Reasoning.

Should I take an organic chemistry course before I do the MCAT?

As someone who didn’t take organic chemistry before doing the MCAT, I would personally suggest taking the course first. It’s possible to learn on your own if you’re willing to put in the effort and have good resources, friends, etc. who can help you. I personally didn’t get organic chem. while learning on my own for the MCAT, and I think I probably bombed most of the organic chem questions on the actual MCAT. I get the feeling if you take the organic chem course, you will breeze through the organic chem parts of the MCAT, so you should take advantage of that if possible.

Does it matter if I take the MCAT more than once?

For Canadian medical schools, no, I don’t believe it matters how many times you have taken the MCAT (most schools look at your best or most recent score). I think it might matter for some American schools, but I’m not sure.

Extra Curriculars / Non-Academic Experiences

What extra-curriculars (EC’s) did you do? What EC’s should I do?

The short answer is that I was involved in a lot of random things. I’ve been involved a lot with science promotion to youth, my church choir, volunteered with recreational therapy at a kid’s rehab centre, some band/symphony stuff. To be honest, I probably did less “EC’s” on a regular basis than many applicants, but I think I benefited from having being involved in my community for many years already and having diverse experiences.

I wrote an article previously analyzing how important non-academic things like ECs actually are to the medical school admissions process. Pretty much my conclusion was that it doesn’t matter as much as people think. This is because most medical schools rely on your GPA, MCAT score, and interview way more than the list of ECs/awards/experiences you give them. In fact, to my knowledge, schools like Western, McMaster, and Queen’s pretty much don’t really look at the list of ECs you give them. In general, it’s not so much that you have a stellar long list of ECs, but rather, their importance is that if in an interview (or application question) you are asked say “tell me about a time you had to be a leader”, you have a good example to talk about because of your ECs. That’s why quality of your ECs/experiences is way more important than volume.

I generally don’t like answering the “what ECs did you do” question because I think it might give the impression that you need to do X, Y, and Z to get into medical school, when that isn’t the case (at least not for Canadian medical schools). People get into medical school doing completely different things. Some people volunteered in a hospital and some people didn’t (I never did). Some people did research (I dabbled with this for two summers), other people didn’t and got in. There’s no magic formula.

The reasons why non-academic things like ECs, volunteering, hobbies, etc. are important to medical schools is because those experiences help you develop skills like communication, teamwork, patience, etc. that aren’t necessarily developed in the academic environment – all skills that a good doctor should have. It doesn’t matter so much how or where you developed those skills. What’s important is that you actually did develop them. So whether you were captain of your sports team or president of a club doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you can develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills from both.

All that being said, I do highly suggest gaining some sort of experience in a health care environment, whether that be volunteering in a hospital, shadowing a doctor, etc. It’s not only important that you gain some insight into the field so you kind of know what you might be getting yourself into, but from the admissions committee point of view, how serious can a candidate be if they haven’t spent the time to learn what a doctor does?

How important is it to have consistency in EC’s between high school and university?

As for ECs, I would say that consistency is not that big of a deal – it’s pretty normal for many students to move to new cities for undergrad and start from scratch. I do think you should try and show some dedication to a few things, partially because the longer you do something, the better and more complete your experiences will probably be.

Do you need to do research to get into med school?

No, you don’t “have” to do research to get into medical school. Some people in medical school did research, some didn’t. It is by no means necessary. If you did do research, it’s another aspect of your life that the admissions committees might find interesting and you should definitely mention on your application. That being said, it is true that a lot of the doctors involved in the admissions process tend to be university-affiliated physicians who do research.

So why do people say some medical schools like research?

In terms of research, I believe research is valued by some medical schools because: 1.) doing research often means you have someone who can give you a letter of reference commenting on your academic skills, and 2.) many faculty and staff in medical school are academic physicians, meaning that they are doctors who do research. As you can imagine, like attracts like – doctors who like doing research themselves will like applicants who do research. No, as an undergrad you might not be doing medical research, but even doing any research shows you might be open to doing some sort of medical research later on.

How did you get a NSERC student award to do research with a professor?

For the NSERC, I think it depends on your university. At York, you had to find a professor willing to apply with you, and then you fill out an application form, and a committee at York selected the recipients from the list. From what I hear, GPA played a big role in the selection process at York. I have no idea how it’s done at other universities though.

How should I approach a professor about doing research with them?

I would first research potential supervisors and find ones whose work interests you. Then send them an email letting them know you’re interested in their work, let them know you’re interested in working for them, ask them if you could meet to discuss your interests, and attach your CV.

Do extra curriculars from high school matter?

ECs in high school are important for applying to certain university programs (i.e. those with supplementary applications). As for medical school, I think most medical schools allow you to put anything from 16 years old and on, but I would think that things happening earlier on in your life are given less weight. What you do now or what you’ve done recently provide a more accurate picture of who you are now as a person.

Reference Letters

Who did your reference letters come from? How did you choose them?

For a more complete answer, check out my article on reference letters.

In short, you should ask people who you know genuinely support you and want to help you get into medical school. It’s amazing how good a letter you can get from someone who genuinely wants to support you. A lot of people think that you need to get lucky to find someone who writes well, and while that’s true, the quality of your letter is significantly affected by being smart about who you ask. Don’t just ask a random professor you had a class with because you “need” an academic letter. If the letter isn’t going to be spectacular, then it’s not going to improve your application.

Personally, I got my three letters from my research professor, the director of the science charity I work with, and the head of the church choir I volunteered with. The big tie between all three, like I mentioned before, is that all three genuinely wanted to support me in my endeavours. I knew that my church choir director, for example, would not have had as fancy a “title” as perhaps someone else, but I knew she would write the best letter she possibly could – and that’s way more important than having some really famous person write you a short, generic letter.

The admissions committee knows you’re going to sell yourself the best you can in your essays and application. But if you can find 3 random people who will sell you just as well, that speaks volumes.

Related posts:

1. 10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Medical School Application
2. Stanford Admissions Video – Medicine, Business, Education and Law
3. Is there a “perfect” medical specialty?

When I took the Princeton Review Prep Course three years ago, I got a N on my first diagnostic exam writing sample (i.e. from my full length online practice exams). After that, I got T’s on all of my subsequent diagnostic exam writing samples. I went on to get a T on my actual MCAT.

You don’t need to be a great writer to get a T on the MCAT writing sample – in fact, you can be a great writer and not score high on the writing sample. Rather, what you need is a combination of things: be a competent writer, have enough knowledge to come up with good examples, and be able to think critically about those examples and how they relate to the overall theme of the prompt. The MCAT writing sample section can be solved with a systematic approach, and in this article, I hope to impart some specific strategies to help you do just that. While I won’t tell you how to attack the writing sample section from scratch, I think there are a lot of tid bits in this article that will help you significantly improve your score from where it currently is.

Before we begin, it is probably a good idea to review the writing sample section overall. I will go ahead and quote what the AAMC has to say about the writing sample:

Each Writing Sample item consists of a topic statement (printed boldly) followed by instructions for three writing tasks. Your first task is to explain or interpret the topic statement. Because the first two sentences of the instructions are the same for all items, they are stated once here rather than beneath each item. These instructions are: Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means.

The instructions for the second and third writing tasks vary from item to item and are printed immediately beneath each topic statement. When using this list for practice, you should be sure to follow the instructions for all three tasks in writing your essay.

So the first task is clearly to explain the statement/prompt. In general, the second and third tasks are some variant of providing a counter example to the prompt, and then designing a “rule” (or guideline) to explain when the statement is true and when it is not.

Now that we’re all on the same page, here are some specific things I did that I think helped in me getting a T.

Find an Example to Both Support AND Oppose the Prompt

The MCAT writing sample prompts only require you to explain the prompt, but not provide an example to support it. Rather, they ask you to explain the prompt and provide one counter-example.

I’m going to go ahead and ask you to do more than that. I’m telling you to also provide an example to support the prompt.

While it isn’t necessary, it’s what I was taught to do and it worked for me. Having an example that proves and supports the prompt makes your essay that much stronger. It also makes task 3, the rule, much stronger because the reader will be able to see how the rule was applied to derive both an example to support the prompt and an example to go against it.

Use Specific Examples

When I say specific examples, I mean events that have actually happened (and if possible, elaborate and include details about them). What I don’t mean are hypothetical or generic examples. If you want to use a computer software company as an example, don’t say “a computer software company” – say Microsoft (or any other real software company). It doesn’t even matter if you don’t elaborate further about Microsoft – at the very least, use it instead of “generic computer software company”. Of course, an even stronger example is to write about a real computer software company and something that actually happened to them. In any case, just don’t use generic examples.

Don’t fret too much about how popular or well-known the example is – the most important thing is that it is real, and thus, provides a more vivid picture. On my actual MCAT writing sample, the four examples I used were Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Stephane Dion and the Liberal Party of Canada, Google, and my father’s old computer software company. As you can see, I used examples that ranged from well known (Google) to unknown (my dad’s local computer software employer). In the end, the important thing is that my examples were specific and real, and thus, vivid in the mind of the reader. Moreover, real examples (as opposed to hypothetical ones) are stronger for the very fact that they have happened and are thus evidence (whereas hypothetical examples are, at best, theoretical).

Oh, and if you’re Canadian, use Canadian examples! The markers are American and this has two main implications. First, your Canadian examples, while “local” to you, will seem “international” to the reader (which is a plus). In addition, since your Canadian examples will likely be unknown to the American marker, it’s okay you get some of the facts wrong. Contrast that with well-known American examples, where a fact mishap might hurt your score!

Come up with the Rule First

It is natural instinct for us to do things in the order tasks are presented to us, and the writing sample is no different. In fact, many MCAT prep courses teach us to do the tasks in order. That is, think of the required examples first and then create the rule to bridge them. However, I don’t think this is the best way.

Consider the following writing sample prompt:

Education occurs when the student has a desire to learn.

Describe a specific situation in which education might occur without the student’s having a desire to learn. Discuss what you think determines when education requires that the student have a desire to learn and when it does not.

One example of when a student has the desire to learn is when he enters into a program (e.g. MBA) to improve his knowledge/understanding of his career field and, therefore, his job prospects. One example of when education doesn’t require the student to have a desire to learn is when premeds take certain prerequisites just to satisfy medical school requirements. Say you were to attack the writing sample prompt by coming up with these two examples first before doing anything else. Sure you might have the first two thirds of the essay now written, but then you get to task three and… can you come up with a rule to connect these two examples (as well as a rule that can be used to evaluate future examples)? I think it’s rather difficult to come up with a good rule/guideline to connect these two specific examples.

In cases like this, you suddenly realize you cannot think of a rule/guideline to bridge the two examples! (or even if you do, the rule is rather weak) Without this rule, your essay is incomplete, and you scramble to make up something that barely connects the two examples.

Instead, I think it makes much more sense to think of the rule/guideline first(that is, first determine when the prompt is true and when it is not), and then use that rule to derive the supporting example and counter example – this way, you know for sure that the two examples can indeed work together.

So for this prompt, I would first come up with a rule like: “What determines whether or not education requires a desire to learn is at what time point of his education the student is in, with high school graduation being the dividing line”. From there, the examples are easy to derive: If the student is in high school or below, then education is mandatory and doesn’t require his desire to learn (supporting example). However, after graduating from high school, university/college is not mandatory, and thus post-secondary education requires the students desire and initiative to learn (counter-example).

By developing the rule first, you ensure you don’t waste time writing an essay that can’t be united by the end. Moreover, once you have the rule, the examples become very easy to derive.

Write A LOT

Each of your writing samples is graded by a human marker, as well as a computerized scoring system. It’s important to consider the implications of how the writing sample is graded, especially since this is the only section of the MCAT where marking isn’t an exact science.

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t know how the computer marks the writing samples. But if I had to speculate (which I love to do), I’d guess that the computer marks you on spelling, grammar, and length. I don’t think it’s a proportional marking scheme (i.e. I don’t think the more you write, the better, since writing too much is bad too), but I do think there might be a certain range of word length that is looked for. But given the time restrictions, I think it’s near impossible for someone to overwrite. The fact is that a one word essay is probably not very good, and neither is a 10 word one, and nor a 50 word one. Longer is probably better.

In addition, a decently long essay is impressive at first glance, and could sway a human marker in your favour. So feel free to write a lot, elaborate on your ideas, and make sure what you’ve written is clear to someone who knows nothing about the subject.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

This should be obvious, but yeah, practice doesn’t hurt. Looking for prompts? Look no further than the official AAMC Writing Sample Prompts – many of these tend to show up on actual MCAT tests (I know mine are on there!).

I don’t think it’s necessary to write a lot of full length writing samples, unless you feel the actual writing part is your weak point. For many students, the problem is in coming up with the ideas, examples, and rules. I was in this boat, and I found it helpful to just pick random prompts and discuss/debate them with friends to get into the habit of generating examples and prompts (as well as learning from the thought processes and ideas of others).

Well, that’s all I have to say. Hope this helps!

Related posts:

1. 10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Medical School Application
2. Is there a “perfect” medical specialty?
3. Speaking

In case you weren’t familiar with the MCAT Writing Sample, here’s a quick rundown. You are required to write two essays, with 30 minutes each, and you are given a score from 1 – 6 on each. The possible total score of the two combined then makes 2 – 12, which is converted to a letter. 12 = T, 11 = S, … and so on. What is a solid score? I would say that a “R” or higher (total score of 10) is solid and competitive.

That being said, here are some examples of writing sample essays that were scored by my MCAT prep course instructor. Essays with scores of 3 – 6 are included. I hope that it’s a good resource, allowing you to gauge what level of writing is required for a good score. Comments (in italics) from my instructor are also included.

A 3/6 – Bare Pass

Developed nations have an obligation to provide aid to the underdeveloped nations of the world.

Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which a developed nation might not be obligated to provide aid to an underdeveloped nation. Discuss what you think determines when developed nations have an obligation to provide aid to underdeveloped nations.

Throughout human history, there have been countries that stand out to be one of the most powerful nations in the world – Mongolia, the Roman Empire, France, Britain, and, in modern times, the United States of America. Part of the G7 (should be G8), the US stands as one of the developed, wealthy and privileged nations in the world. Through the United States’ efforts, the United Nations has been created, with the goal of ensuring that all peoples have their basic human rights, including food, shelter, education, and justice. The United Nations have focussed its efforts in helping underdeveloped nations, since these are the countries that often do not have the means to provide privileges to its people. As a representative of the developed nations in the world, the United Nations represents their intentions to aid humanity. This intrinsic helping nature becomes an obligation for more privileged countries because of the common thread of humanity between all peoples, as the difference in between nations’ peoples is much smaller than the similarities. Another reason for obligations to aid is due to the shady fact that countries’ wealth have been often been accumulated due to exploitation of other nations in the past. (This is your explanation. Everything before this is background, everything after is example. This is what your essay will be evaluated on. Less background and more explanation will net you higher scores.) Such was the example of Britain’s oppression of India and African countries. As a result, Britain now feels an additional obligation to help these underdeveloped countries. (Overall paragraph comment – Good explanation. But you could be more focused. Just because aid has been provided doesn’t mean that there was an obligation, nor does it explain why there would have been one. All this can be valuable for the example, but doesn’t help the explanation. First task: 4/6)

However, as demonstrated in the mission statement of United Nations, the organization’s goal is to ensure basic human rights. If an underdeveloped country’s administration acts to eliminate or neglect these rights, not only will the United Nations not provide aid, but the organization might consider taking steps to counter this country. It is important to keep in mind that the goal of aid is to help peoples in countries to live richer and fuller lives, and not to destroy them. In providing aid to an administration that does the opposite, the goodwill of the United Nations, and thus of developed countries, is destroyed. (Overall paragraph comment – Adequate. Use specific historical examples to add strength.)

An example in which a developed country does not have an obligation to provide aid to an underdeveloped country is exhibited by the actions of many countries towards Zimbabwe. Recently, a new President has been elected into position in Zimbabwe. However, this President had gotten this position by using rigged elections, brutality towards any citizens with opposing views, and completely controlling the country’s media. In addition, certain groups of people now suffer discrimination and injustice under his rule, and genocide, alongside other crimes against humanity, have been reported. As a result of this new change in administration, many developed countries have decided to no longer provide aid to Zimbabwe unless there is a positive change in the administration. The developed countries no longer have an obligation to provide aid to Zimbabwe because such aid will only go towards furthering the destruction of human rights. Developed countries thus only have an obligation to provide aid when such aid will be beneficial to the furthering of humanity and its rights. (Overall paragraph comment – ? Is this your Task 2 or Task 3? Is this your resolution or your counter-example? Everything here but the very last sentence is counter-example, thus I will give this paragraph two marks. Second task (cont’d)-5/6. Third task -3/6)

Despite your strong counter-example in the third paragraph, you mixed up the tasks somewhat and this hurt you in the end. Your resolution simply was inadequately explained. Stay focussed and you will be able to complete all the tasks.

Overall-3/6

4/6 – Decent

Voters should not be concerned about a political candidate’s personal life.

Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which voters should be concerned with a political candidate’s personal life. Discuss what you think determines whether a political candidate’s personal life is a public concern.

It is said that a man should be judged by his actions and not what is told of him. This has been the age-old problem with political candidates – a lot is promised, vouched for, and said – but how much of it is actually the truth? Voters want to know what their decision entails, who are they supporting, and most importantly, what are they actually supporting? In the past, all that was heard of a candidate was the public speeches he gave and the few newsprints. Nowadays, there is a wealth of easily accessible and worthy information about a candidate such as the platform, beliefs, and past accomplishments. However, the information available is abundant and at times, superfluous. For instance, is it truly necessary to know that Lincoln was born in a log cabin? Or that your state governor has had a divorce in the past? It is hard to draw the line as to what is really necessary information for the voter to draw an informed decision. Most of the time, the candidate’s personal life (life outside of office) should not be a concern of the voters. The candidate’s personal life should not affect how he acts in office nor how he takes the best decisions for the people. (Overall paragraph comment – Barely adequate. You ask a lot of rhetorical questions, but you seem to struggle to link all the ideas in your paragraph together. Make sure your ideas are connected and expand on your ideas further.
Task 1-4/6)

The issue of personal information has been seen recently with the Democratic Party’s elections for presidential candidate. Barack Obama made headline news when it was discovered that his Reverend had made racist comments. The facts were clear that Obama had been closely associated with this Reverend in the past. In the United States, equality for all men is and always will be a most fundamental cornerstone in the country. Since these values are of utmost importance to most voters, voters should be concerned about this part of Obama’s personal life. There were many doubts and unanswered questions. It is at times like these that voters should be concerned and make it their duty to learn more. (Overall paragraph comment – Good relevant and specific example, well explained. Be careful not to reveal your criterion early.
Task 2-5/6)

A candidate’s personal life is often made public and brought to the attention of the voters. A voter’s duty is to make the most informed decision in their best interests. It is then that the voter has to decide whether or not the information is of concern: whether it contradicts what the candidate has been vouching for publicly, whether it sheds light onto a candidate’s private beliefs. Personal information should be of concern when it is not superfluous – when the information is of relevance to the candidate’s office and work. Lincoln’s log cabin is not as much of a concern than a candidate’s values on equality. (Overall paragraph comment – What is your criterion here? You meander and stumble, but you do not clearly identify one straightforward factor by which we can judge whether we need to be concerned about a candidates personal life. The closest it comes is “whether it contradicts what the candidate has been vouching for publicly”. This will do, but only just. Task 3-4/6)

You have good ideas, and your Obama reference is quite strong. However, you need to structure your paragraphs in a stronger way as they often seem to be a little disconnected, and this detracts from your score.

Overall – 4/6

5/6 – A Good Essay

In business, competition is superior to cooperation.

Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which cooperation might be superior to competition. Discuss what you think determines when competition is superior to cooperation in business and when it s inferior.

Profit is usually the main goal of the business and businesses are started with the intention of creating profit. With this goal in mind, businesses are often in the market to compete with other businesses in order to increase their profits. Competition can be as simple as lowering relative prices or creating deals, or involving more complex plans such as creating a good image for the company in comparison to others. Such competition can push other businesses out of the way as one business reaps the reward of being able to sell to the majority of the consumers’ want for a certain product or service. For example, Starbucks and Tim Hortons are two separate coffee chains. If these chains were to cooperate and work with the other’s chains best interests in mind (such as combined sales), there would be no significant increase in profit for one chain or the other. Rather, competition is the path that can potentially bring more profit and thus superior, and such is the path that these chains have chosen. (Overall paragraph comment – While your explanation has some good ideas, you don’t actually mention cooperation until your example. This is almost sufficient to cost you the completion of your task. Good specific example. A more robust and complete explanation would increase your score. Task 1-4/6)

Even though the goal of businesses is to achieve greater profits, there are businesses in the market that do cooperate. Notable examples are shown in umbrella companies such as General Electric. GE is one of the world’s biggest companies because it is actually built on the cooperation of many smaller companies. GE provides services and products in a diverse range, including military products, energy provision, automobiles, and real estate. In such a company, the amount of resources and manpower works to GE and each smaller company’s advantage. The companies are financially capable to execute their plans and further themselves as the top in the market. The success of GE proves the superiority of cooperation in this case. (Overall paragraph comment – Good specific example, well explained. Task 2-5/6)

Each business chooses between cooperation and competition. Both can bring financial superiority to the businesses. However, what ultimately distinguishes between these two choices is the consumer market. If the businesses in question are dealing with the same market, as in the case with the coffee drinkers, it would be advisable to choose competition over cooperation. This is because the consumer market and potential money earned is fixed for this particular market sector. Cooperation will only serve to thin out the money earned per company. On the other hand, umbrella companies are a market phenomenon because of their cooperative values. In General Electric, the cooperating companies are companies from different sectors, and thus would not compete amongst themselves, even if they cooperate. The consumer market is different for each company, and thus cooperation can only bring power and increased resources. (Overall paragraph comment – Great resolution. Task 3-5/6.)

This is a strong essay. While you have some weakness in your explanation, the rest of your essay compensates for it. Still, make sure you are careful to address the tasks in the future so that you don’t run the risk of not completing your tasks.

Overall-5/6

6/6 – “Perfection”

Only those politicians who have learned the art of compromise can achieve their political goals.

Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which a politician might achieve a political goal without compromising. Discuss what you think determines when politicians should compromise to achieve a political goal.

The idea of a democracy has often been heralded as the genius of mankind in the realm of government administrations. A democracy allows for steady changes to the country, a high quality of life, and most importantly, that the citizens have a say in how the country is run. However, inherent in a democracy is the fact that there will always be people who raise their voices on the two opposite sides of an issue: yes or no, this candidate or another, pass a bill or veto it. At the same time, this is the beauty of a democracy – that the majority will have the say in a matter, and that at least, the majority will be satisfied in how things are taking place. Nevertheless, this is not enough for a politician’s success and completion of their political goals, as the majority of people will have different views on different matters. Simply taking one side is not enough to ensure a political success as there are always many votes to be garnered from the other side. Therefore, in a democracy, the art of compromise is of utmost importance to a politician. In order for a politician to achieve their goals of prominence and leadership, the politician must appeal to the two populations separated on an issue by making a compromise. Only through a compromise can both sides be pleased and the most votes garnered.

However, there are notable cases in which a politician can achieve a political goal without compromising. For example, Ho Chi Minh, the politician that eventually led Vietnam after the Vietnam War did not offer many compromises. The country’s administration was turned into communism and many Northern Vietnamese laws were enforced that Southern Vietnam did not approve of. These included changes in currency, business laws, government, and the Vietnamese capital city. No compromise was offered at all for the Southern Vietnamese. In this case, Ho Chi Minh was able to achieve his political goal of leader as the country without any compromise at all. In fact, his unchanging decisions in face of any opposition contributed to his success and helped forge his identity as a strong leader.

The question then remains: should compromise be used in order for a politician to be successful and able to achieve their goals? The answer lies in what kind of governmental system the politician is working in. Inherent to a democracy is that both sides must be satisfied because a popular vote is needed for a politician to be elected into office. Therefore, it is very important for a politician to know how to compromise effectively and please as many citizens as possible with their platform. However, if the politician is in a system where votes are not needed, such as a socialist or communist government, the art of compromise can be unnecessary for a politician.

Overall – 6/6

How to get the 6?

See Josh’s article here!

Related posts:

1. 10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Medical School Application
2. Is there a “perfect” medical specialty?
3. Stanford Admissions Video – Medicine, Business, Education and Law

On the first class of my MCAT prep course, the course instructor wrote on the board:

“The MCAT exists to _________ me.”

He then asked us to fill in the blank. There was silence at first, and then one student bravely said “to screw me”. Funny chaos ensued for a few minutes as others piped in “to kill me”, “to ruin me”, and so forth.

The instructor stopped our laughter by shouting “Wrong!”, and then said, “The MCAT exists to help you.” He explained that since it was May, we only had one summer before med school applications were due. Extracurricular activities and good reference letters often require long-term commitments, so there’s not much you can do in these last few months. The school year is over, so is any chance of changing your GPA. The only thing left that you can use to improve your application at this point is the MCAT.

This post is the first of two personal heart-to-hearts on how to prepare for the MCAT. I admit that the downfall of this article is the fact that it is derived from the experience of a sample size of just one. I managed a 37R with this advice though, so I hope it helps!

Psyching yourself

Why are you doing this? Before you start ruining your summer with MCAT studies, it’s important to remind yourself why you are writing the MCAT. Other than the fact that hitting the cut-offs will complete your application, you should still aim to get the best score that you could. There are 3 reasons for this: 1) having an amazing score gives some kind of “wow” factor, which may come in handy in your application; 2) it feels great to have a score that you can be proud of and say “this is what I gave up my summer for”; 3) it’s good to have some leeway to make sure that you do make the cut-offs. The MCAT is important.

40 hours per week is the number of hours you should ideally be spending on MCAT studying. (Yes, you heard me right.) For a lot of us, a MCAT “full-time” job is very hard to pull off, and you will have to be prepared for the fact that you may not hit your best score possible. I wrote my MCAT in the summer of my second year while doing full-time research. On the rare good week, I’d get my 40 hours per week by studying 20 hours on the weekend and the other 20 over three weekdays. It depends on you, really. If the MCAT is not that bad for you, it’s definitely a good idea to continue doing extracurricular activities and research on the side. If you find the MCAT to be very tough, it may be a better choice to concentrate on it full-time.

It’s hard. I’ve heard some people say that the MCAT is easy, or that there’s a “trick” to the MCAT. The fact of the matter is that the MCAT is hard (of course, I am discounting exceptionally smart students when I say this) and there is no easy trick. The MCAT fits all its test-takers into a bell-curve and it’s mathematically easy to fall on the curve’s bad side. I realized this when I got a score of 22 on my first mock MCAT, and that motivated me to take the MCAT very seriously.

Content

Just to get a feel for what the MCAT was all about, I wrote my first mock test (with no studying whatsoever) in the summer of first year, where I got my 22. I didn’t touch the MCAT until the summer of second year, when I got a 29 on another mock test. The second year of undergraduate courses was enough to buy me an extra 7 points, which were purely based on content knowledge in biological and physical sciences. My point is that content knowledge matters.

My background in biochemistry prepared me extremely well for certain content portions of the test. In particular, my 2nd year courses in genetics, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and metabolism gave me an extra edge over test-takers who weren’t in my biochemistry program. First year physics also helped a lot. On the other hand, I had never taken a course in anatomy or physiology – so I was learning completely new material for the test.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal reasoning is usually the most feared section of the typical science student. This is the section where you most often hear horror stories like “Oh, I know a guy who got 15-6-14”. Not only is Verbal Reasoning scary, but it is also one of the hardest to improve in. Simply becoming more familiar with the format and timing will often result in a 1 or 2 point increase from your baseline (score that you get with no studying whatsoever). Baselines reflect your innate reading comprehension skills, which are affected by how much you’ve read and what type of materials that you often read.

Improvements in 3 or more points from baseline are rare unless you adopt and perfect a strategy – different prep courses encourage different “tried and true” strategies. Strategies frequently involve learning a new way of approaching passages, taking notes, and tackling questions. Often they feel unnatural and are time-consuming to adopt. You’ll find that your score actually drops when you first try using the strategies, but will pick up again later, leading to an overall improvement.

Personally, my baseline score was a 9, which improved to 10/11 after a couple of weeks of practice. To get to that point, I did one timed full verbal reasoning section per day, and went over the questions that I got wrong. I was frustrated with my prep course’s strategy, and as I was content with a 10/11, I simply didn’t seek to improve it further. However, I have friends who had baseline scores of 7s, and after an intense summer, got 11 or 12, so it’s possible!

Stay tuned for Part 2 – writing sample, study tips, and test day.

Deciding when to write the MCAT? Check this article here.

Related posts:

1. 10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Medical School Application
2. Is there a “perfect” medical specialty?
3. Stanford Admissions Video – Medicine, Business, Education and Law

If you applied to medical school this past year, you probably know where you’ll be this fall by now. Some of you may have been accepted into medical school and are excited for the journey that lies ahead. If so, congratulations, and best of luck as you start a brand new chapter in your life! Getting into medical school is an amazing accomplishment, but a lot of hard work and challenges still lie ahead. I’d suggest enjoying your summer as much as you can before the work really piles on =).

Others, however, may have fallen a bit short in the process and are now wondering what your next steps should be. If that’s you, then this article is for you. Before we go any further, you need to do something first.

Give Yourself a Pat on the Back

I know giving yourself a pat on the back won’t change the results of this past year, but fact is, you deserve it. Applying to medical school is hard, especially when you consider that you’ve really been “applying” since day one and not just when you started writing your application last fall. I’ll say it again: applying to medical school is hard. And tiring.

From filling out applications, to getting references letters, to doing interviews (not to mention staying on track of your school work, extra-curricular involvements, and your personal life) – the whole process is draining. And don’t delude yourself into thinking the process ends once you get into medical school. It keeps going because, well, you will have to compete for residency spots as well. Of course that is ways into the future, but it’s important to keep in mind that you’re still going to have to compete in the years that follow entering medical school. It is what it is.

So congratulate yourself for getting through this year. Even though you didn’t get in this year, going through the application process can only make you a better applicant for next year’s cycle. You will learn from your mistakes. Not only that, but you can build on last year’s application – a lot of the basic grunt work (for example, figuring out who your references will be, creating a list of all your achievements/experiences, etc.) is now done, and what happens now is more about improving than starting from scratch. That makes a huge difference.

Still, we can’t start analyzing what you should do in preparation for applying again. There’s still one more important question to ask at this point.

Should I even apply to medical school again?

Just because you have applied once or twenty times already, doesn’t mean you have to apply again this year, or ever again. Before you consider how to improve your chances, you need to decide whether this is something you want to try for again.

Perhaps you have realized there is something else you want to pursue instead of medicine. Maybe your responsibilities in life are increasing and taking a chance on medical school is no longer an option (e.g. you have a growing family, and you need to start your career now). Maybe you think you’ve done all that you can and you won’t be able to do this again.

Whatever the case, take the time to think about whether you really want to apply again. As we have established, the application process is time consuming, draining, and hard.

If your answer is still yes, you want to apply, then keep reading.

GPA / MCAT

As I have written many times before, if you are applying to medical school, you should care about your GPA and MCAT scores the most. Your academics are what get your foot in the door. It doesn’t matter how good the rest of your application is – if your academics aren’t good enough, you have no shot.

You need to ask yourself if your GPA is preventing you from being eligible or competitive for certain medical schools. If not, can you do well enough with another year of undergraduate courses to give yourself a better chance at more schools? For instance, if you had a <3.70 GPA for your first three years of undergrad, but a >3.70 GPA for your last year, it may be worth doing a fifth year of undergraduate studies and hopefully be eligible for Western and Queen’s medical schools, which require two years with a GPA >3.70.

Similarly, is it worth re-taking your MCAT? If you know you’re capable of doing better, and it could open up doors to more schools, then maybe it’s worth retaking. For example, you have a 40M on your MCAT, and have not gotten into the few medical schools you’ve applied to the past few years. It might be worth taking the MCAT again to give yourself a shot at Western/Queen’s (which require a higher WS score), especially since having scored 40, it’s likely you will do more than well enough on the non-WS sections. On the other hand, if you struggled to get a 30P, then it might not be worth taking the risk of writing the MCAT again unless those schools you will apply to again only look at your best score, and not your most recent.

Volunteering, Extra-Curriculars, etc.

Do you have medically/health care related experiences? Do you have leadership experience? Do you have teamwork experience? If your answer is no to any of these, then I’d suggest starting to do something in those areas.

Medically/health care related experience like shadowing physicians, volunteering in a hospital, attending a conference for students interested in medicine, etc. demonstrate a real interest in medicine and show that you have some basic understanding. It shows you are at least somewhat serious about a career in medicine – that you’ve really though about it and taken the time to explore medicine.

Physicians often need to take on leadership roles, such as in a health care team. You want to have some sort of leadership experience, such as running a school club.

Of course, physicians aren’t always in charge, and are very often team players. If you haven’t yet, get involved in something where you have to work with others, such as a team sport, musical band, school club, etc.

If you want to be really safe, read the CanMEDS roles, and see if you have some sort of experience that demonstrates those qualities.

Reference Letters

It would also be a good idea to think about whether you got the best reference letters possible the last time around. Is there someone who would write you a stronger letter? Could you benefit from a bit more diversity (e.g. are all your referees academics? Are they all non academics? etc.)?

Remember, most importantly, you want a referee who wants you to get into medical school. If you don’t think they support you that much, I would suggest looking for an alternative referee if you can.

Essays

If your essay(s) were good enough to get an interview, then it is probably not worth changing completely.

But if you didn’t garner an interview, it is probably worth starting completely from scratch and coming up with new and improved angles to answer the question.

And don’t think it’s too early to start thinking about something as challenging as revising, or perhaps, re-writing your essay. A friend of mine asked me for advice on an essay that wasn’t successful in this past year’s cycle, just a few months ago. I am confident his hard work will pay off in the upcoming application cycle.

Have a Contingency Plan

I have to conclude by saying that no matter what, you need to be planning long term. Although you don’t have to stick to this plan, it’s good to think about your alternatives. If I don’t get in the next time, is that it for me? Should I apply again? Should I take a year off first?

These are all important questions you want to have at least some vague answer to so that you can form an outline for not just the coming year, but for the next few years to come.

Related posts:

1. 10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Medical School Application
2. Is there a “perfect” medical specialty?
3. Stanford Admissions Video – Medicine, Business, Education and Law

Last month, a science counselor at my university asked me whether I felt that taking the MCAT after 1st year would be beneficial for some students. For those of you who don’t know, I decided to take the MCAT last summer after my 1st year of undergrad biology. I knew I wanted to do a NSERC summer research placement after 2nd year, but also felt that I did not have the discipline or work ethic to successfully study for the MCAT at the same time. And I also knew I wanted to apply to medicine starting in the fall of my 3rd year. So I gave the MCAT a shot that summer after 1st year, and fortunately ended up with a decently balanced 34 T.

So would I recommend taking the MCAT after 1st year?

The short answer is yes and no, and to be frank, the best time to take the MCAT varies from student to student. In my opinion, taking 1st year physics, chemistry and biology, as well as 2nd year organic chemistry, help tremendously in making studying for the MCAT easier. The MCAT has become a critical thinking test more so than ever, and so any other courses on top of that are just gravy, in my opinion. So assuming no other summer distractions (i.e. no research or other jobs), I honestly believe that taking the MCAT after 2nd year is probably optimal for most science undergrads (in fact, most Canadian premed students do this already anyways). Not only will you have experience with all the essential science knowledge already, but in terms of test-taking skills, you would obviously do better the older you are. Taking your MCAT after 3rd year is also an option, but I think doing so after 2nd year is slightly better since the science courses will be a bit fresher in your mind.

What if I want to do both summer research and the MCAT?

I realize many students (like myself) want to have completed the MCAT as well as one summer of work (e.g. research) after two years of undergraduate studies. If this is you, there are several routes you could take:

Route #1: You do both summer research and your MCAT after 2nd year. I think this is the most common scenario for students in this boat. The main pro of this are that you have the core science background completed. The big con is the lack of time. It is easy for students in this position to work 9am-5pm in the lab, then go to their 3 hour MCAT prep course, and then get home by 11pm without having studied at all! It is definitely possible to do this and do it well, but it takes a ton of discipline, sacrifice, work ethic, and time management skills. If you have these traits, by all means, go for it. If you’re like me, and can’t quite handle the excessive workload, then you might want to try Route #2 or #3.

Route #2: You do summer research after 1st year, and your MCAT after 2nd year. I actually think this is better than Route #1, since you will have ample time to prepare for the MCAT. The only con is that, in general, it is more difficult to find a professor willing to hire you in the lab, since there is a plethora of older, more experienced undergraduate students who make better candidates to work for them. In addition, some universities (like York) only offer NSERC summer research awards to students who have finished at least 2 years of undergrad, so if you value a summer research award, this route may not work for you.

Route #3: You take your MCAT after 1st year, and then pursue summer research after 2nd year. This is the route I took, and honestly speaking, I don’t feel most people should take this route unless you are confident in your test-taking skills. The pros are that you get the test over and done with early, have the whole summer to concentrate on the MCAT, and have a whole extra year to retake if you screw up. The major cons are that you will likely score lower than if you were to have taken it after 2nd or 3rd year, since your test-taking skills would be worse, and your science knowledge base is lower, particularly with the lack of Organic Chemistry. That being said, if you are confident in your work ethic and test-taking skills, I definitely think there is merit to this route. I am very sure that a few of my friends who are now balancing the MCAT and summer work would have benefited from this route.

So in short, when you should take your MCAT depends on a few main factors:

(1) Your test-taking abilities and your confidence in them
(2) Your time-management skills, work ethic, and discipline
(3) When you want to apply to medicine (e.g. 3rd year, 4th year, or beyond)
(4) Whether or not you want to have other commitments for the summer, that affect how much time you can spend preparing for the MCAT
(5) How many MCAT-suggested courses you’ve taken (e.g. physics, chemistry, etc.)

Anyways, I hope this helps you realize that there are many options, and that you shouldn’t base your decision on when to take the MCAT on popular opinion (e.g. after 2nd year). Everyone’s situation is different, and you need to find the method that is best for you and only you.

If you need advice on when to take it, feel free to leave a comment on your situation, and I’ll let you know what I think.

Related posts:

1. 10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Medical School Application
2. Is there a “perfect” medical specialty?
3. Stanford Admissions Video – Medicine, Business, Education and Law