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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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