Students are worried about the announcement that the medical school admission test would soon be administered over a computer instead of by the traditional paper-and-pencil.
The Association of American Medical Colleges announced in July that both versions will be available in August 2006, but the computerized test will completely replace the handwritten one by 2007.
This follows a trend in graduate school admissions towards computerized testing. The GRE has been solely administered on computers since 1999, but the LSAT is not yet computerized.
“Change can always be daunting, especially for someone trying to get into medical school,” McCormick sophomore Julian Klosowiak said.
More than 80 percent of students said they would perform worse on a new computerized Medical College Admission Test than on the current hand-written version, according to a recent survey by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. Kaplan asked 3,500 students enrolled in their test prep courses to give feedback on the computer-based MCAT. About 60,000 students take the MCAT each year.
“This is one of the biggest changes for the MCAT in an era,” said Amjed Mustafa, MCAT program manager for Kaplan. “On a scale of one to 10, this change is a nine.”
Students said they may perform worse because of the inability to take notes and work problems out on scratch paper, Mustafa said.
“I personally would prefer a paper exam,” Klosowiak said. “Maybe it’s the feeling of paper between your hands. You feel more comfortable having it physically in front of you.”
The Association of American Medical Colleges remains positive about their new testing method. The association created the new format to give students faster score results, a shorter exam, increased security and the opportunity to test more frequently. The exam is currently eight-hours, given twice per yea. The next test will be in April.
The electronic will be offered up to 20 times per year and will last about five hours.
Weinberg sophomore Ami Shah said she plans to study abroad in August, during one of the dates that has been set for MCAT testing. If the MCAT was offered on other dates throughout the summer, Shah said she would be able to take the exam and go abroad comfortably.
“(The hand-written format) really limits your schedule and when you can take the exam,” Shah said. “(With the computer test), you don’t have to plan your schedule around the MCAT. You can fit the MCAT into your schedule.”
Those taking the MCAT will test at Thompson Prometric corporate testing sites, alongside students taking other professional exams, such as the GRE.
Students said they may be distracted by the noise of the keyboard, Mustafa said.
“There will be different people taking different exams around you while you’re taking the MCAT,” Mustafa said. “While you’re sitting there, someone could be clicking on their computer taking the GRE.”
Students will receive test scores within a month after taking the computerized exam, as opposed to the 50-day turn around for the hand-written test.
The test’s administrators will also be taking electronic thumbprints of medical-school hopefuls at the exam site before they take the test.
“The MCAT is changing dramatically, but the fundamental concept being tested isn’t changing,” Mustafa said. “The content is the same.”
International students currently take the full version of the medical exam on the computer. The medical school council “noted that the computer exam has been successful and students are comfortable,” Mustafa said.
Mustafa also said 80 percent of the surveyed students had never taken a higher education or professional exam on the computer, which could be a reason for the students’ concern.
Test preparation companies, such as Kaplan and The Princeton Review, suggest students keep taking the paper test while they can. The Princeton Review Web site says they will design a new course, and Kaplan will offer a test-preparation course for the computer-based version after this August’s MCAT.
“If students have (greater) anxiety, one of our suggestions is to take the test this April or August when it’s still available on paper,” Mustafa said.
Reach Margaret Matray at [email protected].
