‘Twas the end of Thanksgiving and now comes Christmas…. but before Christmas we all know we have a few weeks that we must still hold on to the rails before we completely let go of this semester. During these weeks, it can be hard to hold that motivation up so I am here to explain to you 1 thing. Why do they make us study SO MUCH? I am talking of that big exam we all must take before medical school, yes…the MCAT. Just like many of you, I am studying for the MCAT myself to apply next year to medical school and I have been there, those days where you ask yourself. WHY. Why in the world do I need to know every single detail of sociology, gen chem, Ochem and so on, I am not going to use all of this as a doctor, am I? Let me save you a headache and tell you no, you will not use every detail in the MCAT as a doctor actually, you won’t use a lot of it, but the purpose of the MCAT isn’t to make you use all of this in medical school or as a doctor, it has a bigger purpose.
1. Diligence:
When one is diligent, one is careful and has persistent work or effort. Diligence is a trait that one obtains not something we just have in our pockets. It is a trait necessary in medical school and to be a good doctor. The MCAT is a tool that helps you develop diligence. Because the MCAT contains such an insane amount of information we have to be persistent and careful when studying if not, we will forget what we studied and make simple errors. The same can occur in med school, if you are not persistent and careful we can make errors, but they may not be so simple or an error with an exam, the error can be with a patient. The MCAT is a tool to help us develop that diligence.
2. Time Management/Organization:
To be diligent, we must know how to organize and manage our time well. This is probably one of the hardest thing for us to do because we don’t just have the MCAT usually, we have school, clincals, family, research and/or work. But for us to do well on this exam we must manage out time well and organize all our activities. This is something we will DEFINITELY do in medical school. Medical school isn’t just class, you have rotations, research, clubs, family; and here things are more tedious because usually at this time you are seeing patients and you have to be on your A game when with a patient, both to learn well and in case your input is asked about treatment. The MCAT is a tool to get us started on how to manage our time and organize all the activities we have.
3. Priorities:
The MCAT plays a huge role in your admission process. It is crucial you make it a priority but you have to look at everything you have, and know what priority number each is on your list. Maybe something that was your second priority becomes your third, or maybe you have to cross that out so you can add the MCAT as a priority. Surprise surprise, this will happen in medical school to. Because the amount of material and work in med school is insanely high, setting priorities will be crucial, same when you are a doctor, sometimes you won’t be able to be with your family, your priority will be the patient, and so on. The MCAT gives you practice in setting priorities.
4. Get you thinking (and I am not talking about science here):
Believe or not the MCAT gets you thinking not just of science but also about life. Imagine having to study for the MCAT, but not for a few months or a year, more like 4 years. That is how medical school may be. While you are learning to organize yourself, manage your time, set priorities you will ask yourself, do I really want to do this, do I really want to put aside this priority for med school. Take in mind, during med school you usually have some sort of clinical experience going on and you will focus more on just that, medicine, so it is more motivating but, regardless you will still question yourself and it is important you do. Applying to med school is a BIG decision. It is a lifetime decision really because medicine is a lifetime career, a career one must sacrifice a lot for. The MCAT is designed to make you think, do I really want do this for 4 years?
5. Elimination tool:
The MCAT, for admissions, is simply an elimination tool. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t get into med school with a low MCAT score you can but…it will be much more difficult. To pass the stack you must have a good MCAT score, for the most part. This is a concept that applies to other exams like STEP 1 or STEP 2 and so on. It is best to get a high MCAT score now and develop that diligence now then during the summer before your second year when you are getting ready to study for step 1.
6. Break you:
As you can see the MCAT is a lot of information and requires a lot of traits like diligence, organization and so on. It can be overwhelming, especially because it isn’t the only thing we have in life. You will have days where you want to grab your Kaplan books and burn them, the days where you are driving to clinic crying because you have so much. You will have those days…but these days are made to make you think, question yourself, reflect. The MCAT is a challenge, and like every challenge, a time of being overwhelmed will happen, but this is good because this is when you will know if you truly want to do this or not.
7. Get your curiosity going:
Okay, enough of the hard things of the MCAT, does anything fun or immediately gratifying come from it? No. I am just kidding, yes several “fun” things come out of it. For one, it gets your curiosity going. A lot of the things you have to learn is about biology. For example, while I was studying the neuro section of the bio and behavioral part, I started thinking of treatments for someone who has severed their arcuate fasciculus and if there are developmental disorders that have this part severed. As soon as this thought clicked I went on a google rampage and started researching this for about an hour or so. It was so intriguing and interesting. The MCAT will get your curiosity going and may help you know better what area of medicine you may like more or want to get some experience in.
8. Give you a snapshot:
Lots of the traits that you will have to develop during the MCAT to get a good MCAT score are traits that you will need for you to do good in med school and become a great doctor. And a lot of the thing you will have to do like set your priorities, put aside some things to focus on studying and so forth are things you will have to do in med school. The MCAT gives a snapshot of things and traits you will need in med school and as a doctor, so the question that arises is, do you want to, can you do this (set priorities, put aside some things, being diligent etc) during med school?
9. Give you a foundation:
Even though there is a lot of material in the MCAT that you will not use, there is a lot of material that you will use. The MCAT is going to give you a good foundation when stepping into medical school. This is good because med school moves quick, so coming in with the basics of biology and physiology is going to give you a boost.
10. Teach you how to learn
The MCAT is a lot of information that CANNOT be memorized. Many of us survive our science classes by memorizing but when you get to the MCAT you will learn most likely the hard way, that you cannot memorize it. But because it is so much information you also need to learn how to retain so much information (something you have to do in med school). The MCAT will teach you how to learn, not memorize and how to retain so much information. We think we know but we usually don’t. Don’t be surprised if you change your way of studying more than 2 times, I changed it 3 times.
We all have said the same thing probably of the MCAT, “Why are they making me study so much, why do I need to know all of this?!” while screaming it to the sky or to our Kaplan books. But the MCAT is not only made to make us learn so much information, it is to prepare us. Prepare us for the next 4 years of med school that are hopefully coming soon, and at the end of the day to prepare us to be better doctors. Though being a doctor may sound far away to us right now, it is good to remember that you are not studying to know the structures of the brain you are studying to know what area of the brain may have been damaged during the stroke the patient had.