MCAT Test Prep in NYC

Raise Your Scores With MCAT Test Prep

As a future medical student, you probably have a lot on your plate right now, including the thoughts and fears of taking the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Although the MCAT is a very frightening exam to most, with the right tutoring and test preparation, a student is bound to soar with flying colors. At CATES Tutoring, we care about our students and wish nothing but thriving success for them. With our skillful instructors and secure MCAT curriculum, your student will earn their place in their top choice medical school.

Find Your Pathway To MCAT Prep With CATES Tutoring

Why do only certain majors hold these massive exams as a way of determining a student’s entire future? With great power comes great responsibility. The MCAT is open to anyone who is planning on applying to a health professions school such as Harvard or Columbia medical schools. But first, what is the Medical College Admission Test? It’s a mandatory, standardized, multiple-choice test used to challenge student’s skills when it comes to biological and biochemical justifications of living things, chemical and physical foundations of biological systems, psychological, social, and biological bases of behavior, and critical analysis and reasoning skills. Each student planning on applying to any medical school must take the MCAT in order for the school to consider them for a spot.

To answer your next question, you have as much time as you need to prep for the big exam. The recommended time to take the MCAT is as soon as possible. A good time for a college student to take it would be at the beginning of junior year to leave enough time for test prep. The MCAT is an exam usually distributed and administered by various testing locations and is available only from January to September on specific dates and times. The exam is entirely electronic giving students a shorter testing day as well as the faster release of test scores. There are specific dates and times of the year when testing dates are available, so it’s a good idea to keep that in mind when test prepping. Confident that medical school holds their best interests, high school students are welcome to take the exam as well, suggestively at the beginning of junior year. Two years’ time for test prepping and multiple chances of taking the exam will grant the opportunity to score better in the long run. The closer a student gets to graduating high school or undergraduate college, the less time they will have to apply and receive an acceptance letter to med school. Why not start now? With CATES tutoring, we can guarantee a higher score on the MCAT. We can provide accurate MCAT content as well as an organized plan for exam preparation. With our expert instructors, students are in good hands during an academic journey to medical school.

Breaking Down The MCATs – A Strategic Approach To Test Prep

The Medical College Admission Test format is broken down into several parts. As mentioned earlier, biological and biochemical foundations of living things, chemical and physical foundations of biological systems, psychological, social, and biological foundations of behavior, and critical analysis and reasoning skills are put to the test throughout this 7.5 hour-long MCAT. Though that is an incredibly long time for a test, CATES tutoring ensures that the student is ready every step of the way during the exam.

The first part of the exam consists of the agreement forms followed by a quick tutorial. Then starts the first portion of the test, the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems which provides 95 minutes. After a short 10 minute break, there are another 95 minutes to complete the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems portion. At this time, there is an optional lunch break of 30 minutes. After that, section three provides the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior for 95 minutes.
After the last 10 minute break, there are 90 minutes left to finish the final section of Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills.

Once a test-taker completes every section on the MCAT, he or she has the opportunity to void the exam. This means that test-takers can pretend like the test was never taken. If a student feels he or she didn’t do well, voiding an exam is an option and will prevent the administrators from sending the test scores to medical schools. Voiding the MCAT exam is a very big decision that doesn’t offer a lot of time to make. You have already paid over $300 along with 7.5 hours of time just taking the exam and not to mention all the hours spent studying for it.

How To Calculate Your MCAT Score

There you are, just completing the MCAT that you’ve been preparing months for with CATES Tutoring. Now comes the waiting game. You usually will not see test scores until about a month after it was taken. The waiting game takes up to 35 days due to the long scoring process. All sections use a scoring system with a range between 118 and 132. The overall score is out of 528, with 518 being the average for acceptance to top medical schools. Through a process called equating, the raw score of correct answers coverts to scaled scores to properly fit the grading system. This is done because there are different difficulty levels for each question and the process scores a specific way to avoid errors.

Because a score reflects all the questions answered correctly, wrong and unanswered questions do not affect the final grade. If there is a situation where you are unsure of the correct answer, take an educated guess because that gives a better shot for more points rather than skipping it and automatically receiving no points at all. At the point when a student finally receives the MCAT scores, they can also check the percentile ranking. The percentile rank is the percentage of people who received the same score or a lower score than you. Each year the rankings update with the latest test scores to ensure that students are receiving the correct scoring information.

What’s a good MCAT score you may ask? Well, the lowest score one can receive is 472 while the highest is 528. In order for a top-tier medical school to consider accepting a student, it is a must to have a score of over 508. Unfortunately, anything below 500 is a low score and will most likely not be reviewed for further inspection toward acceptance. However, not all medical schools will deny your acceptance. There are many dependents such as which schools you apply to and the countries that they are in. Some schools take MCAT scores as low as 490.

Prepare For The MCATs With CATES Tutoring

Now that you know what to expect during the MCAT, it’s time to start test prepping. Don’t let a test lower your confidence in achieving your biggest dreams of going to medical school. At CATES Tutoring, MCAT test prep starts with identifying weaknesses and finding new studying techniques that work just for you throughout our prepping program. Our expert tutors know what questions are on the MCAT and will ensure that your student is knowledgeable of each one. While finding strategies and developing test-taking skills, students will flourish on the road to their career path with the help of CATES tutoring. Contact us by calling (212) 359-4208 to connect with our NYC-based MCAT tutors today!