Last week, AAMC’s Board of Directors approved the MR5 committee’s recommendations for the 2015 MCAT exam. The changes are designed to help students prepare for a rapidly-changing health care system and an evolving body of medical knowledge while addressing the needs of a growing, aging, and increasingly-diverse population. Among the changes are added emphasis on the social and behavioral sciences, scientific inquiry and reasoning skills, and introductory biochemistry. The critical analysis and reasoning skills section will ask students to analyze information in passages from a wide range of social sciences and humanities disciplines, including ethics and philosophy, cross-cultural studies, and population health.  

To learn more about the new exam, go to https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/newsreleases/273712/120216.html

There you’ll find a video of Dr. Kirch discussing the changes, a recording of the press teleconference, and resources for you and your colleagues. For detail about the content of the future exam, see: https://www.aamc.org/mcat2015/preview.pdf

If you have questions about MCAT²⁰¹⁵, please contact: mcat2015@aamc.org

MR5: 5th Comprehensive Review of the Medical College Admission Test®
March 2011 e-newsletter

Background

The MR5 is AAMC’s fifth comprehensive review of the Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®) since the exam was first administered in 1928.  In standardized testing, periodic reviews of examinations are considered a best practice – particularly in fields with rapidly-changing knowledge bases.  The current version of the test has been in use since 1991, and the new version is likely to be in place until 2030.

The MR5 advisory committee was appointed by the AAMC in fall 2008. The committee was tasked with reviewing the MCAT® exam and recommending changes that are likely to increase the exam’s value to medical school admissions committees and examinees. The 22 committee members include: medical school deans; admissions, educational affairs, student affairs, and diversity officers; basic and clinical sciences faculty; pre-heath advisors and other baccalaureate faculty; a resident and a medical student.

The MR5 Committee met for the eighth time last month to continue its review of the MCAT® exam.  They drafted a set of preliminary recommendations for the future test that build upon the input they received from a number of blue-ribbon panels; the data they collected from over 2,700 baccalaureate and medical school faculty, medical students and residents; and the feedback they received from participants in over 75 meetings and conferences. 

The MR5 committee recently previewed their preliminary recommendations with AAMC’s Board of Directors late in February.  Committee members will make their final recommendations for the future exam to AAMC’s membership and the pre-health community in fall 2011.  AAMC’s management will propose the new test to the AAMC’s Board of Directors in February 2012. 

This newsletter describes the committee’s preliminary recommendations. It provides a stimulus for conversations this spring, and later this year, about the directions and themes the preliminary recommendations suggest. These conversations are part of the committee’s active outreach campaign for MR5 and will help the committee prepare for its final recommendations this fall. It’s important to note that these recommendations are preliminary, not final, and that the committee is farther along in its work on some parts of the testing blueprints than others and on some parts of their plans for testing resources and administration issues than others. Nonetheless, the committee is eager to release its preliminary recommendations to promote conversation.

Preliminary Recommendations

The following are the committee’s preliminary recommendations for the new exam. These preliminary recommendations preserve what works about the current MCAT, eliminate what doesn’t, and enrich the exam by giving attention to concepts that future physicians are likely to need — using a testing format that already has proven to be successful. The committee’s preliminary recommendations for the content and format of the new MCAT:

1. Include four test sections and report four scores:

• Molecular, Cellular and Organismal Properties of Living Systems
• Physical, Chemical and Biochemical Properties of Living Systems
• Behavioral and Social Sciences Principles
• Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills

2. Test examinees’ knowledge and use of concepts in biology, chemistry, physics, biochemistry, cellular/molecular biology, research methods, and statistics that medical school faculty, students, and residents rate as most important to entering students’ success.

3. Test examinees’ knowledge and use of the concepts in behavioral and social sciences, research methods, and statistics that provide a solid foundation for medical students’ learning about the behavioral and socio-cultural determinants of health.

4. Test examinees’ ability to analyze through passages in ethics and philosophy, cross-cultural studies, population health, and a wide range of social sciences and humanities disciplines to ensure that students possess the necessary critical thinking skills to be successful in medical school.

5. Eliminate the Writing Sample section.

6. Introduce the new exam in 2015.

7. Report scores on a scale that’s similar to the current 1-15 scale, rather than a pass/fail or other categorical scale.

8. Update the content that the exam tests on a regular schedule to ensure MCAT keeps pace with the rapid changes in science.
Resources should be provided to examinees, pre-health faculty and medical school admissions committees that:

9. Clearly describe the types of decisions test scores are and are not designed to support in a holistic review of applicants’ qualifications.

10. Help prepare prospective examinees and pre-health faculty for the new exam, with special attention to the educational needs of students at under-resourced institutions.

11. Help medical schools track and conduct research on the value and validity of the new exam for student selection at their schools.

12. Provide low-cost preparation materials; discounts or waivers on testing fees and preparation materials for examinees who qualify for assistance; and—for examinees with disabilities who qualify--scholarships for the costs of evaluations that they need to apply for testing accommodations.

To help medical schools consider data on integrity, service orientation, and other personal characteristics early in student selection, the AAMC should:

13.  Vigorously pursue options for gathering data about personal characteristics through a new section of the AMCAS application, which asks applicants to reflect on experiences that demonstrate their personal characteristics, and through standardized letters that ask recommenders to rate and write about behaviors that demonstrate applicants’ personal and academic characteristics.

14. Mount a rigorous program of research on the extent to which applicants’ personal characteristics might be measured along with other new tools on test day or as part of a separate regional or national event, or locally by admissions committees using nationally-developed tools.

Arguments for the Committee’s Preliminary Recommendations

The arguments in favor of these preliminary recommendations are as follows:

• Using a testing format that has proven successful, the committee’s preliminary recommendations preserve what works, eliminate what isn’t working, and, by attending to concepts that future physicians are likely to need, further enrich the exam.
• They balance testing between the natural sciences and the behavioral and social sciences, and critical analysis and reasoning.
• They respond to the Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians recommendations and reflect current science.
• By solving problems that demonstrate their scientific thinking, research and statistics skills, examinees are asked to showcase their ability to apply their knowledge of the natural and behavioral sciences.
• They communicate the need for students who are prepared to deal with the human and social issues of medicine, and they stress the necessity of reading broadly to prepare for medical school.
• The preliminary recommendations call for a scoring system that reports scores for four sections, and uses score scales with numerous score points so that admissions committees can weigh and evaluate scores in ways that meet their specific missions and goals.

Next Steps

Committee members will discuss their preliminary recommendations at the spring regional meetings, as well as the 2011 Annual Meeting.  AAMC leadership will present the committee’s recommendations to the board for final approval in February 2012.

To learn more about the methods employed by the committee, the data they collected, and to provide your input, please visit the MR5 website at www.aamc.org/mr5.

Practice Test 11 is a full-length, online exam containing newly released MCAT items that previously appeared on the actual exam. While nothing can compare to real test conditions, taking an online practice exam under timed conditions can give students a good idea of how she or he might perform on test day. Students can use one practice test to get a baseline, create a study plan, then come back to take another test to check progress.

Practice Test 11 will provide all the same features of the current practice tests, including:

• same look and functionality of the actual MCAT exam
• timed and untimed practice options
• detailed score reports with feedback on content, skill tested and item difficulty
• detailed solutions for all correct answers

MCAT Practice Test 11 is available for $35 at www.e-mcat.com.

And don’t forget that Practice Test 3 is free and available by entering tyour e-mail address under the “Join Today for Free!” section of www.e-mcat.com.