Medical school, unlike other professional programs, takes a lot of advanced preparation. Preparation not only includes taking additional classes or reviewing for the exams, it also includes your mindset. You have to understand that staying in medical school is harder than getting in. You have to start lining up your courses in such a way that you have academic preparation in mind. You also have to prepare well for the MCAT exam because your score dictates, to a large degree, if you are getting to medical school or not and which medical school you will get accepted to.
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Why is the MCAT so important?
Let’s face it, you can get straight A’s in most schools across the US but others would make you walk through broken glass first just to get a B. It may not sound fair but that is the hard reality. The MCAT is an objective filter that equalizes the impact of undergraduate grades and tests your aptitude for medical studies. Getting ready for the MCAT is a key part for your preparation in medical school. You need to softly ramp yourself up on focusing on science classes because it is important that you get a firm base on these disciplines. Challenge yourself by raising the bar of difficulty of the science classes you are taking each year. You won’t get much of a competitive edge if you start preparing for medical school only during your senior year.
Preparation for medical school is both numerical and personal. It is numerical in nature because you have to get your grades in shape. You have to start picking up classes that is required for pre-med. It becomes personal when you learn to build up tolerance for pressure. This will not be easy especially during your transition from college to medical school. It can be easy to party all night and skip your classes during college but you can’t do these things in medical school or most graduate programs for that matter. The personal transformation that you need to go through is learning to build your life based on a schedule and meeting this schedule consistently.
If you want to get in to medical school and plan to stick it out until the end, be committed and be a better manager of your time. Start wrapping your mind around these concepts the sooner the better. You can’t just decide overnight if you’re going to take the MCAT and proceed to medical school, disaster will await you.
Chris Walker, a professional guest poster, wrote this blog guest. He writes medical school admissions essays for http://www.ivyresearch.com/journal