Collegiate Times

In the digital age, many students are now entering a world of online testing. The Medical College Admissions Test will take a step toward that future when the testing format switches over from being paper-based to online-based in August 2006, according to the MCAT website.

The response to this change has been negative among students, but insignificant to professors who have students in the Pre-Med program at Virginia Tech.

?I do not have any concerns with the change,? said Jack Evans, biological sciences professor. ?Personally I think that this change in format will have a negligible affect on those taking the exam. The GRE exam is now computer driven and it, to my knowledge has not had a positive nor negative affect on those taken it.?

George Simmons, pre-medical and pre-dental advisor of Biological Sciences has no opinion about the format change of the exam.

?MCAT is changing the format and that's the way it is,? Simmons said. ?The Dental Aptitude Test has been computer-based for years. Pilot studies have been run by MCAT to verify that there are no statistical differences between the paper-based and computer-based exam, even though the paper-based exam was eight hours and the computer-based exam is five hours.?

Amjed Mustafa, MCAT program manager for Kaplan tests and admissions, believes that overall the change is for the better.

The MCAT?s will be offered four to five times a year as opposed to the current schedule of twice a year. The turnaround for receiving scores is much faster. Students will now receive their scores in 30 days as opposed to 60 days, Mustafa said.

?The fact that the test is shorter is somewhat of a double-edged sword,? Mustafa said. ?Students have a third of the amount of questions than before to prove themselves.?

However, Kaplan studies show that 82 percent of the students who are expected to take the MCAT?s feel that they will do worse with the online format. Eighty percent of these students have never taken an online test before.
Catherine Lee, sophomore biology major, has some concerns over the new format as well.

?Completely switching to an online format probably has its own flaws,? she said. ?I actually hate computers, so I would find it very awkward unless they made some sort of system where it was way more convenient than paper exam.?

Mustafa said that some of the disadvantages of the new format are the ability to annotate is hindered, paying attention to a computer screen for an extended amount of time, and, finally, students? lack of familiarity of the format.
Kaplan recommends students take the print version before the test changes. Kaplan will also be offering a seminar on this change through the Tech Pre-med Club on Nov. 28 at 7 p.m.

?Change comes, most people don't like change. Life is tough, and as an individual, one has to look over change and do what has to be done to be a competitive applicant,? Simmons said