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Beginning this month, Canadian students who studied at a Canadian university before applying to McGill medical school will no longer be required to write the MCAT -the widely used admissions test that measures students in physical sciences, verbal reasoning, biological sciences and a written sample. Students typically spend about three months studying for the exam.
In making the decision, McGill is aligning itself with francophone or bilingual universities here and elsewhere in Canada that also don’t require the MCAT because the test has no French equivalent. Students from outside the country will still have to write the MCAT.
Although McGill officials acknowledge the MCAT is a valuable tool, they don’t believe the medical school’s admissions process will be diminished in any way.
Dr. Saleem Razack, assistant dean of admissions for medicine at McGill, said whatever the school loses by not using the MCAT as a tool of assessment it will gain by broadening its scope of students.
“I feel what we’ve put in place is very acceptable and will allow us to properly evaluate candidates,” he said.
Razack said admissions officers are very well versed in programs across the country and can assess what an A in psychology at any university in the country really means. However, he said he knows the decision will be controversial “in the community of physicians.”
“We would have kept it if there was a French equivalent,” said Razack, who actually met with MCAT representatives about translating the exam but found it was too complicated. “But we want to make sure there’s no barrier for a major segment of our population.”
While the Pre-Med class at McGill -which comes directly from CEGEPs and isn’t required to write the MCAT -has a significant francophone representation, maybe as much as 25 per cent, the regular medical school class coming from undergraduate programs doesn’t have as many francophones as McGill would like, according to Razack.
In Canada, 11 of 17 medical schools require the MCAT. Most of the ones that don’t require it are the French universities in Quebec or other universities with a strong French program, such as the University of Ottawa. The Association of American Colleges, which administers the MCAT, says the standardized multiple-choice exam is designed to assess the student’s problem-solving, critical thinking, writing skills and knowledge of science concepts. Almost all U.S. medical schools require applicants to submit MCAT scores, the association said.
Joanne McEvoy, director of admissions at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said the school gets 5,000 to 6,000 applicants for 165 spots and grades from one institution to another are so variable that the MCAT can be helpful.
“We do require it and it can be very useful,” she said yesterday. But she said the MCAT is just one indicator and, for students whose mother tongue is not English, the score on the verbal reasoning part of the exam may be somewhat skewed.
Interestingly, the admissions department at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., has taken a reverse route from McGill. The school recently amended its policy of not using MCATs at all to requiring just the verbal reasoning portion of the test.
Dr. Harold Reiter, its admissions chair, said yesterday that studies have shown the verbal reasoning portion of the exam is one of the best predictors of future success on national board exams and, ultimately, students with the best clinical skills.
Benjamin Goldstein is a second-year medical student at McGill who welcomed the end of MCATs at the university, despite the fact he had to write them.
“My understanding is that the primary objective is to increase the number of francophone students and I believe it will accomplish that goal,” he said. “I believe in increasing diversity in the student body.”
Razack said he knows the MCAT “has a lot of history and data behind it,” but the university felt it had to make a decision “on the issue of reaching out to francophone students.”
“We have had some feedback from francophone candidates who are very positive,” he said. “Many of them have been wishing for this.”
Medical Colleges Entrance Test (MCAT) Results
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