"I am yet filled with dread/reduced to films of Barney and Fred/A career may hang on seven hours/My prayer goes up to higher powers." - from 'Lament of a Pre-Med' by Doug Kirsch '95
On Saturday at 8 a.m., students and recent alumni will enter test centers across the nation to face what may be the biggest standardized challenge of their lives: the Medical College Admissions Test.
This grueling day-long ordeal determines the fate of students' careers in medicine and makes college entrance exams look easy. The pressure can spur pre-medical students like Kirsch to pen 12-stanza poems about the frustrations of studying for such a massive test.
The MCAT, offered only twice a year, consists of more than 200 questions on biology, chemistry, physics and verbal skills. The test also requires two written essays.
One of the reasons the MCAT has taken on such mythical importance is the upward spiral of applications to medical schools in recent years.
Susan Wright, an associate director of career services, said medical school applications have risen 60 percent since 1988 and about 20 percent more this year.
"It comes down to a numbers game. If you can only pick 100 students out of 1,000, it is critical to do well on the MCAT," said Sally Carey, director of the Kaplan test preparation center that worked to prepare 25 Dartmouth students for the exam during the winter.
Despite all the pressure, some students appeared calm.
Cliff Weiss '95, who will take the test Saturday, took a Kaplan MCAT preparation course and has been studying intermittently since the middle of last term.
But stress about the test is in some ways inevitable, he noted. "There's no way you can't be anxious," he said. "But I was probably stressed more before organic chemistry exams."
Emmy Jones '95 said,"It doesn't do any good to get nervous," she said, "though that's much easier to say than to do."
Others were more worried, especially as the big day approaches.
"You're going to be taking what could be one of the major tests of your life," Kirsch said. "It's very intimidating."
Melissa Norton '95, who is in Washington this term, will take the test in San Francisco, Calif.
"It's not the actual test. It's just that it's such a big thing and it's really going to decide my future," she said.
About 70 percent of last year's 65 senior applicants were accepted to medical school compared to 38 percent of applicants nationwide.
As Kirsch puts it, "Doctors in the future we might be/Right now, sleep is what I want for me/So if you are stressed, gal or guy/We all share this trait, both you and I."
