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You have been in school for years. You have decided to pursue a career in medicine. You have attained a decent college GPA and built a good resumé. You dream of attending medical school and pursuing your career as a doctor. One thing stands in your way: The MCAT. Though you have done well in school, the pressure of a test like the MCAT is intimidating. You are not doing well on practice tests. You feel that you constantly run out of time before completing the practice test sections. You are feeling anxious, a bit depressed, and you feel in your bones that you will never achieve your desired score. Is this the case for you or someone you know? If the above problems sound familiar, then please know that there is hope. Often, problems exist that hinder students’ abilities to perform well on high stakes exams such as the MCAT. Fortunately, there are legal requirements in place that ensure deserving students receive academic accommodations on high stakes exams.
The Medical College Admission Test or, MCAT, as it is known, is the standardized test that purports to assess your readiness for medical school. Your MCAT score is a vital part of your academic package. It can not only compensate for a less than stellar GPA, it can have a direct effect on the tier of medical school to which you are admitted. In other words, it’s very important! The MCAT is a computer administered test that assesses your knowledge across four academic domains: Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems; Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS); Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems; and Psychological, Social and Biological Foundations of Behavior.
Does the above description sound intimidating? It is! The MCAT is a frightening prospect for any future physician. But if you add in another factor, a cognitive, learning, or emotional condition that affects academic and test performance, the fear factor increases exponentially. Believe it or not, many students do not realize they have a learning problem until they are preparing for their MCAT. At other times, they have conditions that have been previously diagnosed, but they have never received academic accommodations, or they lack the proper documentation that would demonstrate a need for accommodations. For these students, the answer is to gain a psychoeducational assessment administered by a qualified psychologist.
Frequently, when students are preparing to take standardized tests, or after they have taken their first SAT (for example), they realize that something is “off.” The student may not finish test sections on time; they may consistently fail to perform on a certain section (e.g. quantitative); they may have performance anxiety that impairs the ability to think; or they may be unable to focus. There is a plethora of reasons that a student may struggle when preparing for or taking these “high stakes” tests. When problems arise, often the best course of action is a psychoeducational assessment by a psychologist, which is a process by which a student is evaluated for various conditions that may hinder academic and test performance.
Once a test battery has been administered and a clinical condition has been diagnosed, a report is provided that outlines how a student’s condition hinders test performance. Next, this report is utilized to acquire deserved MCAT accommodations.
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At Bryce Gibbs PhD & Associates, our founding clinicians have assessed college students for over 20 years, interacting with state offices and testing companies including MCAT. In addition to our unique assessment system that accurately and efficiently outlines a student’s psychoeducational functioning, we produce appropriately formatted reports to submit to for the MCAT that are designed for approval. We utilize specific criteria for determining if an accommodation request is even advised; this is not the optimal solution for everyone. If our screening process determines that you meet the ADA standards for accommodations or modifications, then our psychoeducational assessment reports will typically result in an affirmative request. If academic accommodations are not warranted in your situation, we produce a comprehensive strategy to achieve peak performance tailored to your strengths and weaknesses.
If, after reading this page, you are questioning whether you need academic accommodations on the MCAT, then you should contact Bryce Gibbs to schedule a time for your psychoeducational assessment. Bryce Gibbs PhD & Associates is a company that specifically focuses on assessments for college and graduate students. Not only can we gain your academic accommodations when necessary, we can typically help you acquire academic accommodations for your graduate program. We will also help you submit the necessary forms and will act as advocates who will talk to test companies and college disability offices. Our assessment and consulting services are efficient and seamless. Please do not hesitate to contact Bryce Gibbs so we can answer your questions and begin the assessment process.
