Starting in January, the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will be available only in electronic format. Previously, applicants to medical school had the option to write a paper-and-pencil form of the exam, which was offered twice yearly at centers in North America and overseas. WCMC-Q was the exam center for the Gulf region.

A program of the Association of American Medical Colleges, the MCAT is a pre -requisite for entry to almost all North American medical schools, as it is for WCMC-Q.

Now, out with the old year goes the twice-yearly ritual of multiple papers taken in one day-long sitting, and in with the new comes a streamlined version of the exam. Some 30 percent shorter, it will be offered 22 times a year. The system for reporting scores will be speeded up, halving the post-exam wait to thirty days.

Offering students the chance to take the MCAT more frequently will be to their advantage, said director of student affairs at WCMC-Q, Charles Paragg.

“Typically, most students would have written it twice, in August and April, before they applied to medical school. Now, those who write in January, will have the added advantage of having their applications considered for early admission.”

Since the exam will be offered more often, WCMC-Q’s pre-med students will be able to schedule when they take it to fit more exactly with completion of relevant courses in the Pre-medical Program, Paragg added.

For 2007 only, the pre-meds will write the January exam outside Qatar, pending the opening of the new Qatar center in the spring. Licensed by Thomson Prometric, the company awarded the contract to deliver the computerized MCAT, the center will open early April. Registration for the April exams opens December 27.

For more, visit: www.aamc.org/students/mcat/start.htm