Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How did your PG student prepare for the MCAT?

Son is 15 and a rising sophomore at prestigious university (not an Ivy - by choice). He is a CS/math major and also pre-med (with an interest in an MD-PhD program), and has a couple of significant time commitments (volunteering, scouting, orchestra). I am starting to look at how (and when) he will be studying for the MCAT, and this is my question:

For those who have EG/PG kids who are also high achievers, is it a good strategy to prep for MCAT early (and start taking it early, like after sophomore year), even if you are still missing a big chunk of premed classes (such as organic chemistry and biochemistry)? I hesitate to wait until after the 3rd year, because then he will also be applying to med school, and it doesn't seem like a good idea to wait till the last minute.

I am not planning on spending $$$ on very expensive courses because this wasn't needed for the SAT. He just studied with prep books, but he had more time. I would consider it if the ROI made sense and we were desperate.

I would really love to hear from parents whose kids have gone down that road. Thanks!!

Hopefully you will get advice from people with more recent knowledge, but I figured I'd chime in anyway.

I prepared for the MCAT way back in the day (1991) by working through the Flowers prep book. With regard to timing, a thing to think about is developing intellectual maturity in the subjects being tested. This allows the student to think about the questions with more flexibility than if they just learned the material. So if it were me, I'd take it as late as possible. This is assuming that what is tested is in line with the student's major so they've been working with chemistry, biology, etc the entire time.