Pre-Health Prep Series: Entrance Exams

The GRE, the DAT, the PCAT, the OAT, and who could forget the dreaded MCAT? These acronyms strike fear in the hearts of pre-health students and are the last things most people want to spend a day away from the rigors of pursing a bachelors degree doing. Entrance exams are required by the vast majority of professional and graduate programs that pre-health students apply for around the end of their junior years.

Some of these exams are specifically designed for students pursing graduate work in areas like medicine (MCAT), dentistry (DAT), optometry (OAT), or pharmacy (PCAT). Other exams, like the GRE, are more broadly designed and used by masters/PhD programs and programs in health care professions like physicians assistants, veterinarians, occupational therapy, physical therapy, orthotics/prosthetics, and many others.

Students interested in careers in health care may end up taking more than one of these (or other) entrance exams to fulfill the prerequisites for the schools to which they will apply. For example, students applying to MD-PhD programs will often take both the MCAT and the GRE. Other students my find that the program they are interested doesn't require any entrance exams at all (e.g. some pharmacy schools require the PCAT, while others do not).

Regardless of which exam(s) you take as a pre-health student, you will mostly likely need to spend time and money preparing for and eventually taking these tests. There are many resources out there to help you prepare (e.g. prep books, prep courses, flashcards, mock exams, etc.); however, the effectiveness of these resources (and their costs) are highly variable. Students can easily spend hundreds of dollars on resources.

At SD Mines, we try to help our students get as many resources as possible without breaking the bank. We have various prep books available via our on-campus library and within the Pre-Health Pathways Office that students can borrow for free to help them prepare. We are also planning to administer our first Mock MCAT Exam this January to interested students for only $25.00. Doing a mock entrance exam can help students in many ways:

• Identify areas of strengths & weaknesses
• Helps guide subsequent study plans to better prepare for the real exam
• Gain familiarity with digital interfaces & features of the exam
• Will allow for more time to focus on content, rather than logistics, during a real exam
• Gauge the impact of external factors on test-taking
• Hunger, thirst, sleep habits, and clothing choices can all steal time during an exam
• Recognize how much food/drink you need to bring with you
• Recognize any clothing choices that distract you due to discomfort over time

If you are interested in taking the upcoming Mock MCAT Exam, please contact Dr. J for details.

There are several other great entrance exam resources out there to help you rock your entrance exams. Many of these can be found by looking through the Entrance Exams page on our Pre-Health Pathways webpage: https://www.sdsmt.edu/Academics/Pre-Health/Current-Students/Entrance-Exams/

You can also look at getting free practice questions, like the MCAT Practice Question of the Day or the GRE Practice Question of the Day. Subscribe to newsletters for pre-health students in your area of interest to get information about free mini-lectures, information sessions, practice exams, and more!

If you can't get the resources that you need for free and you struggle to find the funds to cover a set of prep materials on your own, consider asking other pre-health students to go in on a set with you and share as you prepare. (You can even form your own study/support group!) You can also ask your Pre-Health Pathways Advisor to help you find ways to gain access to specific materials. Remember that you can never get the help that you don't ask for!