Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is a pre-requisite for admission to nearly all the medical schools in North America. It has been designed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

The MCAT assesses mastery of basic concepts in biology, chemistry, and physics, facility with scientific problem solving and critical thinking and writing skills. The skills and concepts tested by the MCAT are those identified by physicians and medical educators as prerequisite for the practice of medicine.

Eligibility:
Any individual wishing to study healthcare is eligible for giving the test.

Contents of the test:
The total duration of the test is close to six hours. The test consists of 4 sections, which are divided into two sessions. The four sections of the test are as follows:

• Verbal Reasoning:

  The Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT is designed to assess the candidate's ability to understand, evaluate, and apply information and arguments presented in prose texts. The test consists of several passages, each 500 to 600 words long.

• Writing sample:

  This consist of two items, each composed of a brief topic statement and a set of writing tasks designed to obtain a unified, logical, first-draft essay exploring the meaning and implications of the statement.

• The Physical Sciences:

  This section contains multiple-choice questions. These questions assess the candidate's knowledge of basic concepts in biology, chemistry, and physics through their application to the solution of science problems. The content tested on the physical sciences section of the MCAT is drawn from physics and general chemistry.

• The Biological Sciences:

  The questions in the Biological Sciences section are drawn from biology and organic chemistry, with a slightly greater emphasis on biology.

The registration can be done online too in the beginning of January for the two administrations scheduled during each calendar year. In India the test is offered in Computer-Based Testing (CBT) format.