Janos Zahajsky '98 can sit back and relax this Saturday while his friends are busily working out chemical equations on the MCAT because he chose to take the exam over the summer.

"I took the MCAT last summer because I realized that during that school year.... I always have plenty of things to worry about and it's easier to work around a job during the summer than around classes during the school year," Zahajsky says.

However, Zahajsky says taking the exam in the summer is only a good idea for rising juniors who have already fulfilled all the prerequisites for medical school, something many have not done at that stage of their college career.

According to Sun, there is not "magical time to take [the MCAT]. It is more important for students choose a date that they feel comfortable with."

Okimoto says that taking the exam in the spring removes some of the pressure.

"I think everybody is a lot more stressed about it during the summer because they feel that if they're spending their entire summer on it, they feel pressured to do really well," she says.

While Okimoto admits that she will probably have to put off some of her school work this week to study for the exam, she says she has not had a problem with balancing her work with MCAT preparation.

Something Extra

While many students will find themselves bringing a good luck charm or their favorite snack to the exam and making sure that they have everything they need the night before, others have gone much further in their preparation.

Kang says that his MCAT instructor was so paranoid that his car would break down the morning of his own exam that he stayed at a cheap motel next to the test center the night before to make sure that there were no mishaps.

Although Zinaman had no fears about her car's dependability on the big day, she says she did find it helpful to have a friend by her side during the exam--a bean bag Elmo that her mother gave her as a good luck charm.

She says she saw many other students with trinkets and food items ranging from fresh fruit to three course meals--hoping this would give them a boost.

On the more practical side, Okimoto says that her friends strongly encouraged her to do one verbal passage on the way to the exam to get her juices flowing. She says that she is not stressing out too much over how it turns out.

"I don't feel that I'm going to fail in life if I don't do really well on the test," Okimoto says.