Students who recently took the Medical College Admission Test are some of the last to view it in its pencil and paper format.Starting January 2007, the MCAT will only be offered in a computerized format, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Kristi Tebo, a junior neuroscience major, took the MCAT in August and is scheduled to receive the results of her test on Saturday.

“I am hoping I did as well as I did in the prep tests I took before,” said Tebo, who took about nine prep tests with Kaplan.

Other students, such as junior biology major Kristen Rice, are waiting to take the computer-based test, which will be offered 22 times next year as opposed to the two times the paper test was offered in the past.

“I took the Princeton Review, which helped me a lot, and I do a lot of outside studying,” said Rice, who said she plans to take the MCAT in June or July.

Many students take a preparation course before taking the MCAT, said Antoine Scott, a senior biology major and president of the TCU pre-medicine honor society, Alpha Epsilon Delta.

“It is a big exam with a lot of material, and taking a prep course is recommended because it is a lot of studying, and you need to be disciplined,” said Scott, who also recently took the MCAT.

Scott said the MCAT is worse than taking college final exams, but students always have the option to take it again. “I did well, but if students have received a low score, they can always take it again, and they will if they have that drive and passion to be in the medical field,” Scott said.

Scott said the medical field needs not only smart doctors but also people who are personable and can break medical information down into Lehman’s terms for patients. Otherwise, she said, doctors are referred to as a non-sociable “doc in a box.”

Tebo, who spent about four weeks in South Africa this summer, said her strive to become a doctor comes from wanting to work in Africa and help people there.

John Homeycutt, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, said doctors have to love what they do.

“If you want to get rich, this is not the way to go,” Homeycutt said.