Embarrassing MCAT score

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
K

khalidjohn

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
29
Reaction score
0
So i just received my MCAT score from January. My MCAT score is listed below. I obviously didn't study as much as I should have for the MCAT. To be honest i didn't study at all for this MCAT. I know my MCAT score is probably the worst you have seen and heard of so please save your laughter and not make me feel worst than i already do. but i was just wondering do you think i still have a shot at podiatry school? After seeing my score i immediatly signed up for the next MCAT in summer. I am planning on studying non-stop till next exam.

I am senior and my science gpa is 3.35ish with a cumulative gpa of 3.6ish.

Also, Can i apply or should apply to podiatry schools now (before 2nd exam in May)?

thanks
Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
No, not with those stats. Get the MCAT way up and maybe, but you have a long way to go.

khalidjohn said:
i was just wondering do you think i still have a shot at podiatry school?
Click to expand...
 
No way dude. Hit at least 22 on the MCAT and raise your science gpa above 3.0 and you'll at least get an interview to some schools.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
There's nothing funny about those statistics. You want to become a doctor yet you make no effort at studying for the first MCAT which might have made up for your already poor gpa?! Don't take this stuff lightly it isn't a joke. Get your act together, retake the MCAT after you studied your a*s off and scored high on practice exams, shadow podiatrists, and even ace some science classes to help boost the gpa.
 
Apply to a nursing program if you REALLY want to work in the health field. I don't know how much studying is going to help the MCAT since so much of it is critical reading/thinking skills and not disciplinary knowledge.

Of course if you do raise it to around a 20, apply, and get accepted...then I'll be thanking you for donating your tuition dollars to help pay for another student's scholarship (in other words, I don't think you'll make it past the first semester). Might sound harsh but such is life.
 
To the OP:
listen, i started just where you are a few years ago......my first mcat i scored a 12M. I can say that i had a few factors that may have been a bit diff from yours....I started college full time at 26yrs, I worked full time from 11p - 7a, i am married and i have a teenager...(who is bad as hell)!!!!
Now, when i first took the mcat i had no idea of what the test was...i just knew i needed to take it. I never took a standardized test in my life.:eek:
after that test i reallized all the things that i needed to do to be a bit more competitive....i got tips from those who did well and began to make a way that would be good for me.... after studying my butt off i increased my score by more than 9 points!!!!!!!! The MCAT is bad....no doubt about it..you have to be dedicated to the profession and to ur dream if it's really a dream...IF YOUR DREAM IS MD, DO, or DPM than do it......do not settle for PA, RN or any thing else that you don't want.....i got accepted in multi med schools for the fall... MD and DPM...if i would have listened when someone tried to push the nursing or PA in my face i would have regreted it forever.....
 
Thank you so much, it really means alot.
 
khalidjohn said:
So i just received my MCAT score from January. My MCAT score is listed below. I obviously didn't study as much as I should have for the MCAT. To be honest i didn't study at all for this MCAT. I know my MCAT score is probably the worst you have seen and heard of so please save your laughter and not make me feel worst than i already do. but i was just wondering do you think i still have a shot at podiatry school? After seeing my score i immediatly signed up for the next MCAT in summer. I am planning on studying non-stop till next exam.

I am senior and my science gpa is 2.75ish with a cumulative gpa of 3.01ish.

Also, Can i apply or should apply to podiatry schools now (before 2nd exam in May)?

thanks

VR 05
PS 06
BS 02
WS M
total 13M
Click to expand...

Your BS score is obviously negligible. Are you a science major? If you are, you should have been able to score more substantially with just a little studying. What went wrong? Did you just freak out? If you are not, just remember that our exams in pod school are hard. Our boards are hard.

I don't think that the MCAT is an accurate gauge for how well you'll do in pod school, but you don't have a high enough GPA to offset your poor scores. But you still have hope...go to a post-bac program to raise your GPA and show schools that you CAN handle a graduate curriculum. Take an MCAT course. I will venture to say that you will not be accepted this cycle. You may just have to take a longer road to get here.
 
Dude its not the end of the world. Just retake it don't listen to others about nursing and the other stuff. I hate how people just want to judge others and atomically make a lower score into an incompetent person. Just because someone is good at taking tests it doesn't mean they will be a good doctor.
 
The MCAT is NOT a standardized test in the sense that the SAT or some of the state-wide high school exit exams (in Washington we have the WASL) are standardized tests.

If you do bad on the MCAT it is not because you are "not a good test taker"...one of the most ridiculous excuses to begin with. It is because you have poor critical thinking skills. What does this mean? It means that you cannot read a passage (the topic is not important) and then use incredibly basic scientific knowledge to extrapolate the best answer when presented with 5 possible choices. Are there some stand alone questions that you just have to know? Yes, but they make up less than 10% of the test.

Not only does your MCAT tell me that you are going to have trouble in clinical situations (where you have to use a broad knowledge to solve problems that you may never have encountered before), but it also says that you are lazy or have incredibly poor study habits, or are not taking this medicine thing seriously. Putting in zero effort to succeed on the MCAT will translate into the effort you put into any type of graduate school.
 
(in other words, I don't think you'll make it past the first semester). Might sound harsh but such is life.
Click to expand...

When people make such statements they should probably wait until they themselves have actually completed the first semester of podiatry school.

The MCAT is NOT a standardized test in the sense that the SAT or some of the state-wide high school exit exams
Click to expand...

The MCAT is a standardized computer test. Just like the SAT or ACT or whatever else, the more you practice the better you will do. The test requires a different mindset to excel but one can train their mind and take practice tests to get in that mode.


To to the OP-

To be honest, you know that your stats are subpar. To echo some previous statements, take an MCAT prep course and work on boosting that GPA. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a year off, better preparing yourself and doing some work in a clinical setting (medical assistant, research, etc.)

If podiatry is what you truly want then don't let people talk you out of it. Submit your application and if you are rejected ask the admissions staff what you can do to improve your application besides the obvious of raising your MCAT score and whatever they tell you, do it.

Best of luck.
 
Where ya at from WA Dtrack? I graduated from highschool a year or two before they made the WASL necessary to graduate. my year took the exams, but it was only for surveying purposes....good ole WASL!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
dtrack22 said:
The MCAT is NOT a standardized test in the sense that the SAT or some of the state-wide high school exit exams (in Washington we have the WASL) are standardized tests.

If you do bad on the MCAT it is not because you are "not a good test taker"...one of the most ridiculous excuses to begin with. It is because you have poor critical thinking skills. What does this mean? It means that you cannot read a passage (the topic is not important) and then use incredibly basic scientific knowledge to extrapolate the best answer when presented with 5 possible choices. Are there some stand alone questions that you just have to know? Yes, but they make up less than 10% of the test.

Not only does your MCAT tell me that you are going to have trouble in clinical situations (where you have to use a broad knowledge to solve problems that you may never have encountered before), but it also says that you are lazy or have incredibly poor study habits, or are not taking this medicine thing seriously. Putting in zero effort to succeed on the MCAT will translate into the effort you put into any type of graduate school.
Click to expand...

I feel like your correlation of grades and test scores to abilities in the clinic are off base. Some awesome students in the clinics are NOT even close to the top of their classes. If pod school grades cannot entirely define how well a student will perform in clinic, an exam taken YEARS before any clinical situation is never going to either. The MCAT is NOT a valid tool to measure someone's clinical aptitude. That's why your acceptance is based on a host of different criteria. Should pod schools become more selective? Yes. But there are ways that the OP can still become a competent podiatric physician.
 
dtrack22 said:
Not only does your MCAT tell me that you are going to have trouble in clinical situations (where you have to use a broad knowledge to solve problems that you may never have encountered before), but it also says that you are lazy or have incredibly poor study habits, or are not taking this medicine thing seriously. Putting in zero effort to succeed on the MCAT will translate into the effort you put into any type of graduate school.
Click to expand...


I don't agree on that i know quite a few docs who scored low on the mcats and they are very respected and well knowledged doctors. standardized tests dont evaluate your intelligence. It only evauluates how much information one can retain. This argument can go on all day no reason to ask rhetorics.
 
dtrack22 said:
Apply to a nursing program if you REALLY want to work in the health field. I don't know how much studying is going to help the MCAT since so much of it is critical reading/thinking skills and not disciplinary knowledge.

Of course if you do raise it to around a 20, apply, and get accepted...then I'll be thanking you for donating your tuition dollars to help pay for another student's scholarship (in other words, I don't think you'll make it past the first semester). Might sound harsh but such is life.
Click to expand...

You must be into that "tough love" jargon or out to inflict pain after a bad day at work type thing. Come on guy, ease off a little :smuggrin:.

OP you have to find the motivation to put in the work somewhere, and I doubt you'll find it on this SDN. Sit down and study, pay your dues like those who came before you, and I'm sure you'll be fine.

Heck of a deal.
 
UW66

I was never one of the kids that HAD to pass the WASL to graduate, but I did take it in 7th grade and my sophomore year.


Social skills aside, the clinical setting is the most like the MCAT (in terms of clinical vs. classroom). Each patient is not something you can "study" for and memorize how to treat. While some will present very textbook cases, others will have symptoms that don't fit perfectly with a diagnosis you learned in the classroom. It's almost like some of you haven't taken the MCAT (of course you didn't have to to get into school so maybe thats an accurate statement). Sticking with the clinic analogy, the MCAT presents you with a bunch of "symptoms" and "medical history" type information and you have to come up with the correct diagnoses using snippets of material you've learned throughout the last several years. It does not just say "squamous skin cells undergo which process, resulting in cell death?". The MCAT is much more likely to describe apoptosis without saying as much, leaving you to figure it out based on what you know about cellular biology.

There are a number of students at my university who have higher GPA's than myself but did not do as well on the MCAT. They spend most of their spare time studying and tend to know a lot of specifics about their most recent subject. However, when they saw examples/passages that they had never seen in their textbooks or heard in lecture, they were unable to analyze it and relate it back to information that we had in fact learned in class. This is not to say that they won't be great doctors, but there is a good chance they will struggle to find time for all of the studying necessary to memorize the amount of extra material that they need to solve problems (like those on the MCAT).

And as for my first semester of pod school, I'll be just fine, it's some of the others you should be concerned with.
 
Last edited:
And as for my first semester of pod school, I'll be just fine, it's some of the others you should be concerned with.
Click to expand...

I have no doubt you will excel. The point that you missed is that until you yourself have completed a semester of pod school you shouldn't be telling people they have no chance. The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.
 
khalidjohn said:
So i just received my MCAT score from January. My MCAT score is listed below. I obviously didn't study as much as I should have for the MCAT. To be honest i didn't study at all for this MCAT. I know my MCAT score is probably the worst you have seen and heard of so please save your laughter and not make me feel worst than i already do. but i was just wondering do you think i still have a shot at podiatry school? After seeing my score i immediatly signed up for the next MCAT in summer. I am planning on studying non-stop till next exam.

I am senior and my science gpa is 2.75ish with a cumulative gpa of 3.01ish.

Also, Can i apply or should apply to podiatry schools now (before 2nd exam in May)?

thanks

VR 05
PS 06
BS 02
WS M
total 13M
Click to expand...

I don't know anything about podiatry school, but I know quite a bit about the MCAT (30T). What kind of study material are you planning on using for the next test? You're right - your scores are very low; however, you said it yourself: you didn't study for it. It seems that you already know that going commando was a stupid thing to do. The good thing is that you can't go anywhere but up. You can absolutely score higher. It's all about practice, trust me.

I would check out the MCAT discussions section of SDN to see the kind of tips/advice everyone's giving. I would also look into using Berkeley Review to study from. It's a small company, but you'll notice that a lot of people swear by it (particularly their physics and gen chem books). I'd use examkrackers for the other sections.

Don't feel too bad about what happened. In my opinion, if you haven't studied for the test, you can't do it. It is not an IQ test. It's a knowledge based test. It isn't a secret that peope who have studied more score better. Keep your head up and keep chuggin'. The worse you feel now about what happened, the better you'll feel when you nail the test.

Best of luck!:luck:
 
AF11 said:
wait...does this mean only 5 people in your class get residency? That's horrifying
Click to expand...

no he means 5 people scrambled - meaning they did not match at the residency match day and had to apply for programs they did not initially rank.
 
I have no doubt you will excel. The point that you missed is that until you yourself have completed a semester of pod school you shouldn't be telling people they have no chance. The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.
Click to expand...
But we are talking about $40,000 here (for the first year only, what happens if they go through the first year twice before they drop out?). If this person applies with a little bit better score (and thanks to the current standards he/she WILL get in), what do you think the odds are they make it all the way through? Is there a chance? Yes. Is it a very good one? Probably not. I bet some of your classmates wished someone had told them the same thing when they went into even more debt for nothing.

If anything it is the podiatry school's fault for letting these students in. However, the podiatry school is not the one with anything to lose...the student is.

This is a public forum and thats my advice to someone who is on the border (with better scores of course) of getting accepted. I would like nothing more than for this poster to succeed but I know that the school doesn't really care since they'll be thrilled to have 90% of his classmates make it through.
 
Last edited:
jonwill:

your post is sort of deceiving without more information. Those students may have ranked programs that they were not great applicants for and/or had performed poorly during externships. They could have only ranked the most popular programs too, a lot of applicants could very well lead to a good student not matching right? Top 10 means best grades...how does that translate into boards and clinical skill?
 
dtrack22 said:
jonwill:

your post is sort of deceiving without more information. Those students may have ranked programs that they were not great applicants for and/or had performed poorly during externships. They could have only ranked the most popular programs too, a lot of applicants could very well lead to a good student not matching right? Top 10 means best grades...how does that translate into boards and clinical skill?
Click to expand...

That's exactly what EVERYONE is telling you. Grades and test scores don't equal clinical skill. :rolleyes:

You said that the MCAT gives you snippets of information for you to make a correct diagnosis. If you are using that as an analogy, I think it's a poor one. The clinic isn't the MCAT. The boards may be like the MCAT, but the clinic isn't it.

Get through your first semester. Post and tell in one year about how much like the MCAT your first year is. I can tell you now, (because unlike your assumption, I DID take the MCAT and nothing else), that it isn't anything similar.
 
OP: I would hope that this thread does the opposite of what it would do to many. I hope that it ignites your passion, whatever that may be.

People used to always tell me that I wouldn't ever make it. But I am. I'm here and I'm doing well.

Even if it takes you 10+ years to get into medical school, keep moving forward. You'll probably have to get more education, (postbac), and study a lot harder for your next MCAT, but those are only two positives that will enrich you as a person, no matter the outcome of your medical school application. If this is truly what you desire, then pursue it.
 
MaseratiGT said:
That's exactly what EVERYONE is telling you. Grades and test scores don't equal clinical skill. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's not true, and until my question is answered you don't really know. What if the few "top 10" students that didn't match did poorly on their boards? If the boards are most like the MCAT, and MCAT is a diagnoses of critical thinking (what you do when dealing with abnormal pathologies), then couldn't their poor board scores translate to poor clinical skills which translate into poor evals during their externships? They could, and the only reason they were "top 10" is because they put in more time memorizing the information that the lecturers expected of them (a very valuable skill since it gives you a bigger knowledge base). My point is that the MCAT does not test you on this base (how good your GPA is), but rather how you APPLY it to situations where the answer is not obvious.

I'm sorry you did poorly on the MCAT and feel the need to come on here and defend everyone else who has done poorly. You are a shining beacon of hope to some of those students who will also succeed...but at the same time you are a proponent for the worst decision some of these people will ever make. Admissions committees think like you (although they are more concerned with making money) and they are the problem...I don't see a big difference between you and them.
 
dtrack22 said:
That's not true, and until my question is answered you don't really know. What if the few "top 10" students that didn't match did poorly on their boards? If the boards are most like the MCAT, and MCAT is a diagnoses of critical thinking (what you do when dealing with abnormal pathologies), then couldn't their poor board scores translate to poor clinical skills which translate into poor evals during their externships? They could, and the only reason they were "top 10" is because they put in more time memorizing the information that the lecturers expected of them (a very valuable skill since it gives you a bigger knowledge base). My point is that the MCAT does not test you on this base (how good your GPA is), but rather how you APPLY it to situations where the answer is not obvious.

I'm sorry you did poorly on the MCAT and feel the need to come on here and defend everyone else who has done poorly. You are a shining beacon of hope to some of those students who will also succeed...but at the same time you are a proponent for the worst decision some of these people will ever make. Admissions committees think like you (although they are more concerned with making money) and they are the problem...I don't see a big difference between you and them.
Click to expand...

Your post speaks for itself, track. You don't know my stats, GPA, or anything else that got me here. If you weren't a selective reader, you would have seen that I posted, IN THIS VERY THREAD, that standards should be raised.

Your question is irrelevant because all that is reported about your boards is your pass or fail status. Someone can pass by the skin of their teeth and no one knows the difference except for themselves. Part III is scored and you don't take that until after you're a resident.

Lastly, stop being a gunner before you've even set foot in a classroom. It's unbecoming.
 
Last edited:
Well it appears as if this has become personal to some.......so lets just end it and say to the OP: study hard and try again, where ever that takes you...GOOD LUCK
 
dtrack22 said:
The MCAT is NOT a standardized test in the sense that the SAT or some of the state-wide high school exit exams (in Washington we have the WASL) are standardized tests.

If you do bad on the MCAT it is not because you are "not a good test taker"...one of the most ridiculous excuses to begin with. It is because you have poor critical thinking skills. What does this mean? It means that you cannot read a passage (the topic is not important) and then use incredibly basic scientific knowledge to extrapolate the best answer when presented with 5 possible choices. Are there some stand alone questions that you just have to know? Yes, but they make up less than 10% of the test.
Click to expand...

Don't a lot of MCAT courses TELL you that the test is all about trends, trends, trends?? I felt that EK and Princeton Review reallly emphasized that the way to get a good score is to study the BASIC science and learn to recognize the patterns. I don't know about the rest of you, but I thought the MCAT was nothing more than trends and patterns..the only way to get a good score is to practice. in that sense, its more about diligence than critcial thinking. But that's only my opinion...

To the OP: I think the best advice anyone can give you is to try again. Who knows, your poor performance on this test might be enough to motivate you to do better than anyone else posting on this thread =)
 
ok..............is this thread done yet? This is like beating a dead horse
:beat:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

leiahbabii
Lowest MCAT score acceptance
Replies
32
Views
5K
Weirdy
W
J
Applying before MCAT score arrives
Replies
5
Views
2K
SoleScholar
SoleScholar
D
  • Locked
MCAT Score Drop
Replies
2
Views
1K
PodiatryBrah
PodiatryBrah
VailHaddock43
What kind of MCAT score should I aim to get?
Replies
1
Views
1K
HarmonicConvergence
HarmonicConvergence
X
MCAT score release
Replies
2
Views
1K
AdrenalineJockie
AdrenalineJockie
Top