Is it worth rushing a second MCAT to avoid taking an additional gap year?

[Drew28982898]

My score release for my first attempted MCAT is on the 27th, however, I do not feel so good at all about it. I have continued some (albeit minimal) studying for it since the June 26th MCAT and was considering going FULL time and signing up for the July 30 exam just in case. I could ofc cancel it if it worked out somehow. I just graduated, so I'm already applying later than most and would like to avoid taking yet another gap year if possible. I'm worried because the 2nd score would be coming late, and may not improve significantly (I heard taking it 3 times is bad?). My primary is verified already., 3.9c/3.75s GPA, and avg EC's (1 research pub, 2k clinical hours), disadvantaged background. I do have FAP, only added my 2 state schools currently though to wait and see MCAT. Would you just ride it out and pray, or take the exam?

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[lumya]

You shouldn't re-take the MCAT if you're not ready. If say you got a bad score on your last test, are you sure you'll be able to improve drastically in a month? It's pretty common to feel like you didn't do well on the MCAT so I would say it's probably better to wait to find out your score before rushing to take it again (one bad score then a good score + gap year is better than two bad scores).

 

[GreenDuck12]

I'm worried because the 2nd score would be coming late, and may not improve significantly (I heard taking it 3 times is bad?)

Feeling like you did poorly on the MCAT is quite common, even amongst high scorers. Very, very few of my students have reported feeling good leaving the exam. Those that do feel good about the test, not many of them do as well as they had hoped. Point being, the test is stressful and we are really not the best judge of how we did.

With that being said, in the event the test did not go as planned, this retake strategy is really problematic as you will not have time to figure out where you need to improve (is it one section? is it timing? are there content gaps in one subject or many? was your reasoning off), figure out an adequate study plan to address those deficits (your prep since taking the mcat will largely put you in the same position you were on test day - you really need the feedback of a score to point you in the right direction), and seriously risk a second similar or worse score. This would put you in the position of potentially taking it a 3rd time. As Goro has put it elsewhere, the MCAT is like a marriage, its best to only have one, the more you have the more questionable it looks. For an admissions committee, having two low scores and then an improvement on the 3rd attempt, could be interpreted as growth, or could be interpreted as an outlier and begs the question - why risk it on this candidate. The AAMC leaves it up to schools how to evaluate multiple attempts but the AAMC recommends that schools average scores together. For this reason, if you are in the position of having to retake the MCAT, you want to go into that second attempt in the strongest possible position.

If you were one of my students, I would highly caution against the plan you outlined above. It is highly risky. I personally understand taking an unplanned gap year sucks. I did it myself when I realized my first pass at preparing for the MCAT was not up to par. While I wanted to get started with medical school and did not want to spend another 4 months preparing for the mcat, it ended up being one of the best decisions I made. Medical schools are not going anywhere.

 

[Goro]

My score release for my first attempted MCAT is on the 27th, however, I do not feel so good at all about it. I have continued some (albeit minimal) studying for it since the June 26th MCAT and was considering going FULL time and signing up for the July 30 exam just in case. I could ofc cancel it if it worked out somehow. I just graduated, so I'm already applying later than most and would like to avoid taking yet another gap year if possible. I'm worried because the 2nd score would be coming late, and may not improve significantly (I heard taking it 3 times is bad?). My primary is verified already., 3.9c/3.75s GPA, and avg EC's (1 research pub, 2k clinical hours), disadvantaged background. I do have FAP, only added my 2 state schools currently though to wait and see MCAT. Would you just ride it out and pray, or take the exam?

The MCAT is a measure of good judgment as much as it is and assessment of knowledge.

Do not take a career deciding, high-stakes exam unless you are 100% ready for it, even if it means skipping an application cycle.

 

[Drew28982898]

Feeling like you did poorly on the MCAT is quite common, even amongst high scorers. Very, very few of my students have reported feeling good leaving the exam. Those that do feel good about the test, not many of them do as well as they had hoped. Point being, the test is stressful and we are really not the best judge of how we did.

With that being said, in the event the test did not go as planned, this retake strategy is really problematic as you will not have time to figure out where you need to improve (is it one section? is it timing? are there content gaps in one subject or many? was your reasoning off), figure out an adequate study plan to address those deficits (your prep since taking the mcat will largely put you in the same position you were on test day - you really need the feedback of a score to point you in the right direction), and seriously risk a second similar or worse score. This would put you in the position of potentially taking it a 3rd time. As Goro has put it elsewhere, the MCAT is like a marriage, its best to only have one, the more you have the more questionable it looks. For an admissions committee, having two low scores and then an improvement on the 3rd attempt, could be interpreted as growth, or could be interpreted as an outlier and begs the question - why risk it on this candidate. The AAMC leaves it up to schools how to evaluate multiple attempts but the AAMC recommends that schools average scores together. For this reason, if you are in the position of having to retake the MCAT, you want to go into that second attempt in the strongest possible position.

If you were one of my students, I would highly caution against the plan you outlined above. It is highly risky. I personally understand taking an unplanned gap year sucks. I did it myself when I realized my first pass at preparing for the MCAT was not up to par. While I wanted to get started with medical school and did not want to spend another 4 months preparing for the mcat, it ended up being one of the best decisions I made. Medical schools are not going anywhere.

Thank you for your reply. I think that helped put things into perspective... I don't want to rush and potentially fail/not improve enough on a second attempt. Perhaps I did okay, or if I retake it then I do significantly better down the road and can apply more successfully than me rushing it now. I'll find out in 7 days how my life is going to go, but I do appreciate your input on this Could I ask, why do you say taking that gap year was the best decision you made? Were you able to get into a top school or a scholarship? I personally don't really care too much about top schools since the outcome/salary is typically the same... I also currently no interest in surgery, academic medicine, or research. Although things can always change and having that door open still would be great.

 

[GreenDuck12]

Thank you for your reply. I think that helped put things into perspective... I don't want to rush and potentially fail/not improve enough on a second attempt. Perhaps I did okay, or if I retake it then I do significantly better down the road and can apply more successfully than me rushing it now. I'll find out in 7 days how my life is going to go, but I do appreciate your input on this Could I ask, why do you say taking that gap year was the best decision you made? Were you able to get into a top school or a scholarship? I personally don't really care too much about top schools since the outcome/salary is typically the same... I also currently no interest in surgery, academic medicine, or research. Although things can always change and having that door open still would be great.

Thats a fair question - my whole goal with applying to medical school was to get into *a* medical school. Personally, I do not place much emphasis on rankings, prestige, etc, I just wanted to get in somewhere. By realizing that I was not in the best position to do well on the MCAT, I was able to take the year and prepare for the MCAT with a more effective plan. I ended up with a strong MCAT score and I gained more clinical experience, developed stronger personal statements, so that when I applied I was in a stronger position. In my case, I ended up applying to one program due to personal reasons which was not the plan. I was fortunate that things worked out and that I was admitted to that program. I did receive a scholarship for leadership experience but that certainly was not the plan.