june 20 mcat, 3.7 gap

[sleeper11]

overall gpa: 3.7
sgpa: 3.71

good research (one project is currently being revised for publication submission and has been presented at an international conference; i'm still working on my other project). Both supervisors will write me very supportive letters.

volunteering: average (a couple things here and there, nothing extraordinary)

I somewhat lack in shadowing hours, mainly because I study in canada and it is incredibly difficult for doctors here to allow me to shadow them. I had to actually do my shadowing in the US, it was only for a couple weeks, not many hours).

I'm a us citizen, with ny state residency.

i took the may 23rd mcat....and I just wasn't comfortable, so I voided the score. I'm looking at the june 20th date. Scores won't come out until end of July which puts me around August for a complete verification.

Question: with my limited clinical experience, and late mcat, would it be too late to apply?

I'm a graduating senior, so I really really want to apply this year because I don't want to wait for 2 years until I can enter medical school.

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[Noggin]

Hey there. When I took the MCAT I thought that I scored in the low twenties and seriously contemplated voiding my score. I somehow managed a 30. Its a pretty feel-bad kind of exam so my advice for you would be to never void your score unless you know that you guessed on more than one complete passage in each of the three sections.

Getting back to your question...Your ECs are lacking and being a little later in the cycle isn't helping you out. You have very little clinical experience. If I were you I would take some time off and build up those. What were you averaging on practice tests? If you were getting awesome scores you may be ok.

 

[sleeper11]

Hey there. When I took the MCAT I thought that I scored in the low twenties and seriously contemplated voiding my score. I somehow managed a 30. Its a pretty feel-bad kind of exam so my advice for you would be to never void your score unless you know that you guessed on more than one complete passage in each of the three sections.

Getting back to your question...Your ECs are lacking and being a little later in the cycle isn't helping you out. You have very little clinical experience. If I were you I would take some time off and build up those. What were you averaging on practice tests? If you were getting awesome scores you may be ok.

Hi! I was averaging a 26-28 on the practice tests. so i was already feeling very shaky going into the test. I felt that with 1-2 more weeks I could've at least brought it up to a 30-32. On the real test, I didn't finish the last PS passage. I was halfway through the questions when I ran out of time, and I felt I guessed on a handful of questions earlier....so I didn't want to go ahead with the scoring because I felt I couldn't even secure a 10. The VR and BS were alright, and I didn't find them to be that much harder than practice tests. If I had not screwed up the PS, I felt I could have gone ahead with the score....so I'm still kicking myself for the poor performance today.

Yea, I'm definitely going to work hard to bring the score up to a 33-35 area before June 20, which I feel I could by just doing practice tests everyday. If it makes any difference, I'm only applying to lower tier and state schools (basically all in NY state where I have residency) and a couple smaller private schools in the east coast.

I also have more shadowing opportunities lined up for the fall....I know it probably makes no difference because my application would already be submitted, but I hope to send an update letter....ahhh

Anywys, thanks for your input!

 

[Noggin]

Hi! I was averaging a 26-28 on the practice tests. so i was already feeling very shaky going into the test. I felt that with 1-2 more weeks I could've at least brought it up to a 30-32. On the real test, I didn't finish the last PS passage. I was halfway through the questions when I ran out of time, and I felt I guessed on a handful of questions earlier....so I didn't want to go ahead with the scoring because I felt I couldn't even secure a 10. The VR and BS were alright, and I didn't find them to be that much harder than practice tests. If I had not screwed up the PS, I felt I could have gone ahead with the score....so I'm still kicking myself for the poor performance today.

Yea, I'm definitely going to work hard to bring the score up to a 33-35 area before June 20, which I feel I could by just doing practice tests everyday. If it makes any difference, I'm only applying to lower tier and state schools (basically all in NY state where I have residency) and a couple smaller private schools in the east coast.

I also have more shadowing opportunities lined up for the fall....I know it probably makes no difference because my application would already be submitted, but I hope to send an update letter....ahhh

Anywys, thanks for your input!

Well I think that you made the right decision to void your exam today so I would not feel bad about that at all. You have effectively protected yourself from getting a mid 20's score which could have been detrimental to your application. In my experience studying for the mcat (and i've studied for it twice), a few weeks isn't really enough time to bring your average from a 26-28 to a 33-35 consistently. If I were you I would take time off and build up the rest of your app. You would be able to do some amazing things this upcoming year to really make yourself stand out. You could postpone your mcat until you are scoring 33+. If you do those things I think you will have an excellent shot at getting in when you do apply. It's up to you though! Good Luck!