Push Date? Multiple MCAT Scores?

[TexasSurgeon]

Hey everyone, thanks in advance for the help.

I started out on SN2's schedule. It quickly overwhelmed me and it got to the point where I was doing the work just to meet the deadlines and wasn't really learning per say. My MCAT is September 10. I've taken almost all the BR FLs and have been scoring 28-29 in them with 8-9 in PS, 9 in VR and 7-8 in BS. This is far from my goal of 35+. I can tell I didn't do the content review seriously and as a result the scores haven't shown improvement. I took AAMC 3 before any studying and made a 24, took AAMC 5 a week ago and scored a 25 lol...I think I am burned out though.

I want to push my MCAT date back to the last possible date in January before they change it. I'll be enrolled in 15 hours of class this semester so yes I would be overwhelmed but I would have more time + Thanksgiving/Christmas break to improve a lot.

I'm not a stupid person, I know I can get the score I want, I just regret not taking the approach seriously

My only worry to pushing back the MCAT is: What if I take it in January and for some reason don't do well in that MCAT? Then I'm left with a new MCAT to deal with. But how would 2 MCAT scores be viewed? My reason to take it in September 10 would be to at least see how the newest format is like and what I'm dealing with. I've heard even AAMC 11 isn't good enough of a predictor.

What would you do?

My course load for the fall:
Human Phys
Biological Physics (not as bad as name sounds I've heard)
English and Medicine
Nucleic Acids
Selected Topics in biochemistry (not as bad from what I hear)

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[Thoroughbred_Med]

@TexasSurgeon
Hey man I'm in your same shoes. I don't think I have the golden answer to your question but I can tell you my situation.
I too followed the SN2ed schedule all summer, albeit loosely, and planned on throwing down a 35+ on my original August 7th test date. However, once I saw that my scores were not budging past a 28 I knew I'd be overly optimistic walking into prometric and hoping for a 30+. I then proceeded to cancel and schedule for the August 27th exam... I thought I could get my score up to at least a 30..... didn't happen. I ended up canceling yesterday.

Consequentially, I have decided to push my test date all the way back to January 8th. I registered for a super light course load this fall to fit in studying more.... with really kicking it into gear in December killing practice tests.

My PS scores range from 8-11, my BS from 10-11, and verbal has been the devil.... from 6-9 averaging a 7. Now I know that verbal is the hardest score to improve upon, understanding that there might be some innate ability on that section, but I am going to practice like the dickens over the next four months! As for the sciences, yeah I felt confident with my knowledge base but my scores would tell otherwise. For PS&BS I plan on re-reading a chapter from every subject weekly & doing ALL the end of chapter questions (I neglected doing the 1/3 qs as per SN2ed this summer...prob would've helped). With adequate time to learn literally everything for these sections I'd like to start seeing 12-13s by December.

So yeah man, I can't tell you what the right choice is for your situation but I thought I'd share my experience and say that you are not alone. I know I am capable of 35+ ... 4.0 gpa student

 

[TexasSurgeon]

@TexasSurgeon
Hey man I'm in your same shoes. I don't think I have the golden answer to your question but I can tell you my situation.
I too followed the SN2ed schedule all summer, albeit loosely, and planned on throwing down a 35+ on my original August 7th test date. However, once I saw that my scores were not budging past a 28 I knew I'd be overly optimistic walking into prometric and hoping for a 30+. I then proceeded to cancel and schedule for the August 27th exam... I thought I could get my score up to at least a 30..... didn't happen. I ended up canceling yesterday.

Consequentially, I have decided to push my test date all the way back to January 8th. I registered for a super light course load this fall to fit in studying more.... with really kicking it into gear in December killing practice tests.

My PS scores range from 8-11, my BS from 10-11, and verbal has been the devil.... from 6-9 averaging a 7. Now I know that verbal is the hardest score to improve upon, understanding that there might be some innate ability on that section, but I am going to practice like the dickens over the next four months! As for the sciences, yeah I felt confident with my knowledge base but my scores would tell otherwise. For PS&BS I plan on re-reading a chapter from every subject weekly & doing ALL the end of chapter questions (I neglected doing the 1/3 qs as per SN2ed this summer...prob would've helped). With adequate time to learn literally everything for these sections I'd like to start seeing 12-13s by December.

So yeah man, I can't tell you what the right choice is for your situation but I thought I'd share my experience and say that you are not alone. I know I am capable of 35+ ... 4.0 gpa student

Yeah man it's frustrating I feel you. I'm leaning towards viewing my September date as a practice exam and just doing the best I possibly can. That way I can see the most recent exam style. My issue is content more than the strategy right now IMO. I'll sign up for January like you.

I think you've got better content knowledge than I do at this point. My advice to you for PS and BS would be to take brief notes while rereading the chapters. That info isn't going to sink in through osmosis. I made that assumption the first time around. My BS is weakest though. Verbal needs to go up as well. PS is easiest to improve on. I did the 1/3 and 2/3s and that helped. My plan is to finish the last 3/3 questions and use TPRHSW's book with practice tests

I posted my class list for the fall in my first post above. Thoughts? Human phys will help me with BS for sure. Looks like you and I will be talking more over the coming months lol

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

Yeah man it's frustrating I feel you. I'm leaning towards viewing my September date as a practice exam and just doing the best I possibly can. That way I can see the most recent exam style. My issue is content more than the strategy right now IMO. I'll sign up for January like you.

I think you've got better content knowledge than I do at this point. My advice to you for PS and BS would be to take brief notes while rereading the chapters. That info isn't going to sink in through osmosis. I made that assumption the first time around. My BS is weakest though. Verbal needs to go up as well. PS is easiest to improve on. I did the 1/3 and 2/3s and that helped. My plan is to finish the last 3/3 questions and use TPRHSW's book with practice tests

I posted my class list for the fall in my first post above. Thoughts? Human phys will help me with BS for sure. Looks like you and I will be talking more over the coming months lol

Would you end up voiding after going in for your September exam or just taking that score? Totally up to you. I know different school look at multiple scores differently.

That looks like a pretty decent course load to me... How many credit hours is that? Probably doesn't matter though... all you'd have to do is lightly review content throughout the semester since you're almost golden there... then when December comes start testing heavy.

My fall course load: 16 hours

Biochem 1
Human Physiology (most intense bio class at my uni)
Genetics (a joke at my uni)
Physics 2 (also a joke... + I already taught it to myself this summer)

Yeah so I'm already solid at bio and orgo... my highest scores.... and I'm taking this intense human phys class this semester... seriously its medschool level difficulty, case-studies as tests... so I don't know how much more CR I'll do for bio
Taking Phys 2 will keep that crisp in my head... and genetics will be also be beneficial cause I'm pretty ****ty at it.

Looking forward to keeping in touch over the semester man. We WILL get that 35+ !

 

[DoctorInASaree]

January.

 

[JMMTB]

Hard to say, but I'm going to probably echo @DoctorInASaree for January.

I'm in a similar situation. Scheduled for January 10, but fearful of the one shot aspect of the January dates so I rescheduled today to October 21. I finished up content review and half way through 2/3. I'm still ~4 points below my target/dream score, but know my weakness - physiology which I've been self teaching for the past couple weeks and verbal which I don't know how I'm going to improve on besides daily passages. I'm going to work as hard as I can to peak for the 21st and then still have January as a reserve.

If you're going to stick with September and not void, you may want to push it back to October to at least let your course on physiology and biochem help out a little. If you do void then September would probably be better as you can see the new format sooner and can really adapt to it.

Good luck!

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Would you end up voiding after going in for your September exam or just taking that score? Totally up to you. I know different school look at multiple scores differently.

That looks like a pretty decent course load to me... How many credit hours is that? Probably doesn't matter though... all you'd have to do is lightly review content throughout the semester since you're almost golden there... then when December comes start testing heavy.

My fall course load: 16 hours

Biochem 1
Human Physiology (most intense bio class at my uni)
Genetics (a joke at my uni)
Physics 2 (also a joke... + I already taught it to myself this summer)

Yeah so I'm already solid at bio and orgo... my highest scores.... and I'm taking this intense human phys class this semester... seriously its medschool level difficulty, case-studies as tests... so I don't know how much more CR I'll do for bio
Taking Phys 2 will keep that crisp in my head... and genetics will be also be beneficial cause I'm pretty ****ty at it.

Looking forward to keeping in touch over the semester man. We WILL get that 35+ !

Be careful with biochem, it takes a lot of work and you already know human phys is intense.
My course load is 15 hours. 12 of those are science but I think it should be doable. I wouldn't end up voiding in September- I might as well see the score I get after sitting through the real deal. Different schools do look at multiple scores differently but a lot of schools seem to put a very high weight on the highest/most recent score so I think it will help me out regardless.

I don't know if I'm golden in content review. I hopefully will become golden in about 2 months or so but I seem to have halfassed parts of it

Hard to say, but I'm going to probably echo @DoctorInASaree for January.

I'm in a similar situation. Scheduled for January 10, but fearful of the one shot aspect of the January dates so I rescheduled today to October 21. I finished up content review and half way through 2/3. I'm still ~4 points below my target/dream score, but know my weakness - physiology which I've been self teaching for the past couple weeks and verbal which I don't know how I'm going to improve on besides daily passages. I'm going to work as hard as I can to peak for the 21st and then still have January as a reserve.

If you're going to stick with September and not void, you may want to push it back to October to at least let your course on physiology and biochem help out a little. If you do void then September would probably be better as you can see the new format sooner and can really adapt to it.

Good luck!

BS is definitely my weakest section. Verbal is hardest to improve IMO. The reason I don't want to push it back to October is so I can take it and see where I stand on the real thing as early as possible

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

January

 

[JMMTB]

BS is definitely my weakest section. Verbal is hardest to improve IMO. The reason I don't want to push it back to October is so I can take it and see where I stand on the real thing as early as possible

I completely agree with you on verbal. Took AAMC 3 in March and the beginning of this month took AAMC 9 and no score improvement at all on verbal.

With BS do you feel like you have it narrowed down between OCHEM, molecular bio, or physiology?

If you are not going to void come September and don't mind having 2 scores that are different could play to your advantage.

 

[texan2414]

Take in October - the start of semester isn't as hectic as near the end so you should still be able to devote a good chunk of time for MCAT (at least before the first mid terms).
See how you do on the Oct exam and then plan for January exam based on your performance.

Your human phys, nucleic acids, and biophysics will help you in both PS/BS scores. Btw do you go to UH by any chance? a lot of those classes seem similar to what I took

 

[deleted388502]

JANUARYYYYY

 

[TheMightyTexan]

I am in the same boat, however i voided last year and i feel like I cant keep postponing this test. It sucks with not that much time left and scores that aren't satisfactory, but i feel like a month is still a lot of time (being an optimist) and something tells me if i cant pull my **** together now how will i be able to in med school? There's a lot of other factors too consider too, so it is not an easy decision, but i would say it looks like you can do it and the pros potentially outweigh the cons. Also, i don't know if that 35+ is an ideal or a must.

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

Be careful with biochem, it takes a lot of work and you already know human phys is intense.
My course load is 15 hours. 12 of those are science but I think it should be doable. I wouldn't end up voiding in September- I might as well see the score I get after sitting through the real deal. Different schools do look at multiple scores differently but a lot of schools seem to put a very high weight on the highest/most recent score so I think it will help me out regardless.

I don't know if I'm golden in content review. I hopefully will become golden in about 2 months or so but I seem to have halfassed parts of it

BS is definitely my weakest section. Verbal is hardest to improve IMO. The reason I don't want to push it back to October is so I can take it and see where I stand on the real thing as early as possible

Yeah man. Well I wish you the best of luck in September! You still have a couple of weeks to get that score up and I DO believe you can get it!

Nonetheless, lets keep in touch in case we are testing in together in January.

 

[The Brown Knight]

Hey I feel like I'm in very similar shoes. I'm scheduled for 09/18 and have 33-35 on my TPR tests and AAMC4, but my verbal is in 7-8 range and I worked pretty hard but unsuccessfully on it. I myself am considering postponing to 10/21 or 11/07. Have you considered postponing to 11/07 and minimizing the coursework by dropping a course or two (though human physio will be extremely helpful for MCAT BS)? I'd maybe drop the English and medicine and nucleic acids; I myself am only gonna take 3 classes with research thesis for credit. You'll still be able to retake in Jan. if needed. Since you have at least read the material, you just need to practice it out with TBR and TPRH passages over next couple months with periodic FLs.

 

[The Brown Knight]

Also, if I'm at around 8 in verbal right now, is it possible to improve to 11-12 if I do 2-3 timed verbal passages daily, 2 full verbal tests a week, and 2 full lengths a week for the next two months (if I postpone to late Oct/early Nov)?

 

[valkener]

Nobody can make that decision but you, but here are some hopefully helpful hints. First of all, you want to apply early to medical school so regardless when you take your MCAT, make sure you can apply super early. Second, it can get harder with each MCAT that you take. That's not to say that you shouldn't retake if your score is not good. But each time the pressure will be higher to improve. When you apply, apply broadly and have some DO schools in there. Good luck!