Retake MCAT for Vandy/Duke Med?

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watermelon94

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I took the MCAT back in August and ended up with a 36 (14B/13P/9V.)

I'm wondering if I should retake if my average MCAT verbal is an 11-12, and I'm very confident if I retook the MCAT I could pull that off. I'm worried that my other two scores will drop though, because I only have 3 weeks to restudy for the MCAT after finals before my new test date, Jan. 10. For a school like Vandy or Duke, do you think it's worth retaking? I'm not sure how many top schools superscore to make it worth it.

Would my verbal score be viewed as just a fluke/mess up on my part and is it really worth retaking and taking the risk of my overall score dropping but verbal going up?

GPA is 3.9/4 and solid overall application otherwise.

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Definitely do NOT retake.

As I have said in another thread, the top-tier US schools have clearly shown that they value VR less than PS and BS. The median VR is 11 across the board for the top US schools, and a VR of 9 is in the 10th to 90th percentile range.
 
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If there's one section of the MCAT that you should be least confident about pulling a certain score for, it's verbal.

Plus, now that you are so focused on verbal you might get even more nervous on the real thing and do the same or worse (since if you got <37 this time, it would look so bad)
 
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Even if your VR is below average than their median accepted scores, the above avg PS/BS scores make up for that.

Your composite is also right at their median. A retake would potentially disqualify your app at a 36 imo.
 
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