Should I postpone september mcat?

[jcho91]

So I'm going to be a senior next year and am one month from my test date in september. I'm taking the princeton review course now and it has about 3 weeks left. My diagnostic, without any studying was a 29, which I took maybe 1.5 months ago. My practice tests for aamc 3-7 have been 29, 31, 30, 31. Since I didn't see any improvement, I stopped taking full lengths and am only taking individual subject exams now, 1 subject per day. I was able to get a 34 doing this, but this only happened once and it was spread out over 2 days. I'm trying to figure out if I should take my test in september or not because I feel like my score has room for improvement, but it has barely changed after 2 months of studying. But I don't know if its worth to postpone for another 5 months...

I've never taken any physio classes, so this princeton review class is where I'm learning all the physio part of the bio. From anybodys past experience, do you usually see your scores increase dramatically towards the end, like the last month?
And if its needed to factor in whether i should take it now or not, I am getting consistent 12P, 11B and verbal is a toss up 7-11, usually a 9. I have a 4.0, so I don't need an extremely high mcat, but I also don't want them to wonder why theres a big difference between grades and mcat. never looked at school averages or anything, so i'm honestly not sure what "good scores" are, just basing it off of what others tell me they get.

Thanks in advanced

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[StayingFocused]

Are you crazy???
Take it!!!! If you get a 30 and with your GPA you WILL get accepted. It's kind of late in the app cycle so you might get waitlisted and not as many interviews but listen to me.....

A MED SCHOOL WILL ACCEPT YOU EVENTUALLY

Trust me.

You'll get into your state school for sure.

 

[tttgo]

Are you crazy???
Take it!!!! If you get a 30 and with your GPA you WILL get accepted. It's kind of late in the app cycle so you might get waitlisted and not as many interviews but listen to me.....

A MED SCHOOL WILL ACCEPT YOU EVENTUALLY

Trust me.

You'll get into your state school for sure.

I need to get back to studying, but hopefully this will help.

I disagree. He'll probably get in due to his high stats, but I wouldn't say 100%. lots of factors such as applying late and the rest of his application. I've hear that some schools don't accept mcats that are too late (ie after 9/1). Is he even applying this cycle? are his recs and everything else ready? how many schools does he plan to apply to. His avg is around 31, so most likely he'll score above 30, but it doesn't seem like he's utilized his true potential. What if he gets a 29 and only applies to 10 schools in ca, especially this late in the cycle? If he doesn't get in, there goes his time, money and effort which might impact his senior year.

I would only take it and cram everything to apply this cycle only if I had to. If he's relaxed and not in a hurry, I wouldn't take the risk of hurting my chances.

 

[jcho91]

Thanks for the info, and also just to clarify, I forgot to mention that I will be applying next summer, not right now. I wasn't even aware that you could apply this late. So that's why I'm debating whether to postpone it or not, because it would still be pretty safe if I took the test in January, its just more of a whether or not I wanna study for another 3 months and since my score improved 2 points after intense studying (6-7 hours per day for 2 months), I'm skeptical how much it can go up. It wouldn't push any of my plans back or anything. And my goal is to stay in california if possible, but I will be applying very broadly, prob 30 schools.

 

[tttgo]

If you're not applying this cycle, then I would definitely delay. delayed gratification right? you might have an easier time with the bio after some upper divs. Also the type of studying and books that work best differs for different types of people. maybe you don't need the detailed approach. the guy at my volunteer place studied over winter and spring break using mostly ek and half of tbr set and got a 40. like you, he was one of those high gpa people.

and you shouldn't be skeptical. If you want it to go up, it'll go up.

 

[ES2]

You could always take it, and plan on retaking it during winter break or something. I'm averaging around the same, and I would also like to get a 34. My GPA's a lot lower though (3.4), so a 30 might not be enough for an MD school. Either way, the experience of taking the MCAT will allow me to be a little more prepared (anxiety-wise) when it comes to the actual MCAT.

 

[jcho91]

How do med schools look at retaking the exam? Bc I've heard so many different things from people and don't really know what is true anymore.

 

[tttgo]

I think the consensus is that taking more than once won't stop you from getting into med school, but doesn't look as good as say getting a 35 the first time. the worst is to do worse on a retake, which happens pretty often.

 

[jcho91]

Update:

After studying for 3 months total, I finally took the test. My score did not increase at all for 1.5 months. And by 2-2.5 months I started to see some change (maybe 3 points). Then between 2.5-3 months I saw a DRAMATIC change. Ended up scoring a 37r on the real thing. So for anybody who is worried about their score plateauing or not increasing at all, don't worry everything will start to come together at the very end. Don't get discouraged, it will all work out at the end, and it will be really surprising. Best of luck

 

[drspacheman]

Congrats on the awesome score!