So I took the MCAT in late August (24) this year after studying literally all day every day all summer. I left the exam feeling like crap about my performance after running out of time on PS and struggling with VR. I ended up with a 36S though SOMEHOW, but unfortunately didn't find that out until I had already retaken the exam (big mistake). My rationale for retaking it was that I absolutely could not stomach ruining another summer if my score wasn't in the ballpark of my practice exams. Also, I had a somewhat traumatic experience the first time with test administrators yelling at me for bringing too big of a backpack and for trying to bring earplugs in so I was sort of riled up from the get-go. And I had to guess on almost two PS passages because it was so difficult. So I figured I'd retake to try and prove what I could really do. If I waited to see my score, no more tests would be available in 2010, so I was forced to take it blind but felt so confident in my failure that I went ahead and retook it. My goal all along had been a 35, which I had exceeded without knowing it.
I just got my score back and it went down considerably: 31S. All my subscores were still at or above 10s so at least its somewhat well spread out but I feel like I ruined my chances at some of the more competitive schools I was looking at (though I still have a 3.96 GPA at UMich to fall back on).
The weird thing is I felt so much better about the second exam, but I guess it had a much stricter curve. What do people think about this? Obviously I shouldn't have retaken but the nature of the test is such that you can feel so unsure/broken at the end of the exam that there is no way of really knowing how you did and the more you think about it, the worse it becomes in your head. And when you think it went really well, it throws a curveball at you. How consequential will such a drop be given that both exams occurred over a course of 7 days. I can definitely explain myself and the situation in my interviews, I am just shocked frankly that, statistically, there could be that much change in 1 week. I just wish I could reverse my two score dates. I'm not saying a 31 is a terrible score, but I would have bet a million dollars that the two scores would have been reversed and I essentially retook to get that elusive 35 which I had already achieved.
In summary, the MCAT is such a poor indicator of ANYTHING. It tests less than 1% of what you study and memorize over the course of months and it is obviously statistically all over the place. Also, the lessons to take away from this are never to retake if you are over a 30 and especially don't retake BLIND. Perhaps take your first MCAT earlier in the summer so you don't run into the time crunch situation that forced my hand. Sry for the long thread...
I just got my score back and it went down considerably: 31S. All my subscores were still at or above 10s so at least its somewhat well spread out but I feel like I ruined my chances at some of the more competitive schools I was looking at (though I still have a 3.96 GPA at UMich to fall back on).
The weird thing is I felt so much better about the second exam, but I guess it had a much stricter curve. What do people think about this? Obviously I shouldn't have retaken but the nature of the test is such that you can feel so unsure/broken at the end of the exam that there is no way of really knowing how you did and the more you think about it, the worse it becomes in your head. And when you think it went really well, it throws a curveball at you. How consequential will such a drop be given that both exams occurred over a course of 7 days. I can definitely explain myself and the situation in my interviews, I am just shocked frankly that, statistically, there could be that much change in 1 week. I just wish I could reverse my two score dates. I'm not saying a 31 is a terrible score, but I would have bet a million dollars that the two scores would have been reversed and I essentially retook to get that elusive 35 which I had already achieved.
In summary, the MCAT is such a poor indicator of ANYTHING. It tests less than 1% of what you study and memorize over the course of months and it is obviously statistically all over the place. Also, the lessons to take away from this are never to retake if you are over a 30 and especially don't retake BLIND. Perhaps take your first MCAT earlier in the summer so you don't run into the time crunch situation that forced my hand. Sry for the long thread...
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