What % retake mcat?

[makingthejump]

Anyone know what percentage of test takers retake the mcat? I am curious b/c I am debating studying longer and taking it once in january 2015 before it changes...or studying a shorter amount of time and taking it in november so I still have january as a retake option. I'd prefer to just give it my best shot and take it one time knowing that I did as much as I could by doing taking it in january 2015, but I'm not sure if that is the best approach since I wouldn't be able to retake the old version. Thanks for the advice and help!

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[RaidenXVC]

I think that the answer to this question will vary a lot for one person to another, but the general consensus seems to be that you want to allocate the following amounts of time depending on your study schedule if you want to get a score of 30+:

• 6-8 Weeks = 8-10 hours per day
• 3-4 months = 4-6 hours per day
• 4-6 months = 3 hours per day
• >6 months = why bother studying now

I think that waiting until November to take the MCAT is a bit long, unless you have other stuff to take care of in the meantime. As far as the percentage of people that retake the MCAT, I don't actually know the answer to that question, but if I were to guess I would say maybe 1/2 of people that I know have done or plan on doing so. Then again, most people I know took the test before they were ready for it so there's that.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

85% of students take the exam once.

14% take it twice.

1% take it more than twice.

If you'll have 3.5+ months before November, then just take it in November. But don't rush it in November and risk bombing the test just to have a re-take chance.

Good luck!

 

[chemhead123]

I think the issue is that if you don't do well in November, your options are more limited in terms of the deadline with the 2015 test. I just agreed with Next Step in another thread, but I think the advice is again very solid. I never understand the people that rush to take the MCAT...it just never turns out good.