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carlycow said:
My college's Medical school advisor is telling me to push back the mcat, and I don't know if I should. I've been averaging a 517 - 519 on the AAMC FL (519 on the last 2). I have 2.5 weeks before the test, and they are saying since I haven't gotten a 520 yet on a practice test I should push back? This seems wrong to me, but I was wondering what the Adcoms of SDN like @LizzyM and @Goro think?
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Per the AAMC, MD matriculants had an average MCAT of 512, with ORM matriculants having an average MCAT of 514.5 (i.e. half of successful ORM applicants had MCATs below this).

Your practice test scores of 517-519 are competitive for most medical schools other than the most stat-heavy ones, e.g. UChicago, Columbia, Hopkins, NYU, Penn, WashU, etc. (aka the brothel)

However, are you planning to apply this year? If so, your application will be very late. If you are planning to apply during the 2023-2024 cycle, then you will need to ask yourself whether you have plateaued or if you can realistically do better with more time (keeping in mind that the longer you drag this out, the more you will forget!). Just my thoughts.
 
I'd say if you go back and review something you studied from awhile back and you remember all of it, you may have more room in there to keep learning the material.

I studied a ton for boards and about two weeks from my test, I reviewed something I studied about a month and a half prior. I had forgotten some of what I had studied back then. At that point, I knew I was just recycling material and just rode out my time until my exam by lightly reviewing things. My brain was 'full' and I was just replacing old stuff with new stuff I hadn't reviewed. I wasn't cramming anything else into my brain at that point.

If you are at a score plateau and are recycling material in your head, you're probably ready.
 
What are you doing with the FL tests after you take them? Are you looking at every wrong answer? Are you looking at every right answer to be sure you didn't just make a lucky guess? Is there more room for improvement? Do you have the stomach for several more months of studying and practice tests?

At some point, you have to shoot your shot. If you had some bad luck in terms of the questions you get and you ended up with a 516 would you be disappointed and consider retaking?

We do see people who retake a 516; some adcoms think that they are crazy and others see them as ambitious.
 
@carlycow you might want to consider using the Confidential Consult rather than asking questions and then deleting your posts "for privacy". That way, you'll be anonymous but others who have similar questions will see both the question and the answer. Please consider it.
 
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