19P on MCAT? Has anyone gotten into a DO school with that?

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rad0nc said:
Please do not be offended by what I am about to say. I am just trying to be realistic and give you a fair warning about what you are trying to do.

I have no doubt that you could eventually get into some DO school if you keep trying. The other question you should be asking is should you try to get into medical school. It would be one thing if you had just taken the test once and got a 19, but you also studied for five months and got a 17 O. I doubt if a dumptruck of Adderall can bring that up to a decent score. Also, you can't study for the USMLE exams for 5 months. You will be lucky if you get 5 weeks. In my opinion, the step exams are much more difficult than the MCAT. Your life in medical school would be absolutely miserable.

I feel like too often we encourage people to go to medical school to their own detriment. If you were getting 25-26 than that would be something that was salvageable. These standardized tests are a function of your brain's ability to memorize and interpret information. Unfortunately, not everyone is capable of getting > 30 on the MCAT. This is not a knock on you at all, it just is what it is.

Once again, I am certain that you can get into medical school. However, if you were my personal friend I would tell you to do something more suited towards your individual skills.
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👍 Ballsy post, but totally true. Step 1 makes the mcat look like a preschool exam. Not just the sheer amount of information you are required to memorize, but the fact that you have to sit there digging to even figure out what the questions are even asking about makes it an absolute biatch. None of this single step problem solving stuff like on the mcat...more like 3 or 4 steps.
 
willen101383 said:
👍 Ballsy post, but totally true. Step 1 makes the mcat look like a preschool exam. Not just the sheer amount of information you are required to memorize, but the fact that you have to sit there digging to even figure out what the questions are even asking about makes it an absolute biatch. None of this single step problem solving stuff like on the mcat...more like 3 or 4 steps.
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well ****... now im worrying :scared:
 
tenndoc said:
well ****... now im worrying :scared:
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You had a 28. The pass rate for the USMLE does not change between 27-45 significantly. I wouldn't worry all that much. However your school of attendance does have a lower pass-rate.
 
serenade said:
You had a 28. The pass rate for the USMLE does not change between 27-45 significantly. I wouldn't worry all that much. However your school of attendance does have a lower pass-rate.
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Hopefully that will be changing soon 😉 damn waitlists
 
LivingPeace said:
One of my best friends got an acceptance into an Osteopathic Medical School this cycle. He applied early( June), but had a slightly better MCAT, 21P & his GPA was a 3.7. Don't give up. Wish you the best.
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thanks I really needed this boost!
 
LivingPeace said:
One of my best friends got an acceptance into an Osteopathic Medical School this cycle. He applied early( June), but had a slightly better MCAT, 21P & his GPA was a 3.7. Don't give up. Wish you the best.
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Is that person an AA? Did that person get into Pikeville? If these are not the case, he/she must have had stellar ECs.
 
Lol I know it's bad. Why I'm waiting for my state school to give me some love. But I'm in regardless
 
tenndoc we weren't betting on you homie... we were betting on the person that temperature 101 was commenting about. If you end up at pikeville then you will just make that school better, won't you?
 
dntke1518 said:
tenndoc we weren't betting on you homie... we were betting on the person that temperature 101 was commenting about. If you end up at pikeville then you will just make that school better, won't you?
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Ha I know. I would have put my money on one of the newer schools
 
willen101383 said:
Its funny....ive never actually met a caribbean GRAD. But I have met like 4 or 5 caribbean dropouts lol.
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I know a few residents. One is a chief resident and is headed to a cardiology fellowship.
 
willen101383 said:
👍 Ballsy post, but totally true. Step 1 makes the mcat look like a preschool exam. Not just the sheer amount of information you are required to memorize, but the fact that you have to sit there digging to even figure out what the questions are even asking about makes it an absolute biatch. None of this single step problem solving stuff like on the mcat...more like 3 or 4 steps.
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I also don't agree with this. 257 on Step 1 with a 30 on the MCAT. I thought step 1 was a much more reasonable test of knowledge, as the majority of the test questions are straight forward and application of knowledge that has been crammed in your head for many years. I'll take step 1 over the MCAT any day of the week.

I'm confused though... have you even taken USMLE 1 yet? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=12466857#post12466857

"I am about a month out at this point" - 5/2/2012 from Willen on the step 1 forums. If not, whey are you on here talking like you have any idea what you are talking about?
 
fahimaz7 said:
I also don't agree with this. 257 on Step 1 with a 30 on the MCAT. I thought step 1 was a much more reasonable test of knowledge, as the majority of the test questions are straight forward and application of knowledge that has been crammed in your head for many years. I'll take step 1 over the MCAT any day of the week.

I'm confused though... have you even taken USMLE 1 yet? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=12466857#post12466857

"I am about a month out at this point" - 5/2/2012 from Willen on the step 1 forums. If not, whey are you on here talking like you have any idea what you are talking about?
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called out! 😱
 
fahimaz7 said:
I also don't agree with this. 257 on Step 1 with a 30 on the MCAT. I thought step 1 was a much more reasonable test of knowledge, as the majority of the test questions are straight forward and application of knowledge that has been crammed in your head for many years. I'll take step 1 over the MCAT any day of the week.

I'm confused though... have you even taken USMLE 1 yet? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=12466857#post12466857

"I am about a month out at this point" - 5/2/2012 from Willen on the step 1 forums. If not, whey are you on here talking like you have any idea what you are talking about?
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I am taking it in a week. Ive done 3 NBMEs and 2090 UW questions and another 1000 kaplan questions. Yeah, I havent taken it yet but I think I have a pretty good idea of what the test is like. I will come back here in a week after I take it and reiterate the exact same thing, since that apparently gives me so much more insight into the exam.
 
hmania said:
called out! 😱
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Fahamaz has been trying to call me out over little nitpicky things for no apparent reason for years now. I am well used to it at this point.

As for you, focus on your MCAT. 😉
 
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willen101383 said:
I am taking it in a week. Ive done 3 NBMEs and 2090 UW questions and another 1000 kaplan questions. Yeah, I havent taken it yet but I think I have a pretty good idea of what the test is like. I will come back here in a week after I take it and reiterate the exact same thing, since that apparently gives me so much more insight into the exam.
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So what you're saying is that you haven't taken the test yet. Don't come on here and thump your chest about an exam that you haven't taken yet. The MCAT is a hard test and should be given some damn respect. It's the second hardest test that I've taken in my life and will most likely remain that way throughout my training. Don't come back here in a week.. Come back here when you get your test score back and you see how much easier it is to "well" on it than it is to do well on the MCAT. MCAT has what.. 24 avg with a 27 being the average applicant and a 30 being the average accepted? It's way easier to get a 224 (average my year) than it is to get over a 30 on the MCAT.

Doing 2k questions should have showed you that 75% of them are a piece of cake. The other 25% are used to separate out the test takers and their knowledge base. Out of the 300+ questions on that test I only had issues with about 30 of them. Shows how easy most of the test actually is when you get ready to take it. So does the 99% pass rate that my class had.
 
fahimaz7 said:
I also don't agree with this. 257 on Step 1 with a 30 on the MCAT. I thought step 1 was a much more reasonable test of knowledge, as the majority of the test questions are straight forward and application of knowledge that has been crammed in your head for many years. I'll take step 1 over the MCAT any day of the week.

I'm confused though... have you even taken USMLE 1 yet? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=12466857#post12466857

"I am about a month out at this point" - 5/2/2012 from Willen on the step 1 forums. If not, whey are you on here talking like you have any idea what you are talking about?
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stalk much?
 
tenndoc said:
stalk much?
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Not really. It was easy to see that he hasn't taken Step 1 yet by how much he belittled the MCAT. He was trying to make medical school out to be much harder than it actually is.
 
fahimaz7 said:
So what you're saying is that you haven't taken the test yet. Don't come on here and thump your chest about an exam that you haven't taken yet. The MCAT is a hard test and should be given some damn respect. It's the second hardest test that I've taken in my life and will most likely remain that way throughout my training.

Doing 2k questions should have showed you that 75% of them are a piece of cake. The other 25% are used to separate out the test takers and their knowledge base. Out of the 300+ questions on that test I only had issues with about 30 of them. Shows how easy most of the test actually is when you get ready to take it. So does the 99% pass rate that my class had.
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Thumpin my chest? Please, making a statement about an exam I have a pretty damn good idea about is hardly thumpin my chest. However, announcing your step 1 score is. 75% of them area piece of cake.....once you get used to the questioning style and get toward the end of your studying. So you are telling me you were killing u world questions from the get go? If so, more power to ya. I sure as hell wasnt, I was averaging in the low 50s for a long time. Once I finished my first pass through FA my scores on UW skyrocketed because I had the whole picture.

As for the MCAT it was more difficult in terms of physically having to make calculations and the like, and math isnt my strong suit. I dont disagree that the MCAT was difficult, because it was. I only really put a few weeks of studying into the MCAT, as opposed to 6 weeks of really intense USMLE/COMLEX studying. So for me that WILL MAKE (happy now?) the exam harder. I will let you know next week.
 
fahimaz7 said:
Not really. It was easy to see that he hasn't taken Step 1 yet by how much he belittled the MCAT. He was trying to make medical school out to be much harder than it actually is.
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I have posted plenty about how I thought med school to be an easier lifestyle than working. I dont really think M1 and M2 were really that bad in terms of time spend studying vs working..where I was working 60ish hours a week.

I am glad you thought step 1 was an easy exam, and your score reflects that. However, not everyone thinks that. Id be damn happy if I got a 257 on step 1....however I significantly doubt that will happen. We shall see.
 
willen101383 said:
Thumpin my chest? Please, making a statement about an exam I have a pretty damn good idea about is hardly thumpin my chest. However, announcing your step 1 score is. 75% of them area piece of cake.....once you get used to the questioning style and get toward the end of your studying. So you are telling me you were killing u world questions from the get go? If so, more power to ya. I sure as hell wasnt, I was averaging in the low 50s for a long time. Once I finished my first pass through FA my scores on UW skyrocketed because I had the whole picture.

As for the MCAT it was more difficult in terms of physically having to make calculations and the like, and math isnt my strong suit. I dont disagree that the MCAT was difficult, because it was. I only really put a few weeks of studyingUSMLE/COMLEX studying. So for me that WILL MAKE (happy now?) the exam harder. I will let you know next week.
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good luck! now back to mcat!
 
hmania said:
good luck! now back to mcat!
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Thank you, I am puttin in some heavy hours right now and cant wait for it to be over. I have almost 2 weeks off before rotations start...really looking forward to that.
 
willen101383 said:
I have posted plenty about how I thought med school to be an easier lifestyle than working. I dont really think M1 and M2 were really that bad in terms of time spend studying vs working..where I was working 60ish hours a week.

I am glad you thought step 1 was an easy exam, and your score reflects that. However, not everyone thinks that. Id be damn happy if I got a 257 on step 1....however I significantly doubt that will happen. We shall see.
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Did I say step 1 was easy? No.. I said that both tests are difficult exams.

I averaged 75% right in Uworld after it was said and done.

Try not to scare pre-meds off because you're at home stressed about step 1. It's not a mythical beast of a test. It's primarily recall from your classes with some application questions mixed in to make life interesting. I never studied for any test like I studied for step 1.

PS. You called the MCAT a preschool exam. That's what started this **** to begin with. No simple questions on Step 1? How about the post-mastectomy that can't abduct her arm past 90 degrees and has an exam of the following ...

wing02a.jpg


If that requires 3-4 steps of reasoning then I'll quit arguing this point.
 
fahimaz7 said:
Did I say step 1 was easy? No.. I said that both tests are difficult exams.

I averaged 75% right in Uworld after it was said and done.

Try not to scare pre-meds off because you're at home stressed about step 1. It's not a mythical beast of a test. It's primarily recall from your classes with some application questions mixed in to make life interesting. I never studied for any test like I studied for step 1.

PS. You called the MCAT a preschool exam. That's what started this **** to begin with.
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Jeez, agree to disagree already. Both exams are hard. The MCAT isnt a preschool exam, that was a poor choice of words. The MCAT preparation (for me) was like preschool compared to the preparation for the USMLE. Not even in the same ballpark.
 
fahimaz7 said:
Did I say step 1 was easy? No.. I said that both tests are difficult exams.

I averaged 75% right in Uworld after it was said and done.

Try not to scare pre-meds off because you're at home stressed about step 1. It's not a mythical beast of a test. It's primarily recall from your classes with some application questions mixed in to make life interesting. I never studied for any test like I studied for step 1.

PS. You called the MCAT a preschool exam. That's what started this **** to begin with. No simple questions on Step 1? How about the post-mastectomy that can't abduct her arm past 90 degrees and has an exam of the following ...

wing02a.jpg


If that requires 3-4 steps of reasoning then I'll quit arguing this point.
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Well hopefully I get that question. Winged scapula, damaged long thoracic n. Likely damaged during axillary node dissection.
 
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willen101383 said:
I dont disagree that the MCAT was difficult, because it was. I only really put a few weeks of studying into the MCAT, as opposed to 6 weeks of really intense USMLE/COMLEX studying. .
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willen101383 said:
Jeez, agree to disagree already. Both exams are hard. The MCAT isnt a preschool exam, that was a poor choice of words. The MCAT preparation (for me) was like preschool compared to the preparation for the USMLE. Not even in the same ballpark.
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The only reason I called you out is because you said it's a preschool exam. You studied for several weeks for that test as mentioned above. That's not a preschool exam. Perhaps your perception of reality is skewed b/c you haven't left your house in a week and are starting to get loopy over there. Good luck with your test in a week or two. It's really not that bad and you'll do just fine. Just quit posting on SDN and get back to what really matters.
 
Obviously there are going to be simple questions like that, but come on, think back to some of the UW questions that were like this:

A patient presents with (insert vague sx here). A doc tx the pt with X drug. Which is the most likely side effect/MOA etc.

You miss any part in the chain and you are F'd.
 
fahimaz7 said:
The only reason I called you out is because you said it's a preschool exam. You studied for several weeks for that test as mentioned above. That's not a preschool exam. Perhaps your perception of reality is skewed b/c you haven't left your house in a week and are starting to get loopy over there. Good luck with your test in a week or two. It's really not that bad and you'll do just fine. Just quit posting on SDN and get back to what really matters.
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Probably is skewed. Its on the 29th. I am pulling like 12 hour days right now trying to rip through FA one last time and get all these UW questions reviewed.

And thanks man. Ive been doing well on my NBMEs so I am hoping I improve a lil on top of that for the real thing.
 
Remember that pharm on step 1 is the easiest component of the test. Also, UWorld is harder than the real exam...

UWorld 1 81% = 258ish
NBME 11 94% = 258ish.

Those were my scores and percentages prior to the real deal. Shows how much easier the real test is as well as how brutal the curve can be.
 
fahimaz7 said:
Remember that pharm on step 1 is the easiest component of the test. Also, UWorld is harder than the real exam...

UWorld 1 81% = 258ish
NBME 11 94% = 258ish.

Those were my scores and percentages prior to the real deal. Shows how much easier the real test is as well as how brutal the curve can be.
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Yeah, I actually took NBME 11. I hope that is at least somewhat predictive of my score....is that the one you found most accurate?
 
Prometric, Uworld 1&2, and NBME 11 all predicted the same basic score (256-261). I started taking them 2 weeks before my real test. Never went up after that test that was two weeks out. I actually think I capped out my brain about 30 days into studying.
 
good luck
 
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