1st MCAT experience and plan for the future

[HugoBoss_89]

Hello everyone, I am a new member here on a student Doctor network. I’m happy I found this website because over the last few days, I’ve been gaining more confidence to continue pursuing my passion to become a doctor.

I’d like to share my academic background before I share my first MCAT experience. I did very well in elementary school and high school in almost all of my Advanced Placement classes. I had a high 80s average going into university and received multiple scholarships. And university I decided to pursue Nursing as an undergraduate degree. I graduated this year with a degree in a bachelors of science in nursing with an average of 73.795.

In the summer of 2016 I decided to write my MCAT. I was also taking an online women’s and gender studies class for an elective and working as a lifeguard at a local outdoor pool part time. I studied the Princeton review book that I bought online for about 4 weeks. In total I would I put in 10 hours into the book and got through 60% of it. I wrote the mcat and knew I didn’t do well. I got a score of 483 and I was devastated. I thought my chance of being a doctor was over and I i’m very self-conscious and self loathing of my habits and personal life.

Fast forward to now and I want to try this again. I want to do it right, without any other classes getting in the way or working more than 12 hours a week as a new nurse. The Med school I’m applying for considers anything over 500 and anything over 507 is competitive. There were people that got in lower than that but I know my lower GPA doesn’t do me any favours. My med schools break down is 30% UAA / 50% MCAT / 50% MMI (if I get invited).

I’d like to know what else I can be doing to really be successful this time because this is really what I want to do. I want I write in late August. I am a visual and auditory learner. English is my third language. I don’t have any major responsibilities (Pets, Kids, etc.). Any help would be appreciated! Thank you so much in advance.

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[TheAverageDoctor]

You might be at a bit of a disadvantage to start out with since English is your third language (depending on your fluency) and the MCAT happens to be in english. Still, don't be discouraged. This can be done and you can do better!

Do you see any flaws in your previous study schedule? Think about where you can improve, and try again.

What i see is that
1: You only studied for 4 weeks. Most people study way more than that. I studied for 8 and when writing my blog post about it felt like that may appear too short in retrospect. A friend of mine studied for 3 months. Sounds like more time would help.

2: You only got through 60% of the material. Content review is the basis of your success on this thing, and you should try to get through all of it.

3: Did you take any practice tests or do any practice questions? These help a lot for a number of reasons. Key is to get a sense for the type of questions that are asked on the test. You also get a feel for what topics are high yield. Plus these things show you your weaknesses and where you can improve the most.

I recommend finding a study plan over a longer period of time and sticking to it, making sure to improve at least those three things.

Good luck!

 

[Ad2b]

Couple of things:

1. Is your degree from the US? Are you a US citizen? There are some schools that do not admit non-citizen/resident (H1B for instance, in most cases, won't work)

2. Do you have the prereqs taken as part of your nursing program? Typically, these are: gen chem (2 semesters), biology (2 semesters), organic chem (1 semester + 2nd at some schools), biochem, and physics (2 semesters)? Were those taken at a US school?