28 on first MCAT last summer, what do I do?

[aakashp127]

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Last summer, I studied for 3 months and took the MCAT at the end of August, got a 28 (12 PS, 6 V, 10 BS). Yes, I know how terrible that 6 looks, Verbal was not my strongest area at all, but luckily I feel good about the other sections.

I am currently a junior in my second semester, and application cycle for next year is coming up. My goal is to get into any MD school I can. My GPA is a 3.479, but by the end of this semester hoping to bump it up to around 3.6. I have good EC's, leadership, I am an ER scribe, have a semester of research, medical mission in Panama, and 100s of volunteer hours. I pretty much HAVE to retake my MCAT if I want any sort of shot at an MD school with that terrible 6 in verbal right?

I plan on retaking my MCAT in mid-July because I get out of school mid May and I figure 2 solid months of studying hardcore will put me in a good position (not really sure how to study verbal besides reading articles and practice practice practice). Considering applications come out in June and I should apply early, will waiting for this MCAT score along with waiting for AMCAS to verify my application hurt me significantly? When should I realisticially apply, early June/late June? Should I take the MCAT earlier? Would I be fine if I applied early and still took the MCAT around July? Should I take a year off?

Thanks a lot, any other advice/suggestions is appreciated!

 

[Goro]

yes

I pretty much HAVE to retake my MCAT if I want any sort of shot at an MD school with that terrible 6 in verbal right?

No

Considering applications come out in June and I should apply early, will waiting for this MCAT score along with waiting for AMCAS to verify my application hurt me significantly?

As early as possible, with the best possible app packet.

When should I realisticially apply, early June/late June? Should I take the MCAT earlier? Would I be fine if I applied early and still took the MCAT around July? Should I take a year off?

 

[mrh125]

edited

 

[lmn]

Yes, but if you haven't been studying any of the other subjects since August, I suggest you make sure not to ignore them while focusing on the verbal. It would be pretty devastating to raise your verbal a few points if that meant dropping in the other subjects

 

[Resilience]

I think if you apply to the right schools you can get in somewhere, as your other sections are great scores. Make sure your PS and any other writing is perfect.

If you do retake it, let me suggest using the examkrackers verbal reasoning book. Like you I was solid in the sciences, but struggling with verbal, and this book helped me out a ton.

Only retake it if you can still get your app in during the first week.

Good luck!

 

[BurghMed]

.

 

[eggs13]

I received a similar score on my first MCAT (10 PS, 6 VR, 12 BS). I took that test in May just after my junior year and eventually decided to retake it in April of my senior year ("forcing" me to take a gap year). I ended up with a 35 (14 PS, 10 VR, 11 BS) and could not be happier with my decision to retake. I studied for BS/PS the same as I did the first go round, but got a princeton review private tutor for verbal (although I'm not so sure they offer private tutoring for individual section anymore based on the accounts of those who have asked me about it--they said they couldn't find any information on said private tutoring). I never really did much reading in high school/college other than out of textbooks and that, coupled with the fact that I'm a pretty slow reader, really hurt me when it came to the verbal section. I opted to go the "take your time and get as many right on the 6 easier passages and guess on all of the questions on the hardest passage, where I was bound to miss quite a few anyway" route and I guess it worked out. I bought the exam crackers 101 verbal passages book and started doing passages untimed and then gradually started doing them for time (number of questions +5 minutes, number of questions +4 minutes, etc. until I was doing well with number of questions +2 minutes).

Hope this helps and good luck!