Any thoughts?

[Fitnessx23]

Hey Guys,
I have been contemplating going to the Caribbean for med school put part of me also does not want to especially with all of the recent talks going on about residency shortages. What do you guys think? I currently have a 3.35cgpa and 3.08sgpa and taking the mcat very soon. If I decide to stay I would retake three science courses I have C's in and bring my cgpa and sgpa to above a 3.5. Would I then have a decent shot with around a 22-26 mcat score? Any good input would be appreciated. Thanks

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[touchpause13]

Why would you go Caribbean?

 

[Fitnessx23]

So I would not have to take the courses over and even if I do take the courses over their is no absolute yes to any DO programs.

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Nope... all I am gonna say... you can find many many threads on it. You will find everything you need to know there. You will not find anything new by rehashing old issues.

 

[touchpause13]

Retake 3 classes or go to the Caribbean and get a subpar education and probably not match


This is not a difficult decision

 

[Stoptheclot]

With grade replacement and shooting for a competitive MCAT score, you'll be fine for DO schools - work hard now and it will pay off!

You will really want to research the recent merger of DO/MD match... as a carib MD you'd be fighting from a very difficult position if you want to have your residency in the US. Its ultimately your choice, but most of what you'll hear here (especially on the preosteo forum!) is that taking the year off, improving your grades and applying DO will put you in a much better position after med school.

 

[JPickos9989]

Hey Guys,
I have been contemplating going to the Caribbean for med school put part of me also does not want to especially with all of the recent talks going on about residency shortages. What do you guys think? I currently have a 3.35cgpa and 3.08sgpa and taking the mcat very soon. If I decide to stay I would retake three science courses I have C's in and bring my cgpa and sgpa to above a 3.5. Would I then have a decent shot with around a 22-26 mcat score? Any good input would be appreciated. Thanks

Are you taking AAMC practice tests? What are your scores on them? Make sure you consistently get 3-4 points above the score you want and then take it. Retake those classes to get your GPA's to 3.5, get a 26 or greater on the MCAT, apply broadly and you will get an acceptance. Unless you have terrible interviewing skills, you will be fine. I wouldn't do the carribean if I were you. If you couldn't get your GPA's up to 3.5 and you get a 24 or lower on your MCAT. Then potentially consider it.

 

[Fitnessx23]

you really think your actual score will be 3-4 points lower? I feel that with taking the last few days easier your score should be the same or even a point or two higher. Based on some of my friends who took it.

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

you really think your actual score will be 3-4 points lower? I feel that with taking the last few days easier your score should be the same or even a point or two higher. Based on some of my friends who took it.

It really could go either way I am afraid. He is just suggesting the conservative approach - shoot high.

I was averaging 32-33 on my final few AAMC's (after like 3-4 months of 30-40hour a week studying). Ended up with a balanced 28 on the real deal. Its not necessarily harder than practice stuff, but its definitely different.

 

[Fitnessx23]

How is it different? Like would you say aamc 10 and 11 are almost the same?

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

How is it different? Like would you say aamc 10 and 11 are almost the same?

Hmm... I guess I would say that on my actual test they mixed more subjects together in a single passage. I found in practice is was essentially: here is a passage on electrodynamics, then here is a passage on genetics, then here is a passage on thermo. On the real thing I found that they mixed topics together.

For instance my first problem was some thing about a bottle held under water and released. So it had kinetics, thermo, and pressure stuff involved. You usually dont get that kind of experience on MCAT prep material, and you definitely dont get it in your courses at your college.

I also thought that the bio section had a lot less "fact based" answers and a lot more analysis questions... Like they give you a big table filled with graphs and data and you have to make some inferences on some hypothetical situation based on that data. Like in practice is like: hey know these hormones, what they do, where they go, and where they come from. On the real thing I found its like: here is some data on some hormone testing, now hypothetically if hormone X acted more like hormone Y based upon this data, where would it most likely come from... stuff like that. Again the idea of mixing parts together. It sort of took it one step further than I had studied...

I would say that the verbal was extremely comparable however.

And no I would not say AAMC 10 or 11 or anything that I studied for that matter was similar. I would still say that they are the "best" study tools you have. But again, the real deal just felt different. I think going in with that mindset (of being ready for anything and any score) will actually bode you well. Get your hands on as many practice problems as you can (from different test companies) and be prepared for anything.

 

[Fitnessx23]

I see, would you say orgo was a significant factor on bio section for your exam?

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

I see, would you say orgo was a significant factor on bio section for your exam?

Nope not really, and even if I had given loads and loads more studying I probably wouldve done about the same. I think the only way I wouldve done better on the orgo passages would have been if I took the MCAT right after organic at school.

However, again be prepared for anything. While statistically organic is usually a smaller portion. There are absolutely versions of the test that have a heavier emphasis on organic. I would hate to be someone who randomly got that version. Other people on here will definitely say that they had a ton of organic on their test and I wholly believe them. So its best to sort of study everything unfortunately.

 

[Fitnessx23]

Thank you. At the end of the day I'll see how I did and if I have to I'll retake.

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Thank you. At the end of the day I'll see how I did and if I have to I'll retake.

Yup, just hit it as hard as you can.. Set realistic goals... and do as many practice problems as physically possible... <--- This right here is why I got a 28 instead of a 33. Its not that I didnt know the material (I read all the books front to back), its that the MCAT isnt testing on whether or not you know the material. Knowing the material is simply a requirement to be able to gauge whether or not you can think critically and solve problems. The only way to really excel in solving problems is simply doing as many practice problems as possible. I certainly did not do enough practice problems.

Good luck! I hope you do well!

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

I will add, now that I am thinking of it. I did find that the organic stuff was not complex like everything else. Organic on the real deal was actually very similar to problems I wouldve gotten in my organic class at school. Pretty straight forward, mild memorization type problems.

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

And also now that I am thinking about it, I will further suggest that you apply US MD/DO if you have aspirations of practicing medicine in the states.

 

[guylewis]

the average of your practice AAMC scores (especially towards the end) is very predictive of where you'll score on the actual test +/- 2 pts. there are outlier test takers who scored a lot worse and a lot better than their practice scores but more often than not, your AAMC scores will predict where youll be scoring with a pretty good accuracy. that's why i urge people not to waste these practice exams early on when they are not ready for them. it hurts to see such a predictive resource be wasted.

And Awesome Souceome is correct: the test will feel much different than the practices. it will feel a lot more difficult (at least it did for me) and the physics and bio sections will feel a lot more like verbal passage analysis rather than discreet knowledge reguritation. but in the end your score will still be close to how you scored on the practices

 

[Fitnessx23]

So do you think someone who has good critical thinking skills might do better if it is more verbal style?

 

[guylewis]

if you are a good test taker who can cut out the crap from the passages and get to the core of the question you will do better. that's what it takes to do well in verbal and that's what it takes to do well on the bio/physics passages

So do you think someone who has good critical thinking skills might do better if it is more verbal style?

 

[Fitnessx23]

This is good news for me

 

[Paul Darlington]

Why would you go Caribbean?

For medical school of course.

 

[Paul Darlington]

To the OP, do you really wanna go into DO or Podiatry? Your status says pre-podiatry or are you confused?

 

[Fitnessx23]

So what part of the aamc exam breakdown would you say the question is more like? Persuasive argument? info presentation? problem solving, etc.

 

[guylewis]

So what part of the aamc exam breakdown would you say the question is more like? Persuasive argument? info presentation? problem solving, etc.

Huh??? Just do well in the entire section. Don't care about the breakdown it's totally of no value. It's just put there to freak out premeds and/or give them false confidence

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

the average of your practice AAMC scores (especially towards the end) is very predictive of where you'll score on the actual test +/- 2 pts. there are outlier test takers who scored a lot worse and a lot better than their practice scores but more often than not, your AAMC scores will predict where youll be scoring with a pretty good accuracy. that's why i urge people not to waste these practice exams early on when they are not ready for them. it hurts to see such a predictive resource be wasted.

And Awesome Souceome is correct: the test will feel much different than the practices. it will feel a lot more difficult (at least it did for me) and the physics and bio sections will feel a lot more like verbal passage analysis rather than discreet knowledge reguritation. but in the end your score will still be close to how you scored on the practices

Every bit of this advice is spot on.

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Huh??? Just do well in the entire section. Don't care about the breakdown it's totally of no value. It's just put there to freak out premeds and/or give them false confidence

Yea the breakdown is some fancy scheme made by prep companies. I did a Princeton review prep course. While I would by no means throw Princeton under the bus (they surely helped), I definitely found that breaking stuff down is absolutely useless. It wastes your time and it puts fear into you. It puts you in the mindset of categorizing things as "hard" "super hard" "insane mode" etc. Just face everything head on. You have to answer everything anyways, why waste your time flipping back and forth through passages deciding which ones to answer first, which ones to avoid. There is no avoidance - I heard somewhere that in order to get at least a 10 in the section you have to at least answer every passage. Like if you only answer 6/7 passages, the best that you can get is a 9. But dont quote me on where I heard that.

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Also prep companies seem to stress "their method" rather than just good old fashion hard work. As if some magic method is the key to doing well... The key is simply doing as many timed practice passages as physically possible. By doing many practice passages you do several things:
1) Get faster
2) Get more confident (the fear factor definitely becomes smaller and you realize its just another test)
3) Become more aware of typical MCAT traps and ways that you can avoid them (this is especially cool, like once you can clearly see a trap its almost laughable how easy some questions become, which surely also helps #2 stated above).

But the ONLY way to achieve those three bonuses is just by doing piles of practices under timed conditions. Not crazy tactics... which is one reason why I really support Examcracker, they use the most bare-bones method.

 

[Fitnessx23]

Yeah I started to do their verbal technique and my score went up significantly. Do you guys think aamc 10's verbal is very similar to the actual tests?

 

[Mr Roboto]

Definitely not. I did every AAMC test there is, plus a few Kaplans, and a Gold Standard.

Absolutely nothing compared to the difficulty of the real VR. On the real thing the passages are longer and the questions more obscure.

Yeah I started to do their verbal technique and my score went up significantly. Do you guys think aamc 10's verbal is very similar to the actual tests?

 

[Fitnessx23]

would you say their more comprehension or something else?

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Yea I mean personally I thought the verbal was about the same, but I could understand the complaints about it having longer and more complicated questions.

All of the questions are comprehension, I am not sure if you are looking for a more specific answer, I am sort of confused. Because yea the entire MCAT is comprehension

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