Anybody taken both April and August MCAT, please comment!

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I have heard many times that both April's and August's MCAT give you a fair chance at getting a score that is representative of were you stand. However, I have also heard anectodal evidence of people going down in score when taking the august MCAT even when 'better' prepared.

For all of those of you that have taken both the August and April MCATs, how have your scores compared?

 

[mikedc813]

22R went up to a 29R

I am confident I made a bubbling mistake in April. My verbal score was a surprising 5 while my practice exams were nothing close to being that low. So my increased score was more due to me not making a stupid mistake than anything else. I found the biological sciences section on the August test to seem much more difficult however. Weird how I improved by 1 point from April in that section.

 

[SaltySqueegee]

This might be of some assistance in answering your question.

Remember, if you gave it "your-all" your first time, chances of increasing are not that high. Only retake, unless you think your score is a fluke, or you didn't study "enough."

<Retester Info.>

 

[mikedc813]

This might be of some assistance in answering your question.

Remember, if you gave it "your-all" your first time, chances of increasing are not that high. Only retake, unless you think your score is a fluke, or you didn't study "enough."

<Retester Info.>

I'm going to more or less agree with this. But sometimes it's not a matter of you not being smart enough to get a good score, it's a matter of HOW you studied for the exam. What I mean is it's a common misconception that the MCAT tests a ton of facts. That's very much false - it certainly requires you to know a broad range of basic science topics, but more times than not the information you need to answer the questions are given to you in the passages. It's being able to understand what you're given and then answer the questions that will make you or break you. You'll notice there is a proportionately small # of questions that as random facts....

 

[Psycho Doctor]

Do the adcoms look at all scores or will they discount the lower one? I mean i know with SATs they say they only look at your highest but the adcom at my school told me that they are all there and of course they look at all the scores and use them all to evaluate a candidate. 🙁

 

[medstylee]

I took both. For April, I took a Kaplan course and studied a ton and then didn't do as well as I would have liked. For the August exam, I studied from my Kaplan book but did not retake the course. I took a bunch of ExamKrakers Verbal exams as well. IN any case, I thought all 3 of the sections were much more difficult on the August test and, after taking it, I was certain that my score was actually going to go down. In any case, my score ended up improving by 3 points (up 2 in Verbal, down 1 in Physical, up 2 in Biological). I don't really have an explanation other than I was probably just more mentally prepared for the test because I had gone through all the motions once before. Good Luck.

 

[medic170]

Statistically, you are more likely score worse, and those who do improve usually only do so by 1 or 2 points. this comes from AMCAS statistics. Don't retake unless you KNOW you were unprepared the first time, or made a misrake, and you KNOW you can do better in August.

 

[mikedc813]

I took both. For April, I took a Kaplan course and studied a ton and then didn't do as well as I would have liked. For the August exam, I studied from my Kaplan book but did not retake the course. I took a bunch of ExamKrakers Verbal exams as well. IN any case, I thought all 3 of the sections were much more difficult on the August test and, after taking it, I was certain that my score was actually going to go down. In any case, my score ended up improving by 3 points (up 2 in Verbal, down 1 in Physical, up 2 in Biological). I don't really have an explanation other than I was probably just more mentally prepared for the test because I had gone through all the motions once before. Good Luck.

I agree with doing better probably because you're not as nervous the 2nd time around since you know the whole routine already (getting there early, how the whole check-in process works, what the atmosphere is like). And also, use Examkrackers. It works infinitely times better than anything else out there. Use it and you'll be thanking me (and everyone else who is praising it)....

 

[Psycho Doctor]

People told me NOT to use EK after that's what i started with.

Can someone please answer me whether adcoms actually look at all mcat scores and count them all or just your highest. See my comment above.

 

[lissa1217]

I am retaking because while i studied my ass off and did alright (VR:10,BS:10,PS:9,W:Q) I never timed myself while doing practice tests..oops. Um I guess thats like important and stuff considering that I was obsessed with the clock during the actual thing and ran out of time on EVERY section. So this time I am timing myself while taking practice tests. I am also going to practice verbal reasoning too, which I sort of didnt do because the first one I took I got a 12. So I was like screw it- everything is fine, I have enough time, and I will do okay. But I was disappointed with the results. I do not believe that the august test will be worse. It cant be.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Do the adcoms look at all scores or will they discount the lower one? I mean i know with SATs they say they only look at your highest but the adcom at my school told me that they are all there and of course they look at all the scores and use them all to evaluate a candidate. 🙁

Very few adcoms, if any at all, will strike your lower MCATs from the record as if it you had never taken them. Most likely they see all your scores and some will emphasize the higher or later ones, and some just use em all.

 

[thewebthsp]

I am retaking because while i studied my ass off and did alright (VR:10,BS:10,PS:9,W:Q) I never timed myself while doing practice tests..oops. Um I guess thats like important and stuff considering that I was obsessed with the clock during the actual thing and ran out of time on EVERY section. So this time I am timing myself while taking practice tests. I am also going to practice verbal reasoning too, which I sort of didnt do because the first one I took I got a 12. So I was like screw it- everything is fine, I have enough time, and I will do okay. But I was disappointed with the results. I do not believe that the august test will be worse. It cant be.

Oh yes it can get worse 🙂. You need to study 12 weeks no more no less to do well. But there are limits, especially in verbal to your top score.