Anyone else sure to be disappointed in score?

[willthatsall]

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I just know that no matter what I get for a score, it is going to be less than what I am hoping for. I know this because my practice test scores were pretty high and I am almost positive that I didn't perform as well on the real thing. I am in a strange position because I think my scores will be pretty good, so I'm not really worried about having to take the MCAT again, but at the same time I don't really want to see them because I know it is going to be somewhat disappointing. And I am going to have to explain it to everyone who knew about my practice scores. Anyone else?

 

[VPDcurt]

You don't have to explain anything to anyone.

 

[phleebie]

I just know that no matter what I get for a score, it is going to be less than what I am hoping for. I know this because my practice test scores were pretty high and I am almost positive that I didn't perform as well on the real thing. I am in a strange position because I think my scores will be pretty good, so I'm not really worried about having to take the MCAT again, but at the same time I don't really want to see them because I know it is going to be somewhat disappointing. And I am going to have to explain it to everyone who knew about my practice scores. Anyone else?

which company (if any) did you take the practice tests thru?

 

[JDAD]

I feel the same way. Practice test right where I wanted to be. Actual performance on test day was awful. I didn't finish the PS, and I had to guess on eight straight. I can think back and I know I missed at least five others.

I am preparing to be absolutely pissed.

 

[willthatsall]

which company (if any) did you take the practice tests thru?

Kaplan and AAMC. It doesn't really have anything to do with the difficulty of the practice tests compared to the real thing, I just know I was sleep deprived when I took the real thing and I think I choked a little more than usual. I do feel like the real thing was a little bit harder than the practices, but that shouldn't affect the score of a standardized test.

 

[willthatsall]

I feel the same way. Practice test right where I wanted to be. Actual performance on test day was awful. I didn't finish the PS, and I had to guess on eight straight. I can think back and I know I missed at least five others.

I am preparing to be absolutely pissed.

Yeah I know what you mean. I actually didn't have a lot of timing problems, only had to guess on 2 on VR, but it's one of those things where you can work your ass off for a couple months and if something goes wrong on test day you just wasted all that work you put in. I guess that's just the nature of the MCAT though. My problem was that I couldn't sleep the night before and I just couldn't concentrate for some of the test. I hardly ever have to guess during bio, but it's like I just wasn't understanding what some of the questions were asking because I was losing focus. It was so disappointing after how hard I had worked to prepare. I was so mad at myself for not being able to sleep. But who knows, part of me thinks that if I got lucky on a couple guesses I could still have a monster score but I know I most likely did a few points worse than my practice scores. That's probably how most people feel though, so I'm probablay just whining. I hate whiners. 👎

 

[TiggidyTooth]

Yeah I know what you mean. I actually didn't have a lot of timing problems, only had to guess on 2 on VR, but it's one of those things where you can work your ass off for a couple months and if something goes wrong on test day you just wasted all that work you put in. I guess that's just the nature of the MCAT though. My problem was that I couldn't sleep the night before and I just couldn't concentrate for some of the test. I hardly ever have to guess during bio, but it's like I just wasn't understanding what some of the questions were asking because I was losing focus. It was so disappointing after how hard I had worked to prepare. I was so mad at myself for not being able to sleep. But who knows, part of me thinks that if I got lucky on a couple guesses I could still have a monster score but I know I most likely did a few points worse than my practice scores. That's probably how most people feel though, so I'm probablay just whining. I hate whiners. 👎

Yo man, I feel you. I hardly think that I did as well as the practice tests. But i do believe that everyone goes through to some degree the same kind of thing simply because you simply cannot simulate that level of test-taking enviornment. Everyone is stressed. Loads of people lost sleep. Buckets of people forgot to pack their lunch in the morning or were annoyed during the actual test taking. These are primarily why most people do better on the real thing than the practice tests, cause primarily people are pre-disposed to freak out. As long as you didnt lose your stuff completely you are fine. At least that is what i keep telling myself 😱

Peace

TOoth

 

[jeffsleepy]

I hate whiners too 😉 . But seriously, that's exactly how I felt in April. I wasn't worried about having to retake it since I knew I would definately get above 30, but I didn't think I did as well as my last couple of diags. I was going on maybe 2 hours sleep since I couldn't fall asleep the night before and everything before lunch was a blur. It turns out that I got 4 pts higher than I ever did, and did the best on the first 2 sections. My score was around 6 points higher than what I had predicted. Moral of the story: you might have done better than you think.

 

[danimastani]

Well, my sister was getting married over the same weekend as my MCAT so of course, I was sleep deprived and emotionally unstable. I wasn't even doing that great on practices either since all the wedding prep successfully interceded with my MCAT prep. Anyhow, I bombed the verbal, ran out of time for 4 pessages and for bio, could not focus and it seemed impossibly hard anyways so randomly guessed on almost every pessage. I was in tears when done; so empty and wanted to void it but didn't because of that little flame of hope. I had MCAT score of mid-20's in Aug 2003, and i really hope i didnt get a 20 this time. I don't wanna see my score though; rather die than have my heart broken. Can't take it any more times because this was my second and last year of applying. I am very sad though. 🙁

 

[shawty ya'head]

dude..

that was such a sad post, don't worry, you will be ok. i'm waiting for my score too, i was barely above 30 on practices. i'm hoping i did better, but let's see, i def bombed bio sci. it was the toughest section i've ever taken. the point is, no sweat, you should be fine. and if you want to be a doc, get it done!! no matter how many times you take it or apply or if you have to go to a differnt country or mars or the carribean, don't let anyone put any shame on what you do as long as you get your goal.
-neet

ps. you don't have to justify ****, you don't have to impress ****, you have to live your life.

 

[MoosePilot]

Well, my sister was getting married over the same weekend as my MCAT so of course, I was sleep deprived and emotionally unstable. I wasn't even doing that great on practices either since all the wedding prep successfully interceded with my MCAT prep. Anyhow, I bombed the verbal, ran out of time for 4 pessages and for bio, could not focus and it seemed impossibly hard anyways so randomly guessed on almost every pessage. I was in tears when done; so empty and wanted to void it but didn't because of that little flame of hope. I had MCAT score of mid-20's in Aug 2003, and i really hope i didnt get a 20 this time. I don't wanna see my score though; rather die than have my heart broken. Can't take it any more times because this was my second and last year of applying. I am very sad though. 🙁

Why are you only giving yourself two chances?

 

[frank51]

I just know that no matter what I get for a score, it is going to be less than what I am hoping for. I know this because my practice test scores were pretty high and I am almost positive that I didn't perform as well on the real thing. I am in a strange position because I think my scores will be pretty good, so I'm not really worried about having to take the MCAT again, but at the same time I don't really want to see them because I know it is going to be somewhat disappointing. And I am going to have to explain it to everyone who knew about my practice scores. Anyone else?

How can you be so certain, do you know for a fact how many questions you missed? I can tell you that I made at least one stupid mistake on the BS section that I keep thinking about.

 

[phleebie]

whatever my score is, i just hope i dont have to retake the damn test. that sounds like an absolute nightmare.

 

[NonTradMed]

I was afraid i wouldn't be able to fall asleep the night before and i took something to help me sleep, the problem was i didn't count on being so exhauasted that this tipped me over to the point that I felt tired for the next day.

The absolutely worst thing happened, I was so tired i couldn't even think straight for some of the questions. I KNOW i did bad on the PS because i had to guess on some of the questions (or maybe more than some : 😕 ), the VR was better b/c I typically do better on it than PS anyway, but by the afternoon i thought this would wear off, but the BS was only slightly better....I was kicking myself for putting myself through such a killer schedule the past few weeks leading up to the MCAT. I guess I shoudl institute an MCAT sleep schedule two months before the mcat next time.....

I was hoping for something like 32, but based on my drug induced performance, i'll be lucky if i get anywhere close to 30....

 

[MsEvolution]

whatever my score is, i just hope i dont have to retake the damn test. that sounds like an absolute nightmare.

exactly

 

[willthatsall]

How can you be so certain, do you know for a fact how many questions you missed? I can tell you that I made at least one stupid mistake on the BS section that I keep thinking about.

Well on practice tests I missed <5 per section usually. I don't know exactly how many on the real thing, but definitely more than that. I probably guessed on that many alone.

 

[silkworm]

I wasn't tired during the test but my experience definitely echos others here. PS was okay, but during bio section for the life of me I couldn't focus on the problems, it seems the questions just flow through my brain without stopping in the problem-solving parts. I don't think I ever guessed that much in a practice test.

 

[frank51]

I wasn't tired during the test but my experience definitely echos others here. PS was okay, but during bio section for the life of me I couldn't focus on the problems, it seems the questions just flow through my brain without stopping in the problem-solving parts. I don't think I ever guessed that much in a practice test.

I though the BS was different in that it was very much passage based and required you to look at graphs, data, etc. to answer the questions.

 

[VFrank]

Ok, seriously, you have NO idea how you really did on the test until you get your scores back. I posted the story of my MCAT day on an earlier post, but I think it's appropriate here:

I didn't get to bed until about 3am the night before because my sleep schedule was so off from studying late at night. It was actually pretty terrible because my boyfriend went to bed at 11 with me and fell right asleep and started snoring, so I had to wake him every hour and tell him to shut up. So then we got into a fight and that was a bad idea. Then the next morning, I went to the test center, but forgot my admission ticket, so I had to super-fast ride my bike back to the sorority house to get it. By the time I got back, I was maybe the 10th-to-last person into the testing center, so they put me next to the super-noisy vent that wouldn't be so bad if they didn't keep turning it on and off throughout the day (it groans for about 20 seconds while its being turned on and off). Then during the first section, this kid next to me kept moving around in his seat and making it squeak and kept tap-tap-tapping his pencil. So I spent about seven minutes of test-taking time debating whether or not to tell him to please stop tapping that damn pencil. When I finally asked him to stop, he scowled at me and kept doing it. So that was bad. I had to guess on maybe 4-5 questions at the very end. During the lunch break, I was seriously inches away from canceling my test scores because I thought I had gotten, like, an 8 on the physical science section. But then I decided there was no way in hell I was ever studying for this test again, so I nixed that idea, put my head down and finished the test, even though I was POSITIVE I had done horribly.

And I did fine. The truth is, lots of people don't feel the same on test day as they did during the practice tests. That's because practice tests are less-stressful than the real thing. I'm willing to bet that all those people who achieved or beat their practice-test scores on actual test-day didn't feel like they rocked the test -- I think it's almost impossible to feel that way due to the nature of the test and the test-taking environment. So, seriously, don't psych yourself out before you even know what you got. I bet more than half of you worry-worts will be pleasantly surprised in the end.

 

[JDAD]

How can you be so certain, do you know for a fact how many questions you missed? I can tell you that I made at least one stupid mistake on the BS section that I keep thinking about.

I know that I made at least four stupid mistakes on the PS that I still think about. That section of my test is going to be killer. I walked in thinking no less than 12, now I am guessing 9.

 

[frank51]

I know that I made at least four stupid mistakes on the PS that I still think about. That section of my test is going to be killer. I walked in thinking no less than 12, now I am guessing 9.

Lets just hope we all end up doing well, stupid mistakes cost everyone points, I guess it's just one of those things that you can't avoid, no matter how carefull you try to be.

 

[superso]

I have an F form and was getting 11, 10's on my physicals before. I KNOW i got less than an 8 b/c i straight guessed on about 15 questions. the only hope is that everyone else found F F'n hard

 

[Khenon]

I would have more faith in my abilities if I hadn't already scored a 22 in April . . . and I thought I did "okay." In August I got my butt kicked in BS, VR was okay, but not great, and PS I had to scream through the last 2 passages and the final stand alones (mostly guessing). I just don't see how I could have done much better than a 22. My practice (AAMC) scores were 25, so maybe I got that. Who knows.

 

[wendywellesley]

Ok, seriously, you have NO idea how you really did on the test until you get your scores back. I posted the story of my MCAT day on an earlier post, but I think it's appropriate here:

I didn't get to bed until about 3am the night before because my sleep schedule was so off from studying late at night. It was actually pretty terrible because my boyfriend went to bed at 11 with me and fell right asleep and started snoring, so I had to wake him every hour and tell him to shut up. So then we got into a fight and that was a bad idea. Then the next morning, I went to the test center, but forgot my admission ticket, so I had to super-fast ride my bike back to the sorority house to get it. By the time I got back, I was maybe the 10th-to-last person into the testing center, so they put me next to the super-noisy vent that wouldn't be so bad if they didn't keep turning it on and off throughout the day (it groans for about 20 seconds while its being turned on and off). Then during the first section, this kid next to me kept moving around in his seat and making it squeak and kept tap-tap-tapping his pencil. So I spent about seven minutes of test-taking time debating whether or not to tell him to please stop tapping that damn pencil. When I finally asked him to stop, he scowled at me and kept doing it. So that was bad. I had to guess on maybe 4-5 questions at the very end. During the lunch break, I was seriously inches away from canceling my test scores because I thought I had gotten, like, an 8 on the physical science section. But then I decided there was no way in hell I was ever studying for this test again, so I nixed that idea, put my head down and finished the test, even though I was POSITIVE I had done horribly.

And I did fine. The truth is, lots of people don't feel the same on test day as they did during the practice tests. That's because practice tests are less-stressful than the real thing. I'm willing to bet that all those people who achieved or beat their practice-test scores on actual test-day didn't feel like they rocked the test -- I think it's almost impossible to feel that way due to the nature of the test and the test-taking environment. So, seriously, don't psych yourself out before you even know what you got. I bet more than half of you worry-worts will be pleasantly surprised in the end.

🙂 thank you so much for posting this. I hope I did as well as you did.

oh..... I -heart- SDN.

 

[LiNk]

And I did fine. The truth is, lots of people don't feel the same on test day as they did during the practice tests. That's because practice tests are less-stressful than the real thing. I'm willing to bet that all those people who achieved or beat their practice-test scores on actual test-day didn't feel like they rocked the test -- I think it's almost impossible to feel that way due to the nature of the test and the test-taking environment. So, seriously, don't psych yourself out before you even know what you got. I bet more than half of you worry-worts will be pleasantly surprised in the end.

thank you, that was so soothing. I don't know anyone who took the august mcat so unfortunately I've had to go at this alone. I keep trying to remember what was on the test and the questions I remember are of course the ones I got wrong or guessed on. I live in St. Lucie Co (ie hit by 2 hurricanes) and just got power back 2 days ago. I was without power for almost a total of 3 weeks... with no power night after night there wasn't much to do besides read, play chess and think about the mcat. Well somehow in that time, my idea of how I did changed from realistic to pessimistic - I've totally been dwelling on the negatives. Who even knows what realistic is anyway. I mean, there are so many variables... only time will tell

 

[RayhanS1282]

Heh...how certain am I that my score sucked....I already started buying MCAT books for the one in 2005.

 

[sshaltoni]

whatever my score is, i just hope i dont have to retake the damn test. that sounds like an absolute nightmare.

YES YES YES!!! please... please... please... please...

 

[Nakhrewali]

YES YES YES!!! please... please... please... please...

there ain't no way in hell I'm retaking this test for a third time...so if it didn't happen this time, I'm going to have to bid adieu to this once and for all...and I'll always wonder what it would have been like to be an MD...sniff sniff
🙁

 

[shawty ya'head]

there ain't no way in hell I'm retaking this test for a third time...so if it didn't happen this time, I'm going to have to bid adieu to this once and for all...and I'll always wonder what it would have been like to be an MD...sniff sniff
🙁

disagreed nakhrewali....you want to be a doc, go do it...doesn't matter where, go to the carribean, a 3rd world country...who gives a fu*k...

if you have to do it a 3rd time, do it....no sweat, don't give up...i think you'll be straight though, people who put enough effort in their 2nd time do better than their 1st....yeah i know, f*ck the statistics or whatever AAMC says by stats...

holla at me when you're an MD
that rhymes
haha, i'm a rapper

-neet

in west philly, this punju was born and raised....on the playground...la la la..

 

[Nakhrewali]

disagreed nakhrewali....you want to be a doc, go do it...doesn't matter where, go to the carribean, a 3rd world country...who gives a fu*k...

if you have to do it a 3rd time, do it....no sweat, don't give up...i think you'll be straight though, people who put enough effort in their 2nd time do better than their 1st....yeah i know, f*ck the statistics or whatever AAMC says by stats...

holla at me when you're an MD
that rhymes
haha, i'm a rapper

-neet

in west philly, this punju was born and raised....on the playground...la la la..

hahah! No I definitely know I want to be a doctor but there's a lotta other things I've been thinking about lately... I just graduated in May and I'm getting my MPH at Columbia right now. I'm still young (21) but I'm already thinking about my priorities in terms of when I want to have family and whether it's still feasible for me to say things to my girlfriends like, "Oh yeah...I wanna have 4 kids" and "I'm gonna be a surgeon" when who knows what'll happen. And quite frankly, it'd be kinda nice to be able to make some money rather than stay poor for 4 more years. But I do digress...

I busted my ASS studying for the MCATs this time around and if I didn't do well then I want to peace out. I know I couldn't have done anything differently...and I actually left the test feeling fairly confident. Thanks for the words of encouragement though. 😳

 

[bella_dottoressa]

right on with the physical. i was always strong in bs and vr and sucked at ps on my practices...like a 9 every time, which i would have gladly taken on the real thing with two good scores in the other two. on the real thing i felt like i got about a 4...however i'm holding out hope that i did on par w/ my practices since seemingly everyone with those F__ forms (mine was FH) felt like they got obliterated by physical...

 

[MsEvolution]

right on with the physical. i was always strong in bs and vr and sucked at ps on my practices...like a 9 every time, which i would have gladly taken on the real thing with two good scores in the other two. on the real thing i felt like i got about a 4...however i'm holding out hope that i did on par w/ my practices since seemingly everyone with those F__ forms (mine was FH) felt like they got obliterated by physical...

Bella, you and I were right on par with each other with our practice test scores... I wish you luck! I hope we do well on the real thing! If you got a 4 on PS, I'm sure I got a 3!

Would that we could fast forward through some parts of our lives...

 

[shawty ya'head]

hahah! No I definitely know I want to be a doctor but there's a lotta other things I've been thinking about lately... I just graduated in May and I'm getting my MPH at Columbia right now. I'm still young (21) but I'm already thinking about my priorities in terms of when I want to have family and whether it's still feasible for me to say things to my girlfriends like, "Oh yeah...I wanna have 4 kids" and "I'm gonna be a surgeon" when who knows what'll happen. And quite frankly, it'd be kinda nice to be able to make some money rather than stay poor for 4 more years. But I do digress...

I busted my ASS studying for the MCATs this time around and if I didn't do well then I want to peace out. I know I couldn't have done anything differently...and I actually left the test feeling fairly confident. Thanks for the words of encouragement though. 😳

glad to hear you felt confident leaving the exam....
i certainly didn't...probably because everyone has the tendency to remember the questions they miss and dwell over them...

i also just graduated from school, penn....wharton...business kid, in may...and yeah, i worked in the bussiness world for a while, it sucks...a lot...very not rewarding (incorrect grammer but who cares)....you spend a lot of time making very rich people even richer....thats my 2 cents as to why medicine is so appealing....

 

[Psycho Doctor]

I just know that no matter what I get for a score, it is going to be less than what I am hoping for. I know this because my practice test scores were pretty high and I am almost positive that I didn't perform as well on the real thing. I am in a strange position because I think my scores will be pretty good, so I'm not really worried about having to take the MCAT again, but at the same time I don't really want to see them because I know it is going to be somewhat disappointing. And I am going to have to explain it to everyone who knew about my practice scores. Anyone else?

yup i feel the same way, even though i probably should be relieved that i didn't do even worse b/c as far as i'm concerned i could easily have bombed it

 

[Mistress S]

I am terrified--absolutely terrified when I allow myself to really think about it,--to check my scores. I almost don't want to know. I have spent so much time and money and energy on the application process so far, and if I didn't improve my score I'm going to feel like I wasted all that, and I don't know how to forgive myself if that is the case. I have so much emotionally invested in this process, and there's nothing else I can do at this point, so what good will knowing my scores do?? On the plus side, if I did bomb it at least I can get my $$ back from Kaplan and take a nice trip or something. 🙄 But I would much rather have a better score. I keep reading all these reassuring stories from people who performed 6 points higher on the real thing than they were getting on practice tests, I'd like to believe that could happen to me but after the disappointment last Aug I just can't even let myself hope that. Bottom line, as long as I brought my PS up at least a couple of points and didn't go down in anything else I will be content. Anything less than that, and I'm going to feel miserable. 🙁

 

[joelmamchur]

hahah! No I definitely know I want to be a doctor but there's a lotta other things I've been thinking about lately... I just graduated in May and I'm getting my MPH at Columbia right now. I'm still young (21) but I'm already thinking about my priorities in terms of when I want to have family and whether it's still feasible for me to say things to my girlfriends like, "Oh yeah...I wanna have 4 kids" and "I'm gonna be a surgeon" when who knows what'll happen. And quite frankly, it'd be kinda nice to be able to make some money rather than stay poor for 4 more years. But I do digress...

I busted my ASS studying for the MCATs this time around and if I didn't do well then I want to peace out. I know I couldn't have done anything differently...and I actually left the test feeling fairly confident. Thanks for the words of encouragement though. 😳

I seem to be in a similar situation..... I am still young (a junior), but I seriously cannot imagine taking it a thrid time. If need be, I probably will, but I cannnot guarentee anything. I really do want to be a doctor, and like you, I worked extremely hard for the MCAT this time around. If I bomb the test (< 23, 6 or worse in anything), I will take that as life's little hint for me to choose a different path in life. I was scoring pretty well on the AAMC's (29-30), so we'll see how the real scores turn out.

 

[Karina]

I will be....fo shizzle...oh well!

 

[Nakhrewali]

I seem to be in a similar situation..... I am still young (a junior), but I seriously cannot imagine taking it a thrid time. If need be, I probably will, but I cannnot guarentee anything. I really do want to be a doctor, and like you, I worked extremely hard for the MCAT this time around. If I bomb the test (< 23, 6 or worse in anything), I will take that as life's little hint for me to choose a different path in life. I was scoring pretty well on the AAMC's (29-30), so we'll see how the real scores turn out.

Best of luck to you joelmamchur! Just keep your chin up...there really isn't much more we can do at this point. We'll check our scores...proceed to be affected by it for the rest of the evening or maybe even week...then we'll make a decision as to whether we'll retake/apply or just give up altogether. It sucks. I love how ignorance is bliss and for the last 2 months I've been on cloud 9 because the test was completely outta my mind. Stupid ****... Lemme know how it goes for you! I'm sure you hit the 30 mark!!! 👍

 

[Nakhrewali]

glad to hear you felt confident leaving the exam....
i certainly didn't...probably because everyone has the tendency to remember the questions they miss and dwell over them...

i also just graduated from school, penn....wharton...business kid, in may...and yeah, i worked in the bussiness world for a while, it sucks...a lot...very not rewarding (incorrect grammer but who cares)....you spend a lot of time making very rich people even richer....thats my 2 cents as to why medicine is so appealing....

I probably felt confident leaving the exam because I was focusing on the questions that were familiar and I knew I got right. haha. What sucks is that my boyfriend is an M1 at MSSM-NYU right now and I'm insanely jealous of how his med-school life is so laid back/chill and he's loving what he's doing. I wanna be in his shoes damnit! 🙄

 

[gujuDoc]

I hate whiners too 😉 . But seriously, that's exactly how I felt in April. I wasn't worried about having to retake it since I knew I would definately get above 30, but I didn't think I did as well as my last couple of diags. I was going on maybe 2 hours sleep since I couldn't fall asleep the night before and everything before lunch was a blur. It turns out that I got 4 pts higher than I ever did, and did the best on the first 2 sections. My score was around 6 points higher than what I had predicted. Moral of the story: you might have done better than you think.

Wow I hope this happens to me and that I go up by 6 points.

 

[wendywellesley]

What sucks is that my boyfriend is an M1 at MSSM-NYU right now and I'm insanely jealous of how his med-school life is so laid back/chill and he's loving what he's doing. I wanna be in his shoes damnit! 🙄

I know!! I had dinner with my friend at stony brook and a couple of her friends last night. I want their lives!!! grrr.... 😡

oh... family guy rocks. I like your avatar, nakherwali!

 

[Nakhrewali]

I know!! I had dinner with my friend at stony brook and a couple of her friends last night. I want their lives!!! grrr.... 😡

oh... family guy rocks. I like your avatar, nakherwali!

For the Family Guy comment, you just won +10,000,000 cool points! 👍

 

[N-toxicologist]

I will be disapppointed if I DON'T get an interview..🙁

 

[ASDIC]

I will be dissappointed if I didnt improve significantly