Bad practice test scores :( exam approaching soon PLEASE HELP !

[southasiandreamer]

Hello,
I think I'm a little burned out with all the studying and not getting to my goals. My practice AAMC scores are around 500 . My Cars score are about 121 and others up and down around 125/126/127. I haven't taken a real exam yet. Should I void my exam score this September or keep it since it would by my first time. I can always use it as a learning experience and study harder for January.

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[paimei42]

I'd void it if you know it's not going to be great. How are you feeling when you finish the exams?

 

[southasiandreamer]

It's hard to judge how I did, toward the end of the sections I get really burned out and out of focus. So I'm just basically going based on test scores. After cars I have to do a lot of pep talk to keep going, since that's a difficult section for me. Is there a way to estimate how you did at the end of the test. I'm just exhausted lol

I'm taking full length soon and in between just doing flash card review and reviewing over wrong and wright answers and topics.

I have issues with CARS timing and focus. I can get the answers correct if my focus on the passage better.
With other sections, my scores tend to improve with more review of topics and getting use to those questions and passages. I just need more practice.

 

[THEBACKANDFORTH]

you do not want to risk a 121 on CARS

 

[paimei42]

I"d void or try and reschedule then.

 

[TwoHighways]

Take it when you’re ready. You aren’t there yet. Medical school is four years and residency is a three year minimum after that. The point being that the process is lengthy anyway and rushing to take the MCAT would be a bad decision.

 

[southasiandreamer]

It's too late to reschedule or cancel I voided the one last month, for some reason I thought I could power though and get a decent score in a month with the exam dates available. Now I just feel bad.

Does it look really bad to have it scored then to do better next time?
I'm only looking into DO programs

 

[gyngyn]

Does it look really bad to have it scored then to do better next time?
I'm only looking into DO programs

To knowingly risk a weak score on a high stakes exam would show very poor judgement.
We're looking for folks with good judgement.

 

[southasiandreamer]

To knowingly risk a weak score on a high stakes exam would show very poor judgement.
We're looking for folks with good judgement.

Thank you so much for your feedback. I really appreciate it

 

[deleted936470]

CARS will take much more than just a couple months to improve on. I'd void this exam and schedule a retake several months out.

 

[Goro]

It's too late to reschedule or cancel I voided the one last month, for some reason I thought I could power though and get a decent score in a month with the exam dates available. Now I just feel bad.

Does it look really bad to have it scored then to do better next time?
I'm only looking into DO programs

SAD, I'm at a DO school, and had a DO Dean who felt that poor choice making on a high-stakes, career deciding exam was enough for an auto-reject. For hard experience, we find that pre-meds who make bad choices maintain that flaw as medical students, to the detriment of their careers.

Hence, do NOT take the MCAT until you are 100% ready for it, even if it means skipping an app cycle. Med schools aren't going anywhere, and by next cycle 1-2 more will have opened their doors.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Goro said it all perfectly.

Be it DO or MD, why would you ever want a bad score on your record? There is absolutely nothing good that can ever come from doing this.

 

[WrenchesToMD]

Solid advice from everyone already. From a personal standpoint, I postponed the MCAT for an entire year because CARS was a significant weak point. It took a year to go from a 121 initial practice to 126 actual, by far the most challenging section to improve for me.

As others have mentioned, it may be good for you to void this upcoming exam to provide ample time to prepare. For reference I took the MCAT twice, voiding the first because of the aforementioned obstacles. I did take the AAMC practice exams twice, though the second round was about 8 months after the first. I found that in that span of time I forgot almost everything that was on them, and they were incredibly accurate at predicting my actual score (+1 from AAMC FL average)

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Here's the thing about the MCAT. You never completely know if you're ready to take it, but you certainly know when you're not ready to take it. If you are hoping for some good fortune from the MCAT gods on test day to magically pull your score up, then you are not ready.

I felt as ready as I could be for three sections. However, I went through the motions in preparing for CARS by doing around 500 to 600 passages thinking that by simply doing more and more I was getting prepared. Well guess how it went? I did great in three sections and faceplanted CARS. I'm applying now hoping to be forgiven for my low CARS score, but so far it's not working out. Don't risk it!

 

[Premed2295]

Dont risk a 121. If you want the "experience" take it and void it in September. Or save your time and money and just take it later.

 

[deleted1006988]

I think it's useful to take the exam and void it so that you get more exam day training. Weirdly enough I feel like people tend to do better on exam day compared to practice test.

Also if you end up getting in there and feeling really good about how you did you might decide to not void at that moment. My SO and I were going in with the plan to void our exams since we didn't do nearly enough prep, but I got lucky with the passages and ended up deciding not to void when I got to the end. Ended up getting a percentile in the high nineties. My SO was pretty annoyed with me not following though with the plan though.

 

[southasiandreamer]

I think it's useful to take the exam and void it so that you get more exam day training. Weirdly enough I feel like people tend to do better on exam day compared to practice test.

Also if you end up getting in there and feeling really good about how you did you might decide to not void at that moment. My SO and I were going in with the plan to void our exams since we didn't do nearly enough prep, but I got lucky with the passages and ended up deciding not to void when I got to the end. Ended up getting a percentile in the high nineties. My SO was pretty annoyed with me not following though with the plan though.
[/QUOTE

Thanks for the feedback I think I had a bit of similar experience. It went a lot smother than practice exams. Now I can only use that experience to be more prepared for next time. If only my practice exam score were a bit better in some sections I would have felt more confident to keep the score! I'm taking this as a positive experience to move in the right direction.