Can I have your opinion?

[strife97]

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Hi everyone,

I'm getting ready to take the MCAT this April. How important do you think those prepatory classes are in helping students to attain higher scores?

Also, I hate to sound like a *****, but is a C in one semester of Organic Chemistry an automatic disqualification?

So far, my GPA=3.5 and science GPA=3.127 🙁

In your extensive experience with this topic...what do you think of these stats? I still have this year to bring up my GPA and science GPA.

Thanks for your time!

 

[TTSD]

C's are never a disqualification, neither are D's, and neither are F's really.

Your stats are not too bad. If you shore them up with good MCAT scores, good EC's and LORs and a good interview.. you stand a good chance.

 

[exmike]

Originally posted by strife97
Hi everyone,

I'm getting ready to take the MCAT this April. How important do you think those prepatory classes are in helping students to attain higher scores?

Also, I hate to sound like a *****, but is a C in one semester of Organic Chemistry an automatic disqualification?

So far, my GPA=3.5 and science GPA=3.127 🙁

In your extensive experience with this topic...what do you think of these stats? I still have this year to bring up my GPA and science GPA.

Thanks for your time!

you definitely arent screwed. bump up that gpa .2 or so, get a greater than 30 on your mcat and you have a shot i'd say. take a prep course. it'll help.

 

[swampfox]

Prep courses are helpful, but mostly for people who need the rigid schedules designed by Kaplan, P-Review, etc. If you are able to study on your own and put in the time, then a good set of prep materials may be all you need.

I took a prep course before my first MCAT when I was a Junior in college. It helped me out, especially since I had had most of my sciences in my earlier years and my major was non-science. I can say the course definitely helped me achieve a good score.

I recently took the MCAT again, but this time I studied on my own using some exellent prep materials. I studied diligently on my own schedule and ended up scoring 3 points higher on the test, even though I graduated from school 3 years ago.

In summary, it depends on your study style. I would definitely recommend the study materials from ExamKrackers - they were excellent.

 

[strife97]

Thank you very much for your help. I was thinking of taking kaplan or princeton review prep class. One of them starts in January and goes up until the weekend before the MCAT. So, that should be a nice semester.

Did you take less credit hours when you were taking the prep class?

 

[PianoGirl04]

I highly recommend the Kaplan course, but I know nothing about ExamKrackers or The Princeton Review. The strength of the Kaplan course is its structured review/homework assignments and timed, proctored practice tests. I'm sure EK or TPR also has those, so you're probably good with any prep course. I would definitely do a prep course, though...it really helped me schedule my studying and re-learn all the important info. One caution about the January Kaplan course is that it meets 2x/week. If you take the one that starts in October or November, you'll only meet once a week.

 

[Gleevec]

Whichever MCAT course you take, do ALL the practice problems and practice tests. The lecture is sorta worthless, but the practice materials are priceless IMHO.

 

[DD214_DOC]

Save yourself $1200 and just buy the prep materials. The prep course is really designed for people who aren't motivated enough to study on their own.

As someone posted a week or so ago, if you're not motivated enough to study for the MCAT on your own, you don't need to be applying to med school.

 

[Clemson Doc]

I highly recommend Examkrackers materials for MCAT prep. They even have a bulletin board on their website where the two authors will answer any science question within 24 hours. Definitely top notch MCAT prep if you ask me.

Your numbers look good. There will be people with better numbers than you rejected, and there will be people with worse numbers accepted. Don't listen to anyone who tells you that it's only about GPA and MCAT scores (although those are obviously very important). They don't know what they are talking about.

If nothing else, your extracurricular involvement, your personal statement, and your recommendation letters can definitely make a huge difference in your application.

 

[swampfox]

Strife97-

In my situation, I did take a full load of classes while taking a P-Review course to prepare for the MCAT. That semester was tons of fun with the MCAT scheduled almost simultaneously with my week of finals. I did well, but I had almost zero free time nearing the end of the semester.

-swamp