tinylilron said:
You have a good MCAT score I think you will be fine. I however have the opposite issue. I have a great GPA 3.7 and a bad MCAT score... I haven't taken them yet but I have been studying since October with Kaplan... this is my second time taking the course. I had 24's which is average but on my last practice exam which was the last one that I was going to take was a 19. I was so disappointed I thought I did better on that exam. I really want to go to a DO school more than an MD school even though it is more expensive but I do not know what to do about my MCATs. I feel as if there is not much more I can do. I have a lot of research and volunteer experiences as well both medicine and non-medicine related. I know I want to go to DO school, go into primary care, learn Osteopathic Manipulative Therapies and use my skills to help underserved areas in both the United States and the world.
Well despite the fact that you do not need to be pitching your reasons for going DO to me.. this is my advice for your MCAT woes based on my anecdotal evidence (suspect, I know)...
Are you doing the online work for Kaplan? I did about 60-70 percent of it and only when I did it, Kaplan helped and improved my scores. It was obvious that Kaplan helped also when I took the practice tests... each time I took a practice exam, I gained confidence which is where I lacked. I started with a 21 diagnostic and a 24 first full-length. My last full-length was a 29 and on the real deal I got 3 points higher on the VR section... on a side note:
For verbal reasoning during the pracice exams, I plateaued at a 10... the last three practice exams, I got a 10. On the morning of the exam, I thought, "I might as well try Kaplan methods." Kaplan recommends reading something in the social sciences or humanities to allow your mind to change gears. On an impulse, I grabbed my fiance's Economics book on my way out the door.
On my previous exams, I had always had trouble switching gears... the first two or three verbal sections always took me at least 8-10 minutes which is more time than one should use which often caused me to rush the last few sections and/or guess on some. On test day, the first passage took me 4 minutes, the second less than 6 bc I had already switched gears due to reading the econ book... I finished the VR section 7 minutes early and went back through to look over my answers briefly. Low and behold, I got a 13 rather than a 10. Moral of the story, much of the reason for people who have made it through the prerequisities still getting low MCAT scores is that they have to modify their thinking for the MCAT exam, because it is so intense. Try new things in your final practice exams... You will find that anything which calms you down or allows you to pace better will vastly improve your scores. Oh, and do your review course stuff outside of class, too. I think I could have even gotten higher had I taken my summer physiology course prior to taking the exam
Just allow yourself to relax and do well.
You can do better on the MCAT, I promise.
