Directions...help please?

[messy dandy]

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Dear all,

I don't know which section I should be posting this in.

I am a non-native English speaker who has been in the U.S. for 10 years. I graduated with a B.A. in Biology Health Profession in 2008. I took the MCAT twice, one in 2008 (B-9, P-8, V-8; composite=26) and 2010 (B-9, P-9, V-7; composite=25). I actually took a the TBR prep course the second time but I did worse! I applied to MD and DO but didn't get in with the 26 MCAT.

I think my problem lies in my verbal. Although I have heard so many advice on how to improve verbal...ex. doing passages, read. I just can't get the innuendos and always tend to misjudge the author's tone. I practiced with EK but my results are pretty inconsistent.

Now I am at a crossroad. I want to be in the health profession so bad that I am thinking of pursuing Nurse Practitioner, P.A., dentist, R.N., or others. Or, I can try taking the MCAT. But, my comprehension is just not up to par for the verbal. Recently I took the GRE with the verbal at 510, not so great, even though I have got the vocabs down.

I am a Mandarin Health Care interpreter at the moment. What should I do?

Thanks for reading.

 

[kraskadva]

Think about it this way... native English speakers have to improve their language skills to pass this. You're starting at a disadvantage, so you have to improve even more than a native English speaker would to get the score you want. That's not intended to be disparaging. Some of the best English speakers I've known have been non-native, but they had to work a lot harder to get there that a native speaker would have.

You say you are a non-native speaker and a Mandarin translator. I'm going to make a few assumptions here- correct me if I'm wrong...Ok?
So, you're from China, you studied very hard in school and passed the TOEFL exam with a fairly high score. Came to the US, and have been studying and working for the last 10 years. Your English was a little rough when you first got here, but between studying and living in the US, you now have no problems communicating with people around you and you feel like you should be passing this part of the exam. You've already taken the MCAT twice, so you only have 1 more shot at it, and you're freaking out a bit.

From what I see in this post and your previous ones, you're still making basic mistakes that you may not realize. It doesn't affect the information you're trying to communicate, but it's not correct either. People around you may or may not notice them, but no one will correct your English because a) it's usually rude and b) they understood what you mean, so it's not that big of a deal to them.

Here's the thing, no matter how many practice questions you do, you won't get the score you want unless you first understand the material being tested, just like with bio or physics. You're already familiar with the methods and format of the test. Doing more practice questions probably isn't going to help. You need to improve your English if you want to improve your score.

Disclaimer: Being just another pre-med myself, and having not taken the MCAT yet (though I've done one of the practice tests, so I understand what's on it) I can't speak as to the best way to prepare for the MCAT as an exam. HOWEVER, having been an EFL teacher for the last 5 years, and prepped many students for English exams, I can speak about ways to improve your English. So....

1) The TOEFL exam is an easy exam. Thousands upon thousands of people world wide pass it every year. It doesn't really mean much, despite its overwhelming popularity in Asia as an indicator of English ability. You need a better indicator of your English skills before you try the MCAT again.

2) The CAE (Cambridge Advanced English) or CPE (Cambridge Proficiency in English) exams would serve you much better.
These are high level exams. The TOEFL tests basic communication ability. These test competency in grammar, vocab, understanding and inference (like getting those innuendos and understanding the tone in the text). To give a kind of relative scale of difficulty- on the first try with no studying, about 80% of native speakers would pass the TOEFL, about 30% of native speakers would pass the CAE, and less than 10% would pass the CPE. From what I've seen, the MCAT verbal section is about half-way between the CAE and the CPE and the questions are very similar.

Do you see where I'm going with this? If you can pass one or both of these, you should be able to get a higher score on the MCAT verbal. And you can take these exams as many times as you want. Don't throw away your last shot at the MCAT until you're positive you can get a higher score.

These exams are administered by the British Council. If you're in a big city, you should be able to find an exam center and a prep class. If not, get the prep books- including the teacher's book, which has all the explanations- and get to studying.

3) Read. A lot. It helps.
For extra fun, buy the book club versions of books, with the discussion questions in the back, and make sure you can answer them. They tend to be fairly heavy on the symbolism and author's intent, so it'd be good practice.

Best of luck to you.

 

[messy dandy]

Thanks for the thorough reply. I came to the US as a junior in high school, and got my Bachelor's here. I took TOEFL after high school. Just a few days ago I practiced on very short passages with questions right after. Even though they are only a paragraph long, I still got most of them wrong. I understood all the vocabs used, but when I was asked whether such and such statement is "true", "false", or "can't tell from passage", I just could not put down the correct answer with confidence.

I have not heard of the CAE and CPE. Will definitely give them a try. Thanks!

 

[theSmurfette]

You've already taken the MCAT twice, so you only have 1 more shot at it

This is incorrect. You can only take the MCAT 3 times a year. There is no lifetime maximum.

Source: https://www.aamc.org/students/apply...serving_examdatesregistrationfaq.html#HowLong

 

[kraskadva]

This is incorrect. You can only take the MCAT 3 times a year. There is no lifetime maximum.

Source: https://www.aamc.org/students/apply...serving_examdatesregistrationfaq.html#HowLong

I stand corrected. Thank you.

Regardless, the OP probably shouldn't sit for it again until he's sure to improve his score, even if it's not his last shot.

 

[The Lady Grey]

A 26 is low but it is not out of the ballpark. I got accepted to a few DO programs and waitlisted at an MD with a 26 and my verbal was only a 7. It also depends on the rest of your application. It may be more your time to beef up other areas.