For those of you who got lower than a 500 on the MCAT, how long did you study?

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ciderbun96

ciderbun96

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I see posts all the time about people who scored highly and who studied for x number of months x times a day. I was just curious about people who typically score <500 and how long you guys studied for - I'm wondering how common it is to study like crazy for this exam yet get below the 50th percentile.

Thank you!
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ciderbun96 said:
I see posts all the time about people who scored highly and who studied for x number of months x times a day. I was just curious about people who typically score <500 and how long you guys studied for - I'm wondering how common it is to study like crazy for this exam yet get below the 50th percentile.

Thank you!
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I got a 498. I was working full time and hadn't taken a physics class at the time. I was originally going to take physics and then take time off to study, but decided to just go for it. I studied the Kaplan books about 15-20 hours a week for about 12 weeks and did maybe 5 practice tests.
 
smurfeyD said:
I got a 498. I was working full time and hadn't taken a physics class at the time. I was originally going to take physics and then take time off to study, but decided to just go for it. I studied the Kaplan books about 15-20 hours a week for about 12 weeks and did maybe 5 practice tests.
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Had you taken biochem before the test?
 
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To be honest, unless you're only studying like 10-15 hours a week....you shouldn't need 3 or 4 months to study for it. You'll forget EVERYTHING you studied anyways so it won't help to get too big of a jump in my opinion. I buckled down the 45 days before my mcat and studied a few hours a day, which equated to about 30 hours a week. In mcat terms, I crammed. lol. But the best thing I found after trying to read from TPR books was to trash those suckers and and just read the KA paragraphs that they have in between videos. I did NOT actually watch the videos because it would take too long, and for the mcat, content is not too important. For P/S, the reddit KA notes and anki deck is all that was needed (130 score). Then, all I did was nextstep full-lengths and used those tests as my "content" review sort of by reading the answer explanations. Also, did all aamc material except the Q-packs. The full lengths and section bank is 100x more important to get the format down. I scored a 511 doing this and I honestly do not feel like a put THAT much effort into it. I was half-as*ing my studying and even got hooked on watching Narcos when I was like 30 days out. Still managed to do well because of the aamc practice I feel.

Never took biochem either. Just memorized the AA's and their properties. Reddit has some good subs about ways to remember which ones are non-polar, acidic, basic, etc.
 
Honestly, if you are not gunning for AZPOD, you should be able to get into any pod school with anything over a 490. You could prolly take the mcat after a week of studying and a couple practice tests and score that.
 
2 weeks of cramming books. Should have just took a few practice tests.
 
I didn't really study. I started to passively here and there and then had an emergency surgery right before I had to fly up to take the exam. I live rurally. I only took half of the pre-reqs and the ones I had taken were like 8-9 years ago. I figured if I needed to retake I would but was given a good scholarship and had multiple acceptances so I elected not to. I had not originally planned to apply this year but decided last spring I would give it a shot.

I should also say, I had taken the old MCAT many years ago and did well.
 
Holy crap. I'm a little surprised at these answers. Seems like nobody really studied that hard or took it that seriously.
 
Windom Earle said:
Holy crap. I'm a little surprised at these answers. Seems like nobody really studied that hard or took it that seriously.
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I would honestly hope so. I would be absolutely crushed to study hard/take it really seriously and score in the bottom 50th percentile - but again, this is totally possible for me. I studied fairly hard (on my own) for the ACT and only got a 22.
 
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Memorize the Kaplan quicksheets and the Psy/Soc KA Reddit Doc, and take the AAMC practice tests/review them and there's no way you get below a 500
 
footpainhealer said:
geez. I hope everyone that gets in with a below-50th percentile actually pass. On another note, these low a*s scores are why we are the butt of all jokes. I'm sure all of you CAN get a 505+. But if you don't put in the effort, we are always going be the "rejects" and the "ones not good enough to get into med school". I don't know about y'all, but I don't want to be associated with those kinds of stigmas.
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Probably could get a higher score if I retook it. I'm in my 30s and am not going to retake it after being accepted. Also not worried about failing out. I've done well on the previous MCAT and have pretty solid GPAs. I'm not really worried about what other people think of me going to pod school, what they think of my low score, etc. Not really concerned with judgement from other people at this point in my life. What I am focused on is doing well while I am in school and making my long distance relationship work while he runs his practice in another state.
 
footpainhealer said:
geez. I hope everyone that gets in with a below-50th percentile actually pass. On another note, these low a*s scores are why we are the butt of all jokes. I'm sure all of you CAN get a 505+. But if you don't put in the effort, we are always going be the "rejects" and the "ones not good enough to get into med school". I don't know about y'all, but I don't want to be associated with those kinds of stigmas.
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I think the lower standards for admission are also a self fulfilling prophecy. The MCAT is a pain to study for and many people do not want to study for 5 hours a day, every day for 2-4+ months if they don't have to. I agree that we should have our standards higher, but when there is an option to not have to sink massive amounts of time, money and resources into an exam, people are going to take it and I don't think that's totally unreasonable.

However, for myself, I know that I am not a good test taker and I am also intrigued by the thought of scholarship offers so I am going to try my best for this exam and study long and hard for it and hope I don't embarrass myself.
 
footpainhealer said:
geez. I hope everyone that gets in with a below-50th percentile actually pass. On another note, these low a*s scores are why we are the butt of all jokes. I'm sure all of you CAN get a 505+. But if you don't put in the effort, we are always going be the "rejects" and the "ones not good enough to get into med school". I don't know about y'all, but I don't want to be associated with those kinds of stigmas.
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Lol
 
footpainhealer said:
geez. I hope everyone that gets in with a below-50th percentile actually pass. On another note, these low a*s scores are why we are the butt of all jokes. I'm sure all of you CAN get a 505+. But if you don't put in the effort, we are always going be the "rejects" and the "ones not good enough to get into med school". I don't know about y'all, but I don't want to be associated with those kinds of stigmas.
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487--493--496

2 months and a PR course.

Am I proud of it? No.

If I retook it could I score a couple points higher? Probably, probably not.

Do I need to get in a dick measuring contest knowing what my limitations are? No.

Am I passing pod school so far? Yeah.
 
footpainhealer said:
geez. I hope everyone that gets in with a below-50th percentile actually pass. On another note, these low a*s scores are why we are the butt of all jokes. I'm sure all of you CAN get a 505+. But if you don't put in the effort, we are always going be the "rejects" and the "ones not good enough to get into med school". I don't know about y'all, but I don't want to be associated with those kinds of stigmas.
Click to expand...

Half of the people that take the MCAT are below the 50th percentile... Think about that for a second. lol. If everyone put in the effort to score a 505, then 50% of people would still be below 500...

On a different note, I would recommend that everyone study as much as you possibly can. Don't settle for a low score because you can get into podiatry schools with a low score. Study as much as YOU can and get the best score that YOU are able to get. Whether that is above 500 or not isn't relevant. I had a terrible sGPA and I studied my butt off for the MCAT and I really think that helped me get some scholarship money. I think with my GPA's and a low MCAT I would have gotten no scholarships or maybe a very small non-renewable scholarship. Now, if I can keep a 3.0 GPA I can save myself literally thousands of dollars (before interest). A few hundred hours of study is totally worth the thousands of dollars that you could potentially save yourself!
 
I'll be honest with this one. I am the worst when taking the MCAT and I studied like crazy (first time: the whole summer pretty much; second time: 3-4 months during the semester) I improved by 5 points (490-->495). In my opinion, it depends on the individual and how good they are when studying for the MCAT. I knew the material but I am very bad of selecting the "more right" answer.
 
Not that I didn't put in effort. Just had personal issues. I took biochem and physics, did above average, but psych and reading pulled me down.
 
I like this thread. pretty much every post is productive and offers great info. Enjoying reading every single one of them.
 
I did not study at all. I am not proud of it. I got 490.

I would recommend to study well before MCAT.

I initially scheduled for September date and planned to study all summer after spring semester. But then I decided to take Microbio, Anatomy, and Nutrition during the summer. Then other things came up. Then there was some emergemcy the night before and I slept like 3 hours before MCAT. I still decided to take it, otherwise I would have to wait until next year. I got in. At least I got all A's for my summer semester.

I guess I am not very good at reading. Even for ACT in HS I had 30's for Science and Math and 20-24's for Reading and English.

Even though I got accepted with scholarship, I will be studying in the spring and retaking MCAT in April-May for my own purposes.
 
JKGarv said:
For me it was more why put in all the effort to get a great score if all I needed was an "acceptable score". I personally don't care about the opinion of others. I think if someone wants to go to podiatry school and wants to put in the effort to get a 505+ on the MCAT, they should do it to prove it to themselves that they can get that score. Not to others.

I personally don't think the MCAT has all that much to do with med/pod school success. If people are not studying at all and still getting 495-500 on the hardest entrance exam ever then I'm sure they'll do fine as long as they put in effort during school.

I do agree however that Pod schools should at least have like a 3.0 495 cut off and slowly increase the minimal stats over the cycles till we're closer to DO admission standards. But until that happens why train for a marathon when you only have to run a 100 meter dash. (bad analogy but you know what I mean lol)
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If you are selecting 700 students out of 1100 I don't see how they can set any cut offs.


We live in a free market world. If podiatry will be more known and attractive, then this will resolve on its own.
 
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Geez, I wonder if some of you could have gotten into a DO had you just tried a little harder on the MCAT.

As for me, I did study hard but still could barely break 500.
 
PashaOdesit said:
If you are selecting 700 students out of 1100 I don't see how they can set any cut offs.


We live in a free market world. If podiatry will be more known and attractive then this will resolve on its own.
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I agree with the logic of this. But you gotta agree, its concerning that someone with a 2.5 undergrad GPA and really low MCAT could become a doctor and cut open someone and prescribe meds. My cousin graduated from Barry (one of the schools with lower average stats) and he said if he were a patient, there were some classmates of his who he wouldn't see even if they were the last podiatrist on Earth haha
 
smurfeyD said:
I agree with the logic of this. But you gotta agree, its concerning that someone with a 2.5 undergrad GPA and really low MCAT could become a doctor and cut open someone and prescribe meds. My cousin graduated from Barry (one of the schools with lower average stats) and he said if he were a patient, there were some classmates of his who he wouldn't see even if they were the last podiatrist on Earth haha
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I agree with that. I agree that GPA may reflect work ethic, discipline, and many other personal characteristics that may stay with the person even later in life and affect patient care. But, I am sure that out of almost 30,000 MD/DO students there are enough of those too. I don't think there is a way to eliminate this for 100%.

About 200,000-250,000 people die every year due to medical errors. That is no.3 cause of death in the US.
There are about 2,000 surgeries performed on the wrong parts on the body every year as well.
Around 400 physicians commit suicide and thousands suffer from similar mental health issues and they still provide patient care.

It is not just podiatrists.

Though, I would prefer to set a cut-off at 3.0 GPA for ALL healthcare professions.
 
Windom Earle said:
Geez, I wonder if some of you could have gotten into a DO had you just tried a little harder on the MCAT.

As for me, I did study hard but still could barely break 500.
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I think getting into DO schools is not just about MCAT. Like I have shown before, there are thousands of people that get into MD/DO schools with MCAT below 500.

I think people do not try hard enough and are settled with something else rather than preparing for another year and re-applying.
 
PashaOdesit said:
I agree with that. I agree that GPA may reflect work ethic, discipline, and many other personal characteristics that may stay with the person even later in life and affect patient care. But, I am sure that out of almost 30,000 MD/DO students there are enough of those too. I don't think there is a way to eliminate this for 100%.

About 200,000-250,000 people die every year due to medical errors. That is no.3 cause of death in the US.
There are about 2,000 surgeries performed on the wrong parts on the body every year as well.
Around 400 physicians commit suicide and thousands suffer from similar mental health issues and they still provide patient care.

It is not just podiatrists.

Though, I would prefer to set a cut-off at 3.0 GPA for ALL healthcare professions.
Click to expand...
Well yeah its everywhere, but the other professions have cut offs usually. I cant understand how someone with a sub 3.0 GPA and a sub 490 mcat could get into a medical school without raising at least one of them
 
GypsyHummus said:
I think 3.0 and a 490 should be the cutoff for pod schools.
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3.0 cGPA or 3.0 sGPA?

490 MCAT I think is incredibly fair...and I think 3.0 cGPA is definitely reasonable. But I am a little biased on being a little more lenient on the sGPA for certain circumstances. There are just people like me who were jack$$$$$ their freshman and partly sophomore year and did not know how to study for hard chemistry classes and will only likely be graduating with a 2.7-2.9 sGPA. I was a terrible chemistry student, but I just got a perfect score on my pharmacology 201 exam (class avg was 76), so despite my embarrassing sGPA I am not as much of a ***** as my GPA makes me out to be.
 
3.0c gpa. There are plenty of fluffy classes to bring up the Cs in hard sciences.


ciderbun96 said:
3.0 cGPA or 3.0 sGPA?

490 MCAT I think is incredibly fair...and I think 3.0 cGPA is definitely reasonable. But I am a little biased on being a little more lenient on the sGPA for certain circumstances. There are just people like me who were jack$$$$$ their freshman and partly sophomore year and did not know how to study for hard chemistry classes and will only likely be graduating with a 2.7-2.9 sGPA. I was a terrible chemistry student, but I just got a perfect score on my pharmacology 201 exam (class avg was 76), so despite my embarrassing sGPA I am not as much of a ***** as my GPA makes me out to be.
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GypsyHummus said:
3.0c gpa. There are plenty of fluffy classes to bring up the Cs in hard sciences.
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I do agree with that.

I personally think sGPA should be looked at more than the cGPA. A cGPA can vary between students but it is impossible to see which students went through easy science courses or went through hard science courses. For example, my organic chemistry class for both Fall and Spring were probably the hardest classes I have ever taken and I ended with up a B and B+, respectively. The class began with 120 students and ended with 31 students in terms of passing. My teacher was harsh and made his exams as difficult as possible (I appreciate that to be honest). Compared with other students, their organic chemistry classes might be not that tough and people fail based on their attitude of wanting not to study.
 
I fluffed a 3.somthing(applying GPA) to a 3.7 senior year so I could graduate with honors.
 
PashaOdesit said:
pod schools only? why not DO and MD schools too?
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I think the cutoff for DO/MD should be a 495-496 and for pod should be a 490-491. If you can't get above a 490 on the MCAT did you even study (a 490 is roughly a 20 on the old test)? This is not about intelligence, this is about perseverance/work ethic. For both pod and DO/MD the gpa cutoff should be a 3.0. Just my opinion, others may disagree
 
Deecee2DO said:
I think the cutoff for DO/MD should be a 495-496 and for pod should be a 490-491. If you can't get above a 490 on the MCAT did you even study (a 490 is roughly a 20 on the old test)? This is not about intelligence, this is about perseverance/work ethic. For both pod and DO/MD the gpa cutoff should be a 3.0. Just my opinion, others may disagree
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I agree
 
PashaOdesit said:
I did not study at all. I am not proud of it. I got 490.

I would recommend to study well before MCAT.

I initially scheduled for September date and planned to study all summer after spring semester. But then I decided to take Microbio, Anatomy, and Nutrition during the summer. Then other things came up. Then there was some emergemcy the night before and I slept like 3 hours before MCAT. I still decided to take it, otherwise I would have to wait until next year. I got in. At least I got all A's for my summer semester.

I guess I am not very good at reading. Even for ACT in HS I had 30's for Science and Math and 20-24's for Reading and English.

Even though I got accepted with scholarship, I will be studying in the spring and retaking MCAT in April-May for my own purposes.
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Where did you get accepted if you dont mind me asking?!?
 
karib said:
Oh ok, sorry Im just starting to go through the threads now. By any chance did you apply to Barry?
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I only applied to Scholl and DMU and got accepted at both.

What about Barry?

You can use a search function, there is ton of valuable info on this forum.
 
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