Help please!

[carolinagirl1]

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Hello everybody,
I need some serious advise. I am senior, bio major with GPA of 3.884🙂.I studied on my own using EK books and took my mcat on july 18th and made only 19M 😡. I am really really disappointed and I do not think I can take my mcat by sept 13th (last date for this year) since I was out of country after I took my exam. I volunteered in India for 3 months in a hospital, was a mentor for little children, was in AMSA and ASA. Also, started a dance team in freshmen year and by the end of my senior year I will be a minor in neuro (which does not show up on my transcripts that I have already send in to aamc). Now, question is .. should I still go ahead and apply to see what happens or wait? I have already completed my application ahhhh am really really really stressed out!!!!! Please help me! Thank you for any kind advise.

 

[daniellema13]

Honestly, not to be harsh, but unless you can do a sep retake, i think applying this cycle will be a waste of your money. Are you applying only allo? Even for DO schools, your score is low. But your GPA is great and it sounds like you have really good ECs. If you are determined to apply this cycle, retake, but ONLY if you have some reason to feel you would do MUCH better (based on practice scores, etc). A second bad score is even worse. It may shound really ****ty right now, but another year is not a huge deal. Study hard and retake early next year and then apply right away in june to up your chances.

 

[carolinagirl1]

p.s~ when i say started a dance team.. i mean to say that it was a new dance team .. i am not the one who started it but i was in it jus for one year!

 

[Mobius1985]

I agree with Daniellema. Do not apply to MD or DO schools with that MCAT score. You will not get in anywhere. Your GPA says you can do much better. Take a formal prep course. Take lots of practice exams until you are consistently scoring over 30. Retake the MCAT no sooner than January. Plan to apply early next year.

 

[diosa428]

Yeah you really should aim to get at least 10s on each section of the MCAT and at the very worst no section less than an 8. You're not getting in anywhere with a 19. Do not waste your money applying this season. Save it and take an MCAT course or something and bring up that MCAT.

 

[sshashid87]

Well, I wouldn't say you won't get in Anywhere. My friend is starting at Ross U. in Dominica this year, and he got in with a 19. If you want to go anywhere in the U.S., take the year off, retake the MCAT in April/May after hardcore studying, and start writing your essays now-ish (Use the secondaries from SDN as a guide). That way when your score comes back, you will pretty much have your application and secondaries ready to go. You will have a much better chance applying next year, and you will have saved (possibly) thousands in wasted application fees. In the long run, whether you enter medical school at 22/23/24, you still won't get out of residencies until you're 30+🙄, so take your time if you need it. Good luck, but I would only apply to SGU/Ross/SABA/American if you are deadset on going to med. school this year.

 

[carolinagirl1]

ow 🙁 this is making me so sad! I really wanted to start in 09... I have never been really good with standardized testing.. I really did study good and took like 6 aamc practice tests but scored avg. of 20.. I was not improving at all but I know the material really well. I feel like even If take the course I will be wasting money. Some people are telling me to just go ahead and apply and wait to see if I do get a chance ANYWHERE just cuz of my great GPA and pretty good recommendations. I have not yet asked my prof. for recommendations but all the teachers that I am planning to ask for my recom. know me and understand me really well. After all the time and effort I put in during these last 3 years ..this 5 hours MCAT has made me sooo sad 🙁.. I still don't know what to do 😕...

 

[geenelln]

Just wondering...
Are you from South or North Carolina?

 

[daniellema13]

IMHO, even a 4.0 would not compensate for a 19. Is there some identifiable reason that you do not do well on standardized testing? If so you need to work hard on that aspect to overcome it. Standardized testing will be a part of your medical career as well. Maybe if you had some sort of documented disability, it might be taken into consideration, but i doubt it. If you say you know the material really well, then you have to find what it is that you DONT know well...maybe it is just the test you need to learn. Find a different way to approach it, as whatever method you're using obviously hasnt worked for you. I know it sucks, but really, shelling out all that time and money is not a good use of your resources.

 

[Mobius1985]

I have never been really good with standardized testing.

You have to pass Step I and II of the Boards to graduate from medical school and Step III to receive a licence as a US allopathic physician, even if you go to a Caribbean med school (assuming you want to practice eventually in the USA). It would be better to figure out now what your issues are with standardized tests before you go $250,000+ in debt, only to find you can't work as a doctor due to not satisfying the requirements.

 

[sshashid87]

Why are you in such a rush to get to medical school? I'm taking a year off on purpose, because I know that once I get to med. school, I'll be working constantly for 7-11 years with school and residency. Taking this year off, I can relax, do some volunteering at a free clinic and united way, maybe work, clinical research, relax again, and get ready for this career instead of jumping right in. Take your time with the retake, and don't rush right in because the latest 2008 test date is in 3 weeks. If you can honestly improve by 10-12 pts or so in 3 weeks, you are not normal (maybe you only need 8 pts if you are going to go DO). Plus, you can ask your professors soon for LORs and they can take their time and make you look amazing with that extra time. With a 3.88/30 MCAT, you will have a great chance at getting in somewhere in the US for MD or DO. I just wouldn't spend the thousands of dollars applying to 30 schools this year, because chances are slim. If your situation was reversed (good MCAT, low GPA) you would probably be better off, but sadly the MCAT is supposedly able to predict your performance in medical school. Again, just take your time, and you can probably do really well next cycle. Whatever you decide, good luck...

 

[Greonis]

A big part of mastering any standardized test (such as the MCAT) is to be extremely comfortable with the test format. Therefore, familiarizing yourself to the test via taking a lot of practice tests should be a major part of your study strategy. If you know the format of the test like the back of your hand, then you'll hopefully be able to view the test day as, put simply, another practice test to be completed to the best of your ability.

I highly recommend that you take a year off to retake the MCAT. Use the time to explore effective study strategies and prepare in a relaxed manner (urgency = stress = poor performance). This "laid back" method will also allow you to determine your weaknesses and make every effort to remedy them by test day. There is no need to rush into medical school, as was mentioned earlier. Moreover, you have a fantastic GPA and great extracurriculars, and if you can improve your MCAT score drastically by next year (say to a 30 with balanced subscores), you'll be extremely competitive. Also, since it sounds like you have your letters of recommendation set to go, you could have those sent out as early as possible next year (concurrently with early primary/secondary applications) and have a huge advantage for 2010 matriculation.

 

[Lokhtar]

ow 🙁 this is making me so sad! I really wanted to start in 09... I have never been really good with standardized testing.. I really did study good and took like 6 aamc practice tests but scored avg. of 20.. I was not improving at all but I know the material really well. I feel like even If take the course I will be wasting money. Some people are telling me to just go ahead and apply and wait to see if I do get a chance ANYWHERE just cuz of my great GPA and pretty good recommendations. I have not yet asked my prof. for recommendations but all the teachers that I am planning to ask for my recom. know me and understand me really well. After all the time and effort I put in during these last 3 years ..this 5 hours MCAT has made me sooo sad 🙁.. I still don't know what to do 😕...

With a 19, it'd pretty much be a waste of time to apply. If you treat it like it is your full time job for 3-4 months, there is no reason you can't improve significantly.

 

[carolinagirl1]

Thank you for all the good advice! I am trying to put myself together b/c I have not even eaten since I saw my mcat score but all of ya'll made me feel much better. I am 22 years old and I think it's not that bad if I can become MD by the age of 27 and then do residency and all that. I should retake and I am thinking about takin it in jan

 

[Greonis]

Thank you for all the good advice! I am trying to put myself together b/c I have not even eaten since I saw my mcat score but all of ya'll made me feel much better. I am 22 years old and I think it's not that bad if I can become MD by the age of 27 and then do residency and all that. I should retake and I am thinking about takin it in jan

January is a good time to retake. You'll (hopefully) be refreshed from the holiday season and have had ample time to study.

Moreover, entering medical school in your low-to-mid 20's (23-26) is quite common. You will definitely not "fall behind" by applying a year later!

 

[MilkmanAl]

Not at all. The average age here at Arkansas is 23.3, so you'd be just fine. 🙂

 

[carolinagirl1]

Hey ya'll..some of ya'll have adviced me not to apply anywhere n I am sure that u r guys are absolutely right but I am just gonna go ahead n apply to like 5-6 med schools (yeah probably waste to money) .. i think I will learn more about the process ... n who knows I might get lucky?? I actually made a list of schools that have low mcat average (obv. no one has as low as mine 😱 ) .

 

[Phosphorus]

.

 

[carolinagirl1]

sorry nevermind?? :/...

 

[GreenShirt]

ow 🙁 this is making me so sad! I really wanted to start in 09... I have never been really good with standardized testing.. I really did study good and took like 6 aamc practice tests but scored avg. of 20.. I was not improving at all but I know the material really well. I feel like even If take the course I will be wasting money. Some people are telling me to just go ahead and apply and wait to see if I do get a chance ANYWHERE just cuz of my great GPA and pretty good recommendations. I have not yet asked my prof. for recommendations but all the teachers that I am planning to ask for my recom. know me and understand me really well. After all the time and effort I put in during these last 3 years ..this 5 hours MCAT has made me sooo sad 🙁.. I still don't know what to do 😕...

Take a prep course! They will give you oodles and oodles of practice questions in MCAT format to practice from. Examkrackers is great for learning basic science but their questions aren't in MCAT format so you're not getting the proper training you need to perform on exam day. If you were only scoring about a 20 on your AAMC practice exams then you weren't prepared to take the real test and you should not be surprised that you only scored a 19 (it's almost exactly the score the AAMC tests predicted you would get)!

 

[carolinagirl1]

Yeh now if someone ask r those practice tests good prediction i can say 'yes'... i studied from may 12th till like july 16th... n did practice tests w/in the last 2 n half weeks... so yeh it is right that I did not have enough practice... i think i am ok w/ the material but I could not apply it...n the last 2 n half weeks of practice tests i did .. i do not think I learned from my mistakes... Should I take kaplan course or princeton?? which one is better?? Thank you! .. You guys are such a big help 🙂

 

[Lokhtar]

I think either will be fine. I heard good things about EK courses too.

If you can't get your score above a 27-28, then you should go D.O. With your GPA, a 28-29 or so (balanced) should be enough to get you in to a MD spot.

However, you probably need a 25 for D.O. schools, so you should aim for that as your minimum. However, considering your GPA, there is no reason you can't get higher if you put your mind to it.

 

[carolinagirl1]

I am filled w/ questions!! I would send in my recommendations only after I recieve my secondaries or Can I go ahead and send them in right after I submit my primary application?? Should I just provide my prof. w/ envelope and school address and have them mail it? I am not sure how it works. Can someone please help me out w/ this! Thanks!!