how to talk about ESL on secondary

[irrandom]

Hi everyone,

I took MCAT twice, the first time I took it, I got an 8. But the second time I took it, it went down to a 7. How do you think I should talk about English being my second language on the secondary without making it sound like I am making an excuse for my low verbal score. I came to the States about 10 years ago. Do you think adcom will even care so much about what I have to say? Any ideas/input would be appreciated.

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[apumic]

You ARE, by definition, making an excuse for your VR score.

The fact of the matter is that a low VR points to a low USMLE Step 1 as well as difficulty with actual topics in med school. That is cause for a concern. If you had gotten a 9 or 10, I could see them looking at that as though it were a 10 or 11 but a 7/8 average is concerning.

 

[Sai7]

The fact of the matter is that a low VR points to a low USMLE Step 1 as well as difficulty with actual topics in med school. That is cause for a concern. If you had gotten a 9 or 10, I could see them looking at that as though it were a 10 or 11 but a 7/8 average is concerning.

I would just like to point out that some studies show the BS section correlates the best with Step 1 scores. And, according to this guy's mdApps, he has a 14 in BS and PS.

 

[MexicanDr]

Hi everyone,

I took MCAT twice, the first time I took it, I got an 8. But the second time I took it, it went down to a 7. How do you think I should talk about English being my second language on the secondary without making it sound like I am making an excuse for my low verbal score. I came to the States about 10 years ago. Do you think adcom will even care so much about what I have to say? Any ideas/input would be appreciated.

How have you done on your Bio, English classes overall?

You might want to invest some time in reading a lot and actually comprehend them. Magazines articles in The Atlantic, The Economist, etc reflect Verbal section type of writing style..

 

[amine2086]

Hi everyone,

I took MCAT twice, the first time I took it, I got an 8. But the second time I took it, it went down to a 7. How do you think I should talk about English being my second language on the secondary without making it sound like I am making an excuse for my low verbal score. I came to the States about 10 years ago. Do you think adcom will even care so much about what I have to say? Any ideas/input would be appreciated.

Rather than talking about your low VR score and how that may be due to English being your second language, you can tactically talk about your experience immigrating to the U.S. You can talk about the challenges you have faced and how that helped you develop valuable skills.

 

[irrandom]

thanks for the input!