Should i retake if a got a 15 the first time.

[Waterboobies]

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hey all,
any help would be great..
Im a Architecture major and i took all the pre-medical course except o-chem. I studied for MCAT from March till Aug gave my MCATs for the 1st time in Aug 07 and received a 15M.
i got 2-VR, 8-P/S and 5-B/O
Do you guys think i can improve..
My English language is very poor. I don't know how to improve my English Skills, not just for MCATs but in general

thanks..
p.s.. again help will be greatly appreciated..

 

[efex101]

Yes, you need to retake without a doubt.

 

[njbmd]

hey all,
any help would be great..
Im a Architecture major and i took all the pre-medical course except o-chem. I studied for MCAT from March till Aug gave my MCATs for the 1st time in Aug 07 and received a 15M.
i got 2-VR, 8-P/S and 5-B/O
Do you guys think i can improve..
My English language is very poor. I don't know how to improve my English Skills, not just for MCATs but in general

thanks..
p.s.. again help will be greatly appreciated..

You need to take a year of Organic Chemistry with lab before you take the MCAT. Taking that test before you have completed all of the required coursework certainly did not help your score. You can improve your English skills by speaking, reading and writing the language as much as possible. If you are located in an English-speaking country, use every opportunity to use your English skills. If you are located in a non-English speaking country, find any people in your location who are either learning English, speaking English regularly, or teaching English as a second language and work with them regularly.

The MCAT is a test that requires that you apply the knowledge of the pre-med coursework to practical situations. The best way to gain good practical knowledge is to practice and do more practice until you hone a skill. It might take more effort on your part because English is not your second language but many people have been in your position and improved their language skills enough to do well on the MCAT and get into medical school. Good luck!

 

[FlowLimited]

If you're set on becoming a physician, then yes, you'll have to retake. BS and VR are obviously your weak points, but each has to be handled differently. Improving the BS is really just about knowing the material. Find a review book, take a course, or something to learn the material. For VR, it's harder. Read as much as you can and try and get more comfortable with the English language and expand your vocabulary. You can't hope to score better if you aren't at least somewhat in-tune with what the passage is about.

Good luck.

P.S.
Waterboobies!

 

[artaxerxes]

I don't know man, if you studied for 5 months and still got a 2 on the verbal, which is equivalent to random guessing, I don't know how much you can improve. Did you feel like you were having a bad day? or did you feel you performed adequately? and what were your practice test scores? if you want to be a doctor, you need to retake, but the question now is whether or not you should maybe consider another career.

 

[Law2Doc]

hey all,
any help would be great..
Im a Architecture major and i took all the pre-medical course except o-chem. I studied for MCAT from March till Aug gave my MCATs for the 1st time in Aug 07 and received a 15M.
i got 2-VR, 8-P/S and 5-B/O
Do you guys think i can improve..
My English language is very poor. I don't know how to improve my English Skills, not just for MCATs but in general

thanks..
p.s.. again help will be greatly appreciated..

Agree with the prior poster -- whoever told you to take the test without orgo gave you really bad advice. This is not something you rush into on a whim. You wait until you have taken all the courses covered by the test, then study, then take practice tests and when they suggest you are ready you sit for the test. You need to not sit for the test again until you are consistently scoring in a competitive range on full length practice tests. There is no choice about retaking if you hope to attend med school in the US -- there are no US med schools that will take you with those numbers.

 

[almo88]

hey all,
any help would be great..
Im a Architecture major and i took all the pre-medical course except o-chem. I studied for MCAT from March till Aug gave my MCATs for the 1st time in Aug 07 and received a 15M.
i got 2-VR, 8-P/S and 5-B/O
Do you guys think i can improve..
My English language is very poor. I don't know how to improve my English Skills, not just for MCATs but in general

thanks..
p.s.. again help will be greatly appreciated..

If you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to be a physician, then you have no choice but to retake. My suggestion would be to come up with $2K and take an MCAT course. Did you take any practice exams before you took the real thing?

 

[Meatwad]

I wouldn't bother retaking for quite some time. You need to become much more proficient in the English language if you got a 2 in the VR section. The reason you did poorly on BS was because there is so much reading involved as well.

You are probably around 20 years old, right? You're not old; you have plenty of time. Take some more English courses at school, and ask your professors for tips on how to improve your skills as far as reading quickly and efficiently.

 

[jochi1543]

If you really want to improve your English, don't isolate yourself by constantly socializing with your fellow countrymen in your native language. I saw a lot of that in undergrad. People isolate themselves, then complain that they can't make friends with Americans or that their English is not up to par.

 

[ScubaEMT]

Did you take any practice tests before taking the actual MCAT? As the other posters said, you need to take all of the classes that cover the MCAT material and then make sure you are consistently scoring well on ze practice tests before attempting the MCAT again, as your chances of getting into med school decrease with each time you retake the test.

 

[BrokenGlass]

hey all,
any help would be great..
Im a Architecture major and i took all the pre-medical course except o-chem. I studied for MCAT from March till Aug gave my MCATs for the 1st time in Aug 07 and received a 15M.
i got 2-VR, 8-P/S and 5-B/O
Do you guys think i can improve..
My English language is very poor. I don't know how to improve my English Skills, not just for MCATs but in general

thanks..
p.s.. again help will be greatly appreciated..

The most important thing for you to do is to be honest with yourself. Forget what everybody else thinks or says. Do you yourself believe that you can significantly improve your score? If so, go for it. If not, maybe another career is not a bad idea.

 

[QofQuimica]

hey all,
any help would be great..
Im a Architecture major and i took all the pre-medical course except o-chem. I studied for MCAT from March till Aug gave my MCATs for the 1st time in Aug 07 and received a 15M.
i got 2-VR, 8-P/S and 5-B/O
Do you guys think i can improve..
My English language is very poor. I don't know how to improve my English Skills, not just for MCATs but in general

thanks..
p.s.. again help will be greatly appreciated..

Please don't cross post your message in multiple forums. I've moved all of the answers here to this thread since it's more relevant to the MCAT forum.

In answer to your question, yes, you need to retake. Yes, you can improve. Yes, you should take organic chemistry first before you even think of starting to study for the MCAT again. to you.

 

[Magisto]

Waterboobies,

Here is my advice. You can definitely improve on your score and med schools/ DO schools love to see improvement. Your main focus should be verbal right now. I understand that English is not your first language so here are a few suggestions/ strategies you can use.

I took a Princeton Review course and here are some tips for verbal.

use "ranking". Rank the passages, do the easy ones first and take a little bit extra time doing them. Usually out of 7 passages 1-2 will be killer passages and MCAT doesn't expect ppl to do well on those. So do these killer passages last. How were you on time for verbal? did you finish early? or you left questions out?

You can use a strategy to sort through the passage, like mapping it. Go through each paragraph and underline the main idea, there are a lot more things you can do but an mcat course would greatly help you.

KAPLAN

or

Princeton Review (i took this one)

 

[TheElement]

I wasn't too keen towards mapping and never used it when I took TPR but it might work in your case. (I would suggest not even doing the killer passage altogether. Just guess one letter randomly for that one so you free up time to do better on the other remaining passages).

 

[Flaxmoore]

hey all,
any help would be great..
Im a Architecture major and i took all the pre-medical course except o-chem. I studied for MCAT from March till Aug gave my MCATs for the 1st time in Aug 07 and received a 15M.
i got 2-VR, 8-P/S and 5-B/O
Do you guys think i can improve..
My English language is very poor. I don't know how to improve my English Skills, not just for MCATs but in general

thanks..
p.s.. again help will be greatly appreciated..

I'd definitely retake it, after you've taken more coursework. Taking it without OChem was a major mistake, but correctable for the next round. Have you taken the required courses to get into medical school?

I'd take more English courses, since you're worried about your language skills, then also a course on the MCAT itself. Be prepared to take it a few more times- starting with a 15 gives a lot of ground to make up, considering most people want a 28 or better.

 

[mints of b]

With a 15 you shouldn't retake. You should jump off something.

 

[deleted127837]

.

 

[SoFlaKnight]

I'm willing to bet a human life this is a troll...preferably theirs...

 

[Meatwad]

I'm willing to bet a human life this is a troll...preferably theirs...

Sadly, I think your'e wrong. Check out the OP's post history, every question deals with the MCAT, how to improve their score, specifically VR in a lot of posts. I think it's just someone with very poor English skills.

 

[littlealex]

I'm willing to bet a human life this is a troll...preferably theirs...

Actually if you check his post history, he has been posting about his MCAT progress and studies since April... Sadly it appears that this poster is not a troll.

To OP: You have a long way to go. To get in even the worst DO, you'll need about 24 points on the MCAT. That means an 8 on each section.

I think it is nearly impossible to improve from a 15 to a 24 without significant efforts on your part. More importantly, it will take time. Lots of time. With constant reading and studying, you'll probably need at least 2 years before you can bump your score up to a 24. The biggest time lag is the time it takes to acquire enough reading skills to bolster your performance in the two sciences and allow you to get by in verbal.

Read constantly. Read for content and information, and learn to read quickly. I increased my verbal score from a 6 to a 10 in 2 years by reading a lot of research papers (out of necessity) and well-written articles online (for interest). There's no short cut; it is difficult but doable.


I'm sorry that you did not score as well as you wanted, but next time do not take the test until you AVERAGE a 25 or so on your practice tests. Miracles don't randomly happen, you'll need skills to back yourself up in order to do better.

 

[SoFlaKnight]

Man do I feel like an a**hole now or what😳

 

[plauto]

Actually the OP disappeared. You don't think he's trying to translate this all page do you...?!?!
Oh man, did I just write that? I should know better since I'm ESL too. However, with a 15, I'd stronlgy consider other career options.