If med school averages your MCAT score, then what happens if you do poorly once?

[NeandertalWoman]

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Hi, I recently read about a thread where a new paper was published that an AVERAGE of your MCAT scores is the best predictor of your USMLE scores. Hence, medical schools (such as LizzyM's) will now average all your MCAT scores for review.

My question is this: what happens if you had a bad day and scored badly - like a 21 - on your first attempt? Wouldn't the student then call game over right then and there, since she will need a 38 next time to pull it to a mere average 30.

 

[zwitterion34]

Hi, I recently read about a thread where a new paper was published that an AVERAGE of your MCAT scores is the best predictor of your USMLE scores. Hence, medical schools (such as LizzyM's) will now average all your MCAT scores for review.

My question is this: what happens if you had a bad day and scored badly - like a 21 - on your first attempt? Wouldn't the student then call game over right then and there, since she will need a 38 next time to pull it to a mere average 30.

der r scools dat dont average ur scoars. applie 2 dose scools.

 

[MSU2009]

Implying every medical school uses the same procedure to evaluate MCAT scores.

Also @ Zwitterion, when did DBZ start incorporating song and dance numbers into their show... I haven't watched it since I was a little.

 

[sector9]

hi, i recently read about a thread where a new paper was published that an average of your mcat scores is the best predictor of your usmle scores. Hence, some medical schools (such as LizzyM's) will now average all your mcat scores for review.

My question is this: What happens if you had a bad day and scored badly - like a 21 - on your first attempt? Wouldn't the student then call game over right then and there, since she will need a 38 next time to pull it to a mere average 30.

ftfy.

 

[NeandertalWoman]

The thread was implying that in the future, ALL medical schools will go towards the trend of AVERAGING all your MCAT scores.

 

[CodeBlu]

The thread was implying that in the future, ALL medical schools will go towards the trend of AVERAGING all your MCAT scores.

Just cuz one study found that this was beneficial means that a few schools are doing it.

In reality, the MCAT is a crappy test... hence the massive re-vamp in 2015.

 

[sector9]

The thread was implying that in the future, ALL medical schools will go towards the trend of AVERAGING all your MCAT scores.

I highly doubt ALL of them will go towards averaging. As in 0% chance

Under the averaging system, the hypothetical person would be pretty screwed. However, how many students have a 17 point jump like you propose? 1 in a million

 

[centrigeugle]

The standard advice on SDN has always been: "If you don't feel prepared to take your MCAT, and don't think you're going to get your best score, then don't take it."

Averaging rather than taking your best score mean nothing, provided you follow that advice.

Well. Provided you follow the above advice and are intellectually capable of a high score. This really only significantly penalizes people who take the test totally unprepared, just do awful on it for whatever reason, or are idiots.

If you get a 28, it's perfectly reasonable to get a 32-33 next time and pull your score into something reasonable. Like you said, a 21 will probably be curtains for most MD programs.

I'm personally GLAD people (usually) don't get to take the MCAT four times and pick the best score from among them.

 

[CodeBlu]

The standard advice on SDN has always been: "If you don't feel prepared to take your MCAT, and don't think you're going to get your best score, then don't take it."

Averaging rather than taking your best score mean nothing, provided you follow that advice.

Well. Provided you follow the above advice and are intellectually capable of a high score. This really only significantly penalizes people who take the test totally unprepared, just do awful on it for whatever reason, or are idiots.

If you get a 28, it's perfectly reasonable to get a 32-33 next time and pull your score into something reasonable. Like you said, a 21 WILL be curtains for most MD programs.

I'm personally GLAD people (usually) don't get to take the MCAT four times and pick the best score from among them.

ftfy 🙂

 

[zwitterion34]

Implying every medical school uses the same procedure to evaluate MCAT scores.

Also @ Zwitterion, when did DBZ start incorporating song and dance numbers into their show... I haven't watched it since I was a little.

een ru$$i@ DBZ waches u! di$ epi$oad iz 40 methinks. eetz @ teh world marshall artz toornament. N dis iz nawt DBZ eet iz DB. 😀

 

[zwitterion34]

BTW OP, in soviet rusha, your MCAT averages medeecal scools. hehe😀

 

[Barcu]

MCAT scores don't exist in a vacuum, and I bet there is leeway at any school no matter how they say they look at them.

All of the components of your application (even "hard" numbers like GPA/MCAT) have some subjective aspect to them.