i looked at the aamcs site a few days ago and was filling out the application for med schools and I noticed an option that lets you select to use your most recent or mcat test of your choice when applying to schools. Does that mean they won't see a lower score if you retook it? how exactly does this work?
also, how common is it for med schools to just take your highest mcat score?
The answer is straightforward and everyone here answered it correctly. I just wanted to say that currently, there is no currently no large list of how schools treat MCAT scores. There is one floating around here that's like 5+ years old but most of that information is probably outdated. There's really 4 types of analysis I've seen that schools will do.
1. A "holistic review" of the MCAT score meaning they consider all the MCAT scores and analyze them in context of date and improvement.
Ex. MCAT scores of 20 and 30 within a month of each other are more likely to be averaged as it's unlikely that one can improve on a 10 pt. scale. They'll also ask about it at interviews. However, take those scores but put them 3+ months apart and the most recent score will probably be looked at more carefully.
Common things schools will say if they adopt this policy are:
-Most recent score, but all scores considered
-Most recent score, but all scores still visible
-View all scores
-holistic review
2. A "superscored" MCAT. I've seen some schools (notably BU-not to be confused with their holistic review process of the ENTIRE application) take the best sub-scores from all your sittings and put those together.
Ex.) 2011: 11P, 8V, 14BS
2012: 12P, 10V, 12 BS
Gets you a 12P, 10V, 14BS=36
3. ONLY MOST RECENT:
Notably a lot of SMPs do this but some schools still look at the most recent score and throw the others out.
If they do this, they'll be explicit about it.
4. Average:
At some places recently, as @
LizzyM has hinted at, schools are transitioning to averaging MCAT scores as doing so is more strongly correlated with some medical school achievement metric (not sure if it was board scores, grades, or clinical grades, etc.).
If schools do this, I don't think they'll be as transparent about it because I've heard of schools doing this but have not seen indications of it anywhere on websites. For example, at an IU interview, I was interviewed by a PhD and an MD and with a unintended cursory glance at the PhD's clipboard I saw my MCAT Score 1 + MCAT Score 2/2 = X handwritten in large red font. I don't know if this is interview or school specific though so don't jump to conclusions with IU.
