Low Mcat, should I continue with application process?

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ldego001

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Started applying to medical school before my score was released. Received a 485 (I know it's horrible) but I was scoring 504-510 on practice exams. I have horrible test anxiety. My background:

I'm currently working in the operating room as a clerk. I have great recommendation letters from well respected doctors. 300 shadowing hours, in the ER and a private practice where I assisted in minor surgeries.
I received two bachelors degrees, biology and chemistry with honors.
I have 2 years of research in two different labs.
I also have a lot of volunteering experiences, began my own organization, and went on a medical mission trip.

Should I continue with secondaries or is my score that low that I don't stand a chance and try again next year?

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Your poll is broken.

My 2 cents: this is why I don't like seeing applicants submit without an MCAT (unless I can be reasonably assured of a 510+ incoming).

The rest of your application is extremely strong. However the MCAT is 9th percentile.

My advice: If money is no issue, submit all your secondaries, and begin phoning adcoms to let them know AHEAD of the score report what your MCAT was, and be frank about your situation. You may luck out, and an adcom will ignore it, or put you on a waitlist. or ask you to retake it in the spring. Others will outright reject you.

If money is an issue, then make the calls first, and submit secondaries to interested adcoms.

But what do I know? I'm just pre-med. However, that's how I'd handle this if I were in your situation.
 
Great insight above ^^. But I did bad on my first MCAT too don't know my second score yet but I just decided to push my application and retake after I confidently knew I could improve.
 
Definitely do NOT apply. You need to figure out what happened, and fix it. If it really is test anxiety then you need to see a learning specialist and work on it. It is definitely something that can be overcome, but it also definitely needs to be overcome because the MCAT is only the very beginning of a long line of very high stakes career deciding exams in medicine.
 
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I'm late to this party but no, do not submit your apps. Retake the MCAT, figure out what's going on with your anxiety, address that and practice like mad for retake.
 
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