lower score on retake?

[misscalipig]

did anyone retake the mcat and score lower for the verbal score?

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[aquaboy]

Two friends of mine received 7's the first go around and then 6's the second time. It is very probable to go down or remain the same on the verbal. Check out the AAMC/MCAT site that give percentages of MCAT retesters obtaining specified score changes.

 

[Dr Sum Day]

mine went down 3 pts...from not so good to bad

 

[lady bug]

Originally posted by misscalipig
did anyone retake the mcat and score lower for the verbal score?

This is what I fear also. But mine's is so low, that hopefully there won't be anywhere to go but higher.

 

[thirdangel]

Hi! Yes, my verbal score went from a 9 to a 7. I have no idea how that happened. I'm just relieved that I wasn't applying this cycle.

 

[UCLA2000]

Check the mcat website. It happens frequently.

 

[medhopefully]

First off - don't think that it's impossible to improve on the verbal. I know plenty of people, including myself, who screwed up the first time, changed their study habits, and did significantly better.

ie. my round #1 (Aug 2001): 7,10,10,S
round #2 (Aug 2002): 10,9,10,R


(For me, this is just great, b/c as a canadian, all i need to do is meet the cuttoffs for my canadian schools.)

But look - just b/c MCAT retesters don't do so well, there is lots to do to improve in verbal. For example, all i did all summer (while i wasn't in the lab), was read read read read read - every damn moment i had. And read challenging, BORING material, and read actively. Therefore, on the actual MCAT, when you get a passage on monks living on the side of a cliff in europe, you'll be able to read it without falling asleep at the wheel.

IT IS VERY POSSIBLE TO IMPROVE! - don't think you can only go down or stay the same!

 

[ItNeverEnds]

I went from 7,8,8, R to 6,10,10,S Verbal sucks!

 

[aquaboy]

It's true that people can improve on the verbal. I personally wnet form a 7 to a 10 but if you look at the probability of that happening it is very unlikely, in fact only 10% of retesters who originally score a 7 acheive a 10 the next time. That's about 250 out of 2,500 per the MCAT website. My problem the first time was that I psyched myself out and didn't finish in time. The second time I made sure that I finished and even had 5 min left at the end. My 2 cents would be that if you think you scored low because you didn't finish in time then retake and try to get a higher score. If you felt like you did well and got a low score then a retake might not be the best option because the chances fo getting a lower score or the same score are higher than improveing. The numbers don't lie so be careful. Hope this helps.

 

[ItNeverEnds]

Hi Aquaboy,

What did you do to prepare for your re-take? Did you prepare for verbal the same way both times?

 

[aquaboy]

Well I never took Kaplan, TPR, etc. The first time I spent too much time reviewing for the sciences and took a few practice verbals and full lengths. I thought my timing was down the first time because I would always finish on time. When I got to the real thing I realized that the REAL MCAT is much harder than most practice tests and from the first passage I had a bad feeling. When they daid we had 5 minutes I still had 2 passages left and freaked out. I tried to skim them and just bubbled in random answers. This last time I focused a lot of my effort on verabl and took every verbal practice test I could get my hands on w/o spending $1,500 on Kaplan. Also I read constantly (novels). The major change I made was to skip the hard passages and come back to them at the end. This helped me build confidence and I had about 30 minutes for the last 3 hard passages. I finished with plenty of time and improved my score which really held me back last year. Hopefully this year schools will see that improvement and accept me. Hope this helps!

 

[ItNeverEnds]

Thank you, aquaboy! Good luck!

 

[ocean11]

Hi Miscalipig, o.k I just got my answer from the AAMC, I paid the $$$ to get my verbal (only verbal) rescored and nothing happened, my scores didn't change at all. Keep in mind that they rescored all my sections, despite me only asking them for verbal...

So I'm now left with a 7,10,10,Q don't like that 7 at all.... but it's better than the 5 I got last time... and yeah its fukin hard to improve onthe verbal... I was getting 9's and 10's on my practice exams... what happened?!?!?