Hello Everyone, I'll just get into it. I have about a week and a few days left until my MCAT and I have just started studying CARS now. I know this is pretty bad, but generally I have moved my exam constantly for over 2 years for one reason or another (related to fear/anxiety/commitments etc). This year, I booked the exam for July 27 back in April, but due to some circumstances, my studying in May and June was very limited.Due to my previous rescheduling in the past, my parents are pushing me to do it next week in hopes that maybe its the fear of the MCAT. I'm planning to do a AAMC FL tomorrow, but honestly I'm doing pretty badly on the CARS QPacks. I don't know if I should go ahead and do the exam and void it or cancel the exam at this point and do it in Sept (the only month available) and apply for the next cycle. I don't want to disappoint my family further, but I also don't know how to approach the MCAT at this point. Advice is appreciated. Also forgot to mention that on the latest TPR FL that I took I got 123 C/P, 126 CARS, 124 B/B, 129 P/S.
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Relax, take a deep breath, and take the AAMC FL. You'll probably do better than you think. It does sound like you have been pushing the exam back out of fear. One thing I would suggest is that the notion that more time to prep = a higher score isn't always correct; you want to take this thing when everything is relevantly fresh in your mind. And most importantly you want to take it with confidence.
If It were me, I'd take the AAMC FL and as long as you get say a 505, I'd take the real thing and NOT void it. You got a 502 on TPR, which quite frankly is more difficult and not very indicative of the real MCAT. I bet you score significantly higher on the AAMC materials which are the most important thing.
Again, the biggest thing you can do is be confident in yourself come test day. Good luck.
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Hey Allykatd. I feel your pain however, you should know that this is not for your family (at least not directly). It is for YOU! When you become a medical doc, you will be the first to benefit from it. Your family will only benefit indirectly, once you make it. Therefore, think about your future, your goals, your dreams and then HONESTLY ask yourself if you are ready.
While you also don't want to wait too long, Just like you said, its also important NOT TO RUSH! I believe in you and I have no doubts that you can make it. Lay out all your options on the table, make a choice and then get into action.
I take the exam a day after you; July 28th. Happy studying!
You're an adult, a part of being an adult is knowing yourself and standing up for yourself despite what your family says.
I know that there's a general saying that other practice MCATs are not representative of your score, though that may be true, the content is still the same and it's best not to put your hopes into doing better on the actual MCAT. That said, I'd recommend you take the AAMC FL and if that is around your target score, then great. However, from your TPR practice MCAT scores, I think you'd be better off postponing the exam till September so that you have around 6 weeks to study, of which you can do heavy content review and practice more on CARS. Worst case scenario, you do badly on the MCAT in two weeks and have to retake it next year (since exam scores won't be released until late August), which would in turn "disappoint your parents" even more.
Note that the two most important sections of the MCAT are #1 - CARS and #2 - Biology/Biochemistry, so you want to do well and be consistent.
I know that there's a general saying that other practice MCATs are not representative of your score, though that may be true, the content is still the same and it's best not to put your hopes into doing better on the actual MCAT. That said, I'd recommend you take the AAMC FL and if that is around your target score, then great. However, from your TPR practice MCAT scores, I think you'd be better off postponing the exam till September so that you have around 6 weeks to study, of which you can do heavy content review and practice more on CARS. Worst case scenario, you do badly on the MCAT in two weeks and have to retake it next year (since exam scores won't be released until late August), which would in turn "disappoint your parents" even more.
Note that the two most important sections of the MCAT are #1 - CARS and #2 - Biology/Biochemistry, so you want to do well and be consistent.
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