MCAT before finishing pre-reqs?

[Igni Fera]

Hey all, quick question for ya...

Starting in September, I am taking a year of pre-reqs that I did not do fully in my UG days (I did the minimum series in each - O-Chem, Physics). My pre-med advisor has suggested that I wait until I have finished the full O-Chem and Physics series before taking the MCAT. In other words, to NOT take the April MCAT and instead wait until June (thanks to the new system!).

I plan to use ExamKrackers, and to study myself silly... do you think I should follow my advisor's advise and wait til June, thereby not having a super-early app submission like I want? Do you think that waiting will make much of a difference in my score?

Any insight is appreciated! Thanks!

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[Quix]

Hey all, quick question for ya...

Starting in September, I am taking a year of pre-reqs that I did not do fully in my UG days (I did the minimum series in each - O-Chem, Physics). My pre-med advisor has suggested that I wait until I have finished the full O-Chem and Physics series before taking the MCAT. In other words, to NOT take the April MCAT and instead wait until June (thanks to the new system!).

I plan to use ExamKrackers, and to study myself silly... do you think I should follow my advisor's advise and wait til June, thereby not having a super-early app submission like I want? Do you think that waiting will make much of a difference in my score?

Any insight is appreciated! Thanks!

I'd wait to until I had the classes under my belt if only to have the chance to have the face-to-face learning opportunity. No matter how much you study it, and no matter how well it is written, you can't ask a book questions.

 

[beachbunny]

Hey all, quick question for ya...

Starting in September, I am taking a year of pre-reqs that I did not do fully in my UG days (I did the minimum series in each - O-Chem, Physics). My pre-med advisor has suggested that I wait until I have finished the full O-Chem and Physics series before taking the MCAT. In other words, to NOT take the April MCAT and instead wait until June (thanks to the new system!).

I plan to use ExamKrackers, and to study myself silly... do you think I should follow my advisor's advise and wait til June, thereby not having a super-early app submission like I want? Do you think that waiting will make much of a difference in my score?

Any insight is appreciated! Thanks!

From my own experience.....I'd wait until you finish the pre-reqs. I took the MCAT without having taken my Orgo I lab or Orgo II. I took Bio II 8 years ago in undergrad and didn't retake it again until after the MCAT. I did pretty bad on the MCAT (but still amazingly pulled out 2 interviews, being waitlisted at both, and now hopefully will be attending in 2007), but my post-bac GPA and work experience made up for my poor score.

I took Kaplan and even had private tutoring from Kaplan for Orgo, used Audio Osmosis (for 4 hours a day on my commute to/from school) and still did not pull off a satisfactory score. If I could do it all over again, I definitely would have waited till I had all the pre-reqs. It's an awful feeling walking into the MCAT knowing that you are not 110% prepared. I rushed it because I am 27, I want to have kids someday (NOT during med school or residency!), and I want my father to see me graduate from med school. I didn't want to wait another year. But now I have to. So, do it right the first time and be fully prepared for the MCAT and do awesome!!!!!!!! Good luck!

Oh, and in my opinion, Physics is more important than Orgo if you had to choose one. The section that contains Orgo is split with Bio, and there is a greater percentage of Bio questions versus Orgo questions in that section. At least that's how it was when I took it in August 2005. I don't know if it has changed since then.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hey all, quick question for ya...

Starting in September, I am taking a year of pre-reqs that I did not do fully in my UG days (I did the minimum series in each - O-Chem, Physics). My pre-med advisor has suggested that I wait until I have finished the full O-Chem and Physics series before taking the MCAT. In other words, to NOT take the April MCAT and instead wait until June (thanks to the new system!).

I plan to use ExamKrackers, and to study myself silly... do you think I should follow my advisor's advise and wait til June, thereby not having a super-early app submission like I want? Do you think that waiting will make much of a difference in my score?

Any insight is appreciated! Thanks!

You could end up getting a test form that was heavy on the later prereqs. (I did). Why not wait -- there will be many more offerings of the test shortly. The goal is to take it once and do well. This is not a race.

 

[Scottish Chap]

Hey all, quick question for ya...

Starting in September, I am taking a year of pre-reqs that I did not do fully in my UG days (I did the minimum series in each - O-Chem, Physics). My pre-med advisor has suggested that I wait until I have finished the full O-Chem and Physics series before taking the MCAT. In other words, to NOT take the April MCAT and instead wait until June (thanks to the new system!).

I plan to use ExamKrackers, and to study myself silly... do you think I should follow my advisor's advise and wait til June, thereby not having a super-early app submission like I want? Do you think that waiting will make much of a difference in my score?

Any insight is appreciated! Thanks!

Don't do it. I had never studied physics before taking the MCAT and my first-hand experience of missing prereq's is that it's a massive disadvantage on MCAT day - even with diligent review book prep. You want to take this test only once and apply only once.

 

[QofQuimica]

Hey all, quick question for ya...

Starting in September, I am taking a year of pre-reqs that I did not do fully in my UG days (I did the minimum series in each - O-Chem, Physics). My pre-med advisor has suggested that I wait until I have finished the full O-Chem and Physics series before taking the MCAT. In other words, to NOT take the April MCAT and instead wait until June (thanks to the new system!).

I plan to use ExamKrackers, and to study myself silly... do you think I should follow my advisor's advise and wait til June, thereby not having a super-early app submission like I want? Do you think that waiting will make much of a difference in my score?

Any insight is appreciated! Thanks!

Are you going to be finishing the pre-reqs in May? If so, you may be all right with taking the April MCAT, provided that you review those last few chapters of physics and organic on your own. But it's going to be a lot of extra stress on you that is probably not necessary, and as I recall, you have a P/F grading scheme for your UG like I did, so your MCAT score is going to be especially important. I think I'd agree with the previous posters that you're probably better off waiting the extra few months so that you have time to study properly both for your courses and for the MCAT. It will be very difficult for you to be taking a full load of science coursework, studying ahead in two subjects on your own, and also be reviewing for the MCAT all at the same time. If you have to retake the MCAT due to overextending yourself, you'll put yourself way farther behind in the game than you would by waiting an extra couple of months to submit your AMCAS. BTW, you can submit AMCAS even before you get your MCAT scores; they'll verify it and then wait for the MCAT scores to come in. Some schools that are nonscreening may send you their secondaries even without your MCAT score. So you're really not putting yourself horribly behind if you submit AMCAS at the normal time in June, take the MCAT in June as well, and then get your MCAT scores in July. No schools start interviewing before August anyway. to you.

 

[Igni Fera]

Are you going to be finishing the pre-reqs in May? If so, you may be all right with taking the April MCAT, provided that you review those last few chapters of physics and organic on your own. But it's going to be a lot of extra stress on you that is probably not necessary, and as I recall, you have a P/F grading scheme for your UG like I did, so your MCAT score is going to be especially important. I think I'd agree with the previous posters that you're probably better off waiting the extra few months so that you have time to study properly both for your courses and for the MCAT. It will be very difficult for you to be taking a full load of science coursework, studying ahead in two subjects on your own, and also be reviewing for the MCAT all at the same time. If you have to retake the MCAT due to overextending yourself, you'll put yourself way farther behind in the game than you would by waiting an extra couple of months to submit your AMCAS. BTW, you can submit AMCAS even before you get your MCAT scores; they'll verify it and then wait for the MCAT scores to come in. Some schools that are nonscreening may send you their secondaries even without your MCAT score.

Thanks for the confirmation, everybody! I am so glad to have all you great SDNers to bounce around the different information that comes in about this process. I like my pre-med advisor, too, and I have the feeling he knows what he's talking about, but its great to have 6 opinions saying the same thing vs. my own overwhelmed sensibilities.

So you're really not putting yourself horribly behind if you submit AMCAS at the normal time in June, take the MCAT in June as well, and then get your MCAT scores in July. No schools start interviewing before August anyway. to you.

And this is exactly what I was wondering about too! You rock Q!

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

You could end up getting a test form that was heavy on the later prereqs. (I did). Why not wait -- there will be many more offerings of the test shortly. The goal is to take it once and do well. This is not a race.

mine was also heavy on the later stuff. i vote for waiting to take it. the MCAT, like med school admission in general, is a crapshoot and you want to make sure you have ALL material 100% down. good luck!