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MCAT Overconfidence
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Well considering a 30 is around the 80th percentile its not as easy as one might think. Of course its doable and you should never let yourself down, but overconfidence might not be the best mentality to have going into it. Keep yourself critical and always striving to improve yourself. Some people think, "Hey I'm smart and got A's in all of the classes so I will be alright" then find themselves scoring much poorer than they had anticipated.
Also consider that the population of students taking the MCAT is vastly different than you might be used to. Everyone taking the MCAT for the most part has an intention of entering medical school.
Anyways keep a good attitude and remember that a 40 is 99.5-99.6 percentile (For 2008 scores I randomly pulled up) and a 36 is 96.2-97.5 percentile. Its a difficult feat but never let yourself get discouraged. Its definitely possible. Good Luck!
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lmw312 said:
+1
After you've taken all the classes that are tested on the MCAT (so you don't have some excuse to rationalize your bad score) seriously take the test. Set aside the time and don't cheat. These include Gen Chem, Physics, Bio & Ochem.
There's a LOT more to taking this test besides simply memorizing all the facts and equations. You need to have a strategy and a good sense of time management. It's one of those things that you won't understand until you go out and do it.
Why do you think you could get "at least a 36?" Have you taken it before?
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👍👍👍
There have been people who have studied for the MCAT in two-three weeks and still passed the 36+ mark. It's definitely possible, but don't think you're part of that category.
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I was on the Dean's List like 8 times I could probably get into harvard. What's the big deal?
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+1 Generally, people seem to improve anywhere from 0 to 10 (or more, though more rarely) points from the AAMC #3. I think your final score will depend mainly on your initial starting score and the effort you put into studying.
If you're already scoring 30 or higher on your first practice test, it's not a huge jump to aim for a 36+ score. On the other hand, if you're scoring in the mid-twenties, you might end up in the 30-35 range with the same amount of effort. But of course even if you start on a lower score, there's no reason why you can't get it up higher with more effort/studying 😀
Best of luck!
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The MCAT is difficult both in part of its scope and because of how it tests those concepts. Its part content knowledge and critical thinking skills, with the latter being emphasized more and more with recent tests. It's good to have confidence when it comes to attacking the MCAT, but it is also important to be realistic.
From browsing SDN, you get the impression that 34+ scores are the norm, but that's not the case. The MCAT is not an easy test, but it's not impossible. Just take a look at the topic lists provided by the AAMC to see how comprehensive the MCAT can be. Hopefully, that will bring you're confidence down a notch.
From browsing SDN, you get the impression that 34+ scores are the norm, but that's not the case. The MCAT is not an easy test, but it's not impossible. Just take a look at the topic lists provided by the AAMC to see how comprehensive the MCAT can be. Hopefully, that will bring you're confidence down a notch.
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Strongly concur. The avg MCAT score overall is ~25-26. The avg MD matriculant has a 32. The avg for a top tier like Harvard is around 39; only 10% of their class can score >40.
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Uh... The average MCAT for top-tiers is a 36-37.
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Agree.
According to the MSAR, I think the HIGHEST median MCAT from any med school is like a 37
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Just checked, it's 38. But this is definitely the highest median
Yes. WashU median is 38, and all other top 20s have medians of 35-37 (at least, that was true of all the ones I looked up when putting together my school list, which I think included all of them in on the East Coast or in the South and Midwest).
Goro has some very strange ideas about top tier admissions.
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Can anyone give me a reality push and tell me how hard the exam really is?
What more do you want to hear? Fairly intelligent people spend several months studying for it and still feel like their brain got a severe beating after taking it. It's meant to establish a curve among a population of stronger than average students so it has to be a pretty hard test right? It's hard to describe it, you just have to take it to find out.
EDIT: Did he...Did he just delete his post?? 😱
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The MCAT is not difficult by its material, the MCAT is difficult by its constraints. Your brain needs to make connections and switch gears quickly, work through problems efficiently, and perform ballpark calculations without hesitation. In my opinion, that is what makes it a good measure for medical schools - all of those skills are necessary for practicing physicians.
As someone who hasn't taken the test yet, I can sort of relate in that I also feel confident that I can do well on the MCAT since I plan on studying a lot (and hopefully efficiently as well) and I'm a pretty good test taker.
However, I still acknowledge that only after I've done most of my review and taken a bunch of practice tests is when I sort of know what to expect to get on the actual exam. So while I'm certainly aiming for a 36+ right now, I'm prepared to be more realistic with my expectations if my practice test scores are lower.
There's nothing really to tell you other than wait and see for yourself once you actually start studying for the MCAT and taking practice tests. If you really do want the reality push --> there's absolutely no reason you should be so over confident about getting a 99th percentile score in a pretty difficult exam taken by thousands of really intelligent students that have also studied their a***es off. Doing well in your pre-req courses doesn't guarantee you a great MCAT score since it's not just about the material, there's a lot of reasoning skills you need to practice.
However, I still acknowledge that only after I've done most of my review and taken a bunch of practice tests is when I sort of know what to expect to get on the actual exam. So while I'm certainly aiming for a 36+ right now, I'm prepared to be more realistic with my expectations if my practice test scores are lower.
There's nothing really to tell you other than wait and see for yourself once you actually start studying for the MCAT and taking practice tests. If you really do want the reality push --> there's absolutely no reason you should be so over confident about getting a 99th percentile score in a pretty difficult exam taken by thousands of really intelligent students that have also studied their a***es off. Doing well in your pre-req courses doesn't guarantee you a great MCAT score since it's not just about the material, there's a lot of reasoning skills you need to practice.
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I'm going to go against the grain here with some realism.
People don't like to talk about innate intelligence, or aptitude, or talent, or what have you, because it's odd to categorize and divide people like that outside of research studies. However, people are different. Some people are "smart" in some ways, some people in others, and some people aren't "smart" at all (I'm using "smart" loosely here, with quotes, because I recognize the ambiguity of such a descriptor; define it however you like, the point stands).
Some people believe they are smart, others believe they are not. Both groups contain people who are correct and those who are not. In the case of the MCAT, we are looking for a specific kind of aptitude, of intelligence or "smarts." It is the ability to learn easily, think quickly and critically, and avoid errors, all in the context of information presented in a comparatively abstract way (vs. emotional information, proprioceptive information, sensory information other than visual, etc.).
An individual with high MCAT potential will command a certain kind of intelligence to a certain degree. Where this comes into play is in one's self-perception of this trait (or lack thereof).
When I began planning MCAT prep, I had a high goal. I honestly believed I had the potential to get a 45. I didn't think it was remotely likely, because I knew the stats on test taker performance, but my thought was this: if anybody can do it, it's me.
To a random person this sounds extremely cocky, but (and this is the inkling of realism I want to convey here) people who are reasonably self-aware and able to think critically should be able to evaluate themselves with some degree of objectivity. Put another way, someone who is actually "smart" should be able to recognize such. Often I believe this is the case. The point is that there will be people who will approach the MCAT with high expectations, which will in fact be rightfully placed and will bear fruit as such in their performance.
The key issue here is what is under consideration when appraising one's own potential. OP, you say:
Why do you say that? Is it because you've taken a practice exam of some sort and scored a 36? That may not be the case. However, that's not the only valid measure.
Perhaps you are aware that a 36 places a test taker at the mid-high 90th percentile among other test takers. Would you consider yourself to be intellectually and academically among the top 3-5% of people? If so, you can make a valid connection between such an appraisal and the chance of scoring a 36.
Now, if you are pulling the number of out the air with no background on what such a score means, then your confidence (or at least its specificity) may be misplaced. But an informed, intelligent individual with knowledge of exam statistics and information should be able to draw a valid connection where one exists.
I stated that in beginning MCAT prep, I believed I had the potential to score a 45. Having taken the exam now, do I still believe so? Yes. The caveat is that in doing prep, my perspective on the exam changed, and I less confidence in its validity (in terms of exam material quality). The second caveat is that because of the first, I no longer think I could score a 45 based on my own merit. I think some portion of it would be luck because I believe the test is flawed. But I digress.
I began prep with high expectations, and my performance throughout prep confirmed them, as reflected in my AAMC FL scores.
For some people, the MCAT will not be "hard." Few people would deny this, but it becomes an issue in determining who those people are. You can have statistics quoted to you all day long about how only 0.1% of test takers score 42+ or whatever, but no one with a basic education in statistics would argue that the conclusion is that you have a 0.1% chance of scoring that high. You are an individual, with characteristics that separate you from the other data points on the score curve. The only way to know what you can expect of yourself (in the standard sense and as far as what you should realistically hold yourself and push yourself to achieve) is to know yourself.
TL;DR - It's possible for people to know they are smart and be correct. No one else can say if that's you.
People don't like to talk about innate intelligence, or aptitude, or talent, or what have you, because it's odd to categorize and divide people like that outside of research studies. However, people are different. Some people are "smart" in some ways, some people in others, and some people aren't "smart" at all (I'm using "smart" loosely here, with quotes, because I recognize the ambiguity of such a descriptor; define it however you like, the point stands).
Some people believe they are smart, others believe they are not. Both groups contain people who are correct and those who are not. In the case of the MCAT, we are looking for a specific kind of aptitude, of intelligence or "smarts." It is the ability to learn easily, think quickly and critically, and avoid errors, all in the context of information presented in a comparatively abstract way (vs. emotional information, proprioceptive information, sensory information other than visual, etc.).
An individual with high MCAT potential will command a certain kind of intelligence to a certain degree. Where this comes into play is in one's self-perception of this trait (or lack thereof).
When I began planning MCAT prep, I had a high goal. I honestly believed I had the potential to get a 45. I didn't think it was remotely likely, because I knew the stats on test taker performance, but my thought was this: if anybody can do it, it's me.
To a random person this sounds extremely cocky, but (and this is the inkling of realism I want to convey here) people who are reasonably self-aware and able to think critically should be able to evaluate themselves with some degree of objectivity. Put another way, someone who is actually "smart" should be able to recognize such. Often I believe this is the case. The point is that there will be people who will approach the MCAT with high expectations, which will in fact be rightfully placed and will bear fruit as such in their performance.
The key issue here is what is under consideration when appraising one's own potential. OP, you say:
Why do you say that? Is it because you've taken a practice exam of some sort and scored a 36? That may not be the case. However, that's not the only valid measure.
Perhaps you are aware that a 36 places a test taker at the mid-high 90th percentile among other test takers. Would you consider yourself to be intellectually and academically among the top 3-5% of people? If so, you can make a valid connection between such an appraisal and the chance of scoring a 36.
Now, if you are pulling the number of out the air with no background on what such a score means, then your confidence (or at least its specificity) may be misplaced. But an informed, intelligent individual with knowledge of exam statistics and information should be able to draw a valid connection where one exists.
I stated that in beginning MCAT prep, I believed I had the potential to score a 45. Having taken the exam now, do I still believe so? Yes. The caveat is that in doing prep, my perspective on the exam changed, and I less confidence in its validity (in terms of exam material quality). The second caveat is that because of the first, I no longer think I could score a 45 based on my own merit. I think some portion of it would be luck because I believe the test is flawed. But I digress.
I began prep with high expectations, and my performance throughout prep confirmed them, as reflected in my AAMC FL scores.
Here's a curveball: I didn't think it was hard. When I took AAMC's 3 and 4, on which I scored my highest practice test scores, I did not feel that either exam was hard. I felt the same of my real exam.
For some people, the MCAT will not be "hard." Few people would deny this, but it becomes an issue in determining who those people are. You can have statistics quoted to you all day long about how only 0.1% of test takers score 42+ or whatever, but no one with a basic education in statistics would argue that the conclusion is that you have a 0.1% chance of scoring that high. You are an individual, with characteristics that separate you from the other data points on the score curve. The only way to know what you can expect of yourself (in the standard sense and as far as what you should realistically hold yourself and push yourself to achieve) is to know yourself.
TL;DR - It's possible for people to know they are smart and be correct. No one else can say if that's you.
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Confidence is great. Your worries of needing to stop thinking like that indicate to me that you understand that you will need to prep sufficiently. Therefore, I don't think the confidence will hurt you. As others have already mentioned, the difficulty of the MCAT will depend on how the individual's brain works. It's mainly a thinking test, designed to see if you can take what you know and apply it.
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That is insane....
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Confidence is great; hubris can be deadly.
Take practice tests under test conditions (read the rules; they are very strict). Keep taking them until the real test day is just another test.
There are good study schedules out there... consider them.
There are some tricks to getting through some multiple choice questions quickly (e.g. if given the question, the answer must be between 0 and 1 and there is only one choice in that range, then you've got your answer without grinding through the math.); learn those tricks.
Take practice tests under test conditions (read the rules; they are very strict). Keep taking them until the real test day is just another test.
There are good study schedules out there... consider them.
There are some tricks to getting through some multiple choice questions quickly (e.g. if given the question, the answer must be between 0 and 1 and there is only one choice in that range, then you've got your answer without grinding through the math.); learn those tricks.
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As someone who scored 38+ my opinion is that the MCAT can beaten with a hardcore amount of studying. I busted ass for the test and wound up with a 99th percentile score. A friend of mine who had gotten a 31 then used my schedule on his retake and wound up with a 35...but his English skills were pretty mediocre and his breakdown was 14/7/14. Had he been better at verbal he would have destroyed the test. SDNers also seem to study extremely hard (see the popularity of SN2ed's schedule) and also seem to have much higher scores on average than what you find in the general population.
Granted there are very rare individuals who can walk in with little preparation and bust out a 38+, but...they're very rare, and usually extremely intelligent people who still have all the pre-reqs fresh in their heads. IMO if you want a 38+ all you need is somewhat above average intelligence and extreme dedication.
Granted there are very rare individuals who can walk in with little preparation and bust out a 38+, but...they're very rare, and usually extremely intelligent people who still have all the pre-reqs fresh in their heads. IMO if you want a 38+ all you need is somewhat above average intelligence and extreme dedication.
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What was your schedule? Are you referring to SN2ed's schedule?
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More or less. I adapted his schedule to fit over a longer period and added some more materials, but otherwise it was the same idea.
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You NEVER know how you will react mentally in the real thing. I had never had a problem with text anxiety, but during the actual MCAT my brain started swirling about how much this test means and how a poor score may negate all my other hard work. You think about those things before, but it really hit me during the exam.
I wouldn't suggest letting that happen, but sometimes you can be blindsided by it.
I wouldn't suggest letting that happen, but sometimes you can be blindsided by it.
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Agreed; during all of my practice tests, including my first, I never had less than 20 minutes left to double-check answers and revisit harder questions for both PS and BS. At my actual test, however, I was left with only 5 minutes on the PS because 1. it was harder and calculation-heavy than the AAMC FLs and 2. I had the beginning-of-test jitters. I generally don't get nervous for tests, but the MCAT was an exception -- I was definitely panicking during my last few passages even though I technically still had time left over. Even if you're scoring well on your practice exams, keep taking them and take them with the mindset that you're taking the real exam. You might be able to over-prepare content, but I don't think you can over-prepare test-taking.
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