DO MCAT Retake Score

[legacydoctor]

Hey guys, I need advice for what I should do next.

sGPA & cGPA: ~3.5
May 2014 MCAT : 20 (6/6/8)
September 2014 MCAT : 23 (9/5/9)
**MCAT (PS/VR/BS)

I've been studying like crazy for the last month (I just got my retake score today) so I'm ready to retake the exam for the last time in about 2 weeks.

I've been verified with AACOMAS and only applied to one school.

Should I..
1) send my applications out to my selected schools now
2) retake the MCAT and send my applications out late November/early December
3) retake in two weeks AND send my applications out now

I don't know how much better I'll be able to do on another retake so is it even worth it to delay my applications further? Please advise..

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[zzxxzz]

I don't know how much better I'll be able to do on another retake so is it even worth it to delay my applications further? Please advise..

A third bad score in a single year will absolutely guarantee you'll never get accepted anywhere. With that history of previous low scores, you'd need a 27-28 minimum for DO.

How are you doing on practice tests? Also, are you ESL? No offense meant, but scoring a 5 on VR after months of studying suggests a major issue.

I'd recommend holding off until next cycle and taking the 2015 MCAT, or at least trying to grab a January spot for the 2014.

 

[legacydoctor]

A third bad score in a single year will absolutely guarantee you'll never get accepted anywhere. With that history of previous low scores, you'd need a 27-28 minimum for DO.

How are you doing on practice tests? Also, are you ESL? No offense meant, but scoring a 5 on VR after months of studying suggests a major issue.

I'd recommend holding off until next cycle and taking the 2015 MCAT, or at least trying to grab a January spot for the 2014.

I am ESL but that doesn't have anything to do with it since i'm fluent in the language. I scored ~30 on loads of practice exams with the majority of VR at 8 or 9.

I'd prefer not to wait until January to retake it since February will be too late to apply. I've already gone through every single AAMC exam, the majority of Kaplan exams, have finished the entirety of TPR VR, TPR Science Workbook, EK101 VR, and TBR passages.

I feel that I'm ready to retake it now but was wondering if it's even worth it since it'll be over a month later until I could send my applications and I'm not even sure if i'll score that much better.

 

[zzxxzz]

I'd prefer not to wait until January to retake it since February will be too late to apply.

See the first line of what I wrote. The magic number for the MCAT is three - you get three tries to get the score you need. After that, you're done. No school will accept you because no school will believe you'll pass your Step I on your first try.

I am ESL but that doesn't have anything to do with it since i'm fluent in the language. I scored ~30 on loads of practice exams with the majority of VR at 8 or 9.

Are you taking your tests in test-like conditions? Suffer from test anxiety?
The issue is the difference between a 5 and a 9 is astronomical. It's the same as the difference between a C and an F; it's literally getting twice as many questions wrong. When it's happened twice, it's time to reevaluate study methods.

I feel that I'm ready to retake it now but was wondering if it's even worth it since it'll be over a month later until I could send my applications and I'm not even sure if i'll score that much better.

All the more argument to just take the 2015 MCAT next cycle. At worst, there'll be another section which may help you "hide" a low Verbal score.


As I said in my previous post, you'd be looking at needing a 5-6 point increase for DO. One bad score can be recovered from, but when you have two, schools want to see a large improvement to ensure you didn't just get lucky...