MCAT Retake?

[Rising_Sagicorn]

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[Lawpy]

I think your application is good. In the event your MCAT expires and you end up retaking, I think your strategy is a good idea especially if you do a lot of practice passages and full lengths. If you get something like 515+, I think any school is yours.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Honestly, unless you're confident you can score a 515+, I wouldn't retake it. If you were to score the same or lower on your MCAT, it would hurt you. You're already a competitive applicant now, so it might be worth applying now instead of pushing back your application even further on the off chance you can see significant improvement in your MCAT score.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[Grapesurgery]

I think your application is good. In the event your MCAT expires and you end up retaking, I think your strategy is a good idea especially if you do a lot of practice passages and full lengths. If you get something like 515+, I think any school is yours.

I have to be honest, I think you’re overestimating OP. I think OP would be a very solid candidate for mid-tiers but taking into account the GPAs, relatively average (but certainly sufficient) ECs and the honestly great, yet maybe not stellar, MCAT (even given a retake around 515).
By no means am I trying to discourage you, OP! I honestly think you are a fairly competitive applicant to apply this cycle.

Why are you considering two gap years? Take into consideration, you are giving up 2yrs of an attending salary and subjecting yourself to two more years of stress building up an app. I strongly believe you would have success this cycle and suggest look into schools that interest you ASAP.

Side note: I’m a 3.9x 52x URM applicant from last cycle. Solid ECs. I would say I’ve had a 50/50 track record with top 20’s meaning... it’s still all a crapshoot, lol. No doubt URM helps but it doesn’t magically add 10 points to your MCAT or anything similar to that effect.

 

[deleted936470]

I have to be honest, I think you’re overestimating OP. I think OP would be a very solid candidate for mid-tiers but taking into account the GPAs, relatively average (but certainly sufficient) ECs and the honestly great, yet maybe not stellar, MCAT (even given a retake around 515).
By no means am I trying to discourage you, OP! I honestly think you are a fairly competitive applicant to apply this cycle.

Why are you considering two gap years? Take into consideration, you are giving up 2yrs of an attending salary and subjecting yourself to two more years of stress building up an app. I strongly believe you would have success this cycle and suggest look into schools that interest you ASAP.

Reference: I’m a 3.9x 52x URM applicant from last cycle. Solid ECs. I would say I’ve had a 50/50 track record with top 20’s meaning... it’s still all a crapshoot, lol. No doubt URM helps but it doesn’t magically add 10 points to your MCAT or anything similar to that effect.

Ancedotes aside... looking at data from 2013-2016 for URM, OP, there are 505 Hispanic/Latino applicants that applied with a GPA in the range of 3.60 - 3.79 and an MCAT in the range of 509-513. Out of those applicants, 421 were accepted to at least one medical school which confers an 83% acceptance rate.
There are 191 Black applicants that applied with a GPA in the range of 3.60 - 3.79 and an MCAT in the range of 509-513. Out of those applicants, 179 were accepted to at least one medical school or 94% acceptance rate. Of course, it isn't broken down by "tiers"... just relevant data.

Best of luck!

 

[Grapesurgery]

Ancedotes aside... looking at data from 2013-2016 for URM, OP, there are 505 Hispanic/Latino applicants that applied with a GPA in the range of 3.60 - 3.79 and an MCAT in the range of 509-513. Out of those applicants, 421 were accepted to at least one medical school which confers an 83% acceptance rate.
There are 191 Black applicants that applied with a GPA in the range of 3.60 - 3.79 and an MCAT in the range of 509-513. Out of those applicants, 179 were accepted to at least one medical school or 94% acceptance rate. Of course, it isn't broken down by "tiers"... just relevant data.

Best of luck!

Made my commentary because it seems (not sure) OP is considering a 2 year gap and mcat retake in particular to be competitive for “high-tier”... while they are certainly competitive now and no tier is a given! Cool to see the AAMC stats are on OPs side as well.
If interested, AAMC also published more recent data (2019) for average MCAT/GPA by ethnicity along with standard deviations, although no longer broken down by %iles accepted, OP. Hope you give applying this cycle a second thought.

 

[9blade]

wait, why are you doing a gap year? you have pretty good numbers to apply this cycle. No shadowing or volunteering?

 

[Rising_Sagicorn]

@9blade @Grapesurgery @camoixu Sorry I should have mentioned that I wanted to take an extra year to earn money for applications as well as covid-19 has not been well on my mental health and would rather prefer to reflect rather than jump into a stressful process. Now that I had extra time, I could maybe add another MCAT retake.

Also I'm not really worried about the time/salary lost for this extra year in terms of being a doctor. Also, my clinical volunteering comes from an activity that is sporadic but can come with long hours (crisis center) so I wanted to add something more traditional while still making money.

Hopefully, that will give some more context

 

[forbiddensalad]

MCAT Score(s) (with section wise breakdown): 511 (126/127/128/130) with C/P as 126 and B/B as 127

2 gap years so I do have take to retake and I think I will have more time to allocate to studying this time or better plan how to study.

OP, what is your question, exactly? Are you asking for advice on if you should retake or for tips on how to improve your score for your anticipated retake? The wording is a little confusing and I'm no CARS expert. I'm just an applicant, so I can't really help you if your question is the former, but if it is the latter, I can try giving some tips. I had a very similar first-time score (almost identical breakdown) and was able to get a higher one on my retake.

 

[Rising_Sagicorn]

@forbiddensalad yes, I am asking advice on whether I should retake in general. I know a 511 is a good score but there is a chance I can do better with a retake. How much were you able to improve/do you think retaking was worth it?

 

[forbiddensalad]

@forbiddensalad yes, I am asking advice on whether I should retake in general. I know a 511 is a good score but there is a chance I can do better with a retake. How much were you able to improve/do you think retaking was worth it?

If that's the case, I would need more information from you about your first take to give you my opinion. With that said, you need to ultimately be the one to decide whether you think a retake is a good choice.

Unfortunately, like everyone says, the risk of retaking a 510+ and going down is very high, so you need to heavily reflect on whether or not you can guarantee a better score. Another thing I've seen from these forum posts is that retaking a good score is seen as poor judgement, so even if your score doesn't go down but stays the same, it can reflect poorly on you and do more harm than good.

For me personally, I believe retaking it was worthwhile. I was able to improve by 10+, but I am very well aware that this is not typical of most retakes. If you would like some tips or go into more depth about your situation, you can PM me.

 

[Lawpy]

@forbiddensalad yes, I am asking advice on whether I should retake in general. I know a 511 is a good score but there is a chance I can do better with a retake. How much were you able to improve/do you think retaking was worth it?

I was thinking your MCAT was going to expire. I wouldn't retake an unexpired 511.

 

[9blade]

@forbiddensalad yes, I am asking advice on whether I should retake in general. I know a 511 is a good score but there is a chance I can do better with a retake. How much were you able to improve/do you think retaking was worth it?

I thought you were saying it would expire...that's why I suggested why not apply this year before it expires. If it doesn't expire, I wouldn't retake it. I don't think you would look that much better retaking a 511 to get to a 515. If you're gonna retake a 511, I'd expect a 518+ on the new score

 

[Grapesurgery]

@9blade @Grapesurgery @camoixu Sorry I should have mentioned that I wanted to take an extra year to earn money for applications as well as covid-19 has not been well on my mental health and would rather prefer to reflect rather than jump into a stressful process. Now that I had extra time, I could maybe add another MCAT retake.

Also I'm not really worried about the time/salary lost for this extra year in terms of being a doctor. Also, my clinical volunteering comes from an activity that is sporadic but can come with long hours (crisis center) so I wanted to add something more traditional while still making money.

Hopefully, that will give some more context

Makes much more sense, this is quite a common reason for a gap year.

https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fastly.net/production/media/filer_public/3f/81/3f81cfe5-9882-403d-8825-d11e533dbc25/retest_gain_2015_and_2016_total.pdf

If you haven't seen this already, some light reading for you.
of ~650 in your score bracket around 27% scored 5+ points or higher on a retake. I would say anything lower than a 5pt increase has the potential to work against you.
Have you exhausted all uworld/aamc tests? Im wondering if you still have a reliable indicator of how you'll perform on a retake (though I agree with the others, it certainly isn't necessary).

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Do all FL practice tests and if you are getting 520s consistently then retake.

 

[Unconditionalloves]

Why are you doing during the 2 gap years?