and the real thing is by FAR different than those practice tests. CARS way longer passages.
I mean, yeah, the monitors from 2004 combined with the square aspect ratio of the MCAT software was extremely distracting on an already cognitively demanding day and forces you to do more scrolling than you would otherwise have to. That said, I wouldn't say that I was particularly surprised by what I saw on test day. The lengths are standardized to be roughly the same. It's just always overwhelming to open the test and see content you haven't seen before, which is always the case with CARS.
There are like a million notifications on the MCAT portal about how many administrations you're allowed. If you told me "oopsie-whoopsie-doopsie, I didn't know, it was one time" I might understand, but 9? You had to get permission for that, so you knew this would happen at least two MCATs ago, when the system kept you from registering.
Even facing the seriousness of your circumstances, it's concerning you're worried about "wasting a whole year." Assuming AAMC doesn't grant a retake (and honestly, I doubt they would), your only option might just be one of those predatory "no MCAT required" schools or starting over in another country. Neither sound like a good idea. Either way, I don't see a way forward otherwise if you don't have a score. If you're open to nursing, direct entry DNP could be a path; PA also uses a different entrance exam, so all is not lost.
On the bright side, you can rest easy. You'll never be asked to go through those notorious 9 passages ever again.