No HOPE?

  • Thread starter Thread starter GatorWell
  • Start date Start date
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
G

GatorWell

Hi, you guys. I saw my MCAT score today and its bad news 🙁

I did fairly okay on sciences, but I did really bad on the verbal section. ( worse than any of my practice tests)
I am thinking of switching to predental.. is it too late? I heard that DAT isnt dat bad at all......Do you guys know anyone who has taken this path?

or should i retake it in the August?
I feel like there is no hope for me since I have gotten this score on the verbal section....


I think I hope no hope for US medical school.... I will really appreciate your advise cuz I need to make decision whether I want to switch to different areas of health fields...


GPA 3.9 +
V 5 (English is my second language)
B 10
P 10

I heard that its hard to improve your verbal.. you guys know anyone who has gotten into a medical school with 25?

thanks!
 
hey,

I don't think all hope is lost. With your gpa you should have a shot at MD schools. You should also check out DO schools.

I would also recomend retaking the test in august, if you could pull that 5 up to a 7 you would be in much better shape. And since you scored better on your practice exams you will for sure be able to when you retake the mcat. I did when I retook it, and I will be starting med school in august.

I really don't think you need to give up on medical school. 😉

good luck!!!!
 
THank you so much. That means alot to me. Thank you for your kind words!
 
GatorWell,
If you want to be a MD go for it, and don't give it up to go to dental school. Is people like you that gives dental profession a bad name. What if you apply to dental school, and get accepted and you find out that's not what you would like to do for the rest of your life. What will you do next . I will suggest to you to stick to the thing that you love, and not give up when the going gets tough. Retake the MCAT and try and do better, and when you write you personal statement try and let the adcom know that english is your second language. Good luck and remember that where there's a will, there's always gonna be a way.
 
Hi,

If I were you, I wouldn't even think about dental school. I'd stay 100% focused on getting into medical school, and expend all your efforts toward that goal.

Your GPA is impressive on the surface, but did you take challenging science courses? Does your school have a reputation for being academically rigorous? Did you challenge yourself extracurricullarly (volunteer experience, paid employment, research work) as well? Your GPA is great, but just how great (how much it would offset your poor MCAT performance) depends on your answers to the above questions.

Also, how well did you prepare for the MCATs? If you put in a great deal of effort and this score is all you got, I don't think you're going to do much better for the August examination. But, I suspect that you probably didn't answer enough practice questions and take enough practice exams.

I was scoring really low on my first practice exams given by the Princeton Review. By verbal score was like 5-7. What I did was I quit the Princeton Review course but kept their material. I devoted a month and a half, 10 hours a day, for MCATs preparation. In the morning, I would read five or six articles from the New York Times in various sections (two stories from the Front Page, a story from the Arts section, a story from the Book Review, an Editorial article, and a Science article). Incidentally, registration to the online version of the New York Times is free, and you have access to all of the day's stories. Additionally, I would devote an hour and a half each day to doing passages and questions from the Princeton Review Verbal Workbook. The rest of the time I would devote to reading the big Science Review book and answering the questions within.

The week before the exam, I took one or two Princeton Review practice exams and all of the official MCATs practice exams. On the official exams, I was scoring between a 37-39. I ended up scoring 12 VR, 14 PS, 13 BS.

Now, I drastically improved my score in the period of a month and a half. I think you could do the same for the August MCATs provided that you have questions/passages/exams that you didnt answer the first time around. You'll be cheating yourself if you just reanswer questions/passages/exams you used the first time. Also, remember that you can't focus exclusively on the verbal section... otherwise you may end up increasing your verbal score while your performance on the other sections drop.

Sign up for the August MCAT, and take a series of practice exams right before the real thing. If your score shows significant improvement, then take the test with confidence. If it does not, take the test anyways, and based on your confidence at the end of the test, void it or don't void it.

If you do void it, I suggest spending the year taking upper level humanities and science courses, in addition to reading extensively in various subjects. Then, take the April MCATs and apply (or reapply, as the case may be) next June.

Hope this helps,

--Vinoy
 
with such an impressive gpa, you've obviously got the work ethic to succeed in medical school. you've also demonstrated your skill on the mcat with 10's on each science section. it's just your mastery of the english language that's holding you back in achieving a competitive mcat score.

like the above poster said, all you've really got to do is beef up your outside reading. as a child of immigrant parents, english was essentially a second language in my household, and thus my english ability suffered in academic arenas as i grew older. the only way to break out of this mold is to expose yourself to harder, terser reading. your vocabulary and comprehension will increase exponentially. pick up a copy of the wall street journal or the new yorker magazine and read through it, however difficult it may be for you. reading really does help, as my own travails with language have proven.

with persistence, your work will payoff, and the mcat score will be through the roof. you'll see that your reading comprehension skills will skyrocket your other section scores as well.

best of luck, i'm rooting for you :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
Gainesville, Florida.....the Gators.... I wonder which school the OP could have gone to.
 
I'd say apply to DO aschools as well as MD. Only applying to dentals because of a low MCAT is not a good reason to want to be a dentist. You may end up being unhappy if you really wanted to be a md/do.
 
If someone worked that hard, to get that kind of gpa, im sure that that person, with that kind of intelligence, would have not so easily thrown in the towel and already be thinking about applying to another professional school EVEN BEFORE attempting to apply to the one you've dedicate all that time and effort to. PLEASE. do you expect people to believe that. what a sad way to get people to see your stats. 🙄
 
Thanks for your advise.... I am VERY scared to retake the MCAT because English is my second language and like many people said, its hard to bring up the verbal score within a month......... I sincerely hoped to find out if there was anyone who actually made to med school with my low verbal score.........
 
I hate to be the pessimist here but a 5 on verbal is extremely low. I would say only a very small percentage of accepted applicants have a verbal score that low. Schools are looking for a reason to reject applicants and a 5 in VR will throw up a huge red flag. The hardest part will be getting interviews with a verbal score that low. The first time I took the MCAT I recieved a 7 on VR and received 1 interview and wasn't accepted. You can improve on verbal even if English is not your first language. The second time I took the MCAT I spent about 70% of my study time on VR and improved to a 10. THat opened a lot of doors and I am going to my top choice this year. Don't give up, I would definitely retake the MCAT before applying. You might "test the waters" this year and apply to a few lower tier schools but I would wait until next April to retake so you have a sufficient amount of time to prepare. Taking a year off won't kill you. I did and it has been a great decision.😎

P.S. Don't consider dentistry unless you really could see yourself as a dentist!
 
Hi there GatorWell!! My story is actually very similar to yours. I had a 3.9 G.P.A also at UF but a poor verbal score (6) on the MCATs. I wasn't even going to apply, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyways. It was a long time of waiting, but I was just recently accepted to my first choice at UF med school! My advice to you would definitely be to try the MCAT again in August, but still apply. MCATs are definitely not everything, and if you have solid ECs, LORs and you obviously have the G.P.A, you will be set! If UF is one of your main choices, don't worry excessively about your MCAT, they tend to look at the whole picture rather than a specific thing. If you need anymore information, just PM me, I would be glad to help!
 
Top