Nontraditional mom looking for opinions

[LNabors01]

Hi everyone,
I'm a little new to the forum, but I wanted to put my info out there and see what people are thinking. I have 3 kids, 1 in high school, 2 more under the age of 4 (I'm 30). I have been working as a radiographer for 9 years while getting my BS in radiology (mostly management courses) and getting prerecs done at a 4 year university. My husband and I worked full time the entire time at two small hospitals. I just finished prerecs a month ago and picked back up my MCAT prep. My BS degree GPA was 3.7. After taking science prerecs, my overall is 3.6 and I think my BCPM is ~3.3. I have my application for 2021 cycle filled out and all my LOE turned in. My pre-health adviser says she thinks I have a good chance of getting in because my personal statement reflects working in rural health and wanting to continue doing so. However, I cant break a 500 on the 2 AAMC practice tests I've completed. I got some really helpful notes off reddit, but I'm taking my MCAT June 19th and starting to panic. I'm thinking I might have a shot with a 508 (if I can pull it!) and Princeton review material is CRAZY detailed! Best advise for study materials and what everyone thinks a realistic entering score should be for someone in my position.

Thanks so much to everyone!

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[deleted1005514]

Hi everyone,
I'm a little new to the forum, but I wanted to put my info out there and see what people are thinking. I have 3 kids, 1 in high school, 2 more under the age of 4 (I'm 30). I have been working as a radiographer for 9 years while getting my BS in radiology (mostly management courses) and getting prerecs done at a 4 year university. My husband and I worked full time the entire time at two small hospitals. I just finished prerecs a month ago and picked back up my MCAT prep. My BS degree GPA was 3.7. After taking science prerecs, my overall is 3.6 and I think my BCPM is ~3.3. I have my application for 2021 cycle filled out and all my LOE turned in. My pre-health adviser says she thinks I have a good chance of getting in because my personal statement reflects working in rural health and wanting to continue doing so. However, I cant break a 500 on the 2 AAMC practice tests I've completed. I got some really helpful notes off reddit, but I'm taking my MCAT June 19th and starting to panic. I'm thinking I might have a shot with a 508 (if I can pull it!) and Princeton review material is CRAZY detailed! Best advise for study materials and what everyone thinks a realistic entering score should be for someone in my position.

Thanks so much to everyone!

If you're not breaking 500 on your AAMC practice tests this close to the exam, my advice would be to push the test back to later in the summer. The AAMC practice exams are the closest to the real thing, and you need to be getting 5 points higher on your practice exams than your target score. This will allow for a loss of a few points due to nerves on the test day, so if you're shooting for a 508, you need to be consistently hitting 513 on practice exams.

 

[hamiltonnyc]

...and you need to be getting 5 points higher on your practice exams than your target score. This will allow for a loss of a few points due to nerves on the test day, so if you're shooting for a 508, you need to be consistently hitting 513 on practice exams.

I disagree with this. I think a range of 505-510 should be good to try for a 508 on the real thing. Higher is always better. But if you're aiming for a 520, for example, you don't need to score a 525 on practice exams.

 

[deleted1005514]

I disagree with this. I think a range of 505-510 should be good to try for a 508 on the real thing. Higher is always better. But if you're aiming for a 520, for example, you don't need to score a 525 on practice exams.

I agree that there’s a point of diminishing returns when you’re shooting for high scores, but I stated it as more of a rule of thumb than as MCAT gospel. I think 505 on a practice exam is too low for someone shooting for a 508 on the real thing, and stand by my advice for the OP, but I would agree to a range of 510-513 to feel confident on test day.