Please give me some advises!

[kittiekat730]

By now, i received most rejections and no interview at all. i'm being placed on ranked list for Interview at UMiami and Penn State. I'm now still patiently waiting but not so much hope !

I'm studying for this coming April MCAT and plan to improve my score by a lot! I could do sciences part...it's just the verbal that got me !

I'm hanging in there but don't know what else to do to improve my stat. I'm thinking of taking a year off for Postbac but i'm not sure i should. it seems like i'm doing so many things at once right now. With 2 jobs, volunteer in hospital, doing research, and studying for MCAT...i'm really exhausting. But i need to do those for my future LOR ( letter of rec). Please give me some advices! ...thanks

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[sistahnik]

stop, relax, and then write down everthing that you are doing and prioritize them. It doesn't make any sense to overwhelm yourself. I know you need the letters, but you need to slow down a bit and concentrate on grades and the mcat. what do I know? well I was working fulltime, taking a load in school and doing other activities when I realized my body was screaming. I could no longer concentrate on anything for a long period of time and my study skills went down hill (needless to say that's what I needed improvement on already). I had to stop and take a look at what I was doing to myself. It really didn't matter how much I was doing, what mattered was what the quality was. so I wanted to have quality in what I was doing and not quantity. I slowed down until I could handle a more vigorous schedule and now I am doing just fine. hope this helps, didn't mean to give a speech.

 

[kittiekat730]

stop, relax, and then write down everthing that you are doing and prioritize them. It doesn't make any sense to overwhelm yourself. I know you need the letters, but you need to slow down a bit and concentrate on grades and the mcat. what do I know? well I was working fulltime, taking a load in school and doing other activities when I realized my body was screaming. I could no longer concentrate on anything for a long period of time and my study skills went down hill (needless to say that's what I needed improvement on already). I had to stop and take a look at what I was doing to myself. It really didn't matter how much I was doing, what mattered was what the quality was. so I wanted to have quality in what I was doing and not quantity. I slowed down until I could handle a more vigorous schedule and now I am doing just fine. hope this helps, didn't mean to give a speech.

hello sistahnik,
thanks for the advice! I'm trying to decide on taking off volunteer for 2mons and concentrate for MCAT. I'm just afraid that my discontinous on volunteer work would look bad on the application! Any other suggestion to improve my stat ?

 

[TwoLegacies]

hello sistahnik,
thanks for the advise! I'm trying to decide on taking off volunteer for 2mons and concentrate for MCAT. I'm just afraid that my discontinous on volunteer work would look bad on the application! Any other suggestion to improve my stat ?

You could consider just cutting back on your volunteer and/or work hours... you don't have to drop something altogether. if you've made a commitment to volunteer for a certain number of hours and, like you said, you need a recommendation from that experience, you could try to talk to your volunteer supervisor and explain the situation. i'm sure he/she would be understanding about cutting back on hours.
As for the verbal score... I haven't taken the MCAT myself (I've only done some practice passages) but I can reiterate others' advice for you: "Do lots of practice passages". That's pretty much the consensus. Another thing you can do is read the newspaper or magazines such as Time and The New Yorker. In addition to practicing your reading comprehension skills, you'll also catch up on current events.

 

[kittiekat730]

You could consider just cutting back on your volunteer and/or work hours... you don't have to drop something altogether. if you've made a commitment to volunteer for a certain number of hours and, like you said, you need a recommendation from that experience, you could try to talk to your volunteer supervisor and explain the situation. i'm sure he/she would be understanding about cutting back on hours.
As for the verbal score... I haven't taken the MCAT myself (I've only done some practice passages) but I can reiterate others' advice for you: "Do lots of practice passages". That's pretty much the consensus. Another thing you can do is read the newspaper or magazines such as Time and The New Yorker. In addition to practicing your reading comprehension skills, you'll also catch up on current events.

should I consider Postbac program ?...thanks for the advice!

 

[TwoLegacies]

should I consider Postbac program ?...thanks for the advise!

post-bacs are generally for people who either didn't take most of their pre-requisites at their university, or who have a low gpa and want to raise it. since you have a great gpa, and i'm assuming you've taken your pre-reqs, i don't think a post-bac is for you.

 

[dynx]

should I consider Postbac program ?...thanks for the advise!

your GPA is fine, you don't need a post bac, what you need is to do well on the MCAT. Start reading a lot, take Kaplan/PR if you haven't before experience helps and taking a couple full length practice test should improve your score. Drop you ECs except for one that real means a lot to you and spend the time you gain studying your ass off.

 

[Hoya11]

Is english your first language?

Anyway Tufts takes your highest mcat scores so 6, 12, 10 is a 28 which is good so apply there

 

[ARAP]

Hello everyone,

I am intending to volunteer in ER in a hospital , but i don't know for how long i should do this! I also plan on doing afew more soon after finishing the first one. Guys could you advise me on how many hrs i should alocate for this. Presently, I am doing a fultime job in the morning, which means nights will be for volunteering. I 'll appreciate any advise.

Thanks

 

[kittiekat730]

Is english your first language?

Anyway Tufts takes your highest mcat scores so 6, 12, 10 is a 28 which is good so apply there

No, English is not my first language. i came here when i was 13. I'll try my best in reading now! Is there any sources of reading that I should read to improve my speed? I can read science passages really fast ...but for stuff like political or astronomy....it takes me a while to figure out what's going on!

oh, one more question, for the school that I didn't apply this year but i will apply next year....would they still consider me as re-applicant?


Hoya11: by the way, i already applied to Tufts and haven't hear anything back yet! Still cross my finger and hope for the best. Thanks!

 

[TwoLegacies]

No, English is not my first language. i came here when i was 13. I'll try my best in reading now! Is there any sources of reading that I should read to improve my speed? I can read science passages really fast ...but for stuff like political or astronomy....it takes me a while to figure out what's going on!

oh, one more question, for the school that I didn't apply this year but i will apply next year....would they still consider me as re-applicant?


Hoya11: by the way, i already applied to Tufts and haven't hear anything back yet! Still cross my finger and hope for the best. Thanks!

I think a variety of sources for reading would be best. Get used to reading about all different kinds of topics... By the way, passages about politics and astronomy can be hard for anyone. The best you can do is practice a lot.

 

[TwoLegacies]

Hello everyone,

I am intending to volunteer in ER in a hospital , but i don't know for how long i should do this! I also plan on doing afew more soon after finishing the first one. Guys could you advise me on how many hrs i should alocate for this. Presently, I am doing a fultime job in the morning, which means nights will be for volunteering. I 'll appreciate any advise.

Thanks

Hi--

The hospital where I volunteer has a minimum number of hours (100 total, 4 per week) for volunteers. If you don't have a volunteer position set up yet, you might want to look into a particular hospital and see if they have requirements like that. Other than that, it's really up to you. Try to think of it as a learning experience and volunteer until you feel like you have a good idea of what it's like to work in a hospital-- don't think of it as "something i have to do for my application". There isn't a set number of hours that's "good enough". Good luck--