Predicament

[ZeaL6]

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Hello everyone!
I realize this is a personal choice, but I'd like some feedback to see what people think and what would be the best decision.
Currently I am signed up for the April 27th MCAT, but as the deadline is swiftly approaching, I'm not sure I'm ready to take on this beast. I'm a little over halfway done with TPR content review and scoring ~27 on my tests (9,8,10 avg.). Although I still have 6.5 weeks to improve my questions are 1. Will I be able to improve by 3 points or so in that period of time, and 2. Should I, and when should I back out and postpone my test date (assuming there are some seats left)?
I wanted to take it in April so everything is done by June 4th when AMCAS can be submitted however, I've heard people say you can submit your AMCAS and when your MCAT score comes in it will automatically update it? If that's true, if I push it back until May 18 or 23, will that negatively affect my application cycle (since scores will be released before my AMCAS is fully processed)? I wanted to apply early and broadly because I'm not that 38+ guy as far as the MCAT goes. I feel like I might be able to pull a 33 or so if I had time but with school and stuff I find it harder to study as much as I'd like than I originally planned. If it helps, I'm an Ohio resident and we have a decent bit of state schools that I'd be more than happy to attend. Thanks so much and I look forward to any advice I can get!

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

Hello everyone!
I realize this is a personal choice, but I'd like some feedback to see what people think and what would be the best decision.
Currently I am signed up for the April 27th MCAT, but as the deadline is swiftly approaching, I'm not sure I'm ready to take on this beast. I'm a little over halfway done with TPR content review and scoring ~27 on my tests (9,8,10 avg.). Although I still have 6.5 weeks to improve my questions are 1. Will I be able to improve by 3 points or so in that period of time, and 2. Should I, and when should I back out and postpone my test date (assuming there are some seats left)?
I wanted to take it in April so everything is done by June 4th when AMCAS can be submitted however, I've heard people say you can submit your AMCAS and when your MCAT score comes in it will automatically update it? If that's true, if I push it back until May 18 or 23, will that negatively affect my application cycle (since scores will be released before my AMCAS is fully processed)? I wanted to apply early and broadly because I'm not that 38+ guy as far as the MCAT goes. I feel like I might be able to pull a 33 or so if I had time but with school and stuff I find it harder to study as much as I'd like than I originally planned. If it helps, I'm an Ohio resident and we have a decent bit of state schools that I'd be more than happy to attend. Thanks so much and I look forward to any advice I can get!

I'm curious what a "decent bit of state schools" means, but that's for another day. If you're only halfway through content review, your practice tests are not at all predictive of your final potential. I say keep the April date.

 

[solesurprise]

I'd postpone the MCAT until May. Your scores will come out mid-to-late June. If you've already submitted AMCAS, you'll probably still be in the "AMCAS processing" stage. Taking a later MCAT might not affect you at all.

And even if it does, if your AMCAS isn't "complete" for an extra week or two because you're waiting on MCAT scores, you'll still be complete very early. I think that the benefit you'd get from an extra four weeks of studying for the MCAT would certainly outweigh any benefit of having a complete AMCAS two (or so) weeks earlier. Especially because you can look at the School Specific Threads in the Pre-Allo forum to get the school-specific secondary questions ahead of time - you can work on them while you're waiting for AMCAS to process.

(That's all worst-case-scenario. I think the most likely scenario is that taking the later MCAT won't affect your "AMCAS complete" time at all, because of the ~6 weeks it takes AMCAS to process.)

 

[Tulkas]

If you are studying the right way, I don't see why you couldn't improve by at least 3 points with approx. 6 more weeks if studying time. However, if you do end up deciding that you want to postpone to a later test date, you can still have a successful application cycle. I took the MCAT in June of last year, and still had a successful cycle.

 

[Meihua]

If you're still in-school, be sure to also take into account how studying for your class finals will affect your MCAT studies.

The question on whether or not you'll be able to improve by 3 points is dependent largely on what kinds of problems you're missing. Since you say you're about halfway through TPR, I think you can count on a decent amount of improvement by the time you finish working your way through, but I don't see anything wrong with pushing back your MCAT date, since yes, you can submit your AMCAS without an MCAT score, and one extra month of studying for your MCAT will probably help your application more than having your MCAT score in one month earlier.

 

[BABSstudent]

Hello everyone!
I realize this is a personal choice, but I'd like some feedback to see what people think and what would be the best decision.
Currently I am signed up for the April 27th MCAT, but as the deadline is swiftly approaching, I'm not sure I'm ready to take on this beast. I'm a little over halfway done with TPR content review and scoring ~27 on my tests (9,8,10 avg.). Although I still have 6.5 weeks to improve my questions are 1. Will I be able to improve by 3 points or so in that period of time, and 2. Should I, and when should I back out and postpone my test date (assuming there are some seats left)?
I wanted to take it in April so everything is done by June 4th when AMCAS can be submitted however, I've heard people say you can submit your AMCAS and when your MCAT score comes in it will automatically update it? If that's true, if I push it back until May 18 or 23, will that negatively affect my application cycle (since scores will be released before my AMCAS is fully processed)? I wanted to apply early and broadly because I'm not that 38+ guy as far as the MCAT goes. I feel like I might be able to pull a 33 or so if I had time but with school and stuff I find it harder to study as much as I'd like than I originally planned. If it helps, I'm an Ohio resident and we have a decent bit of state schools that I'd be more than happy to attend. Thanks so much and I look forward to any advice I can get!

Practice tests will raise that score past the 27 into the 30 range. Keep doing content review and focus on your weak areas. Add in practice tests to perfect your test taking strategy and you will be fine.

 

[plumhill]

I'm an Ohio resident and we have a decent bit of state schools that I'd be more than happy to attend. Thanks so much and I look forward to any advice I can get!

Its true that Ohio has a number of state schools, but according to the MSAR and/or adcom visits, only NEOMed and OU-HCOM have a very strong preference for in-state applicants, so a low score might screen you out at many of the schools. See how you're doing at the end of your class and then decide.

 

[Geebeejay]

Don't take the MCAT until you are ready to take it. If you are seeking to apply to MD schools, then "ready" means you have reviewed all of the content and are consistently scoring >30 on the practice tests.

 

[ZeaL6]

I'm curious what a "decent bit of state schools" means, but that's for another day. If you're only halfway through content review, your practice tests are not at all predictive of your final potential. I say keep the April date.

A decent bit of state schools meaning NEOMED, Wright State, Toledo, Cincinnati, and Ohio State (5)

 

[ZeaL6]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I'm going to just try to keep trucking then. If I can get a consistent 30+ by April 10th or so, I'll keep the date for the 27th. Otherwise I'll push it back. Has anyone else had experiences where you were just nipping the 30 mark on your tests and didn't end up where you want? Wished you had postponed? Or visa versa?

 

[ZeaL6]

Update: I decided to push my test back until May 23. I figured the extra month of studying couldn't hurt anyway regardless if I'll be in a good spot for april 27th.

With that in mind, since I'm going to apply to AMCAS as soon as it opens without an MCAT score, is it automatically sent to all my schools when I apply? Or do I have to do something to send them after I've already submitted my AMCAS application? Also, do I have to pick all the schools I want to apply to when I submit my AMCAS, or can I pick them after I receive my MCAT score?

Seriously, thanks so much for everyone's help! I don't know what I'd do without the SDN community.