release score?

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M

misscalipig

Hi everyone:

I'm going to be a junior and i'm taking the august mcat...if i don't release my score for the august mcat and do bad and then retake the mcat next april, will the med schools ONLY see my april score? would you guys recommend not releasing my score for the august mcat since i have at least a year to apply to med school anyway? manys thanks in advance for any advice and thanks for reading my post!

sincerely,
joanna :0)

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If you don't release your score they will still know that you sat for the test and they will know you probably didn't do very well if you retake it. If you think you bombed it and you don't want schools to know you took the test, then you will have to void it at the end. The disadvantage of this is that it won't be scored at all so you won't know if you did badly. Just take the AAMC V and VI and if your scores are up to your standards then you will probably do equally well on the MCAT, but if your not doing well on those pratice tests I would probably just wait till next April. Its best to take the test once.
 
Yes, schools will only see the scores you release - if you hold, they never see it unless you call AMCAS and release it.

I don't know...I have two years before I actually apply so I am holding my score until I see how I do. I really don' t think it can hurt that much. I would much rather have an Adcom see that I got one great score and then I had taken it two years earlier and not released my score than one great score and a crappy one.

I know that not many people (none, that I've heard of) take this route, but really how can it hurt you? I'd rather hold until I know how it is.

Has anyone done this?
 
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thanks for the info =D
....that stinks how they will still know i sat for the test.

well, i took amcas 5, i got a 9, 13, 14 (V-B-P)
today i took amcas 6, i got a 8, 13, 13 (V-B-P)

i'm VERY happy with my science scores, but my verbal score absolutely stinks. is the verbal section harder on the real mcat? cuz if so, i'm definitely gonna wait till next april to take it then.


also, i'm new to these forums...so what does "bump" mean?

sorry, i'm ignorant :)
 
Wow! It looks like you're doing very well.

Bump means adding a reply to send the topic to the top of the page and hope someone else responds.

BUMP!!
 
Hey, i got the same scores as you on AAMC V... clearly, we are awesome. Just work on verbal this week, i hope i do too. Good luck on the verbal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I teach MCATs for Kaplan and they told us to tell the students to always release the scores. If you withhold the scores, the adcoms know that and will assume the worst. If you're not confident about how you'll do, don't take the test! Wait a few months until you're ready and take it for real. Don't half-ass it the first time around and then hope to do better the second time. Study hard, take it once, and be done with it.
 
first, thanks to those who replied, you guys are so helpful and encouraging! i love this website =D

anyway, so i guess i'm hearing from different people that relasing scores is a must. well, i guess i'll just make verbal my life for the next week then...=D if i'm ready, i'm ready, if not, life goes on

btw, i find i'm pressed for time in the verbal section often. all you verbal geniuses out there: do you just skim the passages or do you just ready fast? do you spend a lot of time going back and "looking" for the answer?
 
Originally posted by misscalipig

btw, i find i'm pressed for time in the verbal section often. all you verbal geniuses out there: do you just skim the passages or do you just ready fast? do you spend a lot of time going back and "looking" for the answer?

My question is: why is releasing a must?!? It seems like a safe option if you get a bad score. I think I'm not going to release.

Anyway, I have been doing pretty well on verbal and I what I do is read the passage normally and pause for a moment at the end to organize the info and ask myself - why the he11 is the author saying this? After that I move on to the questions and don't look back unless I really can't answer or I know that it would help. Good luck :)
 
Originally posted by CoffeeCat
Yes, schools will only see the scores you release - if you hold, they never see it unless you call AMCAS and release it.

whaaat?! lemme get this straight...if i took 3 mcats and had withheld the two lowest scores, schools would ONLY see the high score i release?
 
Originally posted by efjayen


whaaat?! lemme get this straight...if i took 3 mcats and had withheld the two lowest scores, schools would ONLY see the high score i release?

Yep! Now doesn't that seem like a great option? I want to do it but I'm going crazy trying to figure out why are people so against this???
 
Because the schools will see that you actually took the exam 3 times - and since you haven't released your scores they will assume that you did REALLY poorly. Now, 'really poorly' is indeed very relative - if you get a 18, it's likely you really did do as poorly as they might be assuming, so you're screwed either way. If however you get a 28 and don't release it, the schools have no way of knowing how you did, so - depending on the school - they will probably guess you did worse than you actually did.
Having said all this, many schools will actually request that you do release all your scores. I would say that it is generally in your advantage to release them, as long as there is an improvement in your second score. Quite honestly, the more drastic the improvement, the easier it becomes to explain the low score....

From personal experience:
I'm an idiot - I had no real idea of what a good score is and how I would do the first time I took the MCAT (I didn't really study or take any practices), so I didn't release it. Later, I realized that the score I actually got was far better than what schools would've assumed I'd gotten, so I released it. I'm retaking it in August, but that's just me.

Serge
 
Originally posted by misscalipig

well, i took amcas 5, i got a 9, 13, 14 (V-B-P)
today i took amcas 6, i got a 8, 13, 13 (V-B-P)

How does someone find out their score in the >12 range? Does their website list a better curve than their booklet? Or did you just approxiamte?
 
i took AAMC V and got my score through the kaplan computer feedback thingermababber, and that thing also goes above 12. i dont understand how it can estimate that, unless kaplan does statistical analysis on everyone taking that exam who took kaplan..
misscalipig..did u get ur scores through kaplan or some other source?
 
i'm taking a Princeton review course and that's what they gave me in my score report...so i'm not sure how they did that....

anyone know?
 
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