Retaking a 512? Pointless or beneficial?

[Lnsean]

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See, that's your speculation. It's not necessarily true. You don't have any evidence to say "Real exam wins." Every MCAT is different. Questions and passages change. Many AAMC practice exams were old test questions. So I'd argue practice exams provide the same advantage that you are describing, which is it allows you to know your strength and weakness.

but it's not speculation. Real exam is better than practice exams. You can google this. I really don't have time to argue these type of semantics. It should be common sense right now. Real exams are AAMC materials...and AAMC does not release alot of practice exams. The guy that is retaking will always have +1 attempt on official AAMC questions and materials....and on top of that knows how he performed and can tailor his studies for the 2nd attempt. The guy that only took the mcat once does not have this luxury.

How many practice exams does AAMC release for the new MCAT? not many. The guy that is retaking has a whole extra attempt on a full length of official AAMC material. That's a huge advantage to me.

 

[banthapug]

But you won't know which questions you got right or wrong with the real exam. You won't know if there is a whole in understanding a concept or it was details you missed in a passage. Practice runs are valuable because it tells you which areas to focus on, like you said. But just knowing your subscores is not enough to tell you what your strengths and weaknesses are. If practice exams (both AAMC and private prep companies) didn't come with answer key and a chance to go back and look at passages again, they would be absolutely useless.

but it's not speculation. Real exam is better than practice exams. You can google this. I really don't have time to argue these type of semantics. It should be common sense right now. Real exams are AAMC materials...and AAMC does not release alot of practice exams. The guy that is retaking will always have +1 attempt on official AAMC questions and materials....and on top of that knows how he performed and can tailor his studies for the 2nd attempt. The guy that only took the mcat once does not have this luxury.

How many practice exams does AAMC release for the new MCAT? not many. The guy that is retaking has a whole extra attempt on a full length of official AAMC material. That's a huge advantage to me.

 

[Lnsean]

But you won't know which questions you got right or wrong with the real exam. You won't know if there is a whole in understanding a concept or it was details you missed in a passage. Practice runs are valuable because it tells you which areas to focus on, like you said. But just knowing your subscores is not enough to tell you what your strengths and weaknesses are. If practice exams (both AAMC and private prep companies) didn't come with answer key and a chance to go back and look at passages again, they would be absolutely useless.

If that's important to you then that's fine...may not be important to others. I'd be fine with having an extra run at 1 full length of official AAMC materials. That's valuable to me even if I dont now exactly which question i got wrong. I'd know the subsections and focus accordingly. Again...you're trying to make calls on how ppl would utilize this and you dont have that authority. IF you dont want to utilize the feedback or extra practice...that is up to you...let others decide for their own.

AGAIN...you're trying to decide what is important to others when it's not your place to do so. The advantage is there...however people want to utilize it...is up to them. The problem...like i've said...is that first-time takers do not have this advantage/luxury at all. They don't get this chance like you did to even decide that.

I don't need you to tell me what is useless and not useless to me. Let me decide that.

 

[banthapug]

Look, since you said you've been admitted to a med school I assume you've taken the MCAT at least once. You've been on SDN for >7 years it says, so I assume you've been to the MCAT forum. One of the most repeated piece of advice over there is to review your practice exam extensively. I've personally found it extremely helpful, and apparently so have many others who have scored very high. If my bio score is low it doesn't tell me anything more than that something in bio went wrong. It doesn't tell me WHAT in bio went wrong. I personally find it more helpful to know specific areas I need to review rather than having to cover the entire bio content again. If that doesn't work for you, that's fine. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, I'm having an honest discussion with you like you had suggested a few comments ago. I'm not trying to tell you you are wrong or stupid or weak. I'm just presenting my point of view in a civil manner.

If that's important to you then that's fine...may not be important to others. I'd be fine with having an extra run at 1 full length of official AAMC materials. That's valuable to me even if I dont now exactly which question i got wrong. I'd know the subsections and focus accordingly. Again...you're trying to make calls on how ppl would utilize this and you dont have that authority. IF you dont want to utilize the feedback or extra practice...that is up to you...let others decide for their own.

 

[banthapug]

Re: your bolded edit, you're telling me I am in no place to say what's important, but aren't you telling me (and other members you've been arguing) what's important as well? If you can ace MCAT without reviewing your practice exams extensively, good for you. But that's not a tactic that will be good for most people, which is evident if you just browse over the MCAT forum.

I am ending this conversation with you because I don't think you can have a mature conversation regarding this topic. It seems like it's more important for you to be right than actually have a discussion. Good night.

If that's important to you then that's fine...may not be important to others. I'd be fine with having an extra run at 1 full length of official AAMC materials. That's valuable to me even if I dont now exactly which question i got wrong. I'd know the subsections and focus accordingly. Again...you're trying to make calls on how ppl would utilize this and you dont have that authority. IF you dont want to utilize the feedback or extra practice...that is up to you...let others decide for their own.

AGAIN...you're trying to decide what is important to others when it's not your place to do so. The advantage is there...however people want to utilize it...is up to them. The problem...like i've said...is that first-time takers do not have this advantage/luxury at all. They don't get this chance like you did to even decide that.

I don't need you to tell me what is useless and not useless to me. Let me decide that.

 

[Lnsean]

Look, since you said you've been admitted to a med school I assume you've taken the MCAT at least once. You've been on SDN for >7 years it says, so I assume you've been to the MCAT forum. One of the most repeated piece of advice over there is to review your practice exam extensively. I've personally found it extremely helpful, and apparently so have many others who have scored very high. If my bio score is low it doesn't tell me anything more than that something in bio went wrong. It doesn't tell me WHAT in bio went wrong. I personally find it more helpful to know specific areas I need to review rather than having to cover the entire bio content again. If that doesn't work for you, that's fine. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, I'm having an honest discussion with you like you had suggested a few comments ago. I'm not trying to tell you you are wrong or stupid or weak. I'm just presenting my point of view in a civil manner.

This does not change the fact that retakers have the advantage of one whole full length of AAMC materials. It's still an advantage. No matter how many practice exams you do...it cannot compensate for official AAMC materials as the exam is relatively new and many companies do not grasp the full feel of AAMC. You can try to relate your personal feels and anecdotal stories but facts are facts. Retakers have the advantage of having taken the exam previously...officially AAMC exams...FL...scored...not some practice exams from NS or EK. You can try to dismiss this as much as you want...and whether it had a personal impact on your score is not relevant to the discussion.

The advantage is there...not everyone gets this luxury....props to you if you took advantage of it....if you did not...someone else will.

 

[Lnsean]

Re: your bolded edit, you're telling me I am in no place to say what's important, but aren't you telling me (and other members you've been arguing) what's important as well? If you can ace MCAT without reviewing your practice exams extensively, good for you. But that's not a tactic that will be good for most people, which is evident if you just browse over the MCAT forum.

I am ending this conversation with you because I don't think you can have a mature conversation regarding this topic. It seems like it's more important for you to be right than actually have a discussion. Good night.

No I never said that. I said it was important to me. I said to let each person decide what is important to them. The problem is not everyone gets this opportunity...only retakers do.

 

[littledreamer]

How low was your C/P section? I have a 512 as well, but with a low CARS instead. 128/124/129/131... if my verbal was any lower I would definitely retake but a 124 is 49%, or a verbal of 8 on the old scale, so I'm just running with it. Going to apply MD and DO for the 2018 cycle.

My C/P was a 125! I ironically felt the same way. Any lower and I would have retaken it.

My personal split was 125/131/128/128.


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[CavsFan2016]

It's not much easier to score >519+ just because you know how you did the first time whether you void/score the exam. The retake statistics commonly reported show a same if not worse retake results despite having familiarity on the real deal. At best, a retaker improves by 2 points, a difference seen as not meaningful by adcoms. These are established statistics, so it shows familiarity with the real deal hardly helps (if at all, or even hurts).

So when someone goes from 512 to 526, something else is at play beyond familiarity with the real deal. And this cannot be explained by better studying habits because nuances begin to matter, and this is something that's best mastered by those who are naturally good at taking tests.

I scored a 27 when I first took the MCAT and a 517 on re-take the next year. It is possible to do much better on the re-take but it takes sacrifice, dedication and a ton of time. I also think that receiving the score of a 27 on the first MCAT was a wake up call for me - I would have not had the same motivation and desire to improve if I had not received that first score.

That being said, I have a difficult time seeing how someone can EVER bank on scoring a 526 on a re-take regardless of their first score. When you are comparing scores that high, it really is comparing apples to apples with percentiles ranging from 99%-99.99% and can be the difference between 1-2 questions on the whole test.

 

[trickydick]

Retaking a perfectly good 512 ould get you rejected outright at @gyngyn's school, and also have you viewed as guilty of hubris and/or poor choice making at others.

At what score do you think a retake would be justified and not viewed as hubris or poor choice making (assuming a balanced score)? Is there a hypothetical threshold like 509 or 506?

 

[Goro]

Anything below a 505 for MD schools.

In the 507 range, that's at or above the 10th %tile for some 15 low-tier schools (and more if you add your state schools other than if you live in CA), and as such, is a fair number to try one's luck with.

At what score do you think a retake would be justified and not viewed as hubris or poor choice making (assuming a balanced score)? Is there a hypothetical threshold like 509 or 506?

 

[jw3600]

Did this dude just spend 4 ****ing pages arguing that retaking a standardized test nullifies the 2nd attempt? My god man. Do you know what a standardized test is. This theory you have gone full ****** on does not apply to any test including the LSAT, MCAT, USMLE, PCAT, DAT what the hell ever. I know nothing about new MCAT scores (sorry, can't help OP) but the thinking that a retake with a 10 percentile point increase is meaningless is completely idiotic.