I got a
504 (126/124/124/130) on the 6/26 7:30AM exam and I'm devastated. What's crazy to me is that I felt so much better compared to my first exam coming out. I thought I had done so well on C/P and CARS. I stupidly brought a watch out on break, so they had to pause my exam for 10 minutes before I started the B/B and P/S sections. I was so nervous during those 10 minutes so I wasn't confident for my B/B and P/S scores, but I ended up doing really well on P/S. I'm not sure if it was due to my nervousness, but B/B felt so difficult and I had to guess on a decent amount.
This score was going to decide whether I apply this cycle, so this just made me push my application to next year. My first MCAT was on 4/10/2021 7:30AM and I got 505, so I studied from the score release date on 5/11 until my exam on 6/26 so it was about 1.5 months of full time studying.
These were the full lengths that I took over the 1 month before the 6/26 exam:
- AAMC FL 1 - Second Attempt: 512 (127/128/128/129) / First attempt: 499
- AAMC FL 2 - Second Attempt: 515 (129/126/130/130) / First attempt: 503
- Kaplan Free FL - First Attempt: 496 (123/124/124/125)
- This score made me think that Kaplan Exams were trash because of the huge discrepancy between my AAMC FLs and Kaplan. I should have paid more attention to it as a warning sign for my gaps in content.
- AAMC FL 3 - Second Attempt: 514 (130/127/127/130) / First attempt: 504
I'm planning to take the exam on one of the January dates. I'm working full time in a research lab now so I'll have less time to study compared to before, so I'm trying to start ASAP. What could I do from now until January?
Before my 6/26 exam, I was about halfway done with UWorld. I didn't really keep up with Anki, but I went through some of the MrPankow and Miledown decks. I'm also planning to use Altius exams, as I have never tried them. I've only taken AAMC FL4 once on 4/06/2021, so I can also do that when I'm much closer to the exam date.
What is your goal score?
Without knowing more about your story here's my thoughts from my perspective as a tutor:
1. Given your practice AAMC FL scores for your first attempt, you should not have taken the test on 4/10. Your FL average was quite low and your outperformed it by scoring a 505. The challenge is that score is not sufficient to be competitive at the vast majority of MD programs. Had you been my student, I would have advised you postpone your test.
2. Given your FL score, studying for a month and a half was likely not sufficient to address the deficiencies of your first go around preparing for the test. Your FL score indicates that you had difficulty with CARS which takes a lot of time to address. It also indicates a lack of content mastery for BB and CP. Improving in CP, BB, and CARS all take a lot of time and a month and a half was not enough.
3. Your practice FL average was inflated due to being reused within 2-3 months of their first attempt. I tell students to expect between 1-2 point score inflation per section - this is consistent with your scores above.
4. Your second MCAT on 6/26 decreased slightly but is largely consistent with your first attempt. Unless you had significant changes to your section scores, CARS and BB were likely still areas of weakness. Simply put, you retook the MCAT before you were ready and are now faced with being in the ~5% of students that will take the MCAT 3 times. You don't want to end up in the ~1% of test takers who take it 4+ times. So here's my advice:
1. Take some time off. Getting a disappointing score is hard. It feels in a lot of ways like a serious loss. Take some time to process it and figure out what to do differently. And by take time, I mean seriously take 6-8 weeks off.
2. When you're getting ready to strategize how to prepare for the MCAT, spend some time figuring out what your areas of weakness are: content, reading, comprehension, graphical representations, concepts, unfamiliar grammar structures, reasoning, timing, etc. Make a list. Then think about how you prepared for the MCAT previously and how that led to the outcome that you had. Try to identify deficits, etc. Then try to figure out how you can address those. Find resources, look into test prep courses, or hire a tutor. You can usually find someone in your area who took the MCAT who can provide guidance for $20 an hour. (side note: I worked with a tutor while preparing for the mcat for maybe 8-ish hours and it was the single best investment I ever made - it was invaluable to have someone I could use as a sounding board for new strategies or to offer suggestions for things I had not considered).
3. Focus on active study strategies - problem solving, passage questions, concept maps, teaching others, etc. Anything that is not reading a book, watching a video, or being too passive.
4. Monitor your progress. Use UWorld and other resources to gauge your progress, to practice strategies, and to identify gaps in content knowledge.
5. Only take the MCAT when you are prepared. You likely need to score 5+ points above your current high score for a retake to be helpful in your application cycle.
Best of luck to you.
