should I plan to void? (started w/15...)

[onebeautifulday]

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So, my scheduled mcat is in five days (09/12). I started off with 15 (6B 5V 4P) two and half month ago. My last two aamc were at 30, but my aamc average is mid-20. I still have aamc 8 and 10 to take, but at this point, should I just go take the test and void it? Or just take it and see how I do?

Here's my score breakdown from when I started till now. I take 1-2 practice test average of every week.

tpr #1 - 15 (6B 5V 4P)
tpr #2 - 17 (8B 3V 6P)
tpr #3 - 16 (6B 5V 5P)
tpr #4 - 17 (6B 7V 4P)
aamc5 - 24 (9B 8V 7P)
aamc9 - 22 (9B 5V 8P)
tpr #5 - 26 (9B 9V 8P)
tpr #6 - 24 (9B 7V 7P)
tpr #7 - 25 (9B 5V 11P)
tpr #9 - 23 (8B 7V 8P)
aamc4 - 23 (8B 7V 8P)
aamc6 - 30 (10B 10V 10P)
aamc7 - 30 (10B 10V 10P)

Any opinions? THANKS!

 

[unDRdog]

how long has it been since you took the AAMC with mid 20's scores vs the 30 scores....take 8 and 10 and then decide..

 

[onebeautifulday]

aamc5 and aamc 9 was 4.5 and 4 weeks ago, respectively

aamc 4 was two weeks ago.
aamc 6 and aamc 7 was last wednesday and last saturday.


how well should i do on aamc8+10 to decide one way or another?

 

[LostInStudy]

1. Take 8 and if you score a 30 or above then good job and go full steam ahead. If below a 28 then come back.

2. When did you finish content review?

-LIS

 

[onebeautifulday]

i dont think i ever quite "finished" content review. but, i stopped reading and just started doing passages starting two weeks ago.

what about aamc 10? is that a good indicator?


THANK YOU!!

 

[LostInStudy]

WERY WERY INTEWWESTING! Content review was stopped and passage practice was started two weeks ago and you last score in the 20s was 2 weeks ago (hint, hint). 10 is considered most indicative so save that for last and go with 8 for now.

-LIS

 

[GoSpursGo]

Don't even think about voiding right now until you see how you do on 8 and 10; that'll make all the difference in the world, so no point in worrying about it until you gather all the relevant information.

But honestly, I wouldn't void under any circumstances. Consider the worst case scenarios--to me, having a 25, or even, say, a 23 go on your record (which you can always bring up in the future) is much preferable to voiding what would've been a 30.

 

[drzing]

voiding is dumb and a waste of time and money. unless you get physically sick then dont even think of voiding

 

[Rolling]

I disagree. There are benefits to voiding. If you are too late and know you aren't ready, go in and take it and see what it's like.

 

[FutureDoctor015]

yeah, if you don't think you are or will be giving your all and it's too late to reschedule, $225 is nothing to lose comparing to getting the ONE solid score you deserve.

 

[onebeautifulday]

so, I took aamc and got 26 (10PS, 7V, 9BS). I'm super sad now 🙁🙁 but, I was really distracted during verbal because people were whispering/talking in the library, so I'm hoping that's why my verbal went down so much.

I guess I'm gonna take aamc10 tomorrow and see how I do

 

[Helen Wheels]

Regardless of whether you decide to void or not, you should go and sit for the test. It is too late to cancel and get a partial refund so at least go and take it for practice, you paid $225 for it! If you void there is no record that you sat for it and schools willl never know. Now, the bad thing about this is that you will never know the score, either, if you void.

 

[Skan]

Another thing to consider is, IF you choke for whatever reason and get a 28, would you retake? If not then don't void.

 

[Longshanks]

One thing to consider, if you're GPA is 3.7+ a 27-29 won't kill you. Is it ideal? No, but 3.7/28 is still in a strong position if the rest of your application is great. There's plenty of people who are sub-30 in med school.

(in before no sub 30's in med school or SDN allowed)

 

[MBHockey]

here's a little anecdote.

I took the 7/2 mcat and took AAMC 7-10 in the two weeks before the exam. My average score was a 34 over the four tests.

After my real 7/2 MCAT I was beside myself. I didn't think PS was bad, but I felt like I got half the questions wrong on VR and knew I got stomped on BS (i recalled picking answers that I knew were wrong, for whatever reason.)

I sat at the the Do You Want To Void This Score screen for 3 minutes, clicking back and forth on the radio buttons for Yes and No. There was no doubt in my mind that I didn't break 30, and most likely got sub-10 on VR. I knew I would have to retake in January and have to postpone applying to the next cycle.

I finally decided to have it scored and got my scores back an excruciating 32 days later -- 35 (14/11/10/R). Couldn't believe it. Although the BS was lower than my AAMC average for that section, I actually had a higher overall composite score than my AAMC average.

The moral of the story is I'd go by your AAMC average, not by how you feel right after the exam. Just my two cents.

 

[unDRdog]

One thing to consider, if you're GPA is 3.7+ a 27-29 won't kill you. Is it ideal? No, but 3.7/28 is still in a strong position if the rest of your application is great. There's plenty of people who are sub-30 in med school.

(in before no sub 30's in med school or SDN allowed)

Amen to that!!! My gpa sucks and i could not afford to land in the upper 20's even a 30 will not help off set my GPA so i need a 35 plus to give me a running chance. I voided yesterday...it was the most dissapointing but best desicion i could have made. My last practice tests were 31-33 range. Very glad i took the exam bc the testing center experience throws a kink in the mix...i dont ever get test anxiety but yesterday i could feel the heat...It really is specific you your intended med school and gpa platform your working from...If i had a 3.7 there would have been no way i would have voided it yesterday...I prob would have landed on 28-30.

 

[scaredoflife]

I don't know if I could ever void, the thought of money and time and effort comes into play then. Although if you were not ready or even if anyone was not ready voiding is the way to. Just sucks cuz it is seriously 210 or more damn AAMC ripping us off and laughing at us in their executive suits.

I heard the DAT is 60 bucks and you get your score right there WTF ha!

 

[DJDakoo]

I heard the DAT is 60 bucks and you get your score right there WTF ha!

nah DAT is 250...and scores are mailed to you about a month later as well
but the difference is, you will rape the DAT if you have studied for the MCAT...only section you really have to practice is perception (and carving if you want to go to a US school)...also, the testing environment is REALLY lax for the DAT..people are all chill and talking to each other during breaks, etc...plus its on paper - much easier to focus

 

[NinjaMed]

It is probably not a good idea to void, unless there was some extenuating circumstance that could be used to justify doing so.

An example may be that you were ill (food poisoning during test day) or perhaps a fire alarm was activated during the verbal reasoning section.

Stay positive as much as you can. You will need this mindset if you become a physician.

 

[lstone13]

So, my scheduled mcat is in five days (09/12). I started off with 15 (6B 5V 4P) two and half month ago. My last two aamc were at 30, but my aamc average is mid-20. I still have aamc 8 and 10 to take, but at this point, should I just go take the test and void it? Or just take it and see how I do?

Here's my score breakdown from when I started till now. I take 1-2 practice test average of every week.

tpr #1 - 15 (6B 5V 4P)
tpr #2 - 17 (8B 3V 6P)
tpr #3 - 16 (6B 5V 5P)
tpr #4 - 17 (6B 7V 4P)
aamc5 - 24 (9B 8V 7P)
aamc9 - 22 (9B 5V 8P)
tpr #5 - 26 (9B 9V 8P)
tpr #6 - 24 (9B 7V 7P)
tpr #7 - 25 (9B 5V 11P)
tpr #9 - 23 (8B 7V 8P)
aamc4 - 23 (8B 7V 8P)
aamc6 - 30 (10B 10V 10P)
aamc7 - 30 (10B 10V 10P)

Any opinions? THANKS!

If it's any consolation... I thought the AAMC tests were much more representative of both the real MCAT and what my scores would be. In my opinion, the TPR exams were ridiculously off at times. My actual MCAT score was in line with my average on AAMC.

 

[Longshanks]

Amen to that!!! My gpa sucks and i could not afford to land in the upper 20's even a 30 will not help off set my GPA so i need a 35 plus to give me a running chance. I voided yesterday...it was the most dissapointing but best desicion i could have made. My last practice tests were 31-33 range. Very glad i took the exam bc the testing center experience throws a kink in the mix...i dont ever get test anxiety but yesterday i could feel the heat...It really is specific you your intended med school and gpa platform your working from...If i had a 3.7 there would have been no way i would have voided it yesterday...I prob would have landed on 28-30.

Yeah, I'm personally in a similar situation and really need 32+ to have some more confidence about this whole process and in April probably should've done what you did, since I didn't finish PS on time, instead I just had my retake the other week. We'll see what happens. Still, at least according to the AAMC data there's still a decent population that make it with 'below average' stats, but these people probably had other outstanding areas to get their foot in the door and do well on interviews.

I just think its not a good idea to go into a test with the mentality that you're going to void, its resigning defeat. In whatever sport you wouldn't walk onto the field thinking, eh, I'm gonna lose but whatever. Now the MCAT, unlike sports, does give you the ability to void if something catastrophic happened but otherwise most people get around their practice average (I didn't last time, so hoping this time I did).