Should I retake a 510?

[irishforever182]

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Just got my 5/24 score back and it was a 510 with breakdown 130/125/126/129. My GPA was a 3.8 as a chemical engineer at a T20 school. I’m a nontrad working an engineering job, so retaking would be hard with my schedule as I studied while working full time for 5 months with the 510, but I really want MD but will probably apply to a few DO as well. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

 

[gyngyn]

I recommend using the template and posting in WAMC to get an idea where the combination of this MCAT, along with the rest of your application will get you before deciding.

What Are My Chances? WAMC Medical

Improve your medical school application with advice and suggestions from fellow members and experts.

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[Hollow Knight]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: a 510 is a great score. It's a score that gives you a shot at MD schools and almost certainly (if the rest of your app is good) admission to DO.

Raising your score past a 510 is HARD. VERY hard. How long and hard will you study for your retake? What makes you think this time will be better? If you just kinda winged it last time and got a 510, yeah, you can probably improve a few points. If last time was your best effort, you may score the same or even worse, and that looks bad to admissions committees.

No right answer, it's your call. But the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze.

Or, if you want to retake to improve your chances at MD, be prepared to make some sacrifices in your free time for a long time. Also use Anki

 

[OMSWeebHours]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: a 510 is a great score. It's a score that gives you a shot at MD schools and almost certainly (if the rest of your app is good) admission to DO.

Raising your score past a 510 is HARD. VERY hard. How long and hard will you study for your retake? What makes you think this time will be better? If you just kinda winged it last time and got a 510, yeah, you can probably improve a few points. If last time was your best effort, you may score the same or even worse, and that looks bad to admissions committees.

No right answer, it's your call. But the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze.

Or, if you want to retake to improve your chances at MD, be prepared to make some sacrifices in your free time for a long time. Also use Anki

I think depends on a few things but the difficulty is honestly pretty relative. If someone still remembers the high yield info from Biology, Biochem, and Chemistry, they can probably spend time taking notes based on an official review guide for about a month, taking 3-4 official AAMC mock exams prior to the real deal, reviewing all the questions they got wrong afterwards and making notes to avoid the same mistakes.

Even then there is a luck component and risk of not knowing certain things on test day, but up to date practice can minimize the risk of that.
If OP hasn't retained familiarity with the high yield topics or they can't free up good time during that month, then it is risky. But treating it like a mini dedicated was doable and decent practice for STEPs imo. The range of 513-517 might be possible depending on what appears on the exam and how much their practice covers.

 

[irishforever182]

I think depends on a few things but the difficulty is honestly pretty relative. If someone still remembers the high yield info from Biology, Biochem, and Chemistry, they can probably spend time taking notes based on an official review guide for about a month, taking 3-4 official AAMC mock exams prior to the real deal, reviewing all the questions they got wrong afterwards and making notes to avoid the same mistakes.

Even then there is a luck component and risk of not knowing certain things on test day, but up to date practice can minimize the risk of that.
If OP hasn't retained familiarity with the high yield topics or they can't free up good time during that month, then it is risky. But treating it like a mini dedicated was doable and decent practice for STEPs imo. The range of 513-517 might be possible depending on what appears on the exam and how much their practice covers.

Do you think I could get into MD schools with this score? I studied while working full time as an engineer, but not sure if that will count for anything. My GPA was a 3.79

 

[OMSWeebHours]

Do you think I could get into MD schools with this score? I studied while working full time as an engineer, but not sure if that will count for anything. My GPA was a 3.79

Whether you get into MD relies on more than the MCAT. A higher score is supposed to help but I couldn't get into an MD school with MCAT over 90th percentile.. This was a retake though and to be honest I don't think schools received the score until around the time secondaries were out so maybe that played a role. I also know someone with a similar MCAT who had trouble getting admissions but he was aiming for more prestigious programs than I

I don't really think that situation is commonplace though. I got several II's and maybe some of them just didn't think I was a good fit or smth, Idk. Maybe there was an issue in one of my LoRs or maybe they were just that competitive, mostly conjecture though. It's very hard to tell but the point is a high MCAT alone isn't going to guarantee an MD (unless you are maybe like 520+ but that's in like the top 3-4%)

 

[OMSWeebHours]

Do you think I could get into MD schools with this score? I studied while working full time as an engineer, but not sure if that will count for anything. My GPA was a 3.79

Honestly, I'm going to say that a big part of your chances of success is going to be volunteer/clinic/etc. and a unique story. Sounds generic but there are people on here with astronomical amounts of extra experience. Someone got in DO on another thread with a lower MCAT than most who are admitted in US schools but they had many, many years of experience in medicine related things which almost definitely was the tipping point for the adcoms to send the acceptance.

 

[Goro]

Do you think I could get into MD schools with this score? I studied while working full time as an engineer, but not sure if that will count for anything. My GPA was a 3.79

There are many MD schools for which you are competitive

 

[BrokenLlamas]

What makes you think this time will be better? If you just kinda winged it last time and got a 510, yeah, you can probably improve a few points. If last time was your best effort, you may score the same or even worse, and that looks bad to admissions committees.

I think this is the most critical part. If you truly felt like your 510 was the result of half-a** studying, then retaking could definitely yield a significant number of points

For context, I retook a >510 and got a 6 point increase on my retake and would absolutely make the same decision to retake a hundred times over (I half-a** studied for my >510)

But, if you felt like you did everything in your power to study over those past 5 months, retaking it may not be worth your time. I've seen this play out with a friend who retook the MCAT 3x and got the same score each time.