Should I Retake the MCAT? Any Advice Greatly Appreciated

[whoismedicine]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello, I'm wondering if it would be worth retaking my MCAT given my situation. I received a 510 (127/126/128/129) from this past September test. I have a 3.7 cGPA and a 3.5 sGPA. I struggled a lot with studying while in quarantine and I do not think I studied and thus scored to the best of my abilities. (Meaning, this score was on par with my practice test scores, but I think if I had more structure and a library or coffee shop to work in rather than my home, I think I could have studied much differently and better). But I'm not necessarily 100% confident that if I took it again, I could achieve a 515+ (I would probably have to do more studying/practice tests to gauge that).

I would preferably like to attend an MD school so I am primarily concerned about being competitive enough for them. I am applying this May so I plan to submit my primary essentially on the first day and I can pre-write my secondaries throughout these months in order to apply ASAP.

Other things about me: female, white, self-designed a unique humanities major in undergrad, upward sGPA trend, significant volunteer experience/volunteer awards, normal clinical experiences, two summers of research in undergrad.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[coramDeo]

510 is a 80th percentile score which isn't a low score by any means. With a 3.7 cGPA, I think you should be competitive for some MD schools, just probably not T10-20. You say you have significant experiences, so I doubt a 510 will be a deal breaker for your MD admissions.

With that said, the decision on to retake or not would depend on why you want to retake. (You feel like you didn't prepare well enough?, want to go T10-20? etc.) But if you are financially cared for and have time in your hands, investing 2-4 months into another preparation and seeing how your FL scores turn out would make your decision a lot easier imo. If you spend some time and reach FL scores above 515 consistently, I think it would be a risk worth taking.

 

[whoismedicine]

510 is a 80th percentile score which isn't a low score by any means. With a 3.7 cGPA, I think you should be competitive for some MD schools, just probably not T10-20. You say you have significant experiences, so I doubt a 510 will be a deal breaker for your MD admissions.

With that said, the decision on to retake or not would depend on why you want to retake. (You feel like you didn't prepare well enough?, want to go T10-20? etc.) But if you are financially cared for and have time in your hands, investing 2-4 months into another preparation and seeing how your FL scores turn out would make your decision a lot easier imo. If you spend some time and reach FL scores above 515 consistently, I think it would be a risk worth taking.

Thank you so much for your response! This was very helpful! I would be very happy with any MD school, definitely doesn't have to be a top 20. My only reason for retaking it would be to give myself some extra application leeway and not run the risk of having no acceptances/having to reapply. Maybe I should work on some content and practice tests to see if it's worth trying. Thanks again!

 

[Goro]

Hello, I'm wondering if it would be worth retaking my MCAT given my situation. I received a 510 (127/126/128/129) from this past September test. I have a 3.7 cGPA and a 3.5 sGPA. I struggled a lot with studying while in quarantine and I do not think I studied and thus scored to the best of my abilities. (Meaning, this score was on par with my practice test scores, but I think if I had more structure and a library or coffee shop to work in rather than my home, I think I could have studied much differently and better). But I'm not necessarily 100% confident that if I took it again, I could achieve a 515+ (I would probably have to do more studying/practice tests to gauge that).

I would preferably like to attend an MD school so I am primarily concerned about being competitive enough for them. I am applying this May so I plan to submit my primary essentially on the first day and I can pre-write my secondaries throughout these months in order to apply ASAP.

Other things about me: female, white, self-designed a unique humanities major in undergrad, upward sGPA trend, significant volunteer experience/volunteer awards, normal clinical experiences, two summers of research in undergrad.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

A 510 is a fine score, and you're competitive right now. You're only one point below the national median. Do NOT retake!

Too many SDNers think that they can score a 515 or a 527 or a 520 or a 525. They also have practice scores that are higher than their real score.

What they end up doing is scoring a point higher, going down, or staying the same.

I recommend the following:
U CO
Tufts
Nova MD
U VM
Miami
George Washington
Georgetown
SLU
Albany
Rush
Rosy Franklin
NYMC
MCW
VCU
EVMS
Wayne State
Wake Forest
Netter
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
Loyola
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
Oakland-B
Seton Hall
TCU/UNT
Your state school.
Any DO program. Include UNECOM if you’re from the NE, OSUCOM if you’re from the Plains states and PacNW if you’re from that region. I can't recommend Nova, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me. CUHS is too new and appears to be too limited in rotations sites. UIW refuses to post their Boards scores, which is fishy.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

510 is a 80th percentile score which isn't a low score by any means. With a 3.7 cGPA, I think you should be competitive for some MD schools, just probably not T10-20. You say you have significant experiences, so I doubt a 510 will be a deal breaker for your MD admissions.

With that said, the decision on to retake or not would depend on why you want to retake. (You feel like you didn't prepare well enough?, want to go T10-20? etc.) But if you are financially cared for and have time in your hands, investing 2-4 months into another preparation and seeing how your FL scores turn out would make your decision a lot easier imo. If you spend some time and reach FL scores above 515 consistently, I think it would be a risk worth taking.

^^^^ that's my advise too but I would probably say if you are getting 517 or above since most scores couple of points below their FLs. It appears you don't need to spend time strengthening your ECs.

 

[Orims]

I thought for a while about retaking my 513 and after speaking with different people I decided not to. 510 is a great score and with an otherwise strong application and narrative you should try your best.

 

[whoismedicine]

Thank you so much everyone for your helpful responses. I will have some thinking over to do, but I really appreciate all of your insight. Thank you for helping to make this process just a bit less confusing! 🙂