US student here. I've been studying for the mcat for about 2 1/2 months. I have gone up in score gradually, but not as much as I've wanted to. My goal has been a 518+, and I'm set to test on September 1st. I am also dead set on applying next cycle. I'm a rising senior and will take 1 gap year. I know the mcat goal lofty, but I've gotten a decent gpa (3.90 sci, 3.93 cum), great (but not totally stellar) EC's (including productive research), and very strong letters of recommendation, so to be honest, I want to put myself in a good position for going to a top 20 school. I'm also an ORM.
Here are practice test scores. The first three are from about 2 months ago:
TPR 2: 497 TPR 1: 501 TPR 1: 501
I did lots of content review and switched to next step tests:
NS 1 (7/8/17): 128/126/127/127: 508
NS 2 (7/15/17): 128/127/129/128: 512 (I was very pleased at this point with the progress)
AAMC 1 (7/24/17): 128/127/129/126: 511 (I was a little upset, especially at P/S, so I've been putting a lot of effort into content review of that)
NS 3 (Today): 129/122/128/126: 505
As of now, I'm very upset. I'm not as worried about the overall score because the CARS I've heard on NS 3 is disproportionately difficult, but I'm quite sad that I wasn't able to break 130 on C/P or B/B, and that my P/S score stayed pretty low. I really feel like P/S on NS 3 was much more difficult, and there were many terms I had not seen on KA notes or the TPR book. If any of you disagree, feel free to say.
I can't even describe how little dignity I feel that I have now that it's been 2.5 months and I'm still unable to improve from the 510-512 range. I really feel like I know C/P, B/B, and P/S in detail, but there's mostly new or even more detailed content that comes up each time, or a make a few reasoning errors on graphs. I don't believe my GPA is inflated either. I am a chemistry major at Georgia Tech.
I could put away the idea of "top score top school" altogether and apply to mid/low tier schools instead. With my current mcat score (511 range) most financially feasible option would likely be MCG. It seems like a solid MD program, but I've also seen multiple threads here on SDN about issues it has with closeted racism toward minorities.
As I said up above, I really want to shoot for a 518. I thought the 511 on AAMC 1 would just be a minor setback because I just had some general practice for B/B and C/P to do until the day of the test, and the P/S score would be amenable if I just reviewed more. Today that did not seem to be the case. Do you all think NS3 just isn't representative, that I have enough time to keep trying for September 1st (I start classes on august 28), and that I should just take more practice tests in general (I feel like my number is low), or should I postpone it all the way to January? The latter will be difficult to convince my parents of (given what's been paid already) but might be possible. If I do postpone till January, I'm taking a part time 11 credit hour load (rising senior), so that will help.
edit: parents are ok with postponing to January, but that is an absolute last resort for me.
Here are practice test scores. The first three are from about 2 months ago:
TPR 2: 497 TPR 1: 501 TPR 1: 501
I did lots of content review and switched to next step tests:
NS 1 (7/8/17): 128/126/127/127: 508
NS 2 (7/15/17): 128/127/129/128: 512 (I was very pleased at this point with the progress)
AAMC 1 (7/24/17): 128/127/129/126: 511 (I was a little upset, especially at P/S, so I've been putting a lot of effort into content review of that)
NS 3 (Today): 129/122/128/126: 505
As of now, I'm very upset. I'm not as worried about the overall score because the CARS I've heard on NS 3 is disproportionately difficult, but I'm quite sad that I wasn't able to break 130 on C/P or B/B, and that my P/S score stayed pretty low. I really feel like P/S on NS 3 was much more difficult, and there were many terms I had not seen on KA notes or the TPR book. If any of you disagree, feel free to say.
I can't even describe how little dignity I feel that I have now that it's been 2.5 months and I'm still unable to improve from the 510-512 range. I really feel like I know C/P, B/B, and P/S in detail, but there's mostly new or even more detailed content that comes up each time, or a make a few reasoning errors on graphs. I don't believe my GPA is inflated either. I am a chemistry major at Georgia Tech.
I could put away the idea of "top score top school" altogether and apply to mid/low tier schools instead. With my current mcat score (511 range) most financially feasible option would likely be MCG. It seems like a solid MD program, but I've also seen multiple threads here on SDN about issues it has with closeted racism toward minorities.
As I said up above, I really want to shoot for a 518. I thought the 511 on AAMC 1 would just be a minor setback because I just had some general practice for B/B and C/P to do until the day of the test, and the P/S score would be amenable if I just reviewed more. Today that did not seem to be the case. Do you all think NS3 just isn't representative, that I have enough time to keep trying for September 1st (I start classes on august 28), and that I should just take more practice tests in general (I feel like my number is low), or should I postpone it all the way to January? The latter will be difficult to convince my parents of (given what's been paid already) but might be possible. If I do postpone till January, I'm taking a part time 11 credit hour load (rising senior), so that will help.
edit: parents are ok with postponing to January, but that is an absolute last resort for me.
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