sssssssssssssssssssssss

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

davethebarbarian

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2016
Messages
124
Reaction score
104
sssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
Do not take the MCAT until you are confident of a score consistent with success.
A weak MCAT never goes away and is not erased by a subsequent score.

I see nothing here which indicates a need to be hopeless.

Master's degrees have no effect on an MD application (excluding SMP's which you have no need for!).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 7 users
I scored 129/123/128/128 (508) last week and today I scored 129/124/127/126 (506). 1 question off to bump to a 130 in C/P and P/S but just made the mark for 124 in CARS instead of 123... I studied my butt off for CARS this whole summer using 3rd parties bu
Do not take the MCAT until you are confident of a score consistent with success.
A weak MCAT never goes away and is not erased by a subsequent score.

I see nothing here which indicates a need to be hopeless.

Master's degrees have no effect on an MD application (excluding SMP's which you have no need for!).
If i do well on FL 3. should that give me a reason to take it or just void it?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
If i do well on FL 3. should that give me a reason to take it or just void it?
I never recommend taking the test with the intention of voiding in your situation. It's just too much to expect that you will be able to judge in the moment.

Preparation and confidence are better. Your strong gpa should not be degraded by anything less than a single strong MCAT.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
Should I take a MPH or 2 year thesis based masters program?

If your masters degree is in a subject like chemistry, physics, or engineering, then you are risking a GPA lower than 3.93. I think the highest GPA is my graduating chemistry masters class was around 3.89.
 
I am a 21 year old about to graduate next year. My parents want me to get in as soon as possible or they will deem me a failure and compare me to their family friends children if I don't get in after a gap year. Yes I am a ORM. They won't support me right after I graduate so I don't know what to do as well.

I am taking the MCAT 8/31 but have done terrible on my FLs 1 and 2. My 3rd parties were consistently around 128/124/128/128. I scored 129/123/128/128 (508) last week and today I scored 129/124/127/126 (506). 1 question off to bump to a 130 in C/P and P/S but just made the mark for 124 in CARS instead of 123... I studied my butt off for CARS this whole summer using 3rd parties but nothing seems to work. I was quite confident in cars when I took today's FL but guess i was wrong... My raw score on 3rd parties was always around ~65% My goal is a 512 since that's the average for ORMs to matriculate.

My current GPA is 3.93 and my dream is my state school. I need to apply this next cycle. Should I go take this exam and then see what I get and do a retake next year if I don't hit the scores or void if I feel terrible?? How bad would retakes look? I would say I have average to above average E.C. When would be the last day to take the MCAT next summer if I want to apply next cycle? Should I take a MPH or 2 year thesis based masters program? I feel hopeless and don't know if I can even become a doctor at this point if I can't understand how to read a cars passage :(
Dave, you're an adult now. You're old enough to vote, drink, drive, smoke, work, pay taxes, run for office and fight and die for your country. Thus, you're old enough to grow a spine and deal with your parents. Tell them that you're the one going to med school, not them.

Do NOT allow them to destroy your medical career due to their ignorance.

Quoting the wise Homeskool: Taking the MCAT is like getting married: ideally you only do it once, and the more times you do it the worse you start looking to suitors with good judgment.

Do NOT take the MCAT until you are 100% ready for it, even if it means skipping an app cycle. Med schools aren't going anywhere.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 15 users
I am a 21 year old about to graduate next year. My parents want me to get in as soon as possible or they will deem me a failure and compare me to their family friends children if I don't get in after a gap year. Yes I am a ORM. They won't support me right after I graduate so I don't know what to do as well.

I am taking the MCAT 8/31 but have done terrible on my FLs 1 and 2. My 3rd parties were consistently around 128/124/128/128. I scored 129/123/128/128 (508) last week and today I scored 129/124/127/126 (506). 1 question off to bump to a 130 in C/P and P/S but just made the mark for 124 in CARS instead of 123... I studied my butt off for CARS this whole summer using 3rd parties but nothing seems to work. I was quite confident in cars when I took today's FL but guess i was wrong... My raw score on 3rd parties was always around ~65% My goal is a 512 since that's the average for ORMs to matriculate.

My current GPA is 3.93 and my dream is my state school. I need to apply this next cycle. Should I go take this exam and then see what I get and do a retake next year if I don't hit the scores or void if I feel terrible?? How bad would retakes look? I would say I have average to above average E.C. When would be the last day to take the MCAT next summer if I want to apply next cycle? Should I take a MPH or 2 year thesis based masters program? I feel hopeless and don't know if I can even become a doctor at this point if I can't understand how to read a cars passage :(

If your parents don't want to support you during this additional gap year, you can always work in a basic science research lab, clinical research position or a clinical position like scribe.

The CARS section is the hardest to improve through cramming especially if your standardized reading scores on the SAT/ACT, etc. have been mediocre.

Do you read a lot outside science textbooks? If not, you should and in the meantime take an additional gap year to prepare for the MCAT.
 
Do you read a lot outside science textbooks? If not, you should and in the meantime take an additional gap year to prepare for the MCAT.

I think if the OP is not good at the CARs section, then textbooks aren't going to help much within a years time. He should have been doing that for several years before taking the MCAT for that to have any affect.

Now the OP should just try to get better at that portion of the test by looking at the MCAT section of this site for tricks, tips, and helpful hints to get through that section. It is by far the hardest section, but can still be dissected.
 
Do not take the MCAT until you are confident of a score consistent with success.
A weak MCAT never goes away and is not erased by a subsequent score.

I see nothing here which indicates a need to be hopeless.

Master's degrees have no effect on an MD application (excluding SMP's which you have no need for!).
Yo, just confirming you'd classify a 32-credit hour MS in Medical Sciences as an SMP, right? Cool. And OP, coming from someone that had to get their **** together and took the MCAT 3x... you do NOT want to do that. Just take it when you're ready. You need to improve CARS. Look up strategies, read every day, practice ever day. Good luck ~
 
I think if the OP is not good at the CARs section, then textbooks aren't going to help much within a years time. He should have been doing that for several years before taking the MCAT for that to have any affect.

Now the OP should just try to get better at that portion of the test by looking at the MCAT section of this site for tricks, tips, and helpful hints to get through that section. It is by far the hardest section, but can still be dissected.

I'm saying the OP should do more than just read science textbooks.
 
Yo, just confirming you'd classify a 32-credit hour MS in Medical Sciences as an SMP, right? Cool. And OP, coming from someone that had to get their **** together and took the MCAT 3x... you do NOT want to do that. Just take it when you're ready. You need to improve CARS. Look up strategies, read every day, practice ever day. Good luck ~

What did you ultimately do to get your MCAT score up to a 515?
 
OP

Do you actually want to attend medical school?

Would you want to apart from parental pressure?
 
What did you ultimately do to get your MCAT score up to a 515?
My first step was to become "clean"--yes, exactly what you're thinking. Had to mature. Then, my master's program helped me out a lot for the bio/biochem section. But I watched all of the Khan Academy videos with a mix of Princeton Review and Kaplan books. Used Next Step exams (great) and did all the AAMC material. Studied about 5-6 months during the program (yes, it was hell). Mostly, I attribute my boost to a much needed change of mindset.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Members don't see this ad :)
I feel hopeless and don't know if I can even become a doctor at this point if I can't understand how to read a cars passage

For every CARS passage you need to know only two things: 1. Main idea of the passage 2. The author's tone towards the main idea. Get your hands on as many CARS practice passages that you can and practice practice practice drawing those two things out of passages and writing them down, then as you do the questions you only need to refer to those unless it's one of those random questions that asks about the meaning of a word or sentence in paragraph 3 or something like that.

If you know those two things you can answer most of the questions without even reading the passage. Source: 99th percentile CARS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
I'm saying the OP should do more than just read science textbooks.

I mean textbooks, novels, or what-have-you.

You can't just read novels and expect to increase the CARs section. That only works if you did that your entire life, not with just 12 months before your MCAT.

At this point, understanding how the section functions is really all the OP has.
 
For every CARS passage you need to know only two things: 1. Main idea of the passage 2. The author's tone towards the main idea. Get your hands on as many CARS practice passages that you can and practice practice practice drawing those two things out of passages and writing them down, then as you do the questions you only need to refer to those unless it's one of those random questions that asks about the meaning of a word or sentence in paragraph 3 or something like that.

If you know those two things you can answer most of the questions without even reading the passage. Source: 99th percentile CARS.

What section did you have the toughest time with?
 
I am a 21 year old about to graduate next year. My parents want me to get in as soon as possible or they will deem me a failure and compare me to their family friends children if I don't get in after a gap year. Yes I am a ORM. They won't support me right after I graduate so I don't know what to do as well.


You are 21 and an adult. There should be no expectation for a 21 YO adult to be supported by your parents.

As an Adult, you have to deal with adult situations and this is one of them. If it were me, I would leave no matter if I got in or not and start living my independent life.
 
I am a terrible reader. My SAT ACT english section was terrible. I've been wanting to be a doc since high school internship but my parents just love to compare their children with others and get angry if I don't meet their expectations.

So last summer I started doing JW CARS, and did EKs CARs. Read Aeon Magazine for fun. I began to use anki to memorize every vocab word I didn't understand. School started and stopped reading.

This summer I did all the KA passages -> EK 101 Old Verbal -> NS 108 Passages -> Kaplan FLs 1-3 -> uWorld -> NS FL 1-6 -> AAMC. I still have FL 3 and qpack 2 of cars.

I started at 50% but I improved to 60%-70% and I took them in groups of 9 passages. Now it loosk like I peaked... I don't know why its still not clicking for me and i feel like Ill never able to improve cars and I peaked for good... super sick in my stomach how i messed up in highschool and now these things are coming to haunt me.

Are there certain types of readings that give you more trouble (e.g. philosophy, literary theory, history)?
 
What section did you have the toughest time with?

The other three were all pretty equal in percentile and sub score if I remember right. I spent the most extra time on psych soc because I hadn’t taken those classes since I was a freshmen and was really worried about that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
My parents want me to get in as soon as possible or they will deem me a failure and compare me to their family friends children if I don't get in after a gap year

Who cares? Jesus, it's your life. Grow up and make your own decisions.

Don't take the MCAT until you are ready and feel you will do well. I feel like this is common sense ... why are we always having to remind people of this?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Goodness, you need to act like an adult now. With all respect, Your parents feeling you’re a failure shouldn’t worry you because it reflects on them not you.

You don’t want to rush the MCAT.

Again you’re an adult, explain to me why you need your parents to support you during a gap year with a degree? Get a job, move out and take your time to improve your app. You don’t want to spend thousands on a failed cycle because your daddy is mean lol.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
OP

Do you actually want to attend medical school?

Would you want to apart from parental pressure?

I’m going to quote this because you didn’t answer OP. This is actually an important question. If you’re going to medical school because your parents want you to be a doctor and not because you genuinely find it your calling, you are going to be miserable. Miserable and in a crap ton of debt (that is I guess unless you get in the NYU or Mommy and Daddy will pay for you if u get it).
 
110%. I have sacrificed so much for my gpa, been shadowing drs since high school. I was never gifted in high school, and never understood what hardwork meant until I went to University and realized what humility means after first semester.

My parents are just super bitter that Im most likely taking a gap year or maybe two and blame me for being lazy & incompetent. I studied this summer really hard and feel terrible that I still cant understand how to read a passage correctly. I feel hopeless because this is the section score that is dragging my mcat down and my dreams. I am just defeated that my hardwork doesnt show with this section compred to the others and worst I wasted my parents $ buying 3rd party exams.

Your parents need to get over it. They obviously don't understand how competitive MD admissions have become. The average matriculant MCAT score of 511 is at the 84%.

Regarding CARS, consider the following:

1. reading shorter articles taken from journals/magazines/blogs that argue a point of view and that are elevated in vocabulary and writing style. You have to build your foundational reading strength.

2. reading shorter articles in areas that stump you on practice passages, e.g. philosophy? literature? etc.

If you're going to take a gap year or two, take the time to bolster your other sections too because they can help compensate for a low CARS score.

Doing nontrivial amounts of clinical volunteering, nonclinical volunteering and/or research in your gap years can also strengthen your hand.
 
I am a 21 year old about to graduate next year. My parents want me to get in as soon as possible or they will deem me a failure and compare me to their family friends children if I don't get in after a gap year. Yes I am a ORM. They won't support me right after I graduate so I don't know what to do as well.

I am taking the MCAT 8/31 but have done terrible on my FLs 1 and 2. My 3rd parties were consistently around 128/124/128/128. I scored 129/123/128/128 (508) last week and today I scored 129/124/127/126 (506). 1 question off to bump to a 130 in C/P and P/S but just made the mark for 124 in CARS instead of 123... I studied my butt off for CARS this whole summer using 3rd parties but nothing seems to work. I was quite confident in cars when I took today's FL but guess i was wrong... My raw score on 3rd parties was always around ~65% My goal is a 512 since that's the average for ORMs to matriculate.

My current GPA is 3.93 and my dream is my state school. I need to apply this next cycle. Should I go take this exam and then see what I get and do a retake next year if I don't hit the scores or void if I feel terrible?? How bad would retakes look? I would say I have average to above average E.C. When would be the last day to take the MCAT next summer if I want to apply next cycle? Should I take a MPH or 2 year thesis based masters program? I feel hopeless and don't know if I can even become a doctor at this point if I can't understand how to read a cars passage :(

Similar situation. Except I had much worse grades.

Don't take the MCAT unless you feel good about it. Do a lot of practice tests. If you have good grades, then the material isn't going to get you, it's pace and time-management. I'm not very smart, but I'm good at managing my time in the pressure cooker. That has made all the difference throughout my career.

I ended up taking a gap year to apply. My parents weren't happy. That was 10 years ago, and I can tell you that they don't give 2 sh*ts about it now. They're just wondering when I'm going to give them some grand-kids now...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
OP, your parents want to help you get into medical school. That does not mean your parents know how to help you get into medical school. They can do things that they intend to help you that end up hurting you. Pressuring you to not take a gap year when you need to take a gap year is one of them.

Stand up to your parents, do what will actually make you a doctor. They don't know what they're talking about, and if becoming a doctor one year "late" (actually on time, average matriculation age is 25!) is somehow the defining line between their respect and disappointment, disappoint them. You can't live for your parents expectations until you're 80.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
110%. I have sacrificed so much for my gpa, been shadowing drs since high school. I was never gifted in high school, and never understood what hardwork meant until I went to University and realized what humility means after first semester.

My parents are just super bitter that Im most likely taking a gap year or maybe two and blame me for being lazy & incompetent. I studied this summer really hard and feel terrible that I still cant understand how to read a passage correctly. I feel hopeless because this is the section score that is dragging my mcat down and my dreams. I am just defeated that my hardwork doesnt show with this section compred to the others and worst I wasted my parents $ buying 3rd party exams.

I'm going to guess that English is not your parents' native language? Because that's actually a pretty huge disadvantage.

You need to immerse yourself in high-level English. Reading, writing, more reading. Read intelligent prose and lots of it: The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Science and Scientific American. Master literary nuance. I'd suggest studying from SAT-prep sources since you're starting from a weak point.

More English classes would be good -- but not ones that will actually count for college credit.

Also help your parents hook up with a med school admissions counselor who will convince them that they need to chill on the timeline.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top