Subpar mcat score... what are my chances?

[KEJ]

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I got my mcat score today, and it's not good 498 121 chem/phys, 124 cars, 125 bio, 127 phys/soc. My chemistry score is lower than ALL the practice tests I've taken. My practice avg for chem was 125. My Cars score was also a few points below my practice average. I felt like the chemistry section of the test was much harder than all of the practice material I used. I took a kaplan prep course and used aamc question pack, section banks, all 3 aamc practice tests and 6 Kaplan FL practice tests. I'm an upper 30s non-traditional student, with a decade as an er nurse and 2 decades as a paramedic. My overall GPA is around a 3.4 with 215+ credit hrs that span 20 years. My most recent course work was approx 65 credit hrs of mostly upper level sciences (3.9 GPA on all recent courses) to complete my pre-med undergrad degree taken part time between 2014-2017 while working full time. I have so many undergrad credits that it is impossible to raise my GPA. I do have solid letters of recommendation from instructors and the medical director where I'm employed.

Cutting back on work inorder to prep for the mcat is a major ordeal and financial burden for my family.

Is retesting a given? Will I be able to apply this cycle or will it be too late if I retest during the summer? Is there any hope that someone will give me a chance?

 

[Goro]

Lethal for MD and a good number of DO schools, including mine. Circling the drain for others.

Strongly suggest a retake.

 

[Campana]

If reducing work is not an option, then look for pockets of time to squeeze it in - I always feel that there's more time available than you think. Map out your day and schedule the amount of time you want to study, put it on the calendar, stick to it as much as possible. Plot out how many hours you think you need (300? 500?). Plus, take advantage of "anywhere" studying with apps like Anki that provide the spaced repetition that really cements the material. And maybe don't take MCAT till you're scoring better than you think you want/need for those test-day variances (my real one was lower too - in all four sections 🙁 ).

I too could not reduce work to study for MCAT. I found 1-2 hours each morning before doing kid prep at 6:30, and then 30-90 minutes in the evening at their various sporting events, sometimes my husband would do pick-up and I would squeeze in an hour from 5:30-6:30 and maybe another 1-2 hrs after bedtime. The morning time was my most consistent. The point being, the time can usually be found here and there, and if you're focused, it might work. Good luck! 🙂

 

[Faha]

These are DO schools where you could receive interviews with your MCAT of 498 so apply to all of them.
ACOM
ARCOM
NYIT-Arkansas
BCOM
ICOM
UIWSOM
WCU-COM
LMU-DCOM
UP-KYCOM
WVSOM
LUCOM
VCOM (all 3 schools)
CUSOM
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
LECOM (all schools)
CHSU-COM (new school)
Sam Houston State (new school)
Most of these schools have MCAT medians in the 498 to 502 range so your 498 should result in some interviews.
Apply in June and submit all your secondaries by July.
Where is your state of residence ?

 

[KEJ]

These are DO schools where you could receive interviews with your MCAT of 498 so apply to all of them.
ACOM
ARCOM
NYIT-Arkansas
BCOM
ICOM
UIWSOM
WCU-COM
LMU-DCOM
UP-KYCOM
WVSOM
LUCOM
VCOM (all 3 schools)
CUSOM
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
LECOM (all schools)
CHSU-COM (new school)
Sam Houston State (new school)
Most of these schools have MCAT medians in the 498 to 502 range so your 498 should result in some interviews.
Apply in June and submit all your secondaries by July.
Where is your state of residence ?

Thank you for the list! Im in Mississippi

 

[Faha]

I would be very surprised if you were not offered an interview at WCU-COM. It would also be worth applying to your state MD school. Your MCAT and GPA are at the 10th percentile but they do interview 2/3 of Mississippi residents who complete secondaries.

 

[KEJ]

Lethal for MD and a good number of DO schools, including mine. Circling the drain for others.

Strongly suggest a retake.

If I'm able to retest this summer what is the minimim score in your opinion that I would need to be considered a good candidate for D.O. programs? I really want to make the most of this application cycle.

 

[Goro]

If I'm able to retest this summer what is the minimim score in your opinion that I would need to be considered a good candidate for D.O. programs? I really want to make the most of this application cycle.

Shoot for > 507. But you're fine right now for DO with a broad application, except for the schools I listed.

 

[Stellaartwa]

Just looking at the numbers, around 19% of applicants got into an MD school with a 498/3.4. For AACOMAS schools, you're low on both GPA and MCAT. In 2017, avg GPA for matriculants to DO schools was a 3.53 and MCAT was 503. You have a great GPA trend, life experience and 20+ years of health care experience so take those numbers with a grain of salt. You definitely have hope but applying with those numbers would be a big risk. Being a reapplicant is a red flag that would affect future chances.

Personally, I wouldn't apply with that MCAT. I think you're going to need a retake with a significant improvement (~505-507) to optimize your chances. You're a unique candidate and I truly wish you the best of luck!

 

[Fanniepack]

I got my mcat score today, and it's not good 498 121 chem/phys, 124 cars, 125 bio, 127 phys/soc. My chemistry score is lower than ALL the practice tests I've taken. My practice avg for chem was 125. My Cars score was also a few points below my practice average. I felt like the chemistry section of the test was much harder than all of the practice material I used. I took a kaplan prep course and used aamc question pack, section banks, all 3 aamc practice tests and 6 Kaplan FL practice tests. I'm an upper 30s non-traditional student, with a decade as an er nurse and 2 decades as a paramedic. My overall GPA is around a 3.4 with 215+ credit hrs that span 20 years. My most recent course work was approx 65 credit hrs of mostly upper level sciences (3.9 GPA on all recent courses) to complete my pre-med undergrad degree taken part time between 2014-2017 while working full time. I have so many undergrad credits that it is impossible to raise my GPA. I do have solid letters of recommendation from instructors and the medical director where I'm employed.

Cutting back on work inorder to prep for the mcat is a major ordeal and financial burden for my family.

Is retesting a given? Will I be able to apply this cycle or will it be too late if I retest during the summer? Is there any hope that someone will give me a chance?

I am a nontrad applicant as well. I applied last year and got in. I work in a healthcare setting and have 2 hours daily commute for work and school. I managed to squeeze half an hour before work, an hour at night, and always try to take my 30 mins lunch break to study. I downloaded Khan Academy videos on youtube and listen to them when I was driving. I did this for 1.5 months. I also stopped taking vacation days that year all together so I can use all the PTO days I saved up for a two-week study plan I found on Reddit. Two weeks of full-time study really bumped up my MCAT score. Repeat and review as many AAMC questions as you can.

 

[JSReed]

I got my mcat score today, and it's not good 498 121 chem/phys, 124 cars, 125 bio, 127 phys/soc. My chemistry score is lower than ALL the practice tests I've taken. My practice avg for chem was 125. My Cars score was also a few points below my practice average. I felt like the chemistry section of the test was much harder than all of the practice material I used. I took a kaplan prep course and used aamc question pack, section banks, all 3 aamc practice tests and 6 Kaplan FL practice tests. I'm an upper 30s non-traditional student, with a decade as an er nurse and 2 decades as a paramedic. My overall GPA is around a 3.4 with 215+ credit hrs that span 20 years. My most recent course work was approx 65 credit hrs of mostly upper level sciences (3.9 GPA on all recent courses) to complete my pre-med undergrad degree taken part time between 2014-2017 while working full time. I have so many undergrad credits that it is impossible to raise my GPA. I do have solid letters of recommendation from instructors and the medical director where I'm employed.

Cutting back on work inorder to prep for the mcat is a major ordeal and financial burden for my family.

Is retesting a given? Will I be able to apply this cycle or will it be too late if I retest during the summer? Is there any hope that someone will give me a chance?

As mentioned, you might want to go for a retake. Given that you have been holding 3.9 and a FT job, you have the capability to get there. Really requires some assessment of what happened on test day and how you're going to rectify it. As @Faha said, you could go for WCU, but that might be rough in light of their recent issues.

Given that you have issues with C/P and CARS, i'll say that: Ive both heard and seen that unlike on the FL practice tests, AAMC is putting SUPER hard passages at the beginning of sections (specifically the first 3 sections)-- basically this is meant to psych people out, make them second guess themselves, and waste a bunch of time so they have to rush through at the end miss all the easy points. This is one of the reasons people score lower on the actual exam relative to the FLs. Something to think about if you're going to give it another go.

 

[KEJ]

As mentioned, you might want to go for a retake. Given that you have been holding 3.9 and a FT job, you have the capability to get there. Really requires some assessment of what happened on test day and how you're going to rectify it. As @Faha said, you could go for WCU, but that might be rough in light of their recent issues.

Given that you have issues with C/P and CARS, i'll say that: Ive both heard and seen that unlike on the FL practice tests, AAMC is putting SUPER hard passages at the beginning of sections (specifically the first 3 sections)-- basically this is meant to psych people out, make them second guess themselves, and waste a bunch of time so they have to rush through at the end miss all the easy points. This is one of the reasons people score lower on the actual exam relative to the FLs. Something to think about if you're going to give it another go.

I normally don't have test anxiety... but I was super nervous going in and when I started the section and it was much harder than everything I practiced/studied I panicked. I talked my self down between each section... which is probably 1 reason my score got a little better in each section as the test went on. I've never scored as low as I did in c/p on any of the practice tests... i had been consistently scoring 125 on practice tests in c/p, and 127-128 on CARS. I really think a lot of it is how freaked out I was to start with.

 

[Stellaartwa]

The good news @KEJ is that CP is one of the easier sections to increase your score in. You can do it!! There are lots of formulas, and little tricks and factoids you can memorize to give you a big boost. BB and CARS are a lot of interpretation and much less knowledge based than CP so raising those scores is just harder.

For CP, make sure you have all the formulas memorized, understand the basic chemistry principles (acid base stuff, how to extract info from periodic table, and chromatography), understand easy circuit and magnetism stuff in physics. Knowing that stuff right there would have gotten you significant points on the MCAT I took.

 

[esob]

You probably would have been OK if you hit the 125 in C/P, but I also concur that you should retake. Besides overall score, a lot of schools look at subsection scores and falling below the median in C/P is probably the worse section to be below the median. A 505+ would be great for a lot of DO schools given the rest of your application, but only if it includes at least a median C/P score.

 

[KEJ]

Just wanted to update: I went ahead and applied with my current mcat score, and decided to retake if things didn't work out this cycle.

I received 2 hard rejections, many secondaries, one interview invite which resulted in an acceptance.

Im beyond excited for the future!!

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using SDN mobile

 

[Faha]

Just wanted to update: I went ahead and applied with my current mcat score, and decided to retake if things didn't work out this cycle.

I received 2 hard rejections, many secondaries, one interview invite which resulted in an acceptance.

Im beyond excited for the future!!

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using SDN mobile

Congratulations !!! Where were you accepted ? Are you going to interview at other schools ?

 

[KEJ]

Congratulations !!! Where were you accepted ? Are you going to interview at other schools ?

Thank you!! NYITCOM-Jonesboro.

So far this has been my only interviewe invite... I've had radio silence from about 12 schools. I was really impressed with this school it was my top choice of all the schools I applied to.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using SDN mobile

 

[damon30]

You should probably retake, especially if you're going for the top tier. Wishing you the best of luck.

 

[xVeritaserum]

You should probably retake, especially if you're going for the top tier. Wishing you the best of luck.

You missed a few posts, mate. The dude got in to his top choice this cycle 🙂