T in Essay

[woolie]

Has anyone ever heard of a T in the essay? I caved and checked my scores; pretty average in the numbers, not as bad as I had thought but I seem to have written myself a "T" worth of essay.



I thought I would do worse overall but it's not too awful. If I can just focus everything on the re-take in April and boost those numbers it might turn out ok. Overall, I guess the numbers were about what I was getting on my practice exams, so no suprises there. I wonder if Adcoms will be happy with my essay score, at least

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[oldman]

what do you mean by average? if you have an average score for getting into med school, i wouldn't bother with retaking the mcats. i'd save my energy for something more fun!

 

[woolie]

Well, average means 8 V 8 PS 9B, so maybe ok for my local state schools (I have a high post-bacc gpa), and of course my T in essay . I think as a non-science major and only two months of full-time study this is a decent score, but I would like to work in a more calculated and preparative way and try and really boost the numbers to double digits. I got over 10, scores in some of the practice tests so I think for me it's just lots of review and more examples. Heck, I only had baby Bio and the MCAT really covers Biochem/Molecular stuff. So I feel like it's filling in holes of knowledge and lots of practice exams.

Still, I feel relieved it's over for now and I know what I need to be doing for the next few months ...

 

[BananaSplit]

This graduate student that I work with took the MCAT as an undergrad and got a T on the writing...so it is possible and people have done it.

 

[Classof07]

I got a 32T on my August 2001 MCAT (11V/11P/10B). I was very surprised since I had never gotten that great a score on my practice tests (via Princeton Review) but unfortunately, no one really cares. I would have been happier with an O and a point higher in any of the other quote unquote real sections.
But I guess it happens. I noticed that I wrote a little bit longer during the actual exam, but I was pretty much sticking to the (Princeton Review) formulaic approach. The essay topics, though, were rather weak and I pulled in some examples which I bet most people didn't/couldn't think of. My advice for the writing sample: listen to NPR and/or the Lehr News Hour to keep abreast of anything interesting going on around the world.
Or, of course, you could do what my friend did: just make people and quotes up.

 

[Mike59]

I'm in the same boat. Made a 8V, 9B, 10PS, and an S on the writing sample. Despite getting >30 on some of my practice tests, I will not take the test again, as I had the best possible test day (finished all sections, was relaxed, test felt straightforward and did not lack any factual knowledge) .

Let's hope that some adcoms will notice our writing scores. Odds are, your personal statement stands out from the crowd (I'm positive mine does) due to the writing style. Good luck!

 

[woolie]

I went back and did the math on my actual amount of study time, and even tho I thought: "I am working all the time and it's all summer, etc." the truth is, I studied ~10 hours a day, including Princeton Review classes at night for a max. 45 days this summer. (Not including the full-day practice tests.)

So, when I took away the emotional stuff and and my mental fictions, and did the clinical post-mortem, I think my 25 is pretty good for that little amount of studying under such a compressed schedule. It would be unrealistic for me to expect > 30 not being a Bio/Chem etc major, and this short shedule.

I have really been thinking about ways to study differently and how to approach the test differently, and have bought alot of different books/Ekrackers and am sitting in on a BioChem class.

I am willing to go back and try it again - differently!

 

[oldman]

I actually didn't study much for my MCAT, so I wonder how much it matters in regards to the time you spend studying. I have a friend who studied a lot more than me and really rocked the exam. In the end...there is no consensus.

 

[AegisZero]

I got a T on MCAT from August 2002.

But apparently most medical schools dont care anyway, so its no big deal.

 

[oldman]

Originally posted by AegisZero
I got a T on MCAT from August 2002.

But apparently most medical schools dont care anyway, so its no big deal.

I don't think any one item on one's application makes that much difference.