What's the latest I can take the MCAT this year and still apply at the earliest possible time?

[carson16666]

My GPA kinda sucks so I'm trying to apply as early as possible to give myself the biggest advantage I can. Right now my MCAT is scheduled for April 28th because applications are sent to medical schools late May. Is this the right move or can I delay it even more (I feel a bit behind on studying). Thanks!!

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[Mr.Smile12]

Standard warning that I give.

You should apply when your application is most optimal. Taking the MCAT before making sure you show you have the academic foundation to succeed in medical school could backfire: you could get a subpar score and have to fight the battle of getting a higher score, with schools screening averages, etc. Plan to take the MCAT once and only once.

Second, if you do decide to go for a postbac or SMP program, some of them will have included MCAT prep if you haven't taken the exam. This may not be a problem if your MCAT was excellent, but you will be paying for someone else's MCAT prep if it's included in your postbac/SMP tuition.

Third, it shows a relative immaturity about how you are approaching your application. I'm sure most adcoms won't care; it's your money to spend, and many people make mistakes before. But rushing a subpar application without knowing the rest of your application is excellent sets you up for a rather fraught cycle.

 

[carson16666]

Standard warning that I give.

You should apply when your application is most optimal. Taking the MCAT before making sure you show you have the academic foundation to succeed in medical school could backfire: you could get a subpar score and have to fight the battle of getting a higher score, with schools screening averages, etc. Plan to take the MCAT once and only once.

Second, if you do decide to go for a postbac or SMP program, some of them will have included MCAT prep if you haven't taken the exam. This may not be a problem if your MCAT was excellent, but you will be paying for someone else's MCAT prep if it's included in your postbac/SMP tuition.

Third, it shows a relative immaturity about how you are approaching your application. I'm sure most adcoms won't care; it's your money to spend, and many people make mistakes before. But rushing a subpar application without knowing the rest of your application is excellent sets you up for a rather fraught cycle.

My application is pretty complete. Also, my GPA isn't THAT bad - it's a 3.4 overall (3.55 sGPA) with a very strong upward trend. (I may have been a bit dramatic).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

My application is pretty complete. Also, my GPA isn't THAT bad - it's a 3.4 overall (3.55 sGPA) with a very strong upward trend. (I may have been a bit dramatic).

I'll admit "kinda sucks" is not very precise a description.

How are you doing on those practice tests? When will you plan to take Casper and/or PREview?

 

[Med Ed]

My GPA kinda sucks so I'm trying to apply as early as possible to give myself the biggest advantage I can. Right now my MCAT is scheduled for April 28th because applications are sent to medical schools late May. Is this the right move or can I delay it even more (I feel a bit behind on studying). Thanks!!

The biggest advantage you can give yourself is a high MCAT score. Prioritize that over all else.

 

[carson16666]

I'll admit "kinda sucks" is not very precise a description.

How are you doing on those practice tests? When will you plan to take Casper and/or PREview?

So far I've taken one Blueprint practice test and got a 510, so I feel kind of confident but a decent amount of my correct answers were lucky guesses. I plan on taking both the Casper and PREview in May.

 

[atriablack]

Scores take a month to come out. The *latest* possible time to take and see your score before you hit submit would be late April/first week of May, so that you can submit that first week of June. If you are confident about your score, then you could also take it in May/very early June and submit without seeing your score.

imo 510 on Blueprint is a good sign. I found their science sections to be pretty representative. I took one of them sometime in the middle of my studying and remember scoring something similar. Scored 521 on the real thing. Just make sure to really rigorously review each question on the practice tests.

 

[NocturnalSir3n]

Most people will disagree but the latest you could probably take the MCAT and still get in your secondaries on time would be by mid June.

That comes with a couple caveats, you would have to pre-write your secondaries and you would also have to “throw away” an app to a school on June 1st to make sure your application gets processed. I did this, I don’t think I would do it again, so I am not advising this direction. But yeah since you asked the LATEST possible, that would be it.