Will i ever break a 25 on the MCAT? PLEASE HELP!

[Ciardeme]

Okay, so i am thinking about bailing for April's MCAT. It seems as if i spend almost every available moment preparing for the exam, but with no avail.
For those of you not familiar with my MCAT history, i have taken it 3 times. First 2: 19, third 22. My first run was just an experiment to see how hard it really was...and that was in 1997! (I know that is really bad). Anyway, i took the "hail mary" Kaplan session that crammed everything into 6 weeks prior to my last attempt. I did improve a little, but nothing significant.
I am currently retaking the Kaplan course and plan to take the April MCAT. I am not feeling very confident. Although i really have been working my butt off, i have had some really big distractions in the past few weeks.
As a matter of fact, i don't think i could ever get past a 25 or 26. If Dr. Foxy's prediction is correct between the MCAT/SAT correlation, i am dead in the water. I didn't even break a 900 on the SAT. My GRE's were pitiful. I can't take standardized tests to save my life!
Can anyone help me because i am really wondering if this is ever going to happen for me. I have invested so much time and effort trying to get to my goal. For all of you that do well on standardized exams, how do you do it? PLEASE HELP ME!

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[divinemsm]

Ciardeme,
Calm yourself. If you can swing at least a 25 on the MCAT, you will probbaly be okay provided your grades are decent. This application process is a crapshoot. I was personally able to improve my MCAT scores NOT by studying science , but by PRACTICING with the questions. I am a firm believer that the MCAT is a test about reading comprehension, rather than accumulated knowledge. You will be fine ! Corny as it may sound, a major deterrent to getting into school is not believing that you can. TRUST. Good luck !

 

[Bevo]

ahh keep positive. Im worried too but just plugging away at those practice tests. I had a friend in the same situation as you with a month to go. He was scoring in the low to mid 20s until it dawned on him that the mcat was only a month away. He started to review everything more closely and study a lot more. He ended up with a 36 on the real thing and an acceptance to UTSW.

 

[Papa Smurf]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by mdanielle:
•Ciardeme,
Calm yourself. If you can swing at least a 25 on the MCAT, you will probbaly be okay provided your grades are decent. This application process is a crapshoot. I was personally able to improve my MCAT scores NOT by studying science , but by PRACTICING with the questions. I am a firm believer that the MCAT is a test about reading comprehension, rather than accumulated knowledge. You will be fine ! Corny as it may sound, a major deterrent to getting into school is not believing that you can. TRUST. Good luck !•••••I dunno what the competition is like in NY, but I'm willing to bet a 25 ain't gonna get the job done for most applicants. That's being just a little bit too optimistic IMHO. You need to get at least a couple of points higher than that to be considered competitive if you have everything else, meaning high GPA, good EC's, strong LOR's, etc. Realize that the MCAT isn't everything, but when lazy adcoms have to screen 7000 apps to decide who to interview, it's the easiest tool in the book. Not everyone's GPA is the same, but an MCAT of 30 from a junior college is the same as a 30 from Harvard. I'd go all out from today on, and then decide a week before if you're going to take it. If you feel you're not ready, put it off till August. My $.02

 

[divinemsm]

I wasn't going to reply to this, as I didn't want to
be perceived as contentious, but oh well.... I can't even begin to relay the number of people, whom I know, that are currently enrolled in top 20 medical schools with an MCAT in the mid to high twenties. ( No, they did not all attend Ivy League schools, and NO they are not all URMS). These are people with " lesser " stats than myself, attending schools that I have been rejected from. IT IS A CRAPSHOOT. Does it hurt to have strong numbers ? Of course not . Do other factors count ? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT. As peers in this application process, I believe we owe it to each other to be supportive. There are enough detractors to/ of our agendas.

 

[Papa Smurf]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by mdanielle:
•I wasn't going to reply to this, as I didn't want to
be perceived as contentious, but oh well.... I can't even begin to relay the number of people, whom I know, that are currently enrolled in top 20 medical schools with an MCAT in the mid to high twenties. ( No, they did not all attend Ivy League schools, and NO they are not all URMS). These are people with " lesser " stats than myself, attending schools that I have been rejected from. IT IS A CRAPSHOOT. Does it hurt to have strong numbers ? Of course not . Do other factors count ? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT. As peers in this application process, I believe we owe it to each other to be supportive. There are enough detractors to/ of our agendas.•••••I'm not a detractor. I'm just telling it like it is. For every 1 person that gets into a top 20 with a 25 MCAT, there are probably 500 with similar numbers that get rejected. Simple as that. Hell, I've been rejected from multiple top 20's with higher numbers, as I'm sure many others have as well. You're right, it is a crapshoot. However, having gone through this process, I don't think it's right to give false hope. The process is too grueling, emotionally, financially, even physically, for me to give anyone false hope. I guess what I objected to was that you said that Ciardeme will "probably be ok with a 25 MCAT." If stats were published on the acceptance rates of individuals with a 25 MCAT, I'm willing to bet that most were not ok when all was said and done.

 

[dlc]

Having been through this application process three times now, I agree that it is definitely a crapshoot. I was rejected post-interview by only one school, the lowest on my list, while all other interviews at higher ranked (some top 5) schools resulted in either acceptance or waitlist (and hopefully acceptance). As for the MCAT, let me offer my advice. I too never thought I was ever going to break 25. The first two times I took it I admit that I didn't study the correct way and didn't practice enough to even come close. Finally, I decided to take that review course...up until 3 weeks before the real thing, I still wasn't breaking 25! I began to freak out and decided that those classes were wasting a lot of my valuable practice time. Sooo, the next 2 weeks I did every possible passage I could, took the last 2 simulated exams, jumped up first 4 points and then another 4, and then relaxed a bit the 3 week. By that time I had finished every passage I possessed and started on those really easy AAMC exams (I and II) and then just lived my life as usual for the rest of the week. Since I had gone up dramatically in my score in only 2 weeks, I was pretty confident but still nervous going into the exam, so nervous, being the 3rd time, that I almost couldn't work through the verbal section! I had such anxiety that I was debating whether to continue going or just void the test. Despite how upset I felt that all my effort would lead to nothing, I continued, and ended up with a 34S! So it can be done, just believe that it can happen and all your effort has not gone to waste. Sometimes, it takes a while but then, CLICK, everything falls into place! Good luck!
dlc :wink:

 

[imtiaz]

i was in your shoes. but check out this thread http://www.studentdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=002060&p=

 

[Diogenes]

I'm not going to digress into discussing whether or not the process is a crapshoot (it is) like other people, but I'd like to reiterate a point made by one poster here.

The MCAT is NOT all about how much you know. It is largely about how well you can read and understand what you've read.

I am lucky in that I have, as long as I can remember, scored well on standardized tests. I do not have a system for taking them (that I'm aware of), I just sit down and answer the questions. Sounds stupidly obvious and simple, but it is true. I know other people who also have had a lifetime of high-scoring on standardized tests. None of them use a conscious "system" either. I think that if you try and follow a "system" you will probably waste time, distract yourself, psyche yourself out, and do poorly.

My advie is this:
CALM DOWN
CHILL OUT
RELAX
BE CONFIDENT. BE VERY CONFIDENT.

Don't worry abut how "important" the test is. I walked into the MCAT testing room and said, "what the hell," and just tried to have a good time. And I was probably the one of the only people in the room that enjoyed the experience.

 

[SMW]

I agree that these standardized tests are mainly reading comprehension tests. So, in addition to studying i.e. doing questions and more questions, and practice tests and more practice tests, and really understanding why you missed every single question you missed -- read something challenging for 30 minutes every day, then put it down and ask yourself what you just read. And, if you aren't scoring on the practice tests where you want to be and/or don't feel ready in April, then wait until August. I took the August test and have 4 acceptances. Btw, Dr. Foxy's SAT/ MCAT correlation was just a joke! Don't worry about it or take it seriously at all!! Have confidence in yourself, and just concentrate on finding out why you're missing questions. Good luck, Ciardeme!!!