will I ever feel ready?

[riseNshine]

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Hi all,

I cannot help but think in the last week leading up the exam, what if I just had 3 more months to really get this down cold. What if sacrificing another couple months will make the difference between top schools and lower tier ones.

Do people who score 35+ actually feel like they have everything 100% down? I still feel like there's room for improvement if I keep doing practice problems. my scores range from 29-33.

I have no clue if I should just void and keep going at it til January or do my best and put this test behind me already.

 

[One Chance]

At least you have that score!!! I'm taking the mcat in a week and the highest ive gotten is a 16, youre fine....stop panicking, I should be the one going crazy.

 

[FarMD2012]

I don't think just the MCAT score differentiates between getting into a top or a non-top tier school. Your passion for medicine and your ECs can become more important in differentiating applicants at some schools. But even if you can get a 32 on the real deal, you are about average at most schools and you may have a shot at top tier if other parts of your application are stellar.

Best of luck.

 

[riseNshine]

Good luck OneChance! Just keep doing practice tests and maybe hold off if you need more time for improvement.

And FarMD2012, while that's true...don't you think it's much easier to get into a top school with a high MCAT score and decent EC's than stellar EC's and an average MCAT? I feel like it's much harder to blow them away with an amazing EC.

 

[FarMD2012]

Good luck OneChance! Just keep doing practice tests and maybe hold off if you need more time for improvement.

And FarMD2012, while that's true...don't you think it's much easier to get into a top school with a high MCAT score and decent EC's than stellar EC's and an average MCAT? I feel like it's much harder to blow them away with an amazing EC.

You are absolutely right. Most schools still put substantial emphasis on the metrics. No matter how amazing your EC, if you have a 2.5/25, chances are you will not get in. But I'm sure you know that high MCAT/GPA does not automatically mean a great future physician. I think the trend at some schools are that while they require a decent MCAT/GPA, they also use methods such as MMI to measure the applicant's other qualities which may also be very important. But good luck OneChance, practice makes perfect! Ultimately its still up to you whether you want to reschedule or not. Compare your pros and cons and proceed from there!

 

[One Chance]

Thank you all for your encouragement, I really appreciate it! I

 

[BKN89]

Do people who score 35+ actually feel like they have everything 100% down? I still feel like there's room for improvement if I keep doing practice problems. my scores range from 29-33.
.

No. At least I didn't, but I definitely felt comfortable enough with the topics that I was confident I could adapt to weird passages. By the end I was doing a lot of 'spot checking' and using outlines (like MCATReview.org) to review content rather than looking at the books.

If you're scoring in the low 30s on the AAMC and your goal is 35+, then it's not likely that you'll see that sort of jump on test day. A score in the low 30s is not bad tbh, but if you feel that low 30s isn't enough, then yeah I would recommend postponing for a month or two. Better to do it once and make it count than have to do it twice.

 

[actor]

.

 

[angldrps]

The simple answer is NO you would never get rid of the feeling that there is still much more you can to do in order to improve your score. But, if you have studied the right way = utilizing as much practice material as you possibly can and start to consistently score in a desired range you will start to get sick of taking soo many practice FLs and come to a point where you just want to take the real thing and get it over with.

 

[MedPR]

Hi all,

I cannot help but think in the last week leading up the exam, what if I just had 3 more months to really get this down cold. What if sacrificing another couple months will make the difference between top schools and lower tier ones.

Do people who score 35+ actually feel like they have everything 100% down? I still feel like there's room for improvement if I keep doing practice problems. my scores range from 29-33.

I have no clue if I should just void and keep going at it til January or do my best and put this test behind me already.

I scored a 33 and I felt like I would have some idea of how to answer any question they asked. You'll always feel like there is room for improvement though.

 

[ebasappa]

The simple answer is NO you would never get rid of the feeling that there is still much more you can to do in order to improve your score. But, if you have studied the right way = utilizing as much practice material as you possibly can and start to consistently score in a desired range you will start to get sick of taking soo many practice FLs and come to a point where you just want to take the real thing and get it over with.

This times a trillion 👍

 

[riseNshine]

Thanks for the input everyone. unfortunately, my scores have been decreasing to consistent 30s.

Another question for all of you: Do most of you who get in the low 30s do so because of careless mistakes? Personally, when reviewing the exams, I feel if I avoided a couple of careless mistakes here and there, it would really boost my score up. Makes me wonder if doing well on test day despite these low scores is still plausible.

 

[AntonFreeman]

to eliminate careless mistakes in PS at least, i would mark the questions that required calculations and i went over those questions at the end of the section during 5-10 mins i have left. i think it is better to go over the easy calculation questions to make sure that they are right than trying to figure out a difficult question.

 

[AshPreMed]

to eliminate careless mistakes in PS at least, i would mark the questions that required calculations and i went over those questions at the end of the section during 5-10 mins i have left. i think it is better to go over the easy calculation questions to make sure that they are right than trying to figure out a difficult question.

but u lose your highlights.

 

[riseNshine]

AntonFreeman is referring to "marking" the questions and then reviewing them at the end, not highlighting anything in the passages.

 

[AshPreMed]

Still. It'll take a little longer to find the info in the passage for calculation questions (half of the questions) when highlights are gone... Please respond if you disagree (I'd rather be corrected). Thanks.

 

[seojohn]

Hi all,

I cannot help but think in the last week leading up the exam, what if I just had 3 more months to really get this down cold. What if sacrificing another couple months will make the difference between top schools and lower tier ones.

Do people who score 35+ actually feel like they have everything 100% down? I still feel like there's room for improvement if I keep doing practice problems. my scores range from 29-33.

I have no clue if I should just void and keep going at it til January or do my best and put this test behind me already.

Maybe it's just last minute jitters. I feel it to as I'm taking mine this Friday. I thought I was really well prepared and felt good as my AAMCs were stellar and I had a good grasp of most things. But the fact that it's only 2 days away is taking away my confidence. I thought also maybe if I take it in 3 months, it'll be the difference. But I feel 3 months from now, 2 days before the exam I'll say the same thing. If your scores are WAY below what you desire and feel there is DEFINITE room for improvement you can do that. But otherwise I feel confidence is like 1/3 of the MCAT so feel confident in the time you've put in so far and I feel you'll do fine. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself until Friday where afterwards I can go cry naked in a little corner with a bottle of tequila.

 

[jbg]

At least you have that score!!! I'm taking the mcat in a week and the highest ive gotten is a 16, youre fine....stop panicking, I should be the one going crazy.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. My practice tests were in mid 20s, 'cause I've scored nothing higher than a 6 in verbal. I'm taking it in a week too. I've pretty much accepted that I will retake in January if I come out with a 6 on a real thing.