Help, I need advice. I had signed up for the April MCAT thinking I would have plenty of time to prepare with my 16 hour courseload, unfortunaely that did not happen. I am thinking about taking the test anyway even though I expect a poor score. Some people have suggested not taking it and just taking it in August because a low score now, even if I get a good score in August, could hurt me. Is this the case?
Hello. If you don’t feel prepared, you should definately take the MCAT in August. From what I’ve read here, you really only want to take the MCAT once. Good luck!
Love,
Stacy
Hi,
I would also suggest if you don’t feel ready and didn’t prepare, then definitly do NOT take the April MCAT. (I think Stacy meant to say not to take it, but she left out the not.)
Is the MCAT this weekend or next?
The MCAT is NOT to be taken for practice purposes for all scores will be reported to medical schools. Take ONLY when you know that you prepared adequately.
I am no expert but everyone has told me not to do one as a test run so I would vote for August (that’s what I decided to do when it became clear I would not have the time to put into the prep.)
Oops - Amy was right, I forgot to put in “NOT.” If you’re not ready, do not take it now. Wait until August.
I’ve never taken the MCAT and am scared to death of it, so don’t consider me an expert. But it just seems to me that why would you ever want to give the adcoms something to view you negatively by? It’s hardest enough to get into med school, why give them ammo or force the adcoms to question what happened with that first MCAT? I mean, let’s assume you’ll get an awesome score next time (near perfect), do you want the adcom’s to scratch their heads and ask why did he/she do so poorly the first time? Sure, they can see you had 16 credits hours and assume maybe you didn’t prepare enough, but do you really want this to be apparent on your application? Some things are just better left outside of the adcom’s file - and I think a practice MCAT is one of them. This is not to say that you wouldn’t get in bc plenty of people have been forced to take the MCAT twice and have raised there score enough to get into to medical school, but it seems like you’re setting the odds against you? Why would you set a poor MCAT as one more thing you will have to overcome in your quest to get into medical school? For practice? In my opinion, no amount of practice is worth that…
I had a similar experience as the OP. I had a full course load the Spring semester and it just didn’t give me enough time to adequately prepare, so I went for the August MCAT. The key is to have EVERYTHING ELSE COMPLETED in your application and LOR’s so that when schools receive your MCAT score in October (Assuming you’re taking August) they are immediately ready to review your app. My LOR’s were not sent out until November, so consequently my interviews did not start until later, which puts you at a disadvantage somewhat. So if you are indeed applying this year, start pulling all that info aside from the MCAT together now to offset your late taking of the MCAT. I took one summer course and basically lived and breathed MCAT prep and AMCAS. Best of Luck!
-Brendan
thanks for all the advice, I decided to wait until August, and plan on spending the entire summer preparing!