I went through a Kaplan course, and have been doing both Kaplan’s practice tests and a few through AAMC.
I did one Kaplan test where I did really well (over thirty), and the rest have only been in the mid-twenties. I’m driving my husband crazy talking about rescheduling (I’m down for 5-19, so if I’m going to do something, it needs to be soon).
Does anyone have any general suggestions, I would greatly appreciate. ASAP!!
My honnest opinion, is if you do mid-20s on the AAMC tests, unless you expect a miracle, that’s pretty much where you will be ending.
You should score consistently withing a range. One mid-30s is good, but not good enough.
Your score should be consistent with you expect. If you want a mid-20s, then it’s OK. If not, then I would suggest to reschedule, or take it and void.
Good luck.
I just worry about hurting my chances if I wait until after the schools have started pulling scores. And I wouldn’t be able to get a committee letter until the scores are in, which would put me even further behind.
Also, thanks ever so for the words of encouragement. It’s bad enough that I’m beating myself up at home, but what I really needed was strangers doing it on the Internet.
Sorry for blowing up. I just…I want this more than anything I’ve wanted in my life, and one of the things I’ve never been very good at is being told I can’t do something.
As it stands, the earliest date I could retake is 07/09, and I’m scared I’ll miss application windows and be more or less up a creek.
Again, I’m sorry. I’ve never wanted anything this badly before, and I’m more scared than I’ve been in my life. And there aren’t a lot of people for me to ask IRL.
And like I said, I’m sorry.
Hi Starri
no need to be sorry and you have the right to blow up to the face to anyone who tells you it cannot be done.
We are here to help and my point was not to tell you cannot do well enough on the MCAT. However, and unlike you, I took it, twice for that matter and I got to know the beast.
Your question was to postpone or not. Given the little details you provided, my opinion (i.e. if I were in your situation), would be to postpone and prepare a bit more.
You want this badly, I have no doubt about this and I can understand your emotion. We are here to help, I am here to help. Unfortunately, helping doesn’t mean telling you what you want to hear. It means being sincere and give you an honest opinion.
Now, if you choice is to take the MCAT, I can only wish you to do well. But I can not tell you that scoring in the mid 20s will get you an upper 30s score. This would be a lie, disrespectful and would be a deliberate attempt to hurt you.
No doubt you want this, you are emotional about this and that will make you great at it. However sometimes emotions get in the way, and if the heart speaks louder than the mind, it can really screw up your chances.
My best of luck to you. May you succeed. And again, no need to apologize.
Starri - I was schedule for July 2 or something like that and postponed to July 31st. Granted I didn’t have the committee letter issue. This wasn’t what I wanted in terms of timing, but was what I had to work with. I got my application in before hand, wrote the MCAT, completed secondaries while waiting for my MCAT score and then got my score (which turned out OK 31 balanced). Letters of reference shouldn’t hold up the verification part of the application by the application services (MD or DO) as I was getting secondaries while not all my letters were in. On the secondaries I had to indicate who my referres were so if they didn’t have them when they received my secondary, it would be held until they were received. But you are still making progress through the process.
So if you would feel better about taking the MCAT later (I wouldn’t go beyond the end of July personally), postpone it, but use some of that time to get your primary application in. Hopefully you have your personal statement ready to go. It is a tedious process - especially getting the grades entered and your extracurricular activities entered (in the word limit they give you).
One last note - you will never feel ready to take the MCAT so once you postpone, don’t postpone again unless you haven’t scored anything above a 26.
Not sure what schools you are looking at, but DO schools generally have lower MCAT scores (I think the average at KCUMB is around 27).
Hope that helps and believe me, I understand your frustration and concerns.
Lynda
I’m an idiot, and this should have been a reply here not a new thread. This really isn’t my day…
Seriously, thank you for that.
My one question, if anyone out there has any knowledge about this: I was talking to me Kaplan instructor and he told me that since I’m not going to be applying early-decision, it’s okay for me to take it later in the summer.
Is that true?
- In reply to:
Starri - I was schedule for July 2 or something like that and postponed to July 31st. Granted I didn't have the committee letter issue. This wasn't what I wanted in terms of timing, but was what I had to work with. I got my application in before hand, wrote the MCAT, completed secondaries while waiting for my MCAT score and then got my score (which turned out OK 31 balanced). Letters of reference shouldn't hold up the verification part of the application by the application services (MD or DO) as I was getting secondaries while not all my letters were in. On the secondaries I had to indicate who my referres were so if they didn't have them when they received my secondary, it would be held until they were received. But you are still making progress through the process.
Like I think I said, I don't get the committee letter until after I get my MCAT score, so I know they wouldn't be looking at my completed app until early/mid-August. AFAIK, that's the last thing I need to have a finished app, but from some of the other posters here, it makes me feel like every class will be full.
- In reply to:
So if you would feel better about taking the MCAT later (I wouldn't go beyond the end of July personally), postpone it, but use some of that time to get your primary application in. Hopefully you have your personal statement ready to go. It is a tedious process - especially getting the grades entered and your extracurricular activities entered (in the word limit they give you).
Well, I've entered all of the information that I need except for personal statements (and yes, the grades were a pain in the butt). I have two letters saved through Interfolio, and I'm hoping for two more including the committee letter.
One last note - you will never feel ready to take the MCAT so once you postpone, don't postpone again unless you haven't scored anything above a 26.
Yeah, I know. I promised myself no practice tests today, but I'll try one tomorrow and see how I do. I guess I'm just scared about all this. I'm sorry you had to bear the brunt of my anxiety attack.
Hey Starri - I’m pretty sure I submitted without filling in the LOR referee names. I went back and did that later - August I think. So I think you can submit the primary well in advance. I’m pretty sure I got secondaries before I had all the letters in too because I remember scrambling to get a weird LOR that one school wanted that only became evident to me once I got the secondary from that school.
Why don’t you call/email and ask the application processing people if your application will at least get verified without the committee letter. If I remember correctly they have a CS / help line that I emailed / called a few times.
Good luck!!
Lynda
After calling about ten different schools, almost all of them use rotating admissions instead of top-loading the class. So, I guess my job now is to kick-butt on my MCATs.
I’ll probably do another practice or two before I make up my mind to change, but on the whole, I’m feeling a lot better.
I was told by my committee is that end of July should be your ultimate deadline for doing the MCAT, which allows you to apply in early September with your committee letter. In terms of exams, I heard the Kaplan exams are harder than the AAMC exams, so to take that with a few grains of salt. You can do it!!
I’d really like to split the difference and do it June 21st, because my friend with whom I am studying is taking hers that day, but it seems like everyone in the world is taking it because there are no open seats anywhere near me. I mean, to get to May 31st, I had to register at a testing center one state over.
Oh, my…, I’m in the same exact situation. My latest scores were 22… I work full time and couldn’t study a lot. I have a GPA of 3.65. My friends tell me I should try and take it, for there are some DO schools which accept students with 24/25. However, I think it’s hard to raise my score.
Please help…
Me,
How long have you been prepping for? I too work a fulltime and am giving myself a year to prep (granted I am taking off hard studying for 3 months after I have a baby) but I am going to go through TPR once, do EK 1001 for the 3 months then redo TPR.
Personally, I would be really worried about taking it with a 22-- I don’t think that shows a good grasp of information. If you have a target school(s), what is there average MCAT score? Or are you happy at any school?
Just my thoughts…
Your friends are right that some DO schools take folks with 24/25, but I wouldn’t want try to apply with it unless I absolutely had to.
Presumably you mean your latest practice score was a 22. I would suggest not to take the risk because most people score lower or at best match their practice score on the real thing. So you’re probably looking at a 20-22 on the real thing if you took it right now. Why take that risk, especially if you can take steps to improve?
You want to do it ONCE, well. Even a good second score does not remove the impact of the low first one (which they will see) completely.
Until you are consistently making a bit ABOVE your target MCAT score on your practice tests, I would postpone. Better in the long run—and it is a marathon 
Kate
I had the advantage of taking mine the summer before application. However, I re-scheduled because I wasn’t getting the scores I wanted. My goal was to get a balanced 30, and postponing the test by a month made most of my practice tests go up from the then-terrifying average of 24. I ended up getting a 29 on the real test, and was extremely glad I’d waited.
That extra time will allow you to tackle the points you have the greatest issues with. For me it was physics, and I went from consistently getting 4-6 in that section to 7-8 and sometimes 9. Also got an 8 on the real thing. But it was because I really focused on fixing my weaknesses in that subject.
I know you don’t want to hear that you should reschedule. But if you’re not reaching your goal score, or above it, CONSISTENTLY on full-length practice runs then you should not take it.
Good luck, and stay focused. 
I know I see people saying that you only want to take it once, and while that would be great, it can take a while for some people. I have over the last year, read about two different people that were accepted into allopathic programs after a total of five MCATs. Each one was a little better than the others, and usually started pretty low.