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The Mechanism Of Writing Only The Cars Section


medway12

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Hi all,

 

This may seem like a silly question but if a person was to write only the CARS section, would he/she have to sit through the first 95 min of the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems section? i.e. Does everyone move to the next section at the same time or can you just randomly answer the first section and get past it to CARS in 5 min? And once the CARS section is complete, would the test taker have to stay for the entire duration of the remainder of the exam?

 

Kind Regards,

 

medway12

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The fine folks at Prometric didn't understand what I was doing or why. I reckon they don't see many McMaster applicants in America!

 

:lol:

 

no they don't. Arguments abound about perhaps writing the entire test (mostly because you can only write it so many times for some schools) but if you really do only need one section there is good logic in writing only that one.

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no they don't. Arguments abound about perhaps writing the entire test (mostly because you can only write it so many times for some schools) but if you really do only need one section there is good logic in writing only that one.

 

 

Oh for sure! As an aboriginal applicant, McMaster allows us to defer the MCAT until after the application. I had no idea about this and ended up adding McMaster the day before it closed! It was a calculated risk on my end and I wouldn't recommend it to most applicants.

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Oh for sure! As an aboriginal applicant, McMaster allows us to defer the MCAT until after the application. I had no idea about this and ended up adding McMaster the day before it closed! It was a calculated risk on my end and I wouldn't recommend it to most applicants.

 

hey that is interesting! I didn't know that - I mean I agree with you it doesn't sound like the best thing to do. Still you have to learn all the tricks :)

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Assuming you do the cars section only and don't get into the places that look only at cars score...then what? I am curious because I am considering taking the hit of only writing cars

 

Then you reapply to those schools the following year. 

 

Or you rewrite the MCAT and apply more broadly the following year. In Canada med schools generally look at either your best MCAT score or your most recent MCAT score.

 

If your best MCAT score is also your most recent MCAT score, at almost everywhere it is the only one they will take into consideration (only exception are the few schools that look at multiple attempts but if they see an exam where you've clearly just written CARS then I'm sure they wouldn't look at it too unfavourably if you rewrote and got a decent score across all sections--just don't write CARS only and get a crappy score lol--but even if you do just re-write the entire damn thing afterwards).

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Assuming you do the cars section only and don't get into the places that look only at cars score...then what? I am curious because I am considering taking the hit of only writing cars

 

I'm a non-trad and non-science graduate working full time. Mac is really my only option unless I do more undergrad, take some science, and write all sections. My alternative goal is to get a MBA and continue working in the same field. That's one upside of being a non-trad (having a solid backup) while the downsides are also clear (limited pathways to MD).

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I'm a non-trad and non-science graduate working full time. Mac is really my only option unless I do more undergrad, take some science, and write all sections. My alternative goal is to get a MBA and continue working in the same field. That's one upside of being a non-trad (having a solid backup) while the downsides are also clear (limited pathways to MD).

 

You can apply to Calgary as well with CARS only. They do have a section worth 10% of your pre-interview score called "global academic context" where they look at your transcripts and grade trends, all sections of the mcat and all mcat attempts, but honestly as long as the rest of your application is solid I don't think having a CARS only mcat would hurt you as long as you get a great score--ex. 118/130+/118/118. I'm not sure how they would interpret the other three sections but I'm sure they must have some familiarity with people employing the CARS only strategy (118s in the other 3 sections b/c I believe that's the lowest score one can receive in a section which would be automatic if you didn't attempt them).

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You can apply to Calgary as well with CARS only. They do have a section worth 10% of your pre-interview score called "global academic context" where they look at your transcripts and grade trends, all sections of the mcat and all mcat attempts, but honestly as long as the rest of your application is solid I don't think having a CARS only mcat would hurt you as long as you get a great score--ex. 118/130+/118/118. I'm not sure how they would interpret the other three sections but I'm sure they must have some familiarity with people employing the CARS only strategy (118s in the other 3 sections b/c I believe that's the lowest score one can receive in a section which would be automatic if you didn't attempt them).

I've looked into Calgary but don't they have a higher minimum cGPA (I think 3.7) for OOP? My GPA doesn't cut it. But there is also Casper at Mac to mitigate some of the effect.

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I'm a non-trad and non-science graduate working full time. Mac is really my only option unless I do more undergrad, take some science, and write all sections. My alternative goal is to get a MBA and continue working in the same field. That's one upside of being a non-trad (having a solid backup) while the downsides are also clear (limited pathways to MD).

 

true - non trads (myself included) already have a built in fall back plan. Actually really reduces the stress of things.

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