Writing CARS only and applying only to McMaster

[LuciaLeah]

I'm looking to hear of experiences of those who have written only the CARS section of the MCAT and had success at McMaster admissions. I am considering doing this for the current year and doing a full MCAT and a broader application next year.

[James Nystead]

8 minutes ago, GiannaTeresa said:

I'm looking to hear of experiences of those who have written only the CARS section of the MCAT and had success at McMaster admissions. I am considering doing this for the current year and doing a full MCAT and a broader application next year.

But why not just do the MCAT once and apply to all schools?

People without science backgrounds have done it; its possible. Not sure what specific experiences will add. Mac only looks at GPA CARS and CASPer so if youve a good GPA, get a high CARS and CASPer and nobody will care about the blank in your Bio or Chem or Psych sections

[DrOtter]

Not interviewing at McMaster as an OOP, but I've written the MCAT twice: the first time I only took CARS for the purpose of applying to Mac, and I did the whole thing two years later. I would suggest you try to study for and do the whole thing if you find the time (generally 3-4 months of full-time study would be ideal). I got 128 for CARS the first time and 130 the second, with only limited practice in between. I honestly believe that the mental stimulation I received from the other sections helped in boosting the CARS performance. But everyone is different and if you think you're doing okay on practice CARS now, it's alright to try that out for a cycle. Good luck!

[SnowmanTheSWOMEN]

4 minutes ago, DrOtter said:

Not interviewing at McMaster as an OOP, but I've written the MCAT twice: the first time I only took CARS for the purpose of applying to Mac, and I did the whole thing two years later. I would suggest you try to study for and do the whole thing if you find the time (generally 3-4 months of full-time study would be ideal). I got 128 for CARS the first time and 130 the second, with only limited practice in between. I honestly believe that the mental stimulation I received from the other sections helped in boosting the CARS performance. But everyone is different and if you think you're doing okay on practice CARS now, it's alright to try that out for a cycle. Good luck!

You rewrote a 128? That's mad respect Doc.

[DrOtter]

1 minute ago, HeyMrSnowman said:

You rewrote a 128? That's mad respect Doc.

McMaster still treats me as an OOP so I need a leg up any way I can haha. Plus that time, I only wrote the CARS 

[LuciaLeah]

My GPA is 3.92 and my diagnostic CARS score by the Kaplan half length was 128 with no studying. I usually get 1 question wrong per **DELETED** question of the day and that was from Day 1 (I've been doing them for about a week). I think I will do fairly well in CARS

My original plan was to study for the whole MCAT but the latest I could write it would be end of September, and without the science background and also working full time in a brand new job and profession, I am not seeing this as being feasible. I am thinking I would be better off focusing on maximizing my CARS score. 

Due to my academic background and the way the program was structured I would only be eligible to apply at Mac, Queen's, U of T (without weighted GPA), and NOSM for Ontario schools. I don't have any northern context so NOSM is probably relatively pointless. Obviously I'd have to write the full MCAT for Queen's and U of T.

[Psych]

1 minute ago, GiannaTeresa said:

My GPA is 3.92 and my diagnostic CARS score by the Kaplan half length was 128 with no studying. I usually get 1 question wrong per **DELETED** question of the day and that was from Day 1 (I've been doing them for about a week). I think I will do fairly well in CARS

My original plan was to study for the whole MCAT but the latest I could write it would be end of September, and without the science background and also working full time in a brand new job and profession, I am not seeing this as being feasible. I am thinking I would be better off focusing on maximizing my CARS score. 

Due to my academic background and the way the program was structured I would only be eligible to apply at Mac, Queen's, U of T (without weighted GPA), and NOSM for Ontario schools. I don't have any northern context so NOSM is probably relatively pointless. Obviously I'd have to write the full MCAT for Queen's and U of T.

Honestly there's not a whole lot of "studying" you can do for CARS- just practice. Obviously it's your decision but I figure if you're going to pay to write the MCAT, you might as well try the science sections as well and study what you can? Especially for U of T- they only look at MCAT as a cutoff, so you'd only need 125 in each section (the 50th percentile) with an allowance of 124 in a section. So even if you don't score very well on the science parts, you could still make it high enough for U of T with not as much effort! And if you don't get into Mac or U of T, you could rewrite for Queen's the year after. Just my two cents though, as I don't know the details of your situation

[takasugi]

On 5/11/2020 at 4:30 PM, GiannaTeresa said:

My GPA is 3.92 and my diagnostic CARS score by the Kaplan half length was 128 with no studying. I usually get 1 question wrong per **DELETED** question of the day and that was from Day 1 (I've been doing them for about a week). I think I will do fairly well in CARS

My original plan was to study for the whole MCAT but the latest I could write it would be end of September, and without the science background and also working full time in a brand new job and profession, I am not seeing this as being feasible. I am thinking I would be better off focusing on maximizing my CARS score. 

Due to my academic background and the way the program was structured I would only be eligible to apply at Mac, Queen's, U of T (without weighted GPA), and NOSM for Ontario schools. I don't have any northern context so NOSM is probably relatively pointless. Obviously I'd have to write the full MCAT for Queen's and U of T.

Don't apply to NOSM, it would be a waste of money.

[SBrown]

I did this for Mac this year. I got a 129 in August so I quickly rewrote and got a 131 in September. Now I’m on the waitlist. People definitely do it but if you have no other reason, maybe try to open yourself up to other schools by doing the whole thing. I did Mac because it was my only chance with such a low gpa and my partner already studies there. 
 

Good luck with whatever you choose! 

[omentum]

11 hours ago, SBrown said:

I did this for Mac this year. I got a 129 in August so I quickly rewrote and got a 131 in September. Now I’m on the waitlist. People definitely do it but if you have no other reason, maybe try to open yourself up to other schools by doing the whole thing. I did Mac because it was my only chance with such a low gpa and my partner already studies there. 
 

Good luck with whatever you choose! 

Good luck! That's an amazing CARS score - you can always try to improve your GPA with an extra year to help your score! 

[tomcat365]

On 5/11/2020 at 2:49 PM, GiannaTeresa said:

I'm looking to hear of experiences of those who have written only the CARS section of the MCAT and had success at McMaster admissions. I am considering doing this for the current year and doing a full MCAT and a broader application next year.

I did this and got a 131 (No “studying” and minimal practising - just the official practise tests). If you really feel like you can’t study for the whole thing, this isn’t a bad idea. You could have a real shot at Mac depending on how it goes & it doesn’t hurt to get a feel for the process before you’re ready to apply more broadly. 
 

I got an interview and then waitlisted (GPA was low so not top 100) this year (my first year ever applying, I also applied to Ottawa and got an offer off the waitlist) . For reference my cgpa was less than 3.7. 

 

Im going to apply more broadly if Mac doesn’t work out this year, so I’ll be doing the full MCAT soon.