Penguin1 Posted October 6, 2009 Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 How many times did you write the MCAT before you got the score you wanted? Is there a limit on the number of times you can write the test for Canadian schools? Would someone who gets 37R on their first try, vs. someone that got 37R on their fifth try be looked at the same? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted October 6, 2009 Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 Depends on the school. Some schools in the US for example would raise their eyebrows to multiple rewrites. Most schools in Canada don't care at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Neill Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 I dunno Law, I bet adcoms in Canada would be just as suspicious as their US counterparts if they saw five attempts. They just don't advertise it. All else being equal, a lower number of attempts at the exam just looks better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neuronix Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 I dunno Law' date=' I bet adcoms in Canada would be just as suspicious as their US counterparts if they saw five attempts. They just don't advertise it. All else being equal, a lower number of attempts at the exam just looks better.[/quote'] i love when people speculate based on nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Neill Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 If I were an admissions officer I would be suspicious of someone with 5 attempts under their belt. You cannot take the subjective component out of the process no matter how many policies are in place, because in the end it's a bunch of people who are admitting you. Btw, speculation implies a casual review with inconclusive evidence. I don't mind speculating at all, in fact I don't think you can "speculate" based on something concrete. If there were evidence for something, you would be hypothesizing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 If I were an admissions officer I would be suspicious of someone with 5 attempts under their belt. You cannot take the subjective component out of the process no matter how many policies are in place' date=' because in the end it's a bunch of people who are admitting you. [/quote'] That's where I think you're wrong. Do you actually think they go through each application one by one and consider the nuances? I assure you, they don't. The schools like to KISS. They have formulaic methods for providing interviews and for providing acceptances. They try to make it as quantitative as possible to make it as fair as possible. In fact, in a lot of the schools they don't even have an idea of what you score on the MCAT, or what your GPA was during your interview! Queen's / UWO - whether you write it 10000x or 3x, if you make the cutoffs, you will get an interview. Period. Mac - your verbal mark is given a score out of 33. Most recent MCAT is used. That's it. U of T - clear flag and MCAT doesn't matter, most recent one is used. The schools are not going through these applications one by one and looking at how many times you've written. They don't have the time to do this. You're simply put in a computer and you either meet the cuts or you don't. That's it. I seriously wish there was someone reviewing each application and thinking about other factors that might affect peoples' scores or other reasons to give people interviews, but this does not happen. In the USA, where the initial screening is more comprehensive, this is much more likely to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Agreed with the consensus. With the rare exception, the MCAT can be written endlessly without penalty in Canada and most often this is stated in one form or another. As for me... I've written 3 times.... 31R, 32S and the 3rd time is pending results. I'm guessing my 3rd score is somewhere in that same range. So if they wanted to consider my re-writes subjectively... I'd hope they'd see I'm remarkably consistent lol and am a tragic victim of subsection cutoffs. Western's 11 Bio Sci cutoff has been the bain of my existence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bj89 Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 If I were an admissions officer I would be suspicious of someone with 5 attempts under their belt. You cannot take the subjective component out of the process no matter how many policies are in place' date=' because in the end it's a bunch of people who are admitting you. Btw, speculation implies a casual review with inconclusive evidence. I don't mind speculating at all, in fact I don't think you can "speculate" based on something concrete. If there were evidence for something, you would be hypothesizing.[/quote'] the thing is adcoms don't follow their gut instinct, but rather the principles of the school. the mcat is an american based test - because of this, canadian schools dont consider it more than a cutoff, with the exception of schools that include it in a formula. this is also the reason why they don't penalize you for re-writes. i wrote it this summer and scored a balanced 31S meeting all cutoffs, so i am not planning on writing again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numero0121407 Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 do they have access to all your mcat attempts results? I thought they get the results that you approve of releasing, and that's often your most recent attempt no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozenarbitor Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 I think AAMC only limits maximum of three MCAT can be written per year per person. No lifetime limits. The thing does cost quite a lot tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
champ Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 do they have access to all your mcat attempts results? I thought they get the results that you approve of releasing, and that's often your most recent attempt no? I think they have access to them all.....not sure though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iicii Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 -On the Usask site I think it states that you can write a max of 5 times, I think you need special permission if you are planning to write >5 times -Memorial indicates that they take all your scores into consideration when they evaluate your app. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 do they have access to all your mcat attempts results? I thought they get the results that you approve of releasing, and that's often your most recent attempt no?The schools use the most recent attempt, but I'm pretty sure that AAMC just releases all of your scores. I know someone who took the MCAT multiple times and they said that they couldn't choose which scores were released when applying to canadian schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hking03 Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 The schools use the most recent attempt, but I'm pretty sure that AAMC just releases all of your scores. I know someone who took the MCAT multiple times and they said that they couldn't choose which scores were released when applying to canadian schools. what about expired scores? would those still be released as they are no longer valid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 what about expired scores? would those still be released as they are no longer valid?*shrugs* I wouldn't think so, but i'm not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicant Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 Just as a follow up to what the OP asked, how many times did you guys have to write the MCAT to eventually get your desired mark? And, did anyone get a significant improvement in their score? i.e. 30P to a 35R, or something along those lines? Just wondering if it is possible to actually have such an improvement in marks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osmosis Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 School policy is school policy - period...or it goes into a formula (UofA, UofC, Mac, UMan)... i was just wondering, does uofc not really then care about your MCAT score? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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