Guest cali Posted August 9, 2003 Report Share Posted August 9, 2003 Hello, Congrats to those who are well on their way with their MCAT prep. My question is... Will a VERY BAD MCAT score ever hurt an application...ASSUMING a good future MCAT score? I am registered to write the MCAT in a week and do not feel 100% I will most likely delay the MCAT should an initial BAD score hurt my application...but if it does not have an effect, I might as well try it out. Or should I go to the exam, and "cancel" the scoring? Most Canadian Med Schools state that the "best" or "most recent" will be counted...BUT is this TRUE??? What about US med schools...I heard that they take an average. Any advice would be greatly appreciate! Good luck to all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted August 9, 2003 Report Share Posted August 9, 2003 Hi cali, I have a wee morsel of food for thought for you, just in case you're the type who might get a little psyched out, and are considering "canceling" next week's exam if you write it... (Assuming that MCAT test writers still have the ability to void an exam--I'd read somewhere that they no longer will at some point--true? :rolleyes ) You know that all MCAT writers are scored relative to everyone else, correct? Well, sometimes, the way you feel about how you fared on a section, e.g., if you felt that you performed extremely poorly on a certain sub-test, does not actually result in a mark that is as poor as you expect. So say you write the exam; you feel that you've done terribly in one of the sections, and as a result, you void your test. Thereafter, you will have no idea as to what your score actually turned out to be on that sub-test. Then, when you go to write another real MCAT--one where you intend to have the test scored and reported no matter what. You know that this is the exam that is going to be all the bananas for your upcoming round of applications, so you've got a fair bit riding on your performance. As you're trudging through the sections it is possible that you could feel that you did not do too well on a section, and since you've never had an actual MCAT mark before, be a little freaked out by it, which may result in a type of stress which, if "managed" incorrectly, could undermine your performance in one or more of the remaining sections of the exam. You don't need that to happen to you. I speak from a little experience as the last MCAT I wrote, I felt for sure, that I'd completely bombed the initial verbal reasoning secton. I was *this* close to voiding the exam, but decided near the middle of the first 10-minute break, to slog it out and put all that hard work over the course of another summer lost, to use on the remaining sections. I'm glad I did as I ended up pulling a personal MCAT record. So I guess the moral of the story is that writing a real MCAT can be a valuable experience that you can refer to and use for future, real-deal MCAT sittings. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cali Posted August 9, 2003 Report Share Posted August 9, 2003 Thanks Kirsteen... I however truly feel that I am not ready...there has been a lot going on. I guess I'll have to decide soon! Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LaGriega Posted August 14, 2003 Report Share Posted August 14, 2003 ...it is hard to have the resolve to do it on the day of the test. There you are, taking all the sections, feeling good on some, not sure on others, and it feels like a bunch of your practice tests, even the ones that you scored way higher than you thought you could have. You get distracted thinking about how you could be throwing away a perfectly good score. You start counting up questions, trying to figure out how many you know for sure you got right. If you are going to void, decide now and stick to your decision. Do it because you know you will be better prepared next time. It is great practice to take the test and find out what it is really like. However, do not think that you can make a logical decision based on your experience on Saturday. I voided in April and I have often wondered if I threw away a perfectly good score. It is quite agonizing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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