xngn8r Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 My wife is applying to McMaster this year. She has a high GPA, but is struggling with VR. We are anxiously waiting for her Aug 12 MCAT results. On the other hand, I have tried a couple of the tests she used to prepare for VR, and it seems I am able to get a high score. However my GPA is only 3.3. I have 13 years of experience in healthcare, but it seems that with current selection process it does not really matter. If I could get VR somewhere in the range of 13-15 and do well on Casper, could I be competitive with such a low GPA? I would be in province applicant. I saw 2013 report and they have some people in the 3.0-3.49 range, but I am wondering if they are more like people with 3.45 GPA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charmer08 Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 You won't be competitive... but that doesn't mean you won't get in. There are always people who get in without a competitive gpa. Apply if you think you can get a 13 VR... that should balance the bad gpa and ofcourse, you will have to ace Casper to be able to get an interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Applemanv3 Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 My wife is applying to McMaster this year. She has a high GPA, but is struggling with VR. We are anxiously waiting for her Aug 12 MCAT results. On the other hand, I have tried a couple of the tests she used to prepare for VR, and it seems I am able to get a high score. However my GPA is only 3.3. I have 13 years of experience in healthcare, but it seems that with current selection process it does not really matter. If I could get VR somewhere in the range of 13-15 and do well on Casper, could I be competitive with such a low GPA? I would be in province applicant. I saw 2013 report and they have some people in the 3.0-3.49 range, but I am wondering if they are more like people with 3.45 GPA? No harm in applying. As I have said elsewhere, I have a Mac cGPA of 3.35 and VR of 11. I am applying because I have a good feeling about Casper. I've taken MMIs once and been a part of running them twice. All this tells me there's absolutely no lost cause. A few extra bucks to me is worth even a 1% chance. Regarding your healthcare experience, if you enter Casper with the right mindset, it may come in handy to justify your answers to the questions and scenarios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xngn8r Posted August 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 You won't be competitive... but that doesn't mean you won't get in. There are always people who get in without a competitive gpa. Apply if you think you can get a 13 VR... that should balance the bad gpa and ofcourse, you will have to ace Casper to be able to get an interview. This is what I was wondering about. Can 13 or 14 VR balance my GPA or is it still too low? I do not understand how their formula is calculated. Would 3.3 and 14 VR be equivalent to something like 3.8 and 10 VR which seems to be competitive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
<abstract> Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 This is what I was wondering about. Can 13 or 14 VR balance my GPA or is it still too low? I do not understand how their formula is calculated. Would 3.3 and 14 VR be equivalent to something like 3.8 and 10 VR which seems to be competitive? You realy are comparing apples to oranges here. A 3.3 gpa is not really competetive at all and will be scored accordingly. Where as a 14 VR is extremely good and you will be scored accordingly. Is it enough to conteract the 3.3 GPA and make you competitive? Well i don't know but you can always apply and find out. Casper has a huge weight in you application score so that is also a factor you need to consider. GOOD LUCK. ABS:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LupeFiasco Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 My wife is applying to McMaster this year. She has a high GPA, but is struggling with VR. We are anxiously waiting for her Aug 12 MCAT results. On the other hand, I have tried a couple of the tests she used to prepare for VR, and it seems I am able to get a high score. However my GPA is only 3.3. I have 13 years of experience in healthcare, but it seems that with current selection process it does not really matter. If I could get VR somewhere in the range of 13-15 and do well on Casper, could I be competitive with such a low GPA? I would be in province applicant. I saw 2013 report and they have some people in the 3.0-3.49 range, but I am wondering if they are more like people with 3.45 GPA? Refer to post 18 in this thread to calculate what your rough pre-interview score would be: http://premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54129&page=2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dblu7 Posted August 27, 2011 Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 It's always worth applying. I wasn't planning on applying again (this was my third time), I had a low cGPA (3.4 something), and got in. It never hurts to apply. Also, my VR was a 10, so nothing special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBP Posted August 27, 2011 Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 I think you would have a pretty decent shot at an interview considering an above average CASPer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bored Posted August 27, 2011 Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 IF u can get a 12 or more in verbal, ur pretty much given an interview at mac.. that is what I have heard from people who had high verbal but low gpa (that was before the caspr though).. So just give it a try? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xngn8r Posted August 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 Thanks to everyone for encouragement. I have decided for myself that I would try only if I get 13 or above. I seem to do well in practice tests, however it might be harder on a real MCAT. My wife wrote on August 12 and told me that the passages were much longer than usual. dblu7, if you don't mind me asking, did you have any special circumstances that allowed you to rise above your GPA/VR such as being aboriginal or completing PhD? Or were you just saved by CASPER? I was reading in other posts that it is hard to prepare for CASPER. It almost seems like some kind of psychological profiling. If most of the questions are based on ethical dilemmas, then I feel OK with that. I took biomedical ethics course last year and got an A in it. To me it seems that most of ethical or moral dilemmas can be divided into a finite number of categories. Then when case study is presented, one has to recognize what category it belongs to. From there if you should be able to see both sides of the argument, choose yours and be able to defend it. Normally this is how ethical dilemmas are handled. Will that work for CASPER? Since no feedback is given to those who wrote it, it is hard to even evaluate your mistakes and do something differently next time. In any case I can only try my best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shin Posted August 28, 2011 Report Share Posted August 28, 2011 i think you have a pretty decent shot if you have a good verbal. and with your background and knowledge of med ethics, it seems like you'd do well in CASPer and MMI. just make sure you practice a bunch. by practice, i mean read a lot of MMI prompts and practice writing responses to them in a very short amount of time (for CASPer). There was one example of a CASPer scenario on the mac website. not sure if it's still there or not. good luck on mcat. and i hope you give it a shot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dblu7 Posted August 28, 2011 Report Share Posted August 28, 2011 I don't think I had any special circumstances. I am not an aboriginal applicant, I just defended my M.Sc. thesis last week (JACKPOT) so didn't get bumped up. As for Casper, I thought it went: I didn't feel like I killed it, I know I made a mistake or two, and the MMI went reasonably well (i didn't freeze) but I had no idea what they were looking for so I couldn't judge how I did. As for prep, I read a bit of "Doing Right", it helped a little, but I found their examples to be too cut and dry. I did use "Rock the MMI" for practice interview scenarios, and it was ok. Honestly, the only real advice I can give you is make sure you can communicate quickly (type for CASPER or verbally in the MMI) and back up what you're saying. Oh, and be honest. Thanks to everyone for encouragement. I have decided for myself that I would try only if I get 13 or above. I seem to do well in practice tests, however it might be harder on a real MCAT. My wife wrote on August 12 and told me that the passages were much longer than usual. dblu7, if you don't mind me asking, did you have any special circumstances that allowed you to rise above your GPA/VR such as being aboriginal or completing PhD? Or were you just saved by CASPER? I was reading in other posts that it is hard to prepare for CASPER. It almost seems like some kind of psychological profiling. If most of the questions are based on ethical dilemmas, then I feel OK with that. I took biomedical ethics course last year and got an A in it. To me it seems that most of ethical or moral dilemmas can be divided into a finite number of categories. Then when case study is presented, one has to recognize what category it belongs to. From there if you should be able to see both sides of the argument, choose yours and be able to defend it. Normally this is how ethical dilemmas are handled. Will that work for CASPER? Since no feedback is given to those who wrote it, it is hard to even evaluate your mistakes and do something differently next time. In any case I can only try my best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronjw Posted August 28, 2011 Report Share Posted August 28, 2011 I don't think I had any special circumstances. I am not an aboriginal applicant, I just defended my M.Sc. thesis last week (JACKPOT) so didn't get bumped up. As for Casper, I thought it went: I didn't feel like I killed it, I know I made a mistake or two, and the MMI went reasonably well (i didn't freeze) but I had no idea what they were looking for so I couldn't judge how I did. As for prep, I read a bit of "Doing Right", it helped a little, but I found their examples to be too cut and dry. I did use "Rock the MMI" for practice interview scenarios, and it was ok. Honestly, the only real advice I can give you is make sure you can communicate quickly (type for CASPER or verbally in the MMI) and back up what you're saying. Oh, and be honest. Does someone mimd if i ask about casper? Since its computer based, what if you make spelling mistakes? Are you docked down for such errors? Thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xngn8r Posted August 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2011 dblu7, what is Rock the MMI? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted August 29, 2011 Report Share Posted August 29, 2011 Does someone mimd if i ask about casper? Since its computer based, what if you make spelling mistakes? Are you docked down for such errors? Thx No. A few typos won't be a big deal. Neither are minor grammar issues (like having complete sentences). Mac mainly wants to see what you're thinking about the issues/questions they present. Of course, you should try for proper spelling/grammar if possible. If you have errors in every sentence, that might become an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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