Re-writing the MCAT

[Pharmaholic]

Hey everyone,

 

Last summer, I wrote the MCAT on August 10th 2012. I will be brutally honest and tell you that the MCAT did not go as great as I planned. I took the princeton review course (which really helped me) and studied up until the MCAT. However, the quality and quantity of my studying was definitely something to look down upon considering I was not very focused and determined. When I walked into the testing facility in Mississauga, I had a very "whatever" attitude. As I look back almost a year from that experience, I am extremely frustrated with myself. I ended up with a 10/8/10/P (P/V/B/W).

 

This summer, I am working full-time for a pharmaceutical company and I have absolutely nothing to do after work except go to UTM for their gym facilities. I was thinking about doing the MCAT once more, but with more practice and dedication this time around. Now, the only problem is that the next available sitting in my area (without flying or driving 3+ hours) this year is on September 12, 2013. Unfortunately, I have frosh week events that will take pretty much all of my time from Aug 28th - Sept 7th.

 

So my underlying question is if I should take the MCAT on Sept 12, given I have a full time job (8-4), cannot study as much from Aug 28th - Sept 7th and I have about 3-4 hours everyday (not including weekends) to study AGAIN for this exam? This would mean I have about 100ish total days to prepare.

 

Let me know your thoughts. It is greatly appreciated.

 

Warm regards,

 

Pharmaholic

[10wattbulb]

Do you think you could improve your MCAT score substantially given your busy summer? That is, would it be a realistic goal for you to get 30+? The Verbal score is the one you really need to improve on - ideally, you want a 10+ here; the PS score doesn't matter too much (9+ here is OK).

 

Now, if you feel you can get a better score, then I would definitely rewrite, esp if you want to apply to Toronto ('soft' cutoffs of 9,9,9), McMaster (the higher the VR the better), Queens (VR cutoff believed to be @ 10), and/or Western (MCAT cutoffs: VR-11, BS-10, PS-9, WS-P). The Examkrackers books are quite good because they're succinct yet have many practice passages, so you could try to study with these tools instead. But to do a good job when studying, you HAVE to read through all the books in a given series and do ALL practice passages. I also advise you to try the free practice MCAT exam on the official MCAT website to see where you're currently at, and then to buy some practice MCAT exams from the same website. The Official MCAT Guide is also a good $30 book you can buy for additional practice.

 

Whatever you do, focus on getting your verbal reasoning score up there! Practice a bit of verbal reasoning passages or challenging readings (in philosophy, law, politics, psychology, etc) every day!

 

Note that although the next available sitting is on September 12 (MCAT spots get booked very quickly), there's a reasonable chance that 2 weeks before a given test date, seats open up (there's always people who book in advance and choose to change their date at the last minute - because they feel unprepared, for instance). So, you could book for Sept. 12, but then change your date to an earlier one if seats open up in early August.

 

If you start studying now and find a way to get more focused in your studying + do a bit of studying every day (more so during the weekends, but give yourself a break once a week), then I think you could most definitely do it!!!

 

To motivate yourself, pretend that this is your last shot at the MCAT and that you have to make Western's cutoffs (which are the strictest MCAT cutoffs I've seen).