Can I do it?

Hi! I’m currently a sophomore in high school, and I know it’s kind of early (some say too early, some say pretty late so I guess in between?) to be thinking about medical school, but I’ve shadowed a physician this summer as well as volunteered at a hospital and I loved it so much. I know there’s so many challenges, but I’m willing to work hard. However, this year my school had the sophomores take the PreACT in the fall and I was disappointed to find that my score was a 29 - no prep but I was hoping for higher. I know many successful premeds have had scores much higher than this but my STEM score for the PreACT was a 28, and I guess what I’m trying to ask is: Have there been successful students that became doctors with a 29 on an ACT? I’m worried that most of them were in the 32-34 range and I won’t be able to keep up with them academically. What do you think?

I got a 28 on the actual ACT as a sophomore with no prep and now I’m a senior that just applied to college with a recent score of 33 on the ACT. So by no means is your score on the preACT going to be your best score! I’m sure you could get much higher with some practice. And 29 is a great starting point.

Also, I really don’t think the ACT is an indicator for success as a pre-med/med school student/doctor. From what I know, the MCAT is very different from the ACT. Regardless of standardized testing, succeeding comes from hard work, passion, charisma, good qualities/personality, and unique experiences. Get good grades in high school, study for your ACT/SAT, keep volunteering. You’ll be fine.

Thank you! Haha I’m just worrying, but you had some really good advice, so thank you! Also, congratulations on your 33 ACT! What kind of prep did you use to increase it?

Sorry I never responded to you; I completely forgot! If you are still wondering, I just practiced my weak points. I started with Reading because I really struggled (I used to score between 24-26). I would just take a reading practice test everyday and I’d thoroughly go over it and think, “Okay I understand WHY I got this wrong, but HOW can I prevent this mistake from ever happening again?” I would brainstorm and try out techniques until I was consistently scoring 33-36 range. Then, I moved onto a different section (in my case, English).

I honestly think I could have scored even higher but for some reason I never could bring myself to practice Science, which ironically is my favorite subject in school! I ended up only scoring like a 31 in that section, which really brought my score down.

So just practice, practice, practice. But it’s equally importantly to review and strategize!