<p>Hello, I'm a senior in high school currently and am wondering what the recommendation with the MCATs are.</p>
<p>My current plan is to give a shot this August after finishing high school and a summer of preparation review.</p>
<p>Relevant classes I will have finished by then: AP Physics (Mech. only), AP Chemistry, AP Biology, both AP Englishes. </p>
<p>Looking at the MCAT review books I have, I came to the general conclusions below:
General Chem: I've got a pretty good handle on this stuff, need to review abit.
Org. Chem: Taking college level class at the moment, we'll see how it works out.
Physics: I can do Mechanics, no clue on E/M.
Biology: Most of the non human physiology stuff I will have learned by end of HS.
Verbal Reasoning: I can understand the questions pretty easily.</p>
<p>So my question is this. Should I try for a 30 (10/10/10) + at the end of the summer before I start my college Freshman year? If I don't get a good enough score (will probably want higher than a 30 if I apply to a more selective medical school), can I take it again Freshman or Sophomore year without penalty? (ie. Will medical school look down on me for taking it twice). </p>
<p>And in general, is this a good idea? I intend to spend a lot of time this summer looking over it before August.</p>
<p>■■■■■! Why would anyone take the MCAT before starting college?</p>
<p>The only time I ever recommended someone do that was because he was aiming for BS/MD programs and getting 30s on practice MCAT tests as a hs junior.</p>
<p>Do not do this. Youwill not get a 30 by a long shot having not taken half of the material. Wait unti you have taken all of the classes in college. Even if you got a 30, you would have very little wiggle room to apply during, because MCAT scores go stale. There is a negative effect if you take the MCAT more than once. How much of an effect depends on the school and by how much you improve. Take it once, ace it.</p>
<p>Yes, because I really have nothing better to do in my spare time than ■■■■■ college forums?</p>
<p>I don’t know how well I’ll do yet. This course of action was recommended to me by my O.Chem prof (I feel like he somewhat overestimates my abilities, but looking at the stuff I HAVE taken, the questions are definitely do-able). </p>
<p>I think my decision will come sometime before the registration date this summer. If I can do well enough on the practices, I don’t really see why I shouldn’t.</p>
<p>My question is:</p>
<p>Does the impressive factor of doing well on a MCAT out of high school outweigh the negative of potentially taking it again 2 years down the line?</p>
<p>No. It makes you look like you have bad judgment. You never want to look like you have bad judgment in front of a medical school admissions committee.</p>
<p>This is an incredibly stupid idea. Your MCAT score won’t even be valid by the time you apply. And you should aim to take it once, just once. This isn’t the SAT.</p>
<p>How will you experience the “psychological effect/experience” of the mcats, if you know your scores really don’t matter? </p>
<p>Dude, its the end of your senior year before you go to college. Try and enjoy it without studying for the mcats the entire summer. </p>
<p>By taking the Mcats before you even start college your just giving the adcom the impression that your a neurotic pre-med who has no concept of fun.</p>
<p>Thank you Shades and norcal for your responses, I had not considered the judgement side or the how long the scores stay valid.</p>
<p>I have done some more research online and the general consensus is to take it as few times as possible as it demonstrates proficiency and removes the possibility of scoring lower on the second exam.</p>
<p>However, is there is any competitive edge to scoring well at the end of HSsenior year (30-35) and scoring even better one or two years later? I think I can judge if this is achievable at the end of this year, I consider myself very gifted standardized test taker in general (2320 on SAT, minimal prep).</p>
<p>So if I apply to say…Harvard Medical school.
Will a score of 33 on my first MCAT and a 40 on my second work for or against me against a person who got a 40 their college Sophomore or Junior year? My first score would be invalid for averaging, and I don’t feel I would have done anything but indicate a strong work ethic and study organization to have done well at such an early time.</p>
<p>In any case, I think I’ll only do it if I’m VERY confident (in other words, not likely, I can only say that about Gen.Chem at this point, but the review books are interesting, might help me as an AP review along the way anyways, so no harm in using them).</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>I’m taking a trip to China with my dad to visit relatives this summer. I will literally have nothing to do for several hours a day (no good computer access to go on the internet/mess around which is my normal pastime), and I have no relatives there in my age group.</p>
<p>None. In fact, there are disadvantages to doing this, which I explain below.</p>
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<p>The fact remains that you got a 40 on your second try and the other person got a 40 on their first try. The fact that you failed to reach your “potential” of 40 on your first try means that you were unprepared. Why on earth would you want to tell an adcom that you do things without proper preparation or in a manner that prevents you from doing your best?</p>
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<p>Again, you’re going to come across as lacking appropriate judgment. </p>
<p>Your time spent studying for the first MCAT sitting could have been spent doing something else that would actually improve your application. For example, you could attend a local language school to learn Chinese or teach English. You could explore the town in which your relatives live. You could sit and talk with your relatives and get a great story which you could eventually work into your personal statement. The fact that you find the opportunity to travel abroad and visit relatives to be worth nothing more than a first futile pass at the MCAT is not going to put you in a good light.</p>
<p>In addition, your willingness to engage in an activity which you knew beforehand to be ultimately of no material gain will be viewed with some concern. What other useless activities would you try as a medical student or physician? Would you subject a patient to a treatment shown, in a double-blind placebo-controlled study, to be of no benefit just because you had nothing better to do with your time? Those are exactly the types of things you do not want adcoms to start imagining.</p>
<p>You have now had several med students tell you NOT to do this yet you persist on keeping it under consideration. Taking the MCAT more than once is frowned upon; as others have said this isn’t the SAT.</p>
<p>This is not only a bad decision but a stupid one as well. Follow the advice given to you by those who have been there.</p>
<p>You aren’t even an undergrad yet and are plotting a strategy for Harvard med…</p>
<p>My advice is if you don’t REALLY want to hear the truth (if it goes against your “plan”) then don’t ask for help here. You have been given very sage advice; the true test of your real intelligence will be if you choose to follow the advice given.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if I sound harsh but you are setting off on a bad course and don’t seem willing to listen to those trying to reason with you.</p>
<p>I think the bigger concern for adcoms is that you can find nothing better to do with your spare time than studying for the MCAT. Seriously? Go out and eat some of that delicious chinese food.</p>
What could the posters on this thread possibly know that you haven’t already learned about the process? Never mind that the test won’t even count. I say, go for it. ;)</p>
<p>Let me dispel something. Not accepting a MCAT score as a valid application material does NOT mean that it isn’t counted if it is there. You can’t wait five years to take the MCAT again so that the first vanishes. It will still be there, they will still look at it. The reason why they won’t accept it as your primary is because they want a relatively up to date view of your abilities and knowlege.</p>
<p>You over estimate your ability to correlate the SAT/ACT to your MCAT performance. I know plenty of folks who scored worse of the MCAT (numerically) than on the ACT (i.e 36 ACT score but only rocking a 31 on the MCAT).</p>
<p>I do not intend to go through with this “plan”. It was a suggestion from my O.Chem teacher that I took seriously and looked into. I can see the wisdom of the advice given here, however, I am not one to make an absolute decision on an important test based on half an hour worth of responses on an internet forum. The fact that the first response to my very much serious question was an accusation of “■■■■■” from a “senior member” was not exactly a ringing endorsement to the sagacity of people who reply to these questions as a whole.</p>
<p>Right now, they have me convinced that it is probably a bad idea, and unless a person of authority tells me differently (specifically on how the adcoms look at the example I gave earlier), I don’t play on doing it. </p>
<p>mmmcdowe:
I’m not estimating anything at this point. I honestly don’t know what my abilities are, and won’t until much later (regardless of whether or not I take the test, I DO intend to read the review books as the subject material interests me, and 3 of which (O.Chem, Physics, Biology) parallel an AP course in class). Don’t be so quick to judge that I CANNOT make a 30 based on what very little I have said above. </p>
<p>The veil of anonymity on the internet means I don’t KNOW who I can trust to give me an unbiased and correct opinion on a given subject matter. I don’t consider it reasonable at all to do a total reversal based on the few (good, and logical) responses given here. In other words, yes, I keep it “under consideration” still, but then again, I also keep the possibility that I will die in a car accident tomorrow “under consideration”, so that’s not saying much in and of itself.</p>
<p>I cook all the delicious chinese food I want to eat myself. The food in china is more for the exotic variety of stuff I don’t normally try (Pig Kidneys! Euch!). I’m sure I’ll come across some stuff I love, but I do need to watch those pounds this last summer :O. I’m more interested in seeing how my hometown has changed since the last time I visited 10 years ago.</p>
<p>I fully intend to enjoy my vacation, visit around, talk to relatives, but since I won’t be staying at one place more than a couple days (we bounce around many family member’s houses when we visit), I can’t teach English (Nor is my Chinese good enough to do so), the best I can do is provide someone for English students to talk to. But I know for a fact that I will have some significant down time.</p>
<p>Eh, something about the texture and the aftertaste bothers me. Spicy Chitterlings are good if prepared well. My parents say the whole paradigm of restaurants in China has shifted style in comparison with more “classical” stuff offered in authentic US Chinese Restaurants, so It’ll be an interesting trip for my taste buds.</p>
<p>I can quite confidently say that your chances of getting a 30 or higher by studying out of a book a few hours a day for a summer while on vacation before having taken half of the required classes are nil. What you can achieve later is for you to find out. I never said anything about you estimating your abilities, only that you overestimate the ability to correlate your SAT score to immediate success on the MCAT. I would never presume to tell someone in high school that they can not score a 30+ on the MCAT with proper prep, because there is really no way to predict at this point. </p>
<p>I will say this, however. You should burn any MCAT prep material that you have. If you needed to prep for the MCAT for more than a year (and that is generous), you are going to have a very steep hill to climb from then on out.</p>
<p>Well, the plan was for me to learn the material over the course of my senior year, and spend the summer for a more intense review/recap. Does that change much?</p>
<p>Again, I don’t presume to correlate anything, but nor do I feel like I lose anything by studying.</p>
<p>If I study the material through this year, and at the end, I average 25s on practice exams? That’s fine, I won’t take the test, and when it comes time to review for the actual test a couple years later, I already know what to do, what I need to work on, etc. </p>
<p>Seeing as it’s a bit too late to start another community service club for undergrad app purposes, what do I lose by studying? I presume the MCAT review books cover a good portion of the prereq classes for it. I can make damn well certain that I go for a 4.0 on those classes in college. That, along with aspirations in USNCO exam, are the primary reasons why I take O.Chem out of class now. I don’t want to be caught off-guard and weeded out of pre-med or have that class wreck my GPA with a C (since I consider it the most mentally demanding of the prereqs listed, I believe Wash-U has a 50%+ fail rate on its OChem class?).</p>