How to Move Forward After Bombing the MCAT

Session 111

This student went all-in on MCAT prep but her score didn’t meet her expectations. What should she do next?

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[00:25] Question of the Day

MCAT Prep – Going Full Steam Ahead

“Last year, I graduated from San Francisco State. And I have my degree in biology with a concentration in physiology. And I have a minor in Spanish. And I have a good amount of clinical experience. I worked at a fertility clinic doing clinical coordinating and medical assisting for over a year… And then I beginning of COVID, I stopped working there and started prepping for my MCAT for six months. And I took it in September.

I used Blueprint MCAT‘s online course and had a tutor through them. I also used AAMC, Anki, Jack Westin, UWorld, and The MCAT Podcast.

My full-length score average was around 510-513 pretty consistently so I was happy with that. I was tutoring weekly with my tutor, which was really helpful as well. I also began a meditation practice during my MCAT prep, which was extremely helpful because I’m one of those people that gets test anxiety. That’s all the preliminary.

MCAT Day – Feeling Super Calm

I took the real deal in September. I didn’t take it in my city. I did take it in Sacramento, and I’m in San Francisco. And so that was a bit of a change, which was fine. When I went there, I felt super calm. I didn’t have the typical arousal you feel, which was strange. Because I thought that I’d feel like a little arousal, but I didn’t feel any at all.

I got through every section with a little bit of time to spare. It’s very typical for me to get through physics and chem and CARS with five minutes, but biology and psychology with 30 minutes.

MCAT Score – Not as Expected!

When I got my score a few weeks ago, I was flabbergasted. I got below a 500, which has never happened to me on any full-length. I think maybe my diagnostic was below 500. But other than that, nothing. And so that was definitely a little bit of a blow.

I’m not discouraged. I understand that happens to some students. What I’m really just trying to figure out now is how can I move forward and not let that pattern happen again? What can I change? Is there a different approach?

[03:48] Questions to Ask as Part of the Assessment

What changed from those full links to the real deal? When you were doing your full-lengths, how were you doing them in terms of timing or duration? How long would it take you to take the exam? In terms of what time of the day? Were you taking the test the full-length exams versus the real test? What did all of that look like?

So our student said she took them all with the standard timing and around the time that she would have taken her MCAT. She was scheduled at noon and she took most of the full-lengths between like 11 and noon to start. She rarely ran out of time, and if she did, it was typically in Chem Phys. She was doing the prep at her apartment where she lives alone so there were no big distractions.

'A very common mistake that students make is they'll be needing to retake. And they'll take the full-length exams they've already done.'Click To Tweet

Now, I wonder whether it was almost a detriment to her that she didn’t have any sort of excitement. I wonder if she didn’t get that adrenaline to kickstart what she needed.

But at the end of the day, she didn’t get the score that was truly in her because she did set herself up for success. She prepared the way everyone says that you should do to prepare. And she did roughly 10 full-lengths. So she prepared perfectly.

[07:15] What Went Wrong?

Obviously, something happened on test day. And whether that is COVID-related anxiety that she just didn’t expect and didn’t feel because it was different, or whatever it is. Being out in public, maybe for the first time sitting in a location with other people wearing a mask.

For many students who have gone through this, their first response is that this is wrong. It’s obviously not their score. Something happened.

“Bugs happen and mistakes happen in computer systems. The systems are only as good as the people programming them. But 99.9999999% of the time, you just had a bad day.”Click To Tweet

And so, there really isn’t anything to do other than keep your skills up for the next couple of months. And take the test as soon as possible. Because that score is inside of you. It just didn’t come out when you needed it to.

[09:05] Reach Out to AAMC

That being said, I don’t think it hurts to email the AAMC. Check with them if they have any process in place to review to see if there is any kind of inconsistency or discrepancies with the reporting of her score. Then just lay out all of the evidence including the scores of your full-length exams. Tell them that you took them at the normal timeframe, and you took them at home, and at the same duration.

And just tell them it’s lower than your diagnostic. And that while you accept the fact that sometimes people have really bad days, you just wanted to see if there’s anything you can do to look into this.

[10:31] The Danger in Studying Too Long

Our student also mentioned that her test prep timeline was pretty long. The other side note she made is that during all of her test prep, she never really improved in CARS. She had pretty much a baseline score of 125 through 127. And it never came out of that range.

Now, she’s looking to listen to The MCAT CARS Podcast because she didn’t know it existed.

'You don't want to study too long because then there's this diminishing returns.'Click To Tweet

There’s a danger in studying too long because you may start forgetting about content from earlier on. And so theoretically, that could happen. The test that you got on test day could have had a lot of material from the very early part of your studying. And all of your practice exams had stuff from the later part of your studying.

Now, while that’s possible, it’s not probable in her case. And so, very likely, this student just had a bad day, and it had really nothing to do with the duration of her studying. Because her full-length exams would have shown some sort of discrepancy as well in terms of having a negative consequence to studying for so long. And they didn’t show that so that’s probably not it.

[12:39] Would a Small Jump Matter?

Our student adds, “Once I get that score up, say 506, will that jump mean more to the AAMC than just me getting a good score in general? As long as I’m increasing my score by some significant amount, even though a 506 is not necessarily a score that I would have wanted in the first place?”

A jump definitely shows something. Try to look at the data that the AAMC puts out in terms of score improvement for different students. And the far majority of students don’t do a ton better on the MCAT when they retake it. And so if you go from less than 500 to a 506, whatever that score jump is, that’s huge.

Now, it’s still not the best score and nowhere near where you were scoring before. And so that still may hurt you. Even though you showed a ton of improvement between those two scores.

At the end of the day, it just depends on the school and how they’re reviewing scores. They could look at the change in scores, versus they could just look at what’s your highest score or however they do it.

[14:09] Your Mindset at This Point

Approach it from the standpoint of – you’ve done all the right work, you’ve done everything possible. Now, you just need to maintain it so that you can go out there and prove it next time.

And I personally wouldn’t come at it from a standpoint of “I need to improve standpoint.” Obviously, if you want to improve, go ahead.

But from a mental energy standpoint, you’re killing yourself trying to get to a 520 because you think that’s what it’s going to take. And because in your mind, if you score 520 on your practice exams, then your real test is going to be a 510 based on history. So you wouldn’t want to go there.

[15:24] MCAT CARS

When asked whether I’ve seen this kind of stuff before, it’s not common to really drop drastically but it happens. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. Usually, it’s just one section and it’s always the CARS section historically.

“Sometimes if you bring too much outside knowledge into the passage and the questions and answers, it distracts you from really answering what the AAMC wants.”Click To Tweet

On the CARS section, when you’re bringing in your outside knowledge where everything was too relevant to you, this could mess you up in some way.

She added though that while using Jack Westin to prep for CARS, she was able to start recognizing question patterns. But she found herself getting stuck in the nitty-gritty and having a harder time capturing big opinions.

[17:23] Gap in Activities Due to COVID

Another side question here: “Considering taking all this time off for MCAT studying and I didn’t anticipate taking up another three months for MCAT setting. Is this block of me not really working, going to hinder my application, or look strange? It’s COVID and everybody’s having their applications look a little bit different these days. I was just curious about the way that that would look.”

Everyone’s application is gonna look weird for a few years for everyone who’s gone through this process. Whether they got fired because the restaurant they worked at closed down, or wherever they worked at closed down. Or their volunteer opportunities closed because of COVID, whatever. It is what it is. So I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

I brought up whether she really needs to study three more months of full-time MCAT prep, or maybe she should start doing some other things that would refresh her.

This student has apparently been studying for the MCAT for 9 months. And so, this would really be a good idea for her to avoid burnout. She has been able to do remote volunteering, helping elder folks having a harder time with COVID isolation.