Secondary MCAT way worse the First which was great
by Brady Kinesia (Posted Sun Sep 15, 2013 1:25 am)The first part of the application review process at many types of schools is computerized - they add up the MCAT / GPA according to certain formulas, and cut off everyone below the minimum numbers. So, you don't get the opportunity to give a written explanation. An excuse like: "I was having a bad day", or "I panicked during the Verbal and ran out of time", or something, doesn't have any effect, only the numbers.Ordinarily I would not recommend taking MCAT multiple times, but this is a bad problem, because of the "5" in the Verbal sub-section. As it turned out, it would hav...
Source: Med Student Guide - September 15, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Secondary MCAT way worse the First which was great
by Brady Kinesia (Posted Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:25 pm)My feeling about the MCAT part is: that you would have to take MCAT a third time, given the schools which consider only the most-recent scores, or which weight the most-recent scores more heavily. The 11 on Biological Sciences the first time is really good, it shows considerable knowledge of the material, no one can score that high by accident. The Verbal score going from 11 ---> 5 is hard to explain, so if you re-did it and got scores similar to the first time, maybe it could be written-off as a fluke (like something unusual happened while you were taking the Verbal sectio...
Source: Med Student Guide - September 14, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Low GPA, High MCAT, acceptance to Special Masters Program??
by Brady Kinesia (Posted Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:44 pm)I think you can be accepted to various SMP programs even with 2.5 science grade-point-average. Getting in is semi-competitive, though, because there will be a lot more applicants than seats available in the programs. My understanding is that each SMP has a fairly well-defined curriculum, which means that you don't just repeat undergraduate courses. And there is a "placement" element to it, meaning that if you got into one of the more-competitive SMP's, you are one step closer by virtue of having been accepted. And then you are sort of judged on performance relative to the o...
Source: Med Student Guide - September 14, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Quality vs Costs of US Corporate Owned but Offshore Medical Schools
Background: Off-Shore Medical Schools for US Students Owned by US Corporations While US health care appears to be more corporate than health care in any other developed country, one part of health care that has remained a bit less corporate is medical education. In particular, no US medical school is a for-profit venture, to my knowledge. (This just makes US medical education a bit less corporate than the rest of health care because, as we have discussed endlessly, academic medical institutions in the country have frequent institutional conflicts of interest, and their boards of trustees, administration, and fa...
Source: Health Care Renewal - September 13, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: medical schools Ross University DeVry Inc off shore medical schools Source Type: blogs
Kaplan Course Re-take
by Percival B (Posted Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:43 pm)My personal opinion: the importance of commercial prep courses is over-rated - I scored in the 95th percentile on the MCAT studying by myself, without ever attending such a course, without ever even speaking to anyone about the MCAT. So, if you have already taken the prep course twice, I don't see a big advantage to taking it a third time - is it that you feel you need the structure of a course to get yourself to do the work, because you otherwise can't self-motivate? (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - September 13, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Secondary MCAT way worse the First which was great
by Akupris (Posted Wed Sep 11, 2013 4:25 pm)My first score on the MCAT was a 30 and I retook it just to see if I could get a few points higher. I didn't, I did terrible with a score of 21, which I believe to be due to the fact didn't try as hard since I did so well before. I'm afraid the AMCAS will send both my scores and med schools will reject me because of my second score. Will they just go with the best score? Will this affect my chances? Thanks!-Amanda (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - September 11, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Considering medical school and in need of some insight.
by chemlover143 (Posted Sun Sep 08, 2013 5:14 pm)you can still do intl med schools.. they dont require a bachlors degree in any specific subject .. you just have to take the boards.. there are programs tho like medicaldoctor-studies.com that offer specific training to pass the boards to get into med school and this program happens to have a 100 guarantee and success rate.. i think something like that would be your best option at this point or else you are going to be so far in student debt from having to take more courses plus you would have to take the mcats (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - September 8, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
should i give up on med school?
by elitea (Posted Fri Sep 06, 2013 10:24 am)Hi jaram,I agree with Percival B. You still have options, and there's no reason to give up now. Not only do you have options to further explore in the medical field, but you can also check out anything else that you might want to do as a professional. If your heart is set on the medical field (which, for many it is - and that's great!), then continue to pursue pre-med. It seems that you have enough classes and exams to complete to improve your med school applications.Again, as Percival B said, MCATs are SO important in your applications. Make sure you're doing EVERYTHING you can ...
Source: Med Student Guide - September 6, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
KevinMD article on med school interviews
by Percival B (Posted Tue Sep 03, 2013 10:41 pm)Good pointsFair warning to pre-meds that they need to think more about interview skills and less about numbers: One surprising AAMC study found that 8% of applicants with GPAs above 3.8 and MCAT scores above 39 didn’t make it into any medical school to which they appliedAnd also: Evidence is what imparts sincerity and believability to your responses.A very good point, I think. So, in an interview situation, you have very limited time to articulate the answers to an open-ended question, such as: "What are your strengths"? Therefore, lead it off using anecdote from real-world...
Source: Med Student Guide - September 4, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Considering medical school and in need of some insight.
by Brady Kinesia (Posted Sun Sep 01, 2013 10:56 pm)Hello ! 1) Will not having a degree specializing in the biological or physical sciences work against me when going before a medical school admissions board? No not a disadvantage per se, because, in theory, you could have a degree in any subject, as long as you have completed the pre-medical required courses. 2) I’ve read from multiple sources that most medical school candidates, on average, spend 200-300 hours over the course of six months preparing for the MCAT – is this accurate? It seems reasonable, if we think about how much time that is per week, they are sayin...
Source: Med Student Guide - September 2, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Medical Students- The Doctors of the Future
by heidimoawad (Posted Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:39 pm)Medical Students- The Doctors of the Future As a medical student, you are the future of health care. Despite the persistent negativity about the state of health care and the seemingly never-ending health care crisis, you have astutely perceived the benefits of becoming a physician. There is no doubt that health care delivery is unreasonably complex for everyone involved and, as much as political party loyalists insist that this is the fault of the ‘other’ party, the bureaucracy and inefficiencies have endured despite the back and forth changing hands of responsibility. F...
Source: Med Student Guide - September 2, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Accommodations Request Form for test-takers with ADHD
by foville1859 (Posted Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:51 am)The impact of testing accommodations on MCAT scores: descriptive results.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15044172METHOD:Aggregate history records of all 1994-2000 MCAT examinees were identified as flagged (n = 2,401) or standard (n = 297,880)RESULTS:Less than 1% of examinees (2,401) had accommodations; of these, 55% were LD, 17% ADHD, 5% LD/ADHD, and 23% Other. Mean flagged scores slightly exceeded mean standard scores on all MCAT sections. Examinees who retook the MCAT with accommodations after a standard administration increased their scores by six points, quadrupling th...
Source: Med Student Guide - August 29, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
Advice please!
by Percival B (Posted Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:47 pm)1. will attending a community college hurt my chances at acceptance?No, there are different pathways to success in education. But it may be taken less seriously than 4-year program at a top school because they know the community college is not as competitive. This makes the MCAT very important for you because high MCAT can prove what the transcript does not 2. will this first year be a hindrance to the point I wont have a chance at making it in?No, you still have a chance but need to both increase GPA and do well on MCAT. 3. will developmental math look bad on a transcript wit...
Source: Med Student Guide - August 27, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
What are my Chances?
by Enot (Posted Mon Aug 26, 2013 4:39 pm)What he said, regarding the MCAT/GPA tool on this site. Good job on your MCAT, but your GPA is going to be a barrier. If you are a New York resident, you should probably make Albany Medical College, NYMC, SUNY Upstate, Rochester, and U of Buffalo top priorities, with Einstein Med, Mt. Sinai, SUNY downstate and Stony Brook more of your reaches. GL (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - August 26, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
How did the MCAT go?
by Adminnaoum (Posted Fri Aug 23, 2013 6:05 am)Yesterday was MCAT day for a lot of people - how did it go? (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - August 23, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: forums
