Paigeleona
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2018
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I am looking for help on deciding what my best path would be, and my family and friends are sick of hearing me go back and forth- I need a fresh set of eyes/ears. I am a 22 year old premed who just graduated from the University at Buffalo. I am a non traditional student in the sense that my "story" involves being a foster parent for a young family member during my years of schooling, which I am including as one of my factors in my personal statement. I graduated last month with a 3.95 GPA with a bacherlor's in biomedical sciences. I completed 2 years at a community college with a 3.97 GPA and finished the last two at a University. I have 300 hours of patient contact volunteer, 100 hours shadowing with different specialties, and over 800 hours volunteer in a research lab and will be continuing my research as a paid employee during my gap year.
My current dilemna is the MCAT. Due to my own poor planning, I have pushed this test from an original May date to June and now to July 7. I am struggling due to the fact that many of the pre reqs I took 3+ years ago at my community college, so I have found myself having to relearn much of the information. I am currently scoring ~ 503 on the AAMC practice tests with a ~499 on Kaplan. I am seriously lacking in knowledge of the content and feel that I could do much better with more time, because my test taking and comprehension skills are the only thing scoring me points on the practice tests.
As of right now, I am already taking one gap year. I am very tempted to re plan to take the MCAT next year, at the end of April or the first week of May- I feel I will have a huge advantage score wise, as I can work up until the end of february and take 2-3 months off exclusively to study. I will also benefit greatly from applying earlier in the application cycle. However, will it look bad for me to have 2 gap years? Will this hurt my application at all? Should I still take the MCAT July 7 knowing I am not going to do my best?
I am constantly going back and forth and feel like a failure for not trying, but a failure for trying when I am not ready. Please send all of the advice possible! I NEED IT!
My current dilemna is the MCAT. Due to my own poor planning, I have pushed this test from an original May date to June and now to July 7. I am struggling due to the fact that many of the pre reqs I took 3+ years ago at my community college, so I have found myself having to relearn much of the information. I am currently scoring ~ 503 on the AAMC practice tests with a ~499 on Kaplan. I am seriously lacking in knowledge of the content and feel that I could do much better with more time, because my test taking and comprehension skills are the only thing scoring me points on the practice tests.
As of right now, I am already taking one gap year. I am very tempted to re plan to take the MCAT next year, at the end of April or the first week of May- I feel I will have a huge advantage score wise, as I can work up until the end of february and take 2-3 months off exclusively to study. I will also benefit greatly from applying earlier in the application cycle. However, will it look bad for me to have 2 gap years? Will this hurt my application at all? Should I still take the MCAT July 7 knowing I am not going to do my best?
I am constantly going back and forth and feel like a failure for not trying, but a failure for trying when I am not ready. Please send all of the advice possible! I NEED IT!
