Is a 569 good enough for DO school?

this sub was incredibly helpful to me when I was studying for the MCAT, and as many others have done, I wanted to post on here in case anyone is looking for (yes, even more) unsolicited advice about MCAT studying. different things work for different people, so I thought I might add in my 2 cents if anyone's interested.

by absolutely no means do i consider myself an expert on anything mcat related, but I have gone through a lot of different resources and have opinions about them so if anyone does have questions, please feel free to ask. i made a short overview of my study schedule as well.

Give yourself grace and recognize that you’re doing your best. Remember that you only really learn and grow from the questions you get wrong– not the ones you get right. Remember that you’re playing the long game. Most importantly, try (I say try because I’d be a complete hypocrite if I didn’t say this was easier said than done) to remember what you’re doing all of this for. Keep your ‘why’ in sight at all times, and if you find yourself forgetting, step away from the MCAT and ground yourself. It sounds really really really silly, but I seriously mean it. Neglecting these things will actively hurt your studying and progress. I learned this the hard way.

Hey guys I just recently got an acceptance to a DO school and wanted to make a post to remind everyone that getting a perfect score and having a perfect application isn’t what you need to be a doctor! Just do you best and tell adcoms the story of yourself and present your whole story. Everyone will do great no matter what you score! Do your best and remain positive in this crazy journey! You got it!

I hope this can give some confidence to someone who doesn’t feel like they stack up to what they think they need. Just be you and keep fighting to achieve your dream.

Hi.

I’m studying for the MCAT and I’m putting in a lot of effort, but I’m losing track of my schedule because no one is motivating me to push myself harder. I need to focus on getting better on passage studied questions and breaking the 500 mark. I know that is low but i don’t mind admitting to that and i know there are others in my shoes as well so please listen.

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in studying together on Zoom or any other platform? We could work on passages and content together. We don’t need introductions - we just need to get together ASAP! I’m planning to take the exam before March.

We could take turns sharing our resources and quiz each other. I can’t afford a daily tutor, so I’d love for us to tutor each other.

Heads up I am not the smartest out here, but I have a dream and my dream is to continue my long life commitment to medicine and become a physician. Period.

After 6 months of hell it’s finally over. GENERATIONAL lock in on test day after a 508 on FL6 a week before.

Never got over a 127 on CARS before so english really kicked in for me

Before people automatically say AAMC materials - I know that’s obviously the gold standard. But do they have nearly enough practice material? I fear they don’t, even with the new question bank recently released.

Incredibly pissed about the news of a company infiltrating this subreddit. This was the company I had mostly used for CARS practice and was shocked at my CARS score of 123 on the real thing.

Can some of yall tell me your low stats and still got an MD acceptance?

I’ve been doing content review since August and have only really made my way through 1/3 of the content and about 1/3 of the Anking deck. I am scoring an average of 60% on my uworld questions but have only done 244/3009 uworld questions. I am hoping to test in February but scored a 493 today on my practice FL. Any advice on how to boost my score or change my study habits? My goal is a 512 but anything over a 505 would be amazing. Please help.

so after being hit with a 488, I'm trying to figure out what the right way to study is. for context, i did the mr. pankow deck, milesdown deck, milesdown review sheets, kaplan books (all except cars). and yes i did practice questions and exams and reviewed them. overall goal is 520+. i'm giving myself 6 month to achieve it, but i want to start hitting the scores by the 4th month.

right now Im trying to figure out whether to:

1) redo content review then start practice questions (feels passive)

2) study certain material then reinforce it right away by doing practice questions on it.

3) do practice questions and see what content gaps i have through that and work on them, while also doing anki on the side.

Originally I wanted to test some time in April to give myself enough time to prep since this is my retake but now I’m worried that might be cutting it too close. I haven’t started working on my applications yet either so…😵‍💫😭😵‍💫send help

Deciding on which Anki deck to use.

Currently I plan to take the MCAT on January 29th, 2027 and plan to take my first AAMC FL November 15th and start AAMC material then. I plan to space out the first 2 FLs by a couple weeks and then take the last 5 weeks into the exam for the remaining FLs. I’m about 33% of the way through UWorld. Is this too early for AAMC material? And if so when do you suggest I begin AAMC. For context I’m currently a student and will have from around mid December to the actual MCAT date to study full time due to winter break. Keeping this in mind, what do you suggest ?

Is this true or false? I cant find a consistent explanation for this card

hey everyone! i am a junior currently and im debating if i should take my mcat around september 2027. i want to have a gap year or two for clinical hours.
i finished the prereqs except biochem. which i hear isn’t necessary for the mcat?? can any recent testers confirm this, since i wont be taking biochem until senior fall. but regarding the prereqs i didnt do so well in physics and im especially worried about cars.
would a summer may-september plan work?

Hello,

I just answered this question (attached below) but I feel like I answered it differently. I am not understanding how I could use the Specific Gravity to get the right answer. I just used:

Fb =pgh.

Below is picture of question and my thought process.

1. How long does the personal statement have to be? It seems like there’s no requirement for a specific number of words or pages, but I would like to know what the suggested length should be / what the average does.

2. How should I go about registering for a test date? Registration day is coming up and I’m worried if AAMC ends up requesting for more information, and I have to resubmit my application, I’d also need to reschedule my test. And pay the crazy fee that comes with that haha

Any advice is very much appreciated:)

Sometimes I feel like Altius CARS questions and explanations don’t follow the same reasoning as AAMC, but I’m not sure if that’s just me.
For those who used Altius FLs, how did your CARS scores compare to AAMC and the real MCAT? Did you find Altius CARS representative or harder?

To start I just wanted to say I’m happy about my overall score and I’m really not trying to sound neurotic. I took the mcat this past August and scored a 512. My score breakdown was a 131/123/130/128 which is why I’m heavily considering applying to the US since I’m a Canadian citizen. I just wanted some advice on if I should retake the mcat to apply to US MD/DO. My only issue is that next summer I’ll most likely be working full time and applying to US schools so I’m not sure I’ll have the time to study properly.

My other stats currently are:
Third year student in Canada
3.7 cgpa with an upward trend
4.0 sgpa
Currently a research assistant in a lab and expecting to add a lot more research this coming summer
About 400-500 hours as a physio assistant
VP of a club
No volunteering
Shadowing 25 hours with an orthopaedic surgeon
Expecting another 25-30 hours of shadowing with an oncologist in the coming months

What is the best Anki deck? I matured miles down, but didn’t perform well on my exam. I need a better deck to study in conjunction with practice problems for my retake in January. Anking or Captain Hook? Or any other ones that are good?

AnKing describes dipole moment as separation of +/- electrical charges within a system and induction as the uneven distribution of charge across a sigma bond due to differences in electronegativity. Im having a hard time differentiating these two terms. dont they both look at partial charges within a bond? i was looking at a passage question that asked why C=O has a larger dipole moment than C-O and incorrectly chose that the ‘longer C-O bond length decreases the force of attraction between charges’ when it was the effect of resonance. Still cant comprehend why.

Please and thank you.

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to drop my two cents after a success story and getting so much help on this sub.

I'm 4 years out of undergrad and was missing 2/3 pre reqs (orgo 1/2, biochem, psych 101). studied while working full time

My path to success:

1. Uworld comprehensive course videos. I watched every single chem, bio, biochem video. rewatched some physics i was fuzzy on, skipped the p/s and cars videos mostly.
2. i did all uworld practice questions as i went except skipped CARS (logic isn't 100% the same as aamc imo for cars)
3. Anking anki decks religiously. i unsuspended as i went through uworld. it's like 6$ per month but you can just subscribe for one month, keep the deck and then you just don't get the updates which was fine for me.
4. Mr. Pankow anki deck religiously because my p/s was super low at first.
5. aamc question packs i saved for the end. and of course spaced out my 6 AAMC Fls (+ unscored). i didn't do any other full lengths.
6. perhaps most important: followed other's advice of making sure i never make the same mistake twice. if it was content, would watch online videos to fill in gaps and make my own anki cards to add to the anking deck.

did this strategy while working full time! pretty much did 2 hours of practice questions/videos per day for 6 months monday-friday except would take my practice tests on weekends. and i would do anki throughout the day at work.

subsection progressions:

chem/phys: 127->129->130->130->130->129 -> 130 real deal

cars: 130->127->129->130->129->126 (i panicked) ->130 real deal

b/b: 126->128->128->129->132->132-> 131 real deal

psych: 125->125->130->129->132->131->132 real deal

Hey guys, i’m planning to take my mcat in january and i need a study buddy. Preferably someone who’s taken a diagnostic and his grade is <500. We can go through content review and hold each other accountable. Lmk if you’re interested.