Disadvantages of Retaking the MCAT
1. You could earn an even lower score.
The same AAMC report that shows a gain for students with score under 518 reveals that the average point increase for test takers who earned a 518 or higher when they first took the MCAT have a median increase of zero during their second sitting.
Therefore, it’s also possible that you’ll receive an even lower score especially if you don’t take the time necessary to figure out what you need to do to improve your score.
2. Med schools will review every MCAT exam result.
Medical schools evaluate MCAT scores in a number of different ways.
For example, some consider only your highest score, while others review an average of all iterations. Still others consider only the highest scores from each section.
No matter what, admissions committees will see all of your MCAT scores. While taking the test twice is unlikely to impact your admissions decision, if you end up taking the MCAT three or more times could make them question if you’re prepared for the challenges of medical school.
3. You’ll need to put in more work.
You’re not going to earn a higher score if you don’t put in additional work preparing. This means revamping your study schedule, which will be grueling.
We advise students to spend at least three months preparing for the MCAT again. We find that if students don’t take this time, that they rarely bump a test score unless there was something extraneous that went wrong on test day to negatively impact an outcome (you were sick, you got into a car accident on the way to the exam center, etc.).
The Bottom Line: Should You Retake the MCAT?
Your MCAT plays a pivotal role in determining whether you’ll be admitted into medical school, along with your GPA. It’s a metric that could get you through a threshold — or prevent medical schools from evaluating other aspects of your candidacy.
Retaking the MCAT is not a simple decision. When it comes down to it, it depends on a number of factors.
