u/MysteriousTill758

Hi all, I did not do so well on my MCAT retake last month and in a rough spot deciding what to do next.

For context, I took the MCAT for the first time in April of 2025 and got a 496 and I knew that I had to retake and study more and did not have my letters in hand so took another year off. Spent a lot more time studying for the MCAT and only got my score to a 499... Super super bummed out and I do want to retake it but I am worried that I will get the same score or less because I have been stuck around this 498-501 range on my practice tests since January of my prep time.

My cGPA is 3.84 and sGPA is around 3.7. Extra curriculars are very mental health themed and will be the basis of my primary essay. Some numbers and context:

volunteering:

• non-clinical: (~300 hours, including projected) running with recovering addicts, alliance on mental health, working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and being a friend for them, volunteering and passing out toiletries and food to unhoused individuals, volunteering during the fires in CA, foodbanks
• clinical: (210 hours) at a private hospital cardiology and neurology unit

work:

• non-clinical: library instructional design assistant (682 hours), walmart cashier (~1480 hours)
• clinical: medical scribe in ER (720 hours), TMS technician (~2400 hours), marketing and TMS technician at another private practice (~100 hours, just started and is ongoing)

research:

• behavioral studies on opioids and vagal nerve stimulation with 2 posters and honors thesis (~500 hours)
• graduated with departmental honors and honors thesis

activity:

• group fitness classes! pilates, lagree, and the whole mind-body-connection will be discussed in my primary and also tying that in with running with recovering addicts and helping them train for 5ks and marathons

what are my chances? I am thinking of submitting mid-June with the throwaway school method and potentially retaking the MCAT mid-June if I can figure out where I am stuck and then adding more schools but not sure on that... I really do not want to take another gap year :/

I took the MCAT last year of April and scored a 496 and knowing that I had a lot to work on, I took another gap year and did not take the MCAT till March 7th and got a 499 with two months of full time studying, heavy use of AAMC material, jack westin practice questions, and anki (not super consistently though). My AAMC full length averages were still looking rough with slow score increases in each section.

My breakdown for the 496 was 124/122/124/126

and for the 499 125/124/123/127.

The 124 was the highest I ever scored on CARS so happy about that one but the bio drop really made me sad. I am thinking of retaking mid-June but I don't know what I should change in terms of studying to get to the 505-510 range. I have been stuck at 498-499 on my practice test since January and it appears within the two months of studying, I did not do the right things to get past the hump. I made Anki cards, slides to visualize the content, and also more practice questions but I do not know why I can't move past this range :/

Any advice would be appreciated and if anyone happens to have an existing UWorld account with some time left, let me know...

Also aiming for mainly DO schools with a 3.84 cGPA, around 3.7 sGPA, any advice on that would be apprecitated too