When Applying to Medical School Can I Take the Mcat Again in January

Learn when to take the MCAT, including the earliest date and the accented latest date you should take the exam

(Notation: This resources besides appears in our MCAT Ultimate Guide.)

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Introduction

If you're applying to medical schoolhouse, the many awarding components y'all need to take intendance of, from your personal statement to your letters of recommendation, might make your medical schoolhouse application timeline feel like a juggling human activity.

However, all premeds know to program around one major milestone: the MCAT. Your score on this formidable exam, along with your college GPA, will of course be a huge factor in determining which schools you get into.

We go a lot of questions about what MCAT score to aim for or what a good MCAT score is, which are closely followed past questions about when to take the MCAT, variations of which include:

• When should I take the MCAT?

• When is the all-time time to take the MCAT?

• When is the earliest I should accept the MCAT?

• When is the latest I should take the MCAT?

• What'south the absolute latest date I can take the MCAT and even so apply during a given application wheel?

So, when should you take the MCAT to maximize your score and ameliorate your admissions odds?

While the AAMC offers effectually 30 MCAT test dates each twelvemonth, some will be amend options for yous than others depending on where you lot are in your education and when you intend to utilize to medical schoolhouse. There is no universal "best month" to take the MCAT.

In this guide, we'll respond the nearly mutual MCAT questions in club to help you effectively plan your medical school admissions procedure.

(Suggested reading: Boilerplate GPA and MCAT Score For Every Medical School)

When is the primeval I should have the MCAT?

The primeval you lot should take the MCAT is sometime tardily in your sophomore year or during the summer between your sophomore and junior years. You'll have completed most of your medical schoolhouse prerequisites by then, thus minimizing the amount of content review you'll have to have on, regardless of which MCAT prep books or course you purchase.

If y'all're an early bird when information technology comes to taking the MCAT, you'll have enough of test engagement options, as 24 of the 30 or so test dates fall betwixt April and September. Just make sure to give yourself enough of study fourth dimension—somewhere betwixt ii and four months, depending on your command of the materials and your ability to devote full effort—and then you lot can do likewise equally possible during your first endeavour. Taking the MCAT isn't fun and retaking the MCAT is even less so.

(If you're wondering how far in advance to written report for the MCAT, we suggest you read the following guide: The Ideal MCAT Study Schedule.)

When is the latest I should take the MCAT?

You should program to take the MCAT for the last fourth dimension between January and Apr of your application year. For instance, if you'd like to enroll in medical schoolhouse in August 2024, you'll want to take your MCAT during the kickoff 4 months of 2023—that is, no afterward than April 2023.

Y'all may wonder why you need that kind of window. After all, AMCAS won't even let you submit your primary awarding until tardily May.

At that place are a few reasons why it's to your benefit to wrap upwardly the MCAT past April:

• You'll want to spend serious fourth dimension writing your application essays. If you lot await besides long to have your MCAT, you won't be able to devote enough attention to your medical schoolhouse personal statement, AMCAS Piece of work and Activities section, and numerous secondary essays (including pre-writing secondary essays before secondary applications are released).

• Your MCAT score(south) will be a primary factor in determining which medical schools you should utilise to. You don't want to spend valuable time and coin applying to certain med schools and find out afterward the fact that your MCAT score doesn't fifty-fifty put you in the running for consideration.

• Your MCAT score won't be released until about a month later on the test. If you lot want adcoms to review your applications with your full set of scores in hand, and yous want to take full advantage of medical schools' rolling admissions process, you should consummate your testing early on.

We emphasize final time because you may want to take the MCAT more than one time. You tin can have it up to three times during a testing year, iv times during two sequent years, and seven times during your life. (Annotation: Voiding your exam or failing to bear witness upwards to a scheduled examination date will withal count towards these limits.)

That ways that if you're not scoring as high equally yous'd like on your diagnostics or do tests by the stop of the summer before your application year (past August 2022, using our above instance), it's a proficient idea to build in some time to take the MCAT twice, just in case. You don't want to be rushing through the examination while also writing your medical schoolhouse personal argument and secondary essays, prepping for CASPer, and (hopefully) readying yourself for medical school interviews.

What twelvemonth of college should I take the MCAT?

We sometimes get this variant of the "What is the earliest/latest I should take the MCAT?" question. While you can technically take the MCAT any time, you should accept it during the summer later on sophomore year at the earliest, and Apr of your application twelvemonth at the latest. Sometimes, your "application yr" corresponds to spring of your inferior year; other times, it corresponds to the spring of your senior yr or a gap year. Just make certain to optimize for your all-time score in the fewest possible attempts.

A timeline for your final MCAT test date

Working backwards, here's a bourgeois plan designed to requite y'all your best shot at acing the MCAT:

• Summertime before your application year (i.e., June–August): Study for the MCAT

• Fall before your application year (i.east., September): Take the MCAT one time (Note: The MCAT is not offered between October and Dec)

• Winter of your awarding yr (i.e., January–April): Retake the MCAT, if necessary

If y'all're a terrific test taker and have been scoring well, you may not need to bake in that second endeavor. Notwithstanding, if you're applying to med school while still in college, programme to devote the summer earlier your awarding year (i.e., the summer between sophomore and inferior yr) to studying for the MCAT in social club to give yourself the greatest number of testing options going forrard.

When should you not have the MCAT?

Since the MCAT is and then important, you'll want to be adequately prepared for the MCAT each time you have it. Therefore, here are some considerations for when non to have the exam:

• If you haven't studied many of the topics on the exam in college (we recommend having completed at least 80 percent of your prerequisites)

• If you're scoring poorly on the AAMC do exams and need more fourth dimension to study

• If you feel spread and then sparse with other priorities that yous may demand split time solely allotted for MCAT studying

What's the accented latest date I tin can take the MCAT without delaying my medical school application?

To avoid causing any application delays, the very latest date by which you'll desire to have the MCAT is the final examination appointment offered in May of your application year. MCAT scores are released roughly ane calendar month afterwards y'all take the examination, and since AMCAS applications aren't released to schools until tardily June, taking the MCAT on the terminal May engagement won't delay review of your application in any fashion.

Be aware that AACOMAS (the DO medical school awarding) and TMDSAS (the Texas medical schoolhouse awarding) have slightly earlier timelines: AACOMAS starts transmitting applications to med schools on June 15th, and TMDSAS begins on June 1st. Then, if you're also submitting applications within these systems, you'll most likely want to take the MCAT by mid-May or the cease of April, at the very latest.

Of course, most medical schools don't really review your application until you lot submit their secondary awarding. Therefore, the real respond to this question is: The absolute latest engagement you can take the MCAT is whichever test date has a score release date closest to your secondary application submission.

Nevertheless, we still don't recommend that you consider MCAT test dates subsequently than May of your awarding yr for the reasons discussed in a higher place.

(Suggested reading: TMDSAS: The UItimate Guide and MD vs. DO: The Biggest Differences (And Which is Ameliorate))

How many times should I have the MCAT?

Every bit few times as possible. Even so, this doesn't mean that taking the MCAT multiple times necessarily looks bad. So far as your scores meaningfully increase from administration to assistants, med schools volition probable be fine with information technology. For example, suppose you lot offset out with a 508 on your first attempt and go a 518 on your 2d effort. Nosotros would all agree that your retake was worth it. However, if you beginning with a 508 and become a 509 on your second attempt, we would probably say that your retake wasn't worth it.

If you lot're considering a 2d (or 3rd) try or simply want to acquire more about how how adcoms view multiple MCAT attempts, we propose you read our guide on retaking the MCAT.

How long are MCAT scores valid?

At the bulk of medical schools, MCAT scores earned within the past two to three years are considered valid. However, to make matters more than complicated, some med schools crave a score achieved within two to three years of the date of application, whereas others count backwards from matriculation—this can upshot in a discrepancy of a year or more between schools.

It's worth noting that, in and of themselves, MCAT scores technically don't "expire" as far every bit the AAMC is concerned. Rather, the window of acceptable score dates is gear up past each individual medical school.

That's why you should look upward in advance the earliest examination date accepted by each med school that interests y'all. MSAR or schools' admissions websites will exist able to provide this information.

(Suggested reading: How to Utilise MSAR to Build Your Medical School List)

How does my graduation year bear upon the expiration of my MCAT score?

Sometimes students who plan to graduate early or take a gap year enquire us how those plans volition affect the expiration dates of their MCAT scores. The reply is: they don't. So, regardless of when you graduate (including if you're a nontraditional applicant), remember that what matters when determining score validity is when you want to begin medical schoolhouse.

For example, permit's say y'all'll be graduating in May 2024 and plan to take a gap yr earlier entering med school in August 2025. Based on the reasons outlined above, we'd recommend taking the MCAT no later than April 2024. Setting a foolproof earliest test date is more complicated; even so, summer 2022—between sophomore and junior year—would likely be the earliest date you'd want to consider.

Bear in mind, withal, that if you didn't make it anywhere and had to reapply to medical schoolhouse the following year, a summer 2022 date would exist expired in the eyes of some medical schools, thus potentially forcing you lot to accept the MCAT again.

Terminal thoughts

Students oftentimes ask when is the best fourth dimension to take the MCAT. The answer depends on when you can adequately fix for the examination and when you want to enter medical school.

Don't rush the studying procedure and take a chance a lower score, and don't spend then much time studying that you stop upwardly delaying your applications. The same thinking applies to the question, "What yr of college should I take the MCAT?"

Nosotros propose building your medical school application timeline around your MCAT test dates. Recollect that it's just the starting point, though, and that in one case you have your platonic score in hand, you lot'll want to plough your whole attention to the many essays that still remain. That but makes information technology all the more than important that you get the timing right for this crucial exam.

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Source: https://www.shemmassianconsulting.com/blog/when-to-take-the-mcat#:~:text=Fall%20before%20your%20application%20year,Retake%20the%20MCAT%2C%20if%20necessary

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