Mcat questions

[texaspg]

<p>In a section probably below 7-8. This is specific to MD schools and may not apply to DO schools.</p>

[WayOutWestMom]

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For example if a student gets a 15, 11, 10. The total is 36 which is a great score but it’s very unbalanced.

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<p>That’s not unbalanced. It just shows that the student has one area of strength.</p>

<p>Something like a 15, 7, 15 is unbalanced (and further shows the student probably has a real deficit in one area.)</p>

<p>As for how much it will hurt the applicant? It depends on both the specific school’s policies and the strength of the rest of the application.</p>

<p>@momworried MCAT sections aren’t curved, but they are scaled. The processes are similar but not quite the same. (Here’s a pretty good explanation: <a href=“http://premedfaq.com/mcat-curved/”>http://premedfaq.com/mcat-curved/&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

[texaspg]

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In the literal sense, no. On the day you head in to take your test, if you check the stats for that exact test, you can find out how many questions you’ll need to get right to get the score you want. You might find out that you can miss 15 questions on the Biological Sciences section and end up with a scaled score of 12, while someone else who misses the same number of questions (on a different MCAT test) could get a scaled score of 10. That may sound like there’s an MCAT curve—so what’s the deal?
There’s a simple (and complicated) explanation. Here’s the simple one…the difficulty of each test has already been pre-determined based on all the previous takers of that test alone. So one test may have a more difficult Physical Sciences section, while another dominates in Verbal Reasoning. Those differences are factored in by giving each test individual ratings rather than comparing it to other MCAT tests.

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<p>@wayoutwestmom - This is quite interesting!</p>

<p>How do we know the test before hand (for example - a test on 16th of September) and where is the information about the scaling for that test? This probably is the best way for a person not to cancel the test, knowing how many they can score wrong and still make a scale.</p>

[jazzcatastrophe]

<p>@texaspg I’m fairly certain that the specific info about numbers right/wrong for a particular score are never released to the public, so unfortunately it’s really a matter of guesswork on the part of the test-taker to decide how relatively hard or easy the test was</p>

[texaspg]

<p>@jazzcatastrophe I saw a question and answer as a followup:</p>

<p>

I should have said, “If you COULD check the stats for that exact test,” because in reality, you can’t. It will be a mystery until you get there which test you’re taking and the “handicap” for that test. Just assume you’re taking the hardest test MCAT offers. Then you could be pleasantly surprised and score an extra point for your effort.

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<p>So when you take the test, you are able to see the statistics before or after if you do decide to cancel the test after knowing that information?</p>

[jazzcatastrophe]

<p>Nope, you never get to see the statistics ever So the decision to void or not void really has to be based on a gut feeling</p>

[mcat2]

<p>

He was really upset after the test and thought he did badly. He said biological section was nothing he’s ever seen before.

@momworried, Occasionally, the test taker might not know how well he had done on the test when he walked out of the test room.</p>

<p>We drove DS to the test center when he took the test. When he walked out of the test center, he thought he had done the worst on the biological section. After 1+ month, he received the score and his BS score turns out to be the best among all 3 sections. Go figure!</p>

<p>DS has completed step-2 CK. He told us he will take step-2 CS in December. For some unknown reason, he said he would like to take the CS test in Southern California. The test center in LA could be farthest one from his school. Their classmates usually take CS at Philadelphia, I think. The only reason I could guess is that he is planning to explore that part of the country.</p>

<p>He seems to hang out with some classmates who prefer to complete as many of these tests as they can and as soon as they can, even though it will be a while before they will apply for the residency program. It is his decision and I do not have any input here. (I thought some students even do not complete the CK and CS tests before applying.)</p>

[mom2collegekids]

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<p>Just curious, but what do you guys consider a bad score?</p>

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<p>As mentioned above, a section with a 7 or 8 is “bad”. However, some schools auto-filter those who have a sub-10 in any section…and exception might be given to a URM. </p>

<p>WOWmom is right…your example isn’t an unbalanced score. </p>

[texaspg]

<p><a href=“http://www.gru.edu/colleges/scimath/biology/bs-md-dmd.php”>http://www.gru.edu/colleges/scimath/biology/bs-md-dmd.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I was looking up the combined program and noticed this tidbit.</p>

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achieving a minimum score of no less than the prior year’s national median for medical school matriculants on the MCAT (e.g. 31 in 2012), with no individual score less than 8.

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[texaspg]

<p>@momworried - My D and few friends took the test in the last two weeks. All of them are claiming that Bio section was out of the norm based on all the practice tests. These were on different days and some of them didn’t miss a single question on several of the practice exams.</p>

<p>The only thing that makes sense is that AAMC is testing out questions that belong in the new syllabus since Biology is expected to change quite a bit. So we will need to see whether a bunch of them get the same questions wrong and the scale is better or they will just have a lower score.</p>

[momworried]

<p>@texaspg‌ that’s interesting. My son also thought that bio section was totally different then what he prepped for. In all th practice tests that he did bio was his strongest section. He generally scored 12 or 13 on it at the minimum. He did almost all the AMST tests and a few Kaplan tests. He is getting his scores early next week so I’ll let you know. But if they changed the bio sections that much without giving kids any way to prepare for it that’s not really fair. Hopefully the curve, or whatever they call it, will reflect that. </p>

[momworried]

<p>@texaspg‌, he just got his scores. He got a 36!!! Beyond excited for him. Breakdown is 10</p>

[momworried]

<p>Breakdown is 10,14,12 (VS,PS,BS)</p>

[PIKACHU97]

I know im late but ive been reading this thread hoping youd say a score and im so happy for him