The mistake that occurred at the January 2014 MCAT

Pre-Med & Medical School MCAT Prep
1

<p>So after months and months of prepping, giving up my birthday and times with my friends and family, I took the mcat and felt very pleased on how I did. Three weeks later I wake up to this lovely email:</p>

<p>"Subsequent to your January 2014 MCAT exam, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) learned of a technical error that provided you with substantially more testing time than your approved extended time accommodation. Due to this error, the AAMC has determined that consistent with the MCAT Essentials, no score will be reported for your January 23, 2014 MCAT exam. That exam will not appear on your record and will not count toward your three-time testing limit."</p>

<p>Now if you taken the mcat, this seems like a worst nightmare and if you haven't, I still think it seems like a worse nightmare situation. I was informed after further investigation that they did this to every one that had approved accommodation that day, and that they knew that there was a problem on the day the exam was taken, but choose to keep this a secret till three weeks later. They put me in a position that I can't re prep till May, but if I had been informed that day, I would have just taken the exam with nothing lost. Three weeks later I have stop spending 6 hours a day studying for the mcat, and can't tell you where the alpha hydrogen in a whig reaction comes from. </p>

<p>My point of telling this personal story is to see if anyone else went through this too. And to the lucky people who this didn't happen to if you think this is fare. I had no control over the computer timer, i sat down and focused on the material on the screen, like I was supposed to. This has been an emotionally draining experience and to top it off I need to accept that my hard work in effort I put in for my January test was for nothing. And that I need to redo this process if I want to continue my journey of trying to become a doctor </p>

2

<p>Whether or not it’s fair has nothing to do with whether or not it is devastatingly awful.</p>

<p>This is absolutely brutal and a really frustratingly annoying thing to have happen, but the fact is testing anomalies that benefit the test taker need to have the test discounted. No one is saying it’s your fault, but you wouldn’t be happy to hear a bunch of people had a glitch that gave them really high scores and that AAMC wasn’t voiding those. The fact is, getting extra time than you deserve is an advantage and needs to be corrected. If anyone deemed it your fault, you’d be getting in trouble, not simply retaking.</p>

<p>Still, absolutely brutal and I certainly don’t envy you. Good luck with round 2.</p>

3

<p>that definitely sounds brutal. if they knew of issue on test day, im not sure why they didn’t void test before you began or make it possible for the extended time group to take it on the 25th, which was also a testing date. But how it is that you claim to know they knew beforehand? i can’t even find this to be anywhere in a google search which you’d think other mcat forums, the query would have brought back a list…</p>

<p>but surely they refunded your money, will allow you to test for free on another date. It really is the only fair thing to do since the timed aspect of the test is such a big piece of how scores are derived.</p>