Compilation of 2015 MCAT Preliminary Percentiles, and Practice Exam Scores

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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Xenith

Xenith

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Hi everyone,

Sorry for posting this everywhere. I think it deserves its own thread considering the work we have put into it and the interest people have shown.

mcatjelly and I compiled data on final scores, preliminary percentiles, the AAMC full length, and company exams in the following google doc. Please check it out and give us feedback! Also, if your information is missing or incorrect, please edit it!

PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE! The embedded sheet will make this thread very slow if it is quoted.

Also, click this >link< to open in a new window (especially useful for mobile devices)!

PS: Can this be stickied?

PSS: For scores after July Here is a link to the form, and here is a link to the new spreadsheet. Thanks to mcatjelly!
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a_borgia said:
Gal, actually, and I was the one chatting with you in the other thread about probabilities. It's worth nothing that those 519s were with longer breaks in between sections than I'd given on the test because I was insanely fatigued by that point in my studying - 516 was way more representative of my Kaplan score.

In other news, starting study for a June MCAT in May? Don't do it.
Click to expand...

Hey that's what I did! 6 weeks total. Nothing like fear and panic to spurn that studying :)
 
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jd989898 said:
We should start a club. We are truly elite procrastinators. I started on 6/1 and literally did not finish content review until the morning of the exam haha
Click to expand...


I deem us the procrastinators club! I'll write the charter...tomorrow.

I took a class with Kaplan literally last october through february, and then didn't touch material until I was done with school on May 8th. Content review was okay; 6 Kaplan books at 400 pages each meant I just had to get through 200 pages a day to get done in two weeks, but then taking 12 FLs and 2 short tests, plus 1000 QBank/AAMC practice sets? Sheer misery. I actually took the last week to cool down though, and crammed the very last two days, which turned out to be so useful on the biochem section. Nothing ever changes with our types, does it? I don't think I studied for a single AP test more than the night before. Even the one I decided to take without taking the class.
 
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Okazaki Frag Grenade said:
I'll make the t-shirts!
Click to expand...

I nominate this design
giphy-facebook_s.jpg
 
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a_borgia said:
I deem us the procrastinators club! I'll write the charter...tomorrow.

I took a class with Kaplan literally last october through february, and then didn't touch material until I was done with school on May 8th. Content review was okay; 6 Kaplan books at 400 pages each meant I just had to get through 200 pages a day to get done in two weeks, but then taking 12 FLs and 2 short tests, plus 1000 QBank/AAMC practice sets? Sheer misery. I actually took the last week to cool down though, and crammed the very last two days, which turned out to be so useful on the biochem section. Nothing ever changes with our types, does it? I don't think I studied for a single AP test more than the night before. Even the one I decided to take without taking the class.
Click to expand...

I will honestly be shocked if you end up below 524 lol. 12 FLs and the entire AAMC content in two weeks? :bow: I srsly only did the aamc sample test :sorry:. got my reality check today Lol
 
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jd989898 said:
I will honestly be shocked if you end up below 524 lol. 12 FLs and the entire AAMC content in two weeks? :bow: I srsly only did the aamc sample test :sorry:. got my reality check today Lol
Click to expand...

I've always skated by on laurels, but the thing is, on all those other tests, you're going up against the average population. GRE, SAT, ACT, doesn't matter, cracking the top 2% is easy peasy for someone gearing up to take this behemoth of an entrance exam. In the MCAT, out of 3 million college students in a year, 80k take it. That's 2%(ish). So making the 99th percentile on the MCAT puts you at the .02% in the general population - qualified to be smart even among the genius-classified (3 SD above IQ norm, anything above 99.8th percentile) but not everybody who does is, they work REALLY hard to get there. The point I'm trying to make is that I'm being pessimistic for now because anything could happen and we are all slaves of luck and hard work, the latter of which does not come easily to those in the procrastination league.

The point is, I don't believe in labels about intelligence or genius. We are all qualified to reach a certain potential, and anyone who far exceeds that potential has truly made something of their talent. Of course I want to compete with others, but first and foremost I'm racing myself.
 
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Srsly those Kaplan FLs are insane. :thinking: No one else on the sheet even came close and we have multiple 518-525 people with Kaplan info. I nominate a_borgia for first 528! A 92-ish cumulative on AAMC FL certainly puts you within striking distance on that predictor as well.
 
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EverStriving said:
Srsly those Kaplan FLs are insane. :thinking: No one else on the sheet even came close and we have multiple 518-525 people with Kaplan info. I nominate a_borgia for first 528! A 92-ish cumulative on AAMC FL certainly puts you within striking distance on that predictor as well.
Click to expand...

I'm flattered, but uber paranoid. I don't like counting my eggs before they hatch, at all. And given that I'd run out of fingers before I finished counting how many people I know smarter than me taking the MCAT this year, I'm inclined to think I just got stupidly lucky on the Kaplan ones.
 
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AAMC Practice:
Chem/Phys: 86%
CARS: 81%
Bio/Biochem: 90%
Psych/Soc: 86%

Preliminary:
Chem/Phys: 85-100%
CARS: 85-100%
Bio/Biochem: 85-100%
Psych/Soc: 81-96%
Overall: 90-100%
 
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My AAMC Practice and EK exam scores are already in there.

As for the preliminary:
All subsections: 85-100%
Overall: 90-100%

Thanks mcatjelly!
 
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soccergurl1987 said:
Ya, when I took them it was only percent correct. I'm sure they'll change that at some point, but I'm not sure when.
Click to expand...

Honestly, as much as it's nice to see FL scores, this is a way better way of scoring. As you can see on the spreadsheet, Kaplan is ridiculously off with their scoring and only does so because it means they'll never have to honor their higher score guarantee. It's much more responsible of a prep company to not manke ludicrous extrapolations.
 
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^^they do honor the higher score guarantee ... I used it to get a 2nd series of classes after NOT taking the 1/15/15 exam ...
 
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Ad2b said:
^^they do honor the higher score guarantee ... I used it to get a 2nd series of classes after NOT taking the 1/15/15 exam ...
Click to expand...

Ya I don't think a_borgia was denying that they do, only that they often score the initial diagnostic exam harder than some of the others, and may make the scoring scale easier for later tests, so that people perceive a greater improvement than they may have actually had.
 
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EverStriving said:
Srsly those Kaplan FLs are insane. :thinking: No one else on the sheet even came close and we have multiple 518-525 people with Kaplan info. I nominate a_borgia for first 528! A 92-ish cumulative on AAMC FL certainly puts you within striking distance on that predictor as well.
Click to expand...
lol got a 525 and my highest kap test was a 508..... nice prediction kaplan
 
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June test-taker here.

Preliminary percentiles:
Physical: 85-100%
CARS: 85-100%
Biological: 85-100%
Behavioral: 85-100%
Overall: 90-100%

Kaplan FL's: 503 (2 months before), 508 (one month before), 511 (1 week before)

AAMC Practice: 88%, 85%, 86%, 85% (2 weeks before)

TPR Free Practice Test: 509 (3 week before)
 
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Add me to the list too!
June 20th mcat taker.

Kaplan FLs:
Diagnostic- 496
FL1: 498
FL2: 502
FL3: 505
FL4: 504

AAMC FL, taken 5 days before my exam:
Physical: 75%
CARS: 90%
Bio: 85%
Behavioral: 93%

Preliminary percentiles:
Physical: 85-100%
CARS: 85-100%
Biological: 85-100%
Behavioral: 85-100%
Overall: 90-100%

Still shocked and excited! Thanks!
 
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Okay, done guys!

I'm going to lock the sheet and add scores myself to prevent someone from messing it up again. If you would like to be added, please add your scores to this thread.
 
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June 19th taker here

AAMC practice:
C/P: 75%
CARS: 85%
B/B: 75%
P/S: 81%
Total: 79%

Prelims:
C/P: 74-89%
CARS: 85-100%
B/B: 62-77%
P/S: 70-85%
Total: 77-87%
 
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AAMC practice:
C/P: 56%
CARS: 83%
B/B: 59%
P/S: 64%
Total: 66%


EK 1 : 69%
EK 2: 66%

Prelims:
C/P: 74-89%
CARS: 28-43%
B/B: 39-54%
P/S: 61-76%
Total: 48-58%


WTF? Retake?
 
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It seems that people who have gotten above a 505 on Kaplan have done really well on the MCAT. I have been scoring 505 and 506 but I didn't see any data points of people doing well on Kaplan (relatively) and tanking on the real test. I acknowledge however that there is some selection bias. Can anyone shed any light on whether I should feel okay?
 
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EEtoPre-Med said:
It seems that people who have gotten above a 505 on Kaplan have done really well on the MCAT. I have been scoring 505 and 506 but I didn't see any data points of people doing well on Kaplan (relatively) and tanking on the real test. I acknowledge however that there is some selection bias. Can anyone shed any light on whether I should feel okay?
Click to expand...

You should feel okay. I thought I was completely dying on the Kaplan tests; the first I took was before I had even opened a review book, just one of their free short ones they hold every other sunday, and I got a 502, which is like the 57th percentile. I had only 5 weeks to study from that point, and I thought it was impossible to shift over 30 percentile points, but it is even on the Kaplan FLs. I don't think any human being has ever broken a 520 on a Kaplan test, and plenty have done so on the real test. They are hard from the standpoint that they require far more technical knowledge to solve, and P/C has THE most ridiculous computations. There was one question in the Kaplan's FLs that required estimating the cube root of something that you first had to put through a natural log. If you have lots of tests available to you, I'd recommend taking one that's untimed and open notes, to see what is a cognition issue and what is a memorization issue. If not, then just be confident in that you probably have the background knowledge to tackle the real thing and focus on getting good at the cognition and analysis part.
 
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a_borgia said:
You should feel okay. I thought I was completely dying on the Kaplan tests; the first I took was before I had even opened a review book, just one of their free short ones they hold every other sunday, and I got a 502, which is like the 57th percentile. I had only 5 weeks to study from that point, and I thought it was impossible to shift over 30 percentile points, but it is even on the Kaplan FLs. I don't think any human being has ever broken a 520 on a Kaplan test, and plenty have done so on the real test. They are hard from the standpoint that they require far more technical knowledge to solve, and P/C has THE most ridiculous computations. There was one question in the Kaplan's FLs that required estimating the cube root of something that you first had to put through a natural log. If you have lots of tests available to you, I'd recommend taking one that's untimed and open notes, to see what is a cognition issue and what is a memorization issue. If not, then just be confident in that you probably have the background knowledge to tackle the real thing and focus on getting good at the cognition and analysis part.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much!
 
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I'm a June tester with my aamc FL score already on the doc. If you want to add my prelim %iles feel free:
CP: 85-100, CARS: 82-97, Bio: 82-97, PS: 85-100. Total 90-100
 
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Is it just me or is there a trend in the reported prelims vs. real scores in which the real scores tend to fall in the lower range of the reported prelims?

From our score sheet, this happened for nearly every score that was NOT in the 90-100% prelim range.
 
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That's just how the stats work; the ranges overlap, so a score that's at the high end of one range will be on the middle end of one range; therefore it's unlikely that it's going to be given at all in the lower range. The scores should be centered around the middle value of each range, and if you look at the prelim v actual regression, it looks like that's pretty much the case within expected error.
 
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Prelim (June 19):
Chem/phys - 50-65%
CARS: 65-80%
Bio: 62-77%
Psych: 50-65%
Overall: 54-64%
:dead::smuggrin:
 
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Such embarrassing ranges :oops:

Chem and physics: 40-55%
Cars: 28-43%
Bio: 27-42%
Psych and Soc: 7-22% (yikes)

With a 3.0 GPA I seriously doubt this is good enough to get me into podiatry school. I studied for like 7 months for this exam too :(
 
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***IMPORTANT UPDATE REGARDING PRELIM PREDICTIONS***

I have made a second pass through the newest version of the spreadsheet, this time with a slightly larger sample and more stringent QC measures. There were a few changes:

1) There is now a confirmed instance of a single prelim range corresponding to two different scores (other than 85-100 of course). However, this is across sections, not within a section. 66-81 corresponds to a 126 in CARS, but to a 127 in P/S. So take the boundaries between scores on the composite with a grain of salt. 85-100 remains the only prelim corresponding to more than one score within any given section.

2) Removed data points:
72-87 = 127 in CARS
74-89 = 127 in B/B
54-69 = 126 in P/S

3) Added data points:
66-81 = 126 in CARS
61-76 = 126 in B/B
63-78 = 126 in P/S

Sorry to anyone who may get a different score from their original predictions, based on these changes.

The new chart is below. This time, all data points are shown in each section, to give a sense of data density. The composite chart has had duplicates removed, other than 66-81 as noted above. The old chart is also attached as a thumbnail, for comparison.

SDN preliminary percentiles table 7-11-15.jpg
 

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Wow, the SDN distribution of 129, 130, 131, and 132 doesn't match the general population's 129, 130, 131, 132 distribution at all.

Especially B/B and P/S. They look damn near uniform.
 

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jd989898 said:
It's ridiculous. On the general population distribution, 132 on psych appears to be ~SIX times less common than 129, and on SDN more people got 132 on psych than 129 haha. The 131 cluster on CARS is really weird as well.
Click to expand...

Also note how 85-100 prelims make up more than half the data points in each section. :)
 
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EverStriving said:
***IMPORTANT UPDATE REGARDING PRELIM PREDICTIONS***

The new chart is below. This time, all data points are shown in each section, to give a sense of data density. The composite chart has had duplicates removed, other than 66-81 as noted above. The old chart is also attached as a thumbnail, for comparison.

View attachment 193849
Click to expand...

Thanks for this! The composite scores are incorrect though as they would not range 123-132.
 
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GonnaBeADocOneDay said:
Thanks for this! The composite scores are incorrect though as they would not range 123-132.
Click to expand...

jd989898 said:
He doesn't mean composite in the sense of composite MCAT scores. It refers to the composition of preliminary ranges across all sections that commonly correspond to a certain subsection score.
Click to expand...

Right, it's not referring to total score. Composite just means I took all the different sections and mashed them together, to artificially increase the amount of data and help improve visualization of the boundaries between different scores. This requires the assumption that the distribution of scores is similar across sections, which I think is a relatively safe assumption given how similar the individual section histograms were in the percentile publication. So far there's only been one exception, at the 126-127 boundary.
 
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These analyses amaze and impress me lol.
I took the exam on June 20th - my data points:

AAMC Full Length: (4 months before exam)
Physical: 80%
CARS: 96%
Biological: 78%
Behavioral: 80%

AAMC Question Packs: (three weeks prior)
Bio 1: 88%
Bio 2: 95%
Chem: 93%
Physics: 97%
CARS 1: 83%
CARS 2: 84%

AAMC Official Guide Q's: (83%/87%/83%/87%) - (two weeks prior)

Kaplan FL 3: (127/128/127/127) - (one week prior)

Prelim percentiles:
Physical: 85-100%
CARS: 85-100%
Biological: 85-100%
Behavioral: 81-96%
Overall: 90-100%
 
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First time posting. Hope I can diversify this thread a little with my scores! June 20 exam.

AAMC FL (2 weeks before):
C/P: 71%
CARS: 73%
B/B: 83%
P/s: 80%

Kaplan FLs (1-6): 496, 498, 498, 497, 500, 503

Prelim percentiles:
C/P: 85-100%
CARS: 76-91%
B/B: 82-97%
P/S: 70-85%

Overall: 84-94%.

Interesting to see how my weakest perceived section was my highest percentile.
 
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I'm going to stop viewing this thread. Either the MCAT got a lot easier, or everyone taking the new MCAT is just insanely smart or SDN is being SDN.
 
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