Thank you so much for the clarification. I sincerely appreciate the great detail that you put into that answer!Hi @pre.med2016! Great question. I'd love to hear others' input on this, but I can definitely give you some insight into how our scale was constructed.
Basically, a scale has two components: "raw-to-scaled" and "scaled-to-percentile." Scaled-to-percentile (like the idea that a 127 correlates to the 79th percentile) is pretty easy, as one can just monitor data from students who have taken official MCATs and mimic it as well as possible. There also isn't much variation, since a 127 will always be around the same position on the curve of test-takers.
What you're talking about, though, is the "raw-to-scaled" score, which is the tricky one. This is where we convert how many questions you answered correctly to a scaled score, like 126. While I wasn't part of engineering our original scoring curve, I do know that it involved incorporation of a ton of data (from AAMC's available materials regarding scoring to the very earliest "real MCAT" scores we received from of April/May students). Around June 2015, it became evident that our scale was too tough - students were scoring 3-5 points lower on the last NS test they took than on the official exam. At this point, we re-engineered the scale to match the feedback we'd received from what was now a very large number of students. Recently, we've also had the benefit of seeing lots of our students' results on the scored AAMC test, which allows us to actually understand how many questions need to be answered correctly to get a certain score on that "official" exam.
Now, from personal knowledge, I'd say that I know extremely few students who score significantly higher on NS tests than the real thing. (You might be a rare one, though!) Have you taken the official scored AAMC yet? You might find that, even if your percent correct is higher, you score around the same range you've been getting on NS exams. The AAMC alters their raw-to-scaled conversions when a certain section on an official exam is especially difficult or easy, hence the classic remark that "the MCAT is not curved, it's equated."
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't be careful - you might happen to be the kind of person who does well on Next Step tests. This happens with every company! For example, I've had students who consistently scored several points higher on one company's tests than on any others, whether because they had used only that company's books to prep, or because they "just happened to think that way." In general, the more resources from different sources you can get access to, the better.
Good luck
Hi @pre.med2016! Great question. I'd love to hear others' input on this, but I can definitely give you some insight into how our scale was constructed.
Basically, a scale has two components: "raw-to-scaled" and "scaled-to-percentile." Scaled-to-percentile (like the idea that a 127 correlates to the 79th percentile) is pretty easy, as one can just monitor data from students who have taken official MCATs and mimic it as well as possible. There also isn't much variation, since a 127 will always be around the same position on the curve of test-takers.
What you're talking about, though, is the "raw-to-scaled" score, which is the tricky one. This is where we convert how many questions you answered correctly to a scaled score, like 126. While I wasn't part of engineering our original scoring curve, I do know that it involved incorporation of a ton of data (from AAMC's available materials regarding scoring to the very earliest "real MCAT" scores we received from of April/May students). Around June 2015, it became evident that our scale was too tough - students were scoring 3-5 points lower on the last NS test they took than on the official exam. At this point, we re-engineered the scale to match the feedback we'd received from what was now a very large number of students. Recently, we've also had the benefit of seeing lots of our students' results on the scored AAMC test, which allows us to actually understand how many questions need to be answered correctly to get a certain score on that "official" exam.
Now, from personal knowledge, I'd say that I know extremely few students who score significantly higher on NS tests than the real thing. (You might be a rare one, though!) Have you taken the official scored AAMC yet? You might find that, even if your percent correct is higher, you score around the same range you've been getting on NS exams. The AAMC alters their raw-to-scaled conversions when a certain section on an official exam is especially difficult or easy, hence the classic remark that "the MCAT is not curved, it's equated."
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't be careful - you might happen to be the kind of person who does well on Next Step tests. This happens with every company! For example, I've had students who consistently scored several points higher on one company's tests than on any others, whether because they had used only that company's books to prep, or because they "just happened to think that way." In general, the more resources from different sources you can get access to, the better.
Good luck
Hi, thanks for the question! For my students alone (since I can't speak for our other tutors), I'd say the average is 1-2 points higher on the official exam. Since we adjusted our scale over this past summer, it's been a very good predictor of actual MCAT score. Of course, there are those students who score unpredictably due to various factors (extreme nerves, illness, or - on the other hand - happening to get a test that suits them especially well), but I personally don't know many students who have scored lower.
Hi @pre.med2016. Just be aware that when people post their practice test scores, pay attention to WHEN they took each practice test. If I took an exam 3 months out from my test, I would expect to do much higher on the real thing compared to that practice test. From what I've seen most people do not report the dates along with scores, as there is no one best study/test schedule for the MCAT. Look for posts that include that info as well if you can.
I can only compare TPR, NS, and EK full lengths and imo NS and EK full lengths are way ahead of TPR in mimicking the mcat. The general consensus is that EK and NS are way better than TPR and Kaplan for full lengths.
wow
Hi @keepSwimmingNemo ! Glad you are interested in our exams. We have used the AAMC content guide to design our full length exams. We do so to make sure each topics the AAMC lists as testable shows up at least once in our exams. We have also revised our original exams since last year, in response to student/tutor feedback in order to make them as close to the real thing as possible and reflect the typical AAMC scoring scales while incorporating data from the 2015 testing cycle.
It's a terrible question. That's the only explanation.
Sorry I'll give you a better answer. The question is asking about the ratio of the ATOMIC MASS, not the mass left over after decay. Atomic mass (protons+neutrons) doesn't change with decay.
yes but those have nto effect on atomic mass, only atomic #. get it?
