The Official 5/31/12

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nontrad777

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No matter how poorly I did, I will post it in this thread for motivation if I have to retake.










But I hope I won't have to :)
 
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I've had 2 dreams now where I hit my dream score... very sad to wake up and realize it didn't happen.
 
Okay I caved and made an account. On July 3rd, I will post my scores from the diagnostic tests, practice tests, and the real thing.
 
We got too specific about one of the passages. But fear not! We are back and I will post the crap out of this thread in these next 2 weeks.

13 days and ~14 hours left. I WANNA KNOWWWW

Ditto - that was a looong week :D Guess i have to be more careful and not say the word that is defined as the study of microscopic life again = 7 day ban

glad to be back and hope they release scores by June 29th rather than waiting that looooong weekend for July 3rd:xf:
 
Not sure why alpha was banned with 1 post, but I thought the tentative release date was July 3rd. Is it possible they will be out sooner? It seems like most scores are out on a Tuesday which would be the 3rd. What leads you to believe it might be out before that weekend?
 
Not sure why alpha was banned with 1 post, but I thought the tentative release date was July 3rd. Is it possible they will be out sooner? It seems like most scores are out on a Tuesday which would be the 3rd. What leads you to believe it might be out before that weekend?

LOL @ alpha finally making an account and then getting banned the same day.
 
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been creeping for a while. finally have the time/courage to register. courage because the slight thought of my score makes me want to vomit! But in recent weeks I have come to not care about my score as much. if i have to retake then so be it! and if i still don't perform well then there is always the Caribbean i guess... OMG i hope i don't go to the Caribbean:scared:
Anyways, I prepared for 5 months for the mcat, had to re-teach myself everything from gen chem and physics (finished my undergrad in 2008). i used every resource i could, EK, Kaplan, PR, BR and even Khan Academy (especially helpful in learning basic concepts in physics and gen chem).
I did 6 of the aamcs, my lowest was aamc10 with a 27, my highest 33 on aamc9. so my avg is around 30/31.
To anyone still going to take this test, THE REAL ONE IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT! Mainly because of the anxiety/pressure and length of the passages.

My take on the 5/31
PS: I felt like the passages were harder to understand but the concepts were the same as the practices. I felt rushed the entire time and had to guess on the last three with about 2 mins left. Hopeful 10/11, realistic prediction 7/8
VR: Passages were much much longer than practice but difficulty was about the same. felt good about verbal.... but it's verbal and you just never know. Hoping for 11/12, realistic prediction 8/9 (verbal is hit or miss, so hard to judge performance)
BS: the orgo here was fine, same as practices. but the bio... DAAAMMM!...Conceptually dense passages, longer too, random descriptive discrete questions. guessed a few times, but as soon as i got out i googled four of my guesses and 3 of them were correct so im hopeful :).... Hopeful 11/12... realistic 9/10

So overall im hoping for 32-35 hahahaha.... but realistically ill probably get 24-27 :(
I'm happy with 30 and up... 29 and lower is a definite retake for me

I'm praying for each and everyone of us, may we reach our dreams regardless of our scores... its not the end of the world! :)
 
do you have any reason to believe they would release it early, or is it just that slim hope we all have but try to bury deep down?

Just slim hope.

What I don't understand is - if it's true that the MCAT isnt curved or fixed - why does it take so long to release scores? Every other test that prometric proctors calculates and releases scores instantly.

If some questions are weighed more heavily - wouldn't that be determined in advance? And each question's value/# points just be inputted as such?

Why does it take them so long to generate scores then if scores aren't adjusted?

MCAT mystery.
 
Wow longest week of my life.. until the week before our scores.

Did anyone/everyone see what someone from 5/19 posted about how they score the mcat? I knew they didn't curve it based on our testers but I thought it was based off of a preset curve. I guess there is still some sort of cut-off that determines where a 13 ends and 14 starts but I didn't know that harder questions were worth more than easier questions. I'm actually kind of happy about that, I feel like I messed up several easy discretes, but who knows.

T minus 2 weeks.. hasn't really hit me yet that we're getting our scores soon and will hopefully be done with this monster... heavy anxiety should kick in by next weekend.

Not true duderoni.

The score ranges are predetermined. It's like the AAMC's. The scaled score values are set before you take the test. The difficulty isn't factored in.

I've had 2 dreams now where I hit my dream score... very sad to wake up and realize it didn't happen.

My dream score was a 36. I wanted a perfect square and it was the only one that was acceptable.

Unless they wanted to give me a 49...
 
Uhh, what the HELL did he do wrong?

It was probably that annoying admin "Gettheleadout" that banned the other three of us for no good reason. Seriously the post he banned me for was SO STUPID. I would quote it here to prove it to you if I didn't think that he would ban me yet again. Well, I complained to SDN administration about the admin who just doesn't seem to understand the rules even though they are clear and written in plain English...
 
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Not true duderoni.

The score ranges are predetermined. It's like the AAMC's. The scaled score values are set before you take the test. The difficulty isn't factored in.



According to the person who called the AAMC directly, he said they told him that the raw scores are based on difficulty. Harder questions are worth more than easier questions and then this raw score is converted into a score on the 1-15 scale based on a pre-set curve.


Just slim hope.

What I don't understand is - if it's true that the MCAT isnt curved or fixed - why does it take so long to release scores? Every other test that prometric proctors calculates and releases scores instantly.

If some questions are weighed more heavily - wouldn't that be determined in advance? And each question's value/# points just be inputted as such?

Why does it take them so long to generate scores then if scores aren't adjusted?

MCAT mystery.

They have to grade the essay. But we will see next year when they remove that if you will get your score instantly or at least faster than 35 days.
 
Okay I caved and made an account. On July 3rd, I will post my scores from the diagnostic tests, practice tests, and the real thing.


(Let's see if I get banned now :D)
 
According to the person who called the AAMC directly, he said they told him that the raw scores are based on difficulty. Harder questions are worth more than easier questions and then this raw score is converted into a score on the 1-15 scale based on a pre-set curve.

I've never heard that. I mean, it doesn't really matter to me, but their documents don't suggest that.

I can see how this happens in that the upper bound score is graduated by smaller increments to account for difficult questions. That's the only way I can see it making sense but... oh well.
 
I've never heard that. I mean, it doesn't really matter to me, but their documents don't suggest that.

I can see how this happens in that the upper bound score is graduated by smaller increments to account for difficult questions. That's the only way I can see it making sense but... oh well.

I think it makes sense if you think about how many different variations of tests they give out. They must give out mixtures of each test and the only way to score them in a similar fashion is to have some complicated formula that accounts for the difficulty of each question. The difficulty which they have pre-determined has a set value and the percentage of weighted questions are combined with their difficulty into a final raw score/percentage and then this total raw score can be converted into their standard 1-15 scale.

It's probably a good deal more complicated than that in terms of actually converting questions for difficulty into a raw score but I think it's something along those lines.


But yes in any case it doesn't matter and our score will be our score in ELEVEN DAYS AND THREE HOURS!!!!!!
 
Yea man. I'm curious to how the 5/24 people did since so many people take that test and tehy thought it was rather difficult..
 
I just finished defending my thesis for my masters in pharm, just gotta find out how I did in mcat so I can decide where to apply.. good luck everybody.
 
Congrats on your defense ddc! I've heard they can be rough if you have a dick professor questioning you. Someone mentioned it in another thread and it really is just expect the worst hope for the best mentality but I'm trying to go into next Tuesday expecting to retake. I've already scouted out possible test dates and locations and am pretty set on a late August/early September test date, that would be about 6-9 solid weeks of additional studying.

I hope I don't have to... but getting mentally prepared for a retake.
 
I hope I don't have to... but getting mentally prepared for a retake.

Same here. I am most worried about verbal. How absolutely frustrating to be so worried about what I thought was my best and most reliable score...

If I do take the test again, it will at least be good because I will be more prepared for the negative effects of test anxiety on the verbal section. I was stressed, but it seemed to augment my scientific brain. Bio and Physics sections seemed to be easier and the adrenaline really helped me move faster and think more clearly for these sections. But for verbal, my emotional brain was like shut down or something. I could barely understand what was being said in the passages, couldn't focus, and could not connect with the authors in any way. I was wondering if this is due to some physiological response. Perhaps an activated sympathetic nervous system shuts down some thought processes that are useful for verbal? I don't know but the stress of the exam made that verbal section the most difficult one I have ever taken in my life. Yet, I can't help but think; was it the stress affecting me, or was it just the nature of the exam? This is exactly what my VR score will tell me. Pretty much: was it just me, or was the VR section of our test actually exceptionally difficult?

Random musings about the 5/31/12 scores and test:

<rant>
A retake would suck. I feel like we got really lucky with the easy PS and BS sections. Assuming that we all do fairly well on these sections because the stress of an excessively difficult passage did not trip us up and cause more stress that compounds on itself and affects the score overall, a retake would put us in a really tough position. What if we get composits that look like this: (GREAT PS, CRAPPY VR, GREAT BS)? Would you retake? How much more would you have to study to ensure that your science scores didn't drop just so you could bring up your VR score? If my VR score is much lower than my average of an 11 (say, like an 8), but my PS score is much higher than my average of a 9 (say, like an 11), would it be worth it to retake? I would probably be able to bring up my VR with a little bit of mental prep and practice, but would I be able to keep the PS score up? This is all on my mind. I feel like we got lucky with the science sections and, upon a retake, our luck would probably be up and we would likely be shat on with some terrible science section that would place our scores at risk.

Yet, does the ease of the science sections perhaps put us at a disadvantage? I was hoping that I would get to SDN and see everyone saying that the science sections were hard because this would mean that I may be above the curve. Yet, I got here and, as we all know, everyone mostly agreed that the science sections were fair, easy, or some said it was a little hard. This does not compare to the complaints and crazed pre-meds talking about many of the other test dates. Does this put us at a disadvantage because the curve is so much higher?

Overall, the whole concept of this test frustrates me so so so much because the luck of the draw determines our fate. I think that it is complete bullpoop that this exam is a reliable method of testing competency for medical school.
</rant>

Best,
C
 
I was actually just going to post about the same thing, I felt unfocused and very stressed for most of verbal. I am the most worried about verbal because the scale tends to be so sharp as you get higher up, moreso than the sciences. PS and BS I have a decent idea where I am probably at with those scores, VR, usually my best section, could be anywhere and will most likely determine my retake or not.

The problem with thinking like that about the difficulty of the test catzzz, is we have no idea how the raw score conversion/scale works. Our "easier" test could have a more difficult scale that accounts for the ease of the questions. I would think that the "ease" of the test doesn't really have much of an effect. But who knows maybe it really does, the 5/19'ers I think were the ones with a very difficult BS (or maybe it was 5/12) and the BS scores seemed to be lower than people's averages, but their overall score seemed in-line with their overall averages.

In terms of difficulty I guess I would say for us VR > BS > PS, but I guess we'll see how that plays out for everyone. Keep in mind the people who said sciences weren't that bad is from a small minority of people on SDN and also take into account the fewer number of people that are in this thread. If we had 100 people here I'm sure you would see more complaining about the hard science sections.


And yes I would retake with a lower than average VR, unless it was something like 14-9-15.
 
July 3rd release date is too long!!!!!! I'm having nightmares about this. I want to know my score so I know what my plan of action will be!! This is frustrating :(
 
July 3rd release date is too long!!!!!! I'm having nightmares about this. I want to know my score so I know what my plan of action will be!! This is frustrating :(
lol me too I had a nightmare in which I got a 21 with a breakdown of 8/2/9 which doesn't even add up to 21 thus freaking me out even more lol
 
Back from a ban here - Can't believe it's a week away. I took Kaplan FLs 1-4 and AAMCs 4,5,7,8,9,10 and 11 and had a avg of 34 and my scores were all between 33 and 37. I still felt underprepared by Kaplan on site and a bunch of TBR on the side. Did anyone in this score range / study regimen feel the same? Wondering what my next move could be and if this can be considered what is meant by 'burning through all the review material.'? Any seasoned pros with some wisdom on here?
 
Back from a ban here - Can't believe it's a week away. I took Kaplan FLs 1-4 and AAMCs 4,5,7,8,9,10 and 11 and had a avg of 34 and my scores were all between 33 and 37. I still felt underprepared by Kaplan on site and a bunch of TBR on the side. Did anyone in this score range / study regimen feel the same? Wondering what my next move could be and if this can be considered what is meant by 'burning through all the review material.'? Any seasoned pros with some wisdom on here?

I'm not a seasoned pro but I used Kaplan on-site as well. I did feel relatively underprepared with their class and materials so I also used TPRH and studied for about 6 months. I did Kaplan FL 1-9, most of their on-line materials, and AAMC 3-11. I felt pretty prepared going into the test but afterwards felt like I didn't need so much prep.

I think I made several crazy mistakes on each section so I'm fuh-reaking out because of the 5/24 scores coming out... Like I've been saying retaking isn't the end of the world, but it wouldn't be fun either. It would feel nice to go back a second or third time and just kick the mcat's ass though.
 
And yes I would retake with a lower than average VR, unless it was something like 14-9-15.

what if you get your scores back and get a 13-8-15 (36)
retook a month later and got a 10-12-14 (36) (due to a really unlucky PS and a normal BS or something?) Pushed back secondary application timeline and EVERYTHING!

The risk of something like this happening is not very low... you would have the same total score, but VR would be up, but they would also interpret it as a PS score that was a fluke before... the second score is obviously a better and more balanced score, but the total score is the same and think of how much work and stress it would take to re-take the MCAT. is this worth it in your eyes? If so, why? I need someone who understands the workings of this stuff and just how much of a commitment a re-take would be to comment... my friends and family cannot give me sound advice... they just keep saying "don't worry, I am sure you will do fine" ... ack how annoying! Stop telling me that I did fine!! lol anyone else getting this?

Best,
C
 
A retake would suck. I feel like we got really lucky with the easy PS and BS sections.

Did we take the same BS section? Averaged 12-13 on AAMCs in BS but I might have dipped to an 11 here because I thought it was the hardest BS section I've seen.
 
Did we take the same BS section? Averaged 12-13 on AAMCs in BS but I might have dipped to an 11 here because I thought it was the hardest BS section I've seen.

Idk, BS has always been a strong section for me. I thought the 5/31/12 test was pretty easy and fair...I think it felt the same as AAMC/Kaplan tests The dog one was fine for me, and the other really hard one was still not too bad... I think there were like 2 questions that I made educated guesses on after POE for that passage (no random guessing due to complete confusion).

Although, I know that I got 2 "easy" questions wrong because I over think things too much....

But, it is possible that we had different tests. Or, possibly, different weaknesses. I am very strong in experimental-research type passages and questions because my scientific reasoning is top notch. I have been working in research for 6 years now (3 years full time). But, I tend to get several of the silly questions wrong sometimes because I studied for bio for maybe 30 hours total... so I didn't get to really brush up on all of the small details and I didn't memorize anything extensively.

the orgo for my test was definitely a cinch... way easier than even many of the practice tests IMO.

what do you think based on what I said? Same test?
 
Also, all ....

Update from 5/25 group tests:

BS: Seems to me like most of them thought bio was really really hard, but got at or above their averages. A few got below their average, but this was not the norm.

PS: Most thought PS wasn't too too bad, and many ended up getting at or below their average!



This freaks me out; does this mean that since we thought PS and BS wasn't bad, that we have a lower chance of doing better than we think we did? We can analyse this stuff until the cows come home. Anyone else down?

I have yet to see some really intense theories about this stuff. Any lurkers want to chime in? :love:


I think we should all compose a master's thesis on this topic.

anyone have a graph to add to the data?

:laugh:

Best,
C
 
what if you get your scores back and get a 13-8-15 (36)
retook a month later and got a 10-12-14 (36) (due to a really unlucky PS and a normal BS or something?) Pushed back secondary application timeline and EVERYTHING!

The risk of something like this happening is not very low... you would have the same total score, but VR would be up, but they would also interpret it as a PS score that was a fluke before... the second score is obviously a better and more balanced score, but the total score is the same and think of how much work and stress it would take to re-take the MCAT. is this worth it in your eyes? If so, why? I need someone who understands the workings of this stuff and just how much of a commitment a re-take would be to comment... my friends and family cannot give me sound advice... they just keep saying "don't worry, I am sure you will do fine" ... ack how annoying! Stop telling me that I did fine!! lol anyone else getting this?

Best,
C

I think if you're applying top 25 you'll be fine with no subsection below 10. If not top 25 I think as long as your overall score is within their range and nothing below 8 then you'll be fine. I highly doubt you would get that lucky on any subsection and not be able to repeat that performance. Varying more than 4 points on the real deal seems unlikely, even for VR.
 
Idk, BS has always been a strong section for me. I thought the 5/31/12 test was pretty easy and fair...I think it felt the same as AAMC/Kaplan tests The dog one was fine for me, and the other really hard one was still not too bad... I think there were like 2 questions that I made educated guesses on after POE for that passage (no random guessing due to complete confusion).

Although, I know that I got 2 "easy" questions wrong because I over think things too much....

But, it is possible that we had different tests. Or, possibly, different weaknesses. I am very strong in experimental-research type passages and questions because my scientific reasoning is top notch. I have been working in research for 6 years now (3 years full time). But, I tend to get several of the silly questions wrong sometimes because I studied for bio for maybe 30 hours total... so I didn't get to really brush up on all of the small details and I didn't memorize anything extensively.

the orgo for my test was definitely a cinch... way easier than even many of the practice tests IMO.

what do you think based on what I said? Same test?

Yeah, BS felt not bad for me, the hard passage took me a while to finally understand it but I think I got most of them right, whereas I also messed up several easy questions. Was so happy about the orgo. Could be anywhere from 11-14.

PS I was left really unsure of a few questions, slightly unsure of several more questions, overall I felt it was very fair, but I tend to make simple mistakes from reading too quickly, probably 11-13 here.

Verbal felt tough, but fair. Really unsure of this section. My average was about 13, I'll be ecstatic with an 11 or 12, probably between 10-13.
 
Looks like we're up next...

I feel the same as Kasho about this test, but for some reason, and this is at odds with many of the posters in this thread, I found verbal to be pretty smooth. There were some difficult questions but I guess I just happened to like the topics of the passages. It was my first time finishing with time to spare. :)

I thought bio was pretty typical; a couple questions from left field, but I guess that's just the way it is. That one passage ate up all of my extra time.

Physical sciences was always my best section. A couple tougher-than-usual questions, but that could just be me. I lost confidence because I remember having a total brain shutdown for the first 5 minutes.

P.S. this wait is killing me...
 
Yeah, BS felt not bad for me, the hard passage took me a while to finally understand it but I think I got most of them right, whereas I also messed up several easy questions. Was so happy about the orgo. Could be anywhere from 11-14.

PS I was left really unsure of a few questions, slightly unsure of several more questions, overall I felt it was very fair, but I tend to make simple mistakes from reading too quickly, probably 11-13 here.

Verbal felt tough, but fair. Really unsure of this section. My average was about 13, I'll be ecstatic with an 11 or 12, probably between 10-13.

As for me I just REALLY hope my verbal gets above 10. I have no reference as to what I can expect, since I never did any practice MCAT at all lol.

I have little to no worry about the other 2 sections though, doubt they could get lower than 12 unless I was really unlucky and missed details.

(Watch as I eat my words in 1 week's time :thumbdown:)
 
Catz, we did have the same test...I think BS may have seemed harder for me because it was the actual test. I remember breezing through the dog passage in <5 min, but for some reason I keep thinking I did bad on it - I just need to trust myself that I got the experiment passages right since I did on the AAMCs.

I've established the probability of getting each score:

PS: 15 (10%), 14 (50%), 13 (40%)
VR: 9 (50%), 10 (40%), 11 (10%)
BS 11 (45%), 12 (40%), 13 (15%)

PS 13.7 VR 9.6 BS 11.7 = 35.0

I'd take that 35 in heartbeat. I just really don't want a 33, which would just really be frustrating because I can't retake a 33 but it's not enough to be competitive at mid-tiers I want to go, much less top 20 schools.
 
I found verbal to be pretty smooth. There were some difficult questions but I guess I just happened to like the topics of the passages. It was my first time finishing with time to spare. :)
P.S. this wait is killing me...

My weakest section during my prep was always verbal, I always felt terrible after verbal sections, but for some reason, during the real mcat, verbal just seemed to make sense. The only bothersome thing was the length of the passages, but I finished comfortably and felt really good about it.... sadly though, how you feel after taking the mcat, and more specifically verbal, is not indicative of how well you did (for me anyway)

.....ughhh... it's almost time.... :oops:
 
Catz, we did have the same test...I think BS may have seemed harder for me because it was the actual test. I remember breezing through the dog passage in <5 min, but for some reason I keep thinking I did bad on it - I just need to trust myself that I got the experiment passages right since I did on the AAMCs.

I've established the probability of getting each score:

PS: 15 (10%), 14 (50%), 13 (40%)
VR: 9 (50%), 10 (40%), 11 (10%)
BS 11 (45%), 12 (40%), 13 (15%)

PS 13.7 VR 9.6 BS 11.7 = 35.0

I'd take that 35 in heartbeat. I just really don't want a 33, which would just really be frustrating because I can't retake a 33 but it's not enough to be competitive at mid-tiers I want to go, much less top 20 schools.

Um what are your grades?
 
Couldn't stop thinking about the mcat last night.. or maybe it was a dream.. or both. Also a stupid dream about my teeth falling out. I'd rather ace the mcat and have my teeth fall out, can always get veneers!
 
lol why? cGPA is 3.83 and sGPA is 3.74 as verified by AMCAS

I think his point was you don't need that high of an MCAT for mid-tiers... which you don't with that GPA. Higher is always better, but 33-35 is mid-tier range, Harvard and other top schools are only ~35/36.
 
Had my first MCAT nightmare last night ... Right before the test started, I had to use the bathroom. I still had like 10 minutes but rushed to the bathroom and back just to be safe. When I got back to the test room there was only 5 minutes and 40 seconds remaining on the PS section lol. Then I woke up. :(
 
Good luck everyone! Just wanted to give some encouraging words to those retaking/reapplying. I took the may 31st mcat to prepare to reapply and then was accepted to my top choice two weeks later!so if anyone is in the same position stay positive. It can happen and it is an amazing feeling when it does.
 
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