The official MCAT May 20th 2016

[sofpink]

Just wondering if anyone else will be taking the MCAT on May 20 2016. I would like some support, input, and help on your MCAT strategies I am only studying 2 hours a day for the MCAT, as I am taking a full load semester. Anyone else in this track?

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[Spitphire]

Sounds like the May 14th test all over again lol

 

[Dr. Bean]

That exam was rough!
C/P man wth is this thing!?! Multiple calculations
CARS wasn't too bad like the first 7 passages then the last two was bleh
B/B started easy and kinda got hard at the end and I was so drained to process anything so I thought it was hard
P/S this was hard. Nothing like the section bank

Overall I felt like this exam was nothing like the Kaplan, NS and AAMC practices I did which is wierd and worrying. Idk I was really contemplating on voiding it. But then I decided that if I have a sense of how I did I can do better for the second one. I have already mentally prepared myself for that :/

 

[theonlytycrane]

Overall I felt like this exam was nothing like the Kaplan, NS and AAMC practices I did which is wierd and worrying.

More experimental? Or just a different feel?

 

[ShoreDucks]

More experimental? Or just a different feel?

Personally for my version of the MCAT. I used ekbio 2015 and I think the 30 minutes practices were similar in style in passage. The questioning itself was a little different because EK questions were more specific to the chapters. But the experiments that were asked had similar feel, so it gave you practice in over to read charts and what not.

A lot of pathways though, my brain still hurts.

 

[Dr. Bean]

More experimental? Or just a different feel?

A bit of both.

 

[betterfuture]

AAMC is onto us! They got us premeds believing C/P is more like the amino acids/SDS PAGE/biochemistry stuff like the SB. Now, their reversing everything! C/P hard and B/B...well, well that's still hard with all those convoluted passages, but still!

 

[narla_hotep]

Chem/phys was definitely really hard... Lots of calculations and I blanked on a few equations. Had to rush through last two passages because I was nearly out of time.
CARS was okay I guess... One passage at the end was much harder than the others and I was like what is even the main idea of this...
Bio was okay. Glad I do undergrad research otherwise some of those genetics studies would be harder to understand.
By the time psych rolled around I was just so done with everything haha. Had to keep telling myself I was lucky to even be sitting there taking the exam in order to keep going. The section itself was okay for the most part but I kept second guessing myself on like 5 questions.

 

[wickedprophet]

C/P: as hard as the section bank—ridiculous! I think I marked at least 40% of it. Also, I ran out of time (and I ALWAYS finished with ~20 mins to spare on practice exams!!! I guess I underestimated) so I had to guess on the last few questions. Lots of Chem with very little physics for my version
CARS: pretty straight forward passages weren't too difficult to understand
B/B: for the first 75%, it started out maybe even more challenging than the C/P section! But then it got a lot easier for the last 25%
P/S: not horrible but not my best... I had to guess on 10-15% of the questions because some answer choices were so hard to differentiate from each other
Overall: it was challenging, but it was what I expected in terms of overall difficulty. I knew I'd struggle more with C/P and B/B, but I told myself I'd consider voiding if the test was near impossible, and it wasn't! Now, the wait begins...

 

[n8db8]

C/P was pretty much a blindside. Luckily had taken inorganic this past semester so think it went fairly well. CARS seemed like it was going really well until i realized i was almost out of time and had to guess on last passage . B/B wasn't too bad at all. P/S went fairly well, but had some confusing twists and terms that I hadn't seen in KA or EK. Overall, time to hope, pray, and drink!!

 

[cantstopwontstopvu17]

.

 

[theonlytycrane]

@cantstopwontstopvu17 very much appreciate the feedback. Any thoughts on a comparison in feel vs NS or EK exams?

 

[blainera]

Damn you guys are freaking me out about C/P. Was timing an issue with the C/P section? I can never finish it on time so that's really concerning me for test day.

 

[TheStallion16]

I definitely feel the difficulty level was more on par with NS. The scored AAMC FL was easier. The C/P section was virtually no physics with the exception of some strange equations you wouldn't expect to get. A lot of acid/base chemistry and convoluted passages. Timing was def an issue. Most of the questioned warranted some hefty calculations that took me longer than a minute to reason out. I didn't run out of time, but I couldn't spend as much time with the questions as I would have like too.

 

[Formation]

I thought C/P was the easiest section by far, I felt the most confident in that. But reading the May 14th thread, it seems li mostke there are different tests per day, so it's possible that explains the difference in opinion.

CARS I thought was also pretty good aside from one passage.

Bio was definitely the most difficult. It was like the section bank on steroids. I don't wanna talk about it. I'm still reeling.

Psych disappointed me in that I went through an entire Anki deck and read through that 270-page Psych notes document, and there were still terms that I was 100% certain I've never seen. But I guess it always goes like that. Still, it wasn't too bad.

------------------

I'd rank them in terms of difficulty: Bio > Psych > CARS > C/P. Overall I would say the test was pretty representative of the AAMC material. This next month will be brutal.

 

[sdhere1234]

This is my 3rd attempt.

C/P was the hardest thing I've ever seen in my short time on this earth- literally. What the **** was that.
CARS was on par with the practice- just longer passages
B/B wasn't bad, couple random discretes
P/S was HARD! I took the exam may 2015 (scored 129) and that P/S was 100x easier. It seems like they're moving away from data analysis and more towards conceptual.

 

[Eleithyia]

It didn't seem too bad to me (maybe because the last practice exam I took was a super-hard TPR with a ton of physics--not my strong suit).

C/P: Not my best section, usually really rough, but mine seemed to play to my strengths. Still, came very close to time, and didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted going over marked questions (~6 min). More calculations than most practice exams I took, but not nearly as bad as I was expecting after reading the May 6th/14th threads.
CARS: My best section, been getting ~90% on practice exams and today's section didn't seem particularly easier/harder. Finished the section with 30+ min. to spare, so I read through all the questions + my answers again.
B/B: Not a lot of time to spare for me, but I felt like I understood what was going on most of the time. Had a couple of nice "gimme" questions, but not many.
P/S: Meh. I usually do well in P/S, and I had a ton of time left over, but there were several questions where I didn't know how much thinking is overthinking...

Anybody else plagued by an inability to focus for the last hour or so? I was sitting there like "50% of the people in this room won't score above a 500. That's insane. But it's not like we can all score above the median, because then it wouldn't be a median. And I don't know of anything significant about this testing center that should make it an exception to the bell curve. That's weird. Sad and weird." Just like, constant inner monologue in the background while I'm trying to finish P/S.

 

[Terror Billy]

Would you guys say the PsS was closer to the section bank than the AAMC FLs? I too was surprised how little data they asked to analyze on that set of 100 questions...

 

[Wolfpack93]

Oh. My. God.

 

[Spitphire]

Oh. My. God.

Ive been waiting for your response haha

 

[Dr. Bean]

when do you guys think would be the latest date to take the MCAT so that I can stick to this cycle?

 

[premedicalstudent]

So.........the consensus is. The May 20th MCAT (which seems to have had a significant amount of people signed up for it based on the # of pages in this thread) was fairly difficult/challenging.
Whereas the May 14th MCAT (which seemed to have had significantly less people signed up for it) was surprisingly not that bad.

 

[Wolfpack93]

Sorry had to drive home haha. Man that was brutal.

P/C: probably my best section. Very calculation heavy I literally used two pages of scratch paper. I'm praying I pulled off a 130. Extremely similar to section banks.

CARS: my hardest section. I answered the last question with 1 second left and thought about voiding because I felt I didn't get to thoroughly go over the last two passages because of time. I had 3-4 really tough passages

BIO: SO MANY GRAPHS AND TABLES. Although I didn't think this was terrible it took me forever to analyze everything and I probably made mistakes from missing stuff.

P/S: not terrible. Probably my second best after p/c. A few terms I didn't know but think I was able to figure them out. The passages were much longer than any I've seen before though. Similar to the section banks.

If I had to guess id say my score is probably 510-516 probably closer to the 510 region. I honestly don't know what I would advise for anyone taking it later idk how much more practice would've improve my score. Know your section banks.

For reference i got a 514 on the scored

 

[narla_hotep]

Was it a lot like the section banks?

I got a 517 on the scored but for some reason I feel like I did a lot worse on the real one I've been studying at a low level for about a semester but I should have started doing hardcore studying a lot earlier so I could have found time to do the section banks. Didn't touch them at all.

 

[premedicalstudent]

Was it a lot like the section banks?

I got a 517 on the scored but for some reason I feel like I did a lot worse on the real one I've been studying at a low level for about a semester but I should have started doing hardcore studying a lot earlier so I could have found time to do the section banks. Didn't touch them at all.

This is where optimism comes into play

 

[Formation]

It's very interesting how the difficulty of particular sections vary so extremely between different tests given on the same day.

I just saw someone on another site mention a topic they had on their super hard C/P section that I definitely did not have. Hmm.

 

[sdhere1234]

It's very interesting how the difficulty of particular sections vary so extremely between different tests given on the same day.

I just saw someone on another site mention a topic they had on their super hard C/P section that I definitely did not have. Hmm.

There are multiple exams on the same date.

I don't even know how to describe the C/P I had. Blindsided by a truck wouldn't even describe it. Honestly like nothing I've ever seen before. Section bank/scored/unscored- nothing would have prepared me.

 

[maydaymalone]

I feel so weird being the outlier. I felt the exam was very fair. I had 10 minutes in C/P and BB to review it and I was confident in my answers. I remember flying through like 3 passages on how easy some of it was. 30 min to review PS

C/P: Yeah some calc, SDN made it seem like we were using pages and pages for calcs but there were some but not thaaaaat many. Good amount of tough passages with easy ones. I felt for the whole exam that it was either really hard or really easy. Only a couple in between
CARS: Weakest section by far. Hoping I got a 125 at least. Couple tough mostly decent. Interesting reads except some philo ones
BB: Went well - easier than SB
P/S: Many lot of passage analysis. Couple terms I did not know.

Overall: I hate saying that it went okay because whenever i say something went well, it doesnt. Also its weird that you guys are all saying how incredibly hard it was but I thought it was rather fair. On par with scored.

Scored I had a 506: 127/123/129/127

 

[Pardia19]

For those with the tough C/P section, could you elaborate a bit more ( I know you guys can't elaborate too much ) : calculation heavy passages/ questions were more in physics or Gen-chem?

 

[D.O. OMM boob]

WE DID IT!!!!!

 

[BlueDevilSung]

There are multiple exams on the same date.

I don't even know how to describe the C/P I had. Blindsided by a truck wouldn't even describe it. Honestly like nothing I've ever seen before. Section bank/scored/unscored- nothing would have prepared me.

I think we had the same exam. I felt this exact way about the C/P section. It was so unexpected.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[SergeantBuzzKill]

C/P: Not terrible, but not easy. I was hoping for more organic/biochem like on the scored but today had way more calculations. I finished with ~6 minutes left in this section when I usually have around ~10 on practice exams. Happy about the gen chem passages though.

CARS: Didn't seem very different from the scored to me, but Im the wrong person to ask because it has always been my worst section; I usually only score at 125-126. Finished on time though, so that was a good sign.

B/B: Saw something I've never seen before (taken MCAT once before); one of the test takers sitting next to me got up when I had around 20min left (we started at about the same time) and never came back. To his/her credit, it was brutal. I had a ton of figures in all but 2 passages. Much harder than the section bank in my opinion. I can think of 2 FSQ's that were super random and had to guess on one of them. In all, I think this was the hardest section of them all.

P/S: Seemed a lot like the last TPR practice exams I did. Im a little irritated that I studied the TPR book front to back + KA videos and still saw terms I had never seen before.. The questions themselves seemed pretty straightforward though and it was nice to have a few passages without any figures.

What did you guys think about B/B?

 

[ShoreDucks]

I feel so weird being the outlier. I felt the exam was very fair. I had 10 minutes in C/P and BB to review it and I was confident in my answers. I remember flying through like 3 passages on how easy some of it was. 30 min to review PS

C/P: Yeah some calc, SDN made it seem like we were using pages and pages for calcs but there were some but not thaaaaat many. Good amount of tough passages with easy ones. I felt for the whole exam that it was either really hard or really easy. Only a couple in between
CARS: Weakest section by far. Hoping I got a 125 at least. Couple tough mostly decent. Interesting reads except some philo ones
BB: Went well - easier than SB
P/S: Many lot of passage analysis. Couple terms I did not know.

Overall: I hate saying that it went okay because whenever i say something went well, it doesnt. Also its weird that you guys are all saying how incredibly hard it was but I thought it was rather fair. On par with scored.

Scored I had a 506: 127/123/129/127

I think it depends on what you get, it's my understanding it varies with ppl b/c they have randomized sections so someone next to me would've taken a different mcat (someone correct me if i'm wrong).

A further explanation now that I'm not on a computer where it freezes on this site.

My C/P was a lot of theory, some amino acids. 3 calculations problems at most, 1 of the 3 was so easy I did it by paper/pencil just to double check I didn't get it wrong (because it was a freebie pretty much). The discretes were medium hard, with one question being the biggest throw away 5th grade science question ever.

Cars: very topical considering the elections in the u.s. So kept my interest until the end when it got too philosophical for me and my brain shut down.

Bio: very straight forward at first. Then we got to the end where all the pathways and charts and graphs got me confused. They were f*ing long passages too. 3 charts, 3 paragraphs just for a 4 question section!? w....t....f.

psy: straight forward, used kaplan and I think that prepared me for all the terms. What helped a lot was studying and applying to similar experiments. Here's just definition, now look up a experiment that used it and what were the independent/dependent/control variables? ....etc.
So yeah. I think you can do process of elimination for some of the question because one I didn't know (but googled after I left the testing room) I got right because 3/4 terms were similar or in the same topic of definitions but one stuck out like a sore thumb.

Either way, i feel great about every except bio which WAS my strongest area going in. Ugh.

 

[D.O. OMM boob]

Took put into perspective of my thoughts, i took the aamc sample test and the aamc cored FL within a week and a half of today.

AAMC sample: 80% overall--92% C/P--64% CARS--85% B/B--78% P/S
AAMC scored:81% overall 511-- 86% C/P 129-- 68% CARS 125-- 88% B/B 130--81% P/S 127

Today's Test thoughts:

Overall: About same difficulty as both AAMC practice tests
C/P: A little bit harder but i think thats because of the nerves, so my first passage took like 10 min...
CARS: A little bit easier than both AAMC practice tests
B/B: a bit harder than both AAMC practice tests. (brain started shutting down with 15 problems left and the last few passages were hard)
P/S: I thought significantly easier than both AAMC practice tests. Obviously you have some super random terms and you make a 1/4 or 1/3 guess... but i thought that there were less of these than both AAMC practice test. There wasn't a lot of info that i thought was unfair.

For everyone talking about "calculation heavy" problems. I did not come across any of these. Obi you are going to have to do calculations sometimes... but very basic formulas. The difficulty was pulling out the relevant info from the passages i thought, or figuring out exactly what the questions wants from you. All calculations themselves though were really not complex at all.

In relation to section banks, not as hard as section banks. Much harder than Q packs. You get a mix of the "hard" section bank passages, and the easy "Q-pack" questions.

Final thoughts: It was incredibly fair, was harder than practice tests just because of nervous factor imo.

Hope you all did well!!! and lets go have some fun tonight woooooooo we did it!!!!!

 

[ShoreDucks]

Overall: About same difficulty as both AAMC practice tests
C/P: A little bit harder but i think thats because of the nerves, so my first passage took like 10 min...
......

For everyone talking about "calculation heavy" problems. I did not come across any of these. Obi you are going to have to do calculations sometimes... but very basic formulas. The difficulty was pulling out the relevant info from the passages i thought, or figuring out exactly what the questions wants from you. All calculations themselves though were really not complex at all.

In relation to section banks, not as hard as section banks. Much harder than Q packs. You get a mix of the "hard" section bank passages, and the easy "Q-pack" questions.


Hope you all did well!!! and lets go have some fun tonight woooooooo we did it!!!!!

Okay we definitely probably had the same exam then. And same with c/p. I was like 12 minutes in and was thinking, "f*ckkkk I need to finish passage...1"

Glad you made it out brother. Which Q packs did you use or section banks? Did AAMC have q packs and section banks??

 

[Roayer]

C/P was the worst I have ever taken. I had magnetism, quantum, thermo, solubity, circuit and then the rest was biochem one. Free standing was uber specific. Section bank was a joke compared to the nonsense served here. I got asked an unsolvable quesiton....Main issue was passages were long, like 2x as long as section bank. 1 orgo question on whole test and maybe 5 physics ones. The rest was just awful
Cars: after being shaked up from that nonsense, I had a little trouble with cars mainly because the passages were so long. Difficulty compared to CARS1 question bank but longer. Passages werent difficult to comprehend, just lot of analogy based passages (Skill 3 isn't my thing)
B/B: As others have said started of relatively fair, about on par with section bank in difficulty but the 2-3 passages from 30-45 were absolutely ridiculous. I felt like this was C/P all over again. So much post translational modification if you need to review anything, learn this crap dear god. I should have voided this test. Hardly any hormones/metabolism. They graced us with one physio passage. Just more Biochem.
P/S: usually my worst section but there weren't any curveballes very comparable to the sample Test and practice Scored 1 and section bank. Might be my best section and I consistently do worse.

Overall notes: C/P learn all the stupid gen chem at advancent levels and be prepared for p=chem level crap. Orgo HAA my best subject and I get one stupid lab question. Biggest emphasis for the nonsense I got here is you better know everything about protein stability/AA/cellular signaling/Post Translational/Post Transcriptional modification and especially Gene Regulation and be able to read FAST.

AAMC practice tests are a cakewalk compared to the nonsense I got, planning my retake already sigh.

Biggest Advice: Don't use the stupid prep books analyze the section banks thoroughly, give yourself less time for CARS, and get Lehninger since some of the questions come from there. Treat B/B almost like CARS when your reading since apparently those types of questions are allowed now.

 

[D.O. OMM boob]

I think it depends on what you get, it's my understanding it varies with ppl b/c they have randomized sections so someone next to me would've taken a different mcat (someone correct me if i'm wrong).

A further explanation now that I'm not on a computer where it freezes on this site.

My C/P was a lot of theory, some amino acids. 3 calculations problems at most, 1 of the 3 was so easiest I did it by paper/pencil just to double check I didn't get it wrong (because it was a freebie pretty much). The discretes were medium hard, with one question being the biggest throw away 5th grade science question ever.

Cars: very topical considering the elections in the u.s. So kept my interest until the end when it got too philosophical for me and my brain shut down.

Bio: very straight forward at first. Then we got to the end where all the pathways and charts and graphs got me confused. They were f*ing long passages too. 3 charts, 3 paragraphs just for a 4 question section!? w....t....f.

psy: straight forward, used kaplan and I think that prepared me for all the terms. What helped a lot was studying and applying to similar experiments. Here's just definition, now look up a experiment that used it and what were the independent/dependent/control variables? ....etc.
So yeah. I think you can do process of elimination for some of the question because one I didn't know (but googled after I left the testing room) I got right because 3/4 terms were similar or in the same topic of definitions but one stuck out like a sore thumb.

Either way, i feel great about every except bio which WAS my strongest area going in. Ugh.

IMO, I think the B/B will be your strongest score, because i personally believe that when you rock at a certain section, and you feel as if it was incredibly difficult... imagine what everyone feels who are just OK at that subject. I believe that the harder the MCAT, the easier it is to show you're strong subjects because you will be less affected by the difficulty of the material than someone who was just scraping by in that subject hoping for easy passages.

 

[To be MD]

C/P:
CARS:
B/B:
P/S:

 

[D.O. OMM boob]

Okay we definitely probably had the same exam then. And same with c/p. I was like 12 minutes in and was thinking, "f*ckkkk I need to finish passage...1"

Glad you made it out brother. Which Q packs did you use or section banks? Did AAMC have q packs and section banks??

Yea after reading your post i definitely think we had the same exam.

this is actually my second time taking the MCAT, first attempt was last year... had no idea about sdn or how difficult/ how much one needs to actually study for mcat, and got a 504. So this time i splurged and bought a KAPLAN course for 50% of price (thanks mom for splitting with me) and that came with a butt ton of videos which i thought were amazing and all the AAMC material (OG, both practice tests, all Q packs, All section banks) and of course their own practice tests. I used all the AAMC material, 5 kaplan practice tests, 1 NS free practice test, and of course the AAMC practice tests.

 

[Roayer]

Would you guys say the PsS was closer to the section bank than the AAMC FLs? I too was surprised how little data they asked to analyze on that set of 100 questions...

The one I got was very similar to the Sample/Section Bank. I never took psych and only used EK and some textbook references for it and I had seen every term. A lot of examples where you had to give the correct theory to describe or a lot of research based questions on what most supported/least supported the study, felt like cars.

 

[sweetdreamzzz14]

AAMC practice tests are a cakewalk compared to the nonsense I got, planning my retake already sigh.

Biggest Advice: Don't use the stupid prep books analyze the section banks thoroughly, give yourself less time for CARS, and get Lehninger since some of the questions come from there. Treat B/B almost like CARS when your reading since apparently those types of questions are allowed now.

+1 I'm brain dead.
All the practice these last 4 months (8 Kaplan full lengths, Kaplan live online course, MCAT Channel, AAMC scored, AAMC unscored, Section banks, OG questions) did not prepare me for this beast. I was on the score/void page until 30 seconds and just fed up with everything and scored it. I'll probably regret it in one month when we get our scores... This was my third attempt I feel awful

 

[medbunny56]

+1 I'm brain dead.
All the practice these last 4 months (8 Kaplan full lengths, Kaplan live online course, MCAT Channel, AAMC scored, AAMC unscored, Section banks, OG questions) did not prepare me for this beast. I was on the score/void page until 30 seconds and just fed up with everything and scored it. I'll probably regret it in one month when we get our scores... This was my third attempt I feel awful

I feel you, this was my third attempt but voided it because I lost my focus during CARS and just felt too risky to score as my third attempt :/

 

[sweetdreamzzz14]

I feel you, this was my third attempt but voided it because I lost my focus during CARS and just felt too risky to score as my third attempt :/

I guess I'm a risk taker... CARs was actually okay for me it's just the other sections were longer than AAMC practice tests... I usually finish with 30 mins left for psych/soc but used every minute today

 

[nomoreequationsplease]

So.... Idk how it went.... I scored a 511 on practice and like a 515 equivalent on the sample test. That being said I feel like I probably did worse.
C/P: I felt like this was pretty difficult overall. Just a lot of stuff I wasnt sure about.
Cars: Normally my best section. It was awful. Just a lot of boring passages with harder questions. Not confident about it. Also walked out after the section and right away realized one I answered wrong.....
Bio/Biochem: Breezed through this I felt. Was easiest section by far.
Psych: Probably hardest section. Alot of confusing passages and similar terms.
Overall: I'm not exceedingly confident about a 510+ but I think I did okay.
Just gotta keep positive until I receive a reason not to be.

 

[blainera]

Does AAMC take into account the difficulty of each test when they determine the scores? I cannot for the life of me understand how they score each test when inevitably the difficulty varies from test to test.

 

[Terror Billy]

Does AAMC take into account the difficulty of each test when they determine the scores? I cannot for the life of me understand how they score each test when inevitably the difficulty varies from test to test.

I would assume (may be wrong here) that the test is going to be scored based on how everyone did. There was probably no set amount of questions correct for say a 128 on CP....I'm pretty sure they standardize it across the country (hence why it takes 1 month to get your scores back)...

 

[Wolfpack93]

C/P:
CARS:
B/B:
P/S:

I think I agree. Not sure what the pirate signifies but I agree with the rest haha

 

[blainera]

I would assume (may be wrong here) that the test is going to be scored based on how everyone did. There was probably no set amount of questions correct for say a 128 on CP....I'm pretty sure they standardize it across the country (hence why it takes 1 month to get your scores back)...

That makes sense. I bet that's it.

 

[Eleithyia]

Does AAMC take into account the difficulty of each test when they determine the scores? I cannot for the life of me understand how they score each test when inevitably the difficulty varies from test to test.

I would assume (may be wrong here) that the test is going to be scored based on how everyone did. There was probably no set amount of questions correct for say a 128 on CP....I'm pretty sure they standardize it across the country (hence why it takes 1 month to get your scores back)...

Well, we know that your score on the new scale is determined based on what percentile you fall into (i.e. 50 %ile = 500, etc) and we know that the content of all the exams is not the same on a given test day. What I'm wondering is if they 'measure' each distinct exam only against other administrations of that exact same exam. If they control for the difficulty of each test, that's likely how they do it. That way they're using the same system across all exams, and the thing that decides whether the test was difficult was all the people taking it, not some staffer(s) at AAMC who comes up with some Difficulty Factor based on their perception of the exam.

It makes sense to me that they would do that. That said...they obviously are repeatedly administering the same/very similar exams or that nondisclosure agreement would not exist, so now that the initial data aggregation is finished from last year, it probably doesn't take a month to standardize it all. They likely haven't fully retired any exams yet or we'd probably have more scored AAMC practice tests, so they already have lots of data. It's standardized not only nationwide, but also by combining all the data from every administration of the test, so they already have a good estimation of what % correct = what score--one test date is unlikely to significantly depart from that. Since it's all digital, I would bet that their system can actually stratify the new data in a much shorter period of time than a month, though.

 

[spicynuggetfiend]

I got a 517 on the AAMC full length and I thought this exam was much harder, in particular CARS

Either way, I think we all agree this was a challenging exam, but it was more or less fair, and I don't have any complaints. Let's hope for the best. I'm going to hate waiting for my score though....

 

[Roayer]

+1 I'm brain dead.
All the practice these last 4 months (8 Kaplan full lengths, Kaplan live online course, MCAT Channel, AAMC scored, AAMC unscored, Section banks, OG questions) did not prepare me for this beast. I was on the score/void page until 30 seconds and just fed up with everything and scored it. I'll probably regret it in one month when we get our scores... This was my third attempt I feel awful

Same, I literally got up to use the bathroom to run water over my face and ran back and decided to score it. I feel like I am going to regret it. I had to guess on way to many things. C/P really messed up that whole test for me.