SAT and MCAT

My verbal was horrible on the SATs:

600V, 770M => 35P

Yea,

Is there any correlation between sat score and mcat score? I know they are different tests and there is never a gaurantee, but if u got like a 1400 on the sat what kinda mcat score could u expect?

760 and 750 SAT
35Q MCAT

But I don't think you should try too hard to find a correlation. Probably just testing skills?

Testing skills are very important.

Pinkertinkle said:

Testing skills are very important.

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yes indeed

1540 SAT
38O MCAT

I think testing skills are just as important as anything else as far as determining your final score.

SAT: 1140, 1180

MCAT: 35Q

Go Figure

Somone once told me that your ACT score and your MCAT score should correlate fairly well.

I got a 27 on my ACT (very respectable) and a 36Q on my MCAT. I guess I don't fit the trend if there is in fact a correlation. The ACT is only out of 36 and the MCAT is out of 45, but I guess I could see that people who got low 30s on the ACT could be expected to get low 30s on the MCAT...oh well, who cares!

I got a 34 on the ACT and a 36R on the MCAT. I think IndyZX is right, it's all about the test-taking skills.

33 on the ACT
33 on the MCAT

Go figure.

I don't think you can compare them because I took the SAT cold and without any trig in a situation where my results didn't matter me to me (4.0). Whereas I studied for the MCAT for at least 2 good solid months and had more than enough prereqs for it and needed a good score.

650 V
620 M

10V
12B
14P

It's all about test taking skills.

SAT
V: 790
M: 800

ACT
35 (late 80s, when the highest score possible was 35)

MCAT
PS: 11
VR: 12
BS: 13
WS: O (I thought my writing samples were damn good)

1410 SAT
34 ACT

31 MCAT


Looks like I am getting worse with age.

Croatalus_atrox said:

It's all about test taking skills.

SAT
V: 790
M: 800

ACT
35 (late 80s, when the highest score possible was 35)

MCAT
PS: 11
VR: 12
BS: 13
WS: O (I thought my writing samples were damn good)

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your sat and act were genius level but you're mcat is not.
its close though!

SAT: 690V 710M
720V 720M

MCAT (VR-BS-PS)

2001: 8-9-10

2004: 13:12:13

I was reasonably smart, then not as smart, then very smart.

My mother told me about my IQ scores when I asked. When I first took the test in school as a young child, I was given Gifted status. Then, when I switched schools and took it again, I wasn't allowed into the Gifted After School program. Alas, I lost my gifted status at the new school. I, based on the IQ test, was deemed average.

It's interesting that people become almost defined by their standardized test scores.

I've been a Sub Thirty MCAT person for the last three years, and now I feel like my whole position in the world has changed and now I am a High Thirties MCAT person.

Keberson said:

your sat and act were genius level but you're mcat is not.
its close though!

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What the hell are you talking about?!?

Croatalus_atrox said:

What the hell are you talking about?!?

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Your MCAT is Dumb Dumb McDumbperson level, you big dummy.

Medikit said:

Your MCAT is Dumb Dumb McDumbperson level, you big dummy.

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Gotcha. I'd just never heard of anyone correlating standardized test scores to intelligence before.

A little Googling only brings up Mensa membership criteria as far as standardized testing and intelligence goes. Oh well, it won't break my heart if I couldn't join their exclusive little club with my sub-genius MCAT score. I'm hoping it'll help my membership in a far more useful group of people, anyway.

Croatalus_atrox said:

Gotcha. I'd just never heard of anyone correlating standardized test scores to intelligence before.

A little Googling only brings up Mensa membership criteria as far as standardized testing and intelligence goes. Oh well, it won't break my heart if I couldn't join their exclusive little club with my sub-genius MCAT score. I'm hoping it'll help my membership in a far more useful group of people, anyway.

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Mensa members pay dues for no services rendered. That alone should automatically disqualify you from being in the top 2%.

Croatalus_atrox said:

I'd just never heard of anyone correlating standardized test scores to intelligence before.

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Where have you been, dude? You can't really believe that.

I think it's silly to correlate the two as well, but come on...

IndyZX said:

Where have you been, dude? You can't really believe that.

I think it's silly to correlate the two as well, but come on...

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Of course people tell you that you must be a genius to get such scores, and it's obvious that a certain amount of intelligence is necessary to acheive them. But to actually say "This score is 'genius level', but this score is not...", nope,never heard of it (at least in regards to non-IQ standardized tests).

Honestly, I never paid much attention to it, and it was never really a topic of discussion in the social circles in which I run. I've been out of high school since 1990, and I've only just started my college education in the last three years. The intervening time was spent in the kinds of environments where the ability to perform interest calculations in your head earns you the nickname "Einstein", or where the SAT is mostly known as "that test you need to get into college". So you can bet that I didn't spend much time dwelling on my scores and what they mean.

Believe what you will...

Croatalus_atrox said:

Of course people tell you that you must be a genius to get such scores, and it's obvious that a certain amount of intelligence is necessary to acheive them. But to actually say "This score is 'genius level', but this score is not...", nope,never heard of it (at least in regards to non-IQ standardized tests).

Honestly, I never paid much attention to it, and it was never really a topic of discussion in the social circles in which I run. I've been out of high school since 1990, and I've only just started my college education in the last three years. The intervening time was spent in the kinds of environments where the ability to perform interest calculations in your head earns you the nickname "Einstein", or where the SAT is mostly known as "that test you need to get into college". So you can bet that I didn't spend much time dwelling on my scores and what they mean.

Believe what you will...

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I think he got a little offended he didn't call his MCAT genius level too.

SAT Verbal: 740 (pre-recentering)
SAT Math: 720
MCAT Physical: 13
MCAT Verbal: 13
MCAT Biological: 13

I feel like the tests correlate pretty well in that they require similar skills: rapidly assimilate given data, understand the question, make necessary inferences using stored knowledge, and find the correct answer from among the choices. These are really just "standardized test" skills, but are obviously one measure of some kind of intelligence.

blz said:

I think he got a little offended he didn't call his MCAT genius level too.

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I don't care what anyone thinks of my level of intelligence. We all know that there are more important factors to success than how smart you are.

For instance, what did I do with those outstanding, "genius-level" SAT and ACT scores after high school?
Not a damn thing. It took me eleven years to even begin attending college. Some of my classmates who fared less well on those standardized tests are now doctors, lawyers, successful businessmen, etc. and have been for years. For all my supposed smarts, I have no doubt that there are people of "lesser ability"on these forums, at least as measured by MCAT performance, who will be better doctors than I could ever hope to be.

Or maybe you're right...maybe I'm just another arrogant dingus pissed off that my MCAT scores didn't meet the genius level cutoff.

Croatalus_atrox said:

We all know that there are more important factors to success than how smart you are.

For instance, what did I do with those outstanding, "genius-level" SAT and ACT scores after high school?

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Hear, hear. I was "required to withdraw" from the prestigious university that I got into with my SAT scores.

Not too proudly my scores were:
SAT: 710 Verbal; 600 Math
MCAT: 10P, 10B, 7V

Hey, now I see the correlation...I sucked both times (on the exams that it).

Apparently your SAT Math score is the best predictor of your performance on the MCAT, according to a very large sample size studied by Kaplan.

My SAT and MCAT scores were both in large excess of the 95th percentile. There certainly is some correlation between the SAT, the MCAT and overall standardized testing ability. Of course, it's not an infallible one.

I feel any comparision to SAT scores is slightly skewed because most people who have the motivation and intelligence to go to Med. school are most likely going to have done well versus the general population. Most people taking the MCAT are not representative of the general population. A loose correlation might appear between scores, but I would bet most of that is due to test taking ability rather than inherent 'smarts'.

how is it skewed? we are comparing SAT scores to MCAT scores within a single population (med school applicants)?

im sure that the people with high SAT/MCAT scores will be more likely to respond, but that doesnt skew the correlation

Reimat said:

I feel any comparision to SAT scores is slightly skewed because most people who have the motivation and intelligence to go to Med. school are most likely going to have done well versus the general population. Most people taking the MCAT are not representative of the general population. A loose correlation might appear between scores, but I would bet most of that is due to test taking ability rather than inherent 'smarts'.

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IndyZX said:

how is it skewed? we are comparing SAT scores to MCAT scores within a single population (med school applicants)?

im sure that the people with high SAT/MCAT scores will be more likely to respond, but that doesnt skew the correlation

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Our MCAT scores would be higher if we had the same dumba55 highschool students taking it with us like we had with the SATs.

RayhanS1282 said:

Not too proudly my scores were:
SAT: 710 Verbal; 600 Math
MCAT: 10P, 10B, 7V

Hey, now I see the correlation...I sucked both times (on the exams that it).

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1310 doesn't suck. A 27 is about average for matriculating students IIRC.

blz said:

Our MCAT scores would be higher if we had the same dumba55 highschool students taking it with us like we had with the SATs.

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Yeah but that doesn't skew the correlation.

I'm curious how you can draw a correlation.

For instance, I got a 740 verbal/660 math = 1400 SAT

I got a 33 ACT

I got a 31 MCAT w/no prep (same conditions as SAT/ACT). I got a 32 with minor prep, and a 36 with full preparation. Which one are you going to correlate?

Well obviously the prep factor will influence a correlation, but the fact that the MCAT sample is smarter, on average, than the SAT sample does not affect the correlation. Even if an 80% on the MCAT is found to correlate to a 95% on the SAT, that's still a correlation. A correlation doesn't mean that 80th percentile on the MCAT and SAT are equal. That's the point I was trying to make.

willthatsall said:

Well obviously the prep factor will influence a correlation, but the fact that the MCAT sample is smarter, on average, than the SAT sample does not affect the correlation. Even if an 80% on the MCAT is found to correlate to a 95% on the SAT, that's still a correlation. A correlation doesn't mean that 80th percentile on the MCAT and SAT are equal. That's the point I was trying to make.

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Ah, I get it. Anyone actually working on the correlation? Small sample size might hurt. Wonder if anyone's done actual research with a larger sample available from ETS/AAMC?

Yeah, there has been a really long thread on SDN about this a while back with tons of numbers and people started arguing and it was pretty dumb. I actually do think someone has done a real study on this and found that SAT math scores tend to correlate with MCAT scores. Oh and if you want to read a funny thread search for "MCAT vs. IQ" or something like that. People got really heated about that.

I think the differences between the MCAT and the SAT are preparation. Everyone tells you that the SAT is something that you "can't study for," while you are expected to spend months studying for the MCAT. I didn't find a coorelation at all with SAT math and MCAT.

SAT
M: 630
V: 700

MCAT:
P: 14
V: 14
B: 14

You are also taking the tests four years apart -- a lot about your testing ability, stress-handling ability, and reasoning ability can change over that time period.

Wow, VFrank, your MCAT score puts you in the top 0.1% of test takers.... Below is honest data:

October 1999
SAT V: 800
SAT M: 800

April 2003
MCAT V: 11
MCAT P: 14
MCAT B: 12
MCAT W: T

pauleuglis said:

Wow, VFrank, your MCAT score puts you in the top 0.1% of test takers.... Below is honest data:

October 1999
SAT V: 800
SAT M: 800

April 2003
MCAT V: 11
MCAT P: 14
MCAT B: 12
MCAT W: T

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I'm being very honest.

VFrank said:

I'm being very honest.

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SCREENSHOT!

blz said:

SCREENSHOT!

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Better yet, a high-resolution scan of the paper report (with the name, ssn, etc. removed, of course). Much harder to fake; even with 10 years of photoshop experience I doubt I could make a really convincing fake. It would actually be fun to look at a real 42+ score report, just for kicks.

for those of you who killed the MCAT how much prep time did you give yourself and what was your science gpa.

SAT (one time)
V:420
M:660

Im so much better at math.. this must have been a fluke

dreghsSC said:

M:660

Im so much better at math.. this must have been a fluke

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Yeah, a 660 is so sucky and bad

I got 200 points lower on a PSAT then the real SAT and the difference was 6 months. On the practice MCATS I was consistently getting signififcantly lower scores on the verbal, and higher scores in the science sections than on the real exam. Some people have a lot of variabilitiy in their standardized test results.

dreghsSC said:

for those of you who killed the MCAT how much prep time did you give yourself and what was your science gpa.

SAT (one time)
V:420
M:660

Im so much better at math.. this must have been a fluke

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Define "killed"?

I have a 2.88 BPCM gpa, a 36 MCAT, and prepped for three months.

Just in response to the SAT math = MCAT...

Anecdotally (of course):

SAT math: 800
MCAT: 32

Our MCAT scores would be higher if we had the same dumba55 highschool students taking it with us like we had with the SATs.

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We should require NCAA athletes to take the MCAT instead of the SAT to maintain their eligibility.

Unfortunately, if this program got out of hand, we might experience rampant MCAT grade inflation. I can see it now...

"Smith, you've taken the MCAT three times, and your highest score was only 41. I think it's time you started looking at the Caribbean."

My scores, FWIW:

October 2002
SAT Math: 800 (-1)
SAT Verbal: 800 (-2)

January 2002
SAT2 Writing: 780
Essay Subscore: 700

August 2003
13 VR
14 PS
15 BS
N

I'm consistent. Scantrons like me, essay graders don't. My amount of prep was about the same on all...read the prep book, did a few practice tests, blew off the essay on grounds of learned helplessness.

Over a longer period, though, I'd say training would have more of an effect. For instance, if I (for some godforsaken, unforeseeable reason) became an English Literature major, I might leave college able to get an S or T in writing.
(And then I'd still get rejected from med school, because my GPA would be around 1.6 - but whatever.)