1/23 vs 4/1 MCAT question

[nawrp11]

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Hey guys,

I wrote the April 1st MCAT, and I must say that it went way better than I expected. I think I got really lucky and didn't have any questions asked involving my weaker topics, but nonetheless I think I might of done pretty well on it (Early May can't come sooner....).
However, just to be safe, I am going to write the MCAT again on April 23rd; I'm feeling way better about it after studying for a week and having two more weeks to go. I wanted to ask this question: is there anyone on this thread who wrote the January 23rd MCAT and the April 1st MCAT? If there are, how would you compare the difficulties of the two exams? From reading the post-exam comments for the 1/23 and 4/1 exams, it seems to me (Very subjective) that the 1/23 exam was more difficult than the 4/1 exam. Is there someone who has written both of these exams that can attest to this, or prove me wrong?
The reason I ask is:
if the 1/23 exam was in-fact harder than the 4/1 exam, I would assume that the 4/23 exam will not be as "easy" as the 4/1 exam (since the AAMC is capable of altering exam difficulty as testified by 1/23 and 4/1 writers, and that (in my opinion) the 4/1 exam was not very difficult).
However, if the 1/23 exam was about the same as the 4/1 exam, I would see that as a sign that the 4/23 exam probably won't be significantly easier or harder than the 4/1 exam.

thanks

 

[NextStepTutor_2]

Hey guys,

I wrote the April 1st MCAT, and I must say that it went way better than I expected. I think I got really lucky and didn't have any questions asked involving my weaker topics, but nonetheless I think I might of done pretty well on it (Early May can't come sooner....).
However, just to be safe, I am going to write the MCAT again on April 23rd; I'm feeling way better about it after studying for a week and having two more weeks to go. I wanted to ask this question: is there anyone on this thread who wrote the January 23rd MCAT and the April 1st MCAT? If there are, how would you compare the difficulties of the two exams? From reading the post-exam comments for the 1/23 and 4/1 exams, it seems to me (Very subjective) that the 1/23 exam was more difficult than the 4/1 exam. Is there someone who has written both of these exams that can attest to this, or prove me wrong?
The reason I ask is:
if the 1/23 exam was in-fact harder than the 4/1 exam, I would assume that the 4/23 exam will not be as "easy" as the 4/1 exam (since the AAMC is capable of altering exam difficulty as testified by 1/23 and 4/1 writers, and that (in my opinion) the 4/1 exam was not very difficult).
However, if the 1/23 exam was about the same as the 4/1 exam, I would see that as a sign that the 4/23 exam probably won't be significantly easier or harder than the 4/1 exam.

thanks

So you want to take the exam, again, before getting your scores back, and you don't have any bad feelings about how your first test went "it went way better....did not have any questions from weak areas"? This is not a good idea, at all. Did you void the 4/1 exam?

What scores were you getting prior to April 1st? What kind of score do you want? 22 days is not enough time to significantly improve your MCAT score at the higher levels (510-515) as it takes a lot more work to earn those last few percentile positions than it does to go from say a 500 to a 505.

Month to month, year to year the exam will not vary in its scaled scoring. The AAMC has specifically designed it to be this way, they always have. This is why a medical school can compare any MCAT taken in 2015 with any test taken in 2016. There is no way to "get" an easier MCAT based on your test date or the cohort who takes the exam with you (another common premed fallacy). Almost all perceived ease/difficulty on the MCAT is subjective. Your chances of getting a "good exam" for you are no different each time you take the exam.

Unless something really bad happened on test day, or you were not even close to your score goal prior to going in (AAMC scored exam result??) I do not recommend just blindly taking the exam again. MCAT score analyses from previous years show that most students who re-test in less than a month do worse than their first exam, a few do the same, very few do better. You are wasting a valuable score (potentially) and one of your limited allowances to take the MCAT (definitely) for no reasonably expected gain.

Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[Life2dmax]

No. I took both exams and thought they were about equal in difficulty and this is after additional studying from 1/23