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Quesiton:
The MCAT being a standardized test SHOULD be able to accurately gauge one's score regardless of the testing adminstration. I would assume that a 39 or a 30 on a test this year should reasonably correlate to a 39 or 30 on a test from the previous years.
However, clearly the MAJORITY of people taking the August MCAT would have a substantial difference in the OPPORTUNITY to study given classes and responsbilities during the school year. Whether or not people take advantage of this time is a different story. If we assume that a significant percent do take this time and ARE better prepared (ie. can only correlate to more knowledge, not neccisarily better test takers), one should expect a better score on the August MCAT than if those people take the MCAT in April. For those of you who say that knowledge does not matter, I refer you to the MSAR >
"The MCAT is also a test of achievement, not aptitude; the MCAT measures mastery of what one has learned rather than one's potential for learning.....review of coure material prior to taking the MCAT is highly recommended"
SO, let's say for the moment that better preperation leads to a higher RAW score on the mcat for this percent that decides to take the MCAT in August. When I refer to "higher" I mean a better raw score than if they were to take the SAME test without AS MUCH preparation (meaning they had other responsibilities or whatever).
Now here's where I don't understand how things works?? Maybe somebody could help me. I assume there is a score distribution for the April test. Now GIVEN THAT there is more people scoring a higher RAW score (and don't tell me there isn't, the MCAT people strive to make both tests equally difficult), the RAW score distribution for the August would be different. IMPORTANT: WE have no way of knowing FOR SURE if this isn't the true case>>MCAT only releases the SCALED SCORE. Who knows what the RAW scores were.
I realize they have to reset all the tests to past tests. But what I don't understand is:
If a signficant group of test takers get a higher RAW score on the August MCAT. How can the MCAT people differentiate between this being the result of "better prepared" test takers or that the "test was easier" than the April MCAT or any other test adminstration for example. The simply couldn't match curves (meaning forcing a distribution) because this would be unfair to the better prepared students in August > since the "MCAT is a test of achievement; not aptitude" > it would be possible that a better prepared student (than an April student) would score in the same percentile as (the lower prepared student in April)
My main point here: Though MCAT writers do try to make the tests of equal difficulty >> the only true gauge is the performance of the testakers. If the testakers themselves are skewed (meaning maybe more of them covered a particular topic better because they had more time ie. optics) and therefore did better, then how do the testmakers know that their test wasn't easier OR that the test-takers just knew the topics better? I would also imagine that since less people take the August MCAT these matters would only be amplified.
I think finally this comes down to the myth about an August MCAT "curve" being tougher than the April MCAT. I don't buy it since if it were, then the MCAT would not be truly standardized. But I can't seem to figure out a logic behind how they COULD standardized without intentionally or unintentionally hurting some test takers? Which makes the myth regarding the "curves" that much more interesting. Is my entire reasoning irrelevant in that the raw scores just aren't as different??? How do we know this fact??? MCAT only gives us the scaled scores correct???? We have no way of know how they do this????
I realize I have made a lot of assumptions (ones I think are reasonable to some degree) and such but I think you get the general Idea. Please any thoughts/comments/or whatever would be great.
~ Zep
The MCAT being a standardized test SHOULD be able to accurately gauge one's score regardless of the testing adminstration. I would assume that a 39 or a 30 on a test this year should reasonably correlate to a 39 or 30 on a test from the previous years.
However, clearly the MAJORITY of people taking the August MCAT would have a substantial difference in the OPPORTUNITY to study given classes and responsbilities during the school year. Whether or not people take advantage of this time is a different story. If we assume that a significant percent do take this time and ARE better prepared (ie. can only correlate to more knowledge, not neccisarily better test takers), one should expect a better score on the August MCAT than if those people take the MCAT in April. For those of you who say that knowledge does not matter, I refer you to the MSAR >
"The MCAT is also a test of achievement, not aptitude; the MCAT measures mastery of what one has learned rather than one's potential for learning.....review of coure material prior to taking the MCAT is highly recommended"
SO, let's say for the moment that better preperation leads to a higher RAW score on the mcat for this percent that decides to take the MCAT in August. When I refer to "higher" I mean a better raw score than if they were to take the SAME test without AS MUCH preparation (meaning they had other responsibilities or whatever).
Now here's where I don't understand how things works?? Maybe somebody could help me. I assume there is a score distribution for the April test. Now GIVEN THAT there is more people scoring a higher RAW score (and don't tell me there isn't, the MCAT people strive to make both tests equally difficult), the RAW score distribution for the August would be different. IMPORTANT: WE have no way of knowing FOR SURE if this isn't the true case>>MCAT only releases the SCALED SCORE. Who knows what the RAW scores were.
I realize they have to reset all the tests to past tests. But what I don't understand is:
If a signficant group of test takers get a higher RAW score on the August MCAT. How can the MCAT people differentiate between this being the result of "better prepared" test takers or that the "test was easier" than the April MCAT or any other test adminstration for example. The simply couldn't match curves (meaning forcing a distribution) because this would be unfair to the better prepared students in August > since the "MCAT is a test of achievement; not aptitude" > it would be possible that a better prepared student (than an April student) would score in the same percentile as (the lower prepared student in April)
My main point here: Though MCAT writers do try to make the tests of equal difficulty >> the only true gauge is the performance of the testakers. If the testakers themselves are skewed (meaning maybe more of them covered a particular topic better because they had more time ie. optics) and therefore did better, then how do the testmakers know that their test wasn't easier OR that the test-takers just knew the topics better? I would also imagine that since less people take the August MCAT these matters would only be amplified.
I think finally this comes down to the myth about an August MCAT "curve" being tougher than the April MCAT. I don't buy it since if it were, then the MCAT would not be truly standardized. But I can't seem to figure out a logic behind how they COULD standardized without intentionally or unintentionally hurting some test takers? Which makes the myth regarding the "curves" that much more interesting. Is my entire reasoning irrelevant in that the raw scores just aren't as different??? How do we know this fact??? MCAT only gives us the scaled scores correct???? We have no way of know how they do this????
I realize I have made a lot of assumptions (ones I think are reasonable to some degree) and such but I think you get the general Idea. Please any thoughts/comments/or whatever would be great.
~ Zep