April test = Big Curve?

[Tweetie_bird]

How true is that?? I have noticed that a lot of people are taking it cold, and a lot more were doing it knowing that they will HAVE to take it again this August. Is the curve really better in April versus Aug? Or is this something we just say to make ourselves feel better?

Tweets

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[Medical123]

You know, there may be some truth to that. A lot of us have classes, etc that we are trying to do in addition to studying for the MCAT. Most people are not sure what to expect when they go into the exam the first time and that can also affect a person's score. From what I was hearing at my test center, no one felt all that great about the exam and most of them felt that they would be back in August and spend the summer doing nothing, but studying for the test. One girl even left our test center crying!

 

[mpp]

Hey tweetie...where you been? At one time you were a post-a-holic. Did you take a break until after the MCAT was over?

 

[leorl]

Good god, I hope so! HI TWEETIE

 

[Tweetie_bird]

Hiya kids!
ya, I did take time off from SDN b/c of two reasons--
1. MCAT studying time..
2. I met somebody really nice and fell in love with that beautiful soul.

Between those two things, I had absolutely no time ....so it's true, I had to abandon SDN for a while but I'm back with a bang! It's so nice to see you guys again, albeit I wish I could be beaming and say "I did well on my MCAT!" but that's life....

Tweetie

 

[RT]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Tweetie_bird:
•How true is that?? I have noticed that a lot of people are taking it cold, and a lot more were doing it knowing that they will HAVE to take it again this August. Is the curve really better in April versus Aug? Or is this something we just say to make ourselves feel better?
Tweets•••••That's what I was hoping for.

April MCAT takers are new, busy with classes, stressed out that they have little time either to study or to mentally prepare themselves for a Saturday test.

August takers however have a whole summer to prepare themselves. Even if they work, they could take a week off before the test for additional preparation. They're more likely to have less stress.

Although there will be the same # (%tile) of people who receive 15, 14, 13, etc..., philosophically, taking it in April is more likely to get you a higher scaled score.

 

[RT]

Reasonable Speculation

But NO, AAMC does not want to tell us that. Heheh. Their examinee data only concerned with %tile, not raw scores; and of course, the %tile came out to be the same every year. We found out nevertheless.

 

[CoffeeCat]

I heard that the scores are compared to a previous testing YEAR! So that the students are not compared to each other and that April vs. August shouldn't matter. Any comments?

 

[Epi]

Test scores can be compared from year to year, so i think that they factor it in and it should not matter when you take the test, august or april, you still will be able to compare your scores with other people. i think thats how they curve it so that the distribution is the same every year