Are you allowed to use Control+F on the MCAT?

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osprey099

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On the AAMC FL's, a really convenient technique I implement especially for the verbal section is control+f to search for a term that a question mentions. This saves me the time to look for it in the passage. For those of you who took the MCAT, does this function work for the MCAT?
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osprey099 said:
On the AAMC FL's, a really convenient technique I implement especially for the verbal section is control+f to search for a term that a question mentions. This saves me the time to look for it in the passage. For those of you who took the MCAT, does this function work for the MCAT?
Click to expand...

Won't work.
 
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Nope unfortunately. If you find a unique word in the passage you should hilight it, there's probably a question on it
 
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No, it's a feature found only on the practice tests. The PTs tell you this themselves during the tutorial. God only knows why AAMC thought it was a good idea to put that feature in the PTs, it can only serve to screw people up who aren't aware that that feature won't be on the real thing. Obviously you should never use it; just pretend it isn't there.

For the record, here are the other differences between the real thing and the practice exams:


  • Ctrl+V, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+X do not work on the writing section on the real exam.
  • Right click does not work on the real exam.
  • Mouse wheels do not scroll the question frame for you on the real exam, although inexplicably the mouse wheel does still scroll the passage text for you.
  • Strike-outs do not show up correctly for questions with figures or equations in them on the real exam. It just ends up putting a negative sign to the left of the figure/equation which is obviously a big problem.
  • There is an additional time warning on the real exam that pops up when you have 5 minutes left on a section.
  • The resolution and aspect ratio on the monitors in the test center are very likely lower than what you're used to at home. The consequence of this is that passages and question stems seem longer than they really are. Don't be intimidated when you see this.
  • The lower left hand corner lists your position in the test by passage, not by question # (so it'll say "Passage 6 of 7" rather than "Questions 44-49").
  • After the tutorial section at the start of the test there is an additional 10 minute section where you agree or disagree to the testing conditions.
  • There is a survey at the end of the real exam.
  • There is a bug in the real exam that causes it to not give you your score immediately after you finish but instead makes you wait 30 days to get it back.
 
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Law123 said:
Can you change resolutions? Or use ctrl +/- to make text bigger/smaller?
Click to expand...
The desktop is locked down so I doubt it (and even if you could the monitors are LCDs so you wouldn't want to). As for ctrl +/-, I didn't think to try it. The resolution/aspect ratio really shouldn't be a problem; it just seems to be something that psychs a lot of people out who are used to viewing passages on, say, a 1920x1080 monitor.

If you want to practice with testing conditions, hook up a 1280x1024 monitor to your computer. I'm pretty sure that's what the resolution of my monitor was at the testing center.
 
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OCDOCDOCD said:
No, it's a feature found only on the practice tests. The PTs tell you this themselves during the tutorial. God only knows why AAMC thought it was a good idea to put that feature in the PTs, it can only serve to screw people up who aren't aware that that feature won't be on the real thing. Obviously you should never use it; just pretend it isn't there.

For the record, here are the other differences between the real thing and the practice exams:


  • Ctrl+V, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+X do not work on the writing section on the real exam.
  • Right click does not work on the real exam.
  • Mouse wheels do not scroll the question frame for you on the real exam, although inexplicably the mouse wheel does still scroll the passage text for you.
  • Strike-outs do not show up correctly for questions with figures or equations in them on the real exam. It just ends up putting a negative sign to the left of the figure/equation which is obviously a big problem.
  • There is an additional time warning on the real exam that pops up when you have 5 minutes left on a section.
  • The resolution and aspect ratio on the monitors in the test center are very likely lower than what you're used to at home. The consequence of this is that passages and question stems seem longer than they really are. Don't be intimidated when you see this.
  • The lower left hand corner lists your position in the test by passage, not by question # (so it'll say "Passage 6 of 7" rather than "Questions 44-49").
  • After the tutorial section at the start of the test there is an additional 10 minute section where you agree or disagree to the testing conditions.
  • There is a survey at the end of the real exam.
  • There is a bug in the real exam that causes it to not give you your score immediately after you finish but instead makes you wait 30 days to get it back.
Click to expand...


Thanks for this :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
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OCDOCDOCD said:
No, it's a feature found only on the practice tests. The PTs tell you this themselves during the tutorial. God only knows why AAMC thought it was a good idea to put that feature in the PTs, it can only serve to screw people up who aren't aware that that feature won't be on the real thing. Obviously you should never use it; just pretend it isn't there.

For the record, here are the other differences between the real thing and the practice exams:


  • Ctrl+V, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+X do not work on the writing section on the real exam.
  • Right click does not work on the real exam.
  • Mouse wheels do not scroll the question frame for you on the real exam, although inexplicably the mouse wheel does still scroll the passage text for you.
  • Strike-outs do not show up correctly for questions with figures or equations in them on the real exam. It just ends up putting a negative sign to the left of the figure/equation which is obviously a big problem.
  • There is an additional time warning on the real exam that pops up when you have 5 minutes left on a section.
  • The resolution and aspect ratio on the monitors in the test center are very likely lower than what you're used to at home. The consequence of this is that passages and question stems seem longer than they really are. Don't be intimidated when you see this.
  • The lower left hand corner lists your position in the test by passage, not by question # (so it'll say "Passage 6 of 7" rather than "Questions 44-49").
  • After the tutorial section at the start of the test there is an additional 10 minute section where you agree or disagree to the testing conditions.
  • There is a survey at the end of the real exam.
  • There is a bug in the real exam that causes it to not give you your score immediately after you finish but instead makes you wait 30 days to get it back.
Click to expand...
Amazing post! :thumbup: Thanks for the info OCD.
 
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OCDOCDOCD said:
No, it's a feature found only on the practice tests. The PTs tell you this themselves during the tutorial. God only knows why AAMC thought it was a good idea to put that feature in the PTs, it can only serve to screw people up who aren't aware that that feature won't be on the real thing. Obviously you should never use it; just pretend it isn't there.

For the record, here are the other differences between the real thing and the practice exams:


  • Ctrl+V, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+X do not work on the writing section on the real exam.
  • Right click does not work on the real exam.
  • Mouse wheels do not scroll the question frame for you on the real exam, although inexplicably the mouse wheel does still scroll the passage text for you.
  • Strike-outs do not show up correctly for questions with figures or equations in them on the real exam. It just ends up putting a negative sign to the left of the figure/equation which is obviously a big problem.
  • There is an additional time warning on the real exam that pops up when you have 5 minutes left on a section.
  • The resolution and aspect ratio on the monitors in the test center are very likely lower than what you're used to at home. The consequence of this is that passages and question stems seem longer than they really are. Don't be intimidated when you see this.
  • The lower left hand corner lists your position in the test by passage, not by question # (so it'll say "Passage 6 of 7" rather than "Questions 44-49").
  • After the tutorial section at the start of the test there is an additional 10 minute section where you agree or disagree to the testing conditions.
  • There is a survey at the end of the real exam.
  • There is a bug in the real exam that causes it to not give you your score immediately after you finish but instead makes you wait 30 days to get it back.
Click to expand...
:laugh:
 
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gettheleadout said:
OCD, can you give an example of the strike-out issue? I'm having a hard time visualizing what you're referring to.
Click to expand...

mcatshenanigans.png


Notice the broken strike-out mark to the left of the figure. That's what I saw when I tried to strikeout figures and equations on exam day. Maybe it was just a technical issue with my computer though since I find it weird that the practice tests have no problem doing this but the real thing does, but this was my experience nonetheless.
 
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OCDOCDOCD said:
Notice the broken strike-out mark to the left of the figure. That's what I saw when I tried to strikeout figures and equations on exam day. Maybe it was just a technical issue with my computer though since I find it weird that the practice tests have no problem doing this but the real thing does, but this was my experience nonetheless.
Click to expand...


Yeah that's pretty bad if that's like that for all of them.
 
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OCDOCDOCD said:
mcatshenanigans.png


Notice the broken strike-out mark to the left of the figure. That's what I saw when I tried to strikeout figures and equations on exam day. Maybe it was just a technical issue with my computer though since I find it weird that the practice tests have no problem doing this but the real thing does, but this was my experience nonetheless.
Click to expand...

YES! I noticed this when I took the test on the 17th and it was driving me crazy, haha.
 
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