august 2000 mcat anomaly

[petros]

did anyone who took the august 2000 mcat have a problem with their exam booklet and write to aamc? one of my passages on the bio section was immediately followed by half of another passage on tryptophan biosynthesis. i was completely confused. i wrote to aamc and called three weeks later to check up on it and they said they never received my complaint. so i sent a fax (complaint#2) and requested a receipt. two weeks later i called again and they said they had no record of any complaint. they asked me to re-fax my complaint(#3), and i got another receipt. three weeks later i called again-you guessed it-"petros who? sorry, nothing on file." one more letter, and i called after they received and they said they physically took care of it. three weeks later, "you have nothing on file. oh here it is! it was in a pile of papers. (they had mistaken it for the common complaint that a QUESTION (not a passage) had been duplicated. thinking it was a duplicated question concern, they disregarded my letter since the mcat often duplicates questions. when she realized this was much more serious, she promised she would run it over to the proper people. one month later,"sorry you have no complaint on file." i even have the names of the people who helped me, but nothing helps. what should i do? it's been 4 months!

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[nmehta]

Disclaimer: I have no experience with the MCAT people.

However, I would really consider if you are happy with your score. At best, they will honor your complaint by allowing you to retake the test. Do you really want to go through that again? I highly doubt that they would raise your score some arbitrary amount because of the mistake.

 

[ana]

I really feel for you -- I know exactly what you are going through.

The MCAT people are a highly unprofessional group. They have a monopoly on a very important piece of the medical school application process, and they simply do not care about individual applicants.

I had an "anomalous" occurrence at my MCAT exam also. The proctor interrupted me several times during two parts of the exam (Verbal and Physics) because she thought I had a watch that was beeping every ten minutes. It happened so often and was so disruptive that it constituted harassment. Finally, someone else in the room fessed up. The proctor never apologized. Worse, she told me a bold face lie: she said the only way to deal with it was by writing the main office (that wasn't true, there was an on-site admiistrator who could have allowed me to take it the following day as there is a separate test administered on Sundays for 7th Day Adventists and Jews). Needless to say, they took six months to reply to me by mail and by phone, admitted they made a mistake, and then said "Sorry, we have no way of refunding your money or allowing you to take the exam for free."

By all means, make them admit they made a mistake. Then make them send you a letter stating that fact that you should take with you to interviews should anyone question your scores. However, do not expect them to behave with professional accomodation. My experience and the experience of others is that they simply do not give a damn.

Sorry if this sounds pissy, but it's the truth.

 

[guy104]

i never complained, but at the time this pissed me off. some lady that was the proctor told us that we only had a certain amount of time left, and she was telling the time wrong. it got involved, and i actually had to stop doing what i was doing to explain to her why the basic math she was trying to calculate was indeed incorrect. it blew my concentration. i don't think i let it hurt me too much, but i definitely had to use extra effort to regain composure after being interrupted during a test i was already freaking out about. i just don't think it's fair that we have to put up with even the most minor inconvenience during a situation that is so crucial as the mcat. anyway, i feel your pain. although my situation wasn't severe enough for me to talk to anyone, i have very little respect for the way the mcat is handled, and i think you should give em hell. good luck.

 

[MrAnonymous]

I took the April MCAT and was seated in front of this girl who was taking the MCAT also. She coughed the entire time during the Biology section... when I say the ENTIRE time I mean the ENTIRE time. In fact, she left the room five times to go get a drink because she was being so disruptive. They gave her a warning that if she would not stop going to get a drink of water they would have to void her MCAT. So she sat right behind coughing all the way through. I couldn't concentrate for even an entire minute. I wanted to move so bad but didn't want to waste my time waiting to be moved. It sucks and it DID affect my Biology score which was a 9. I was so angry cause I didn't truly have enough time to finish the Biology section because that girl kept on coughing and running in and out. Argghh...

 

[KeithKow]

They definately suck. My proctors talked to eachother during the whole verbal section. I'm not an anal guy and I don't complain but i was pretty angry about the whole thing. But I told them pretty politely about it after the section and then it stopped. so it was ok.
And the AMCAS people...don't even get me started on them! they lost my damn application for a month. it just makes me wonder why future doctors have to go through these people.