Can Someone Explain The Experimental Passages On The Mcat?

[kingsfan]

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Hey,

I've heard about some experimental questions and passages. Can anyone shed light on this and how the AAMC incorporates this into the scoring? Thanks.

 

[DrBowtie]

Hey,

I've heard about some experimental questions and passages. Can anyone shed light on this and how the AAMC incorporates this into the scoring? Thanks.

Simple. They aren't used to calculate your score.

 

[HunterGatherer]

How does the MCAT get test questions?
A large pool of content experts writes the items. New items are included in each administration of the MCAT as "field test" questions. Field test questions are not scored, but they are assessed for their performance and, if they are approved, are used on a future MCAT.


http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/about/faqs.htm

 

[Avicenna04]

What is keeping us from leaving it blank then?

 

[DrBowtie]

What is keeping us from leaving it blank then?

Because you dont know which ones they are

 

[DrVanNostran]

Because you dont know which ones they are

 

[HunterGatherer]

What is keeping us from leaving it blank then?

 

[akinf]

🙂

 

[NontradICUdoc]

What is keeping us from leaving it blank then?

wanting a good score

 

[luckycharms08]

well like on the SAT you knew one of the sections was definitely experimental, even if you didn't know which one.

is it the same for the MCAT? is a certain number of the passages definitely experimental?

 

[Schaden Freud]

well like on the SAT you knew one of the sections was definitely experimental, even if you didn't know which one.

is it the same for the MCAT? is a certain number of the passages definitely experimental?

Depending on your luck in life, the experimental questions are always either the ones you got all right or the ones you got all wrong.

 

[luckycharms08]

Depending on your luck in life, the experimental questions are always either the ones you got all right or the ones you got all wrong.

that doesn't really answer my question?

 

[joueaupluie]

well like on the SAT you knew one of the sections was definitely experimental, even if you didn't know which one.

is it the same for the MCAT? is a certain number of the passages definitely experimental?

They definately don't tell you how many are exper. or even if there are any ... actually on the day of the test they don't even mention exper. passages.
(I didn't even know there were any until I read this thread 🙂)

 

[DrCurious]

A little scary to think that some of those questions may have not counted. Maybe I'll be in for a good surprise come score release this month 😳

 

[GeoMay22]

Although I don't think anybody can answer this, I was thinking about it the other day. Does anyone think that they place the experimental questions in strategic places on the test? Do they put them at the beginning so that it is more likely people will answer them so that the results of how people answered them are more accurate (don't the use the results for research?) I don't think they would put them at the end test because many test takers do not finish the exam. This leads me to believe that these experimental questions would hurt the slower test takers because they waste time answering questions that don't count toward their score and have to guess on questions at the end that do count.

Any opinions on how they may do it?

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

Although I don't think anybody can answer this, I was thinking about it the other day. Does anyone think that they place the experimental questions in strategic places on the test? Do they put them at the beginning so that it is more likely people will answer them so that the results of how people answered them are more accurate (don't the use the results for research?) I don't think they would put them at the end test because many test takers do not finish the exam. This leads me to believe that these experimental questions would hurt the slower test takers because they waste time answering questions that don't count toward their score and have to guess on questions at the end that do count.

Any opinions on how they may do it?

Agree. It would be a pretty useless "experiment" if nobody participated in it, so they are probably in the middle of the test or maybe somewhere in the range of questions 20-50 (for BS and PS). Most people will at least answer 50 of the questions. I think it is kind of cruel that they tell you about these "experiments" because it only makes people freak out and worry that they waste time on them. But then again, maybe by law they have to tell us that they are in there.

 

[Schaden Freud]

Agree. It would be a pretty useless "experiment" if nobody participated in it, so they are probably in the middle of the test or maybe somewhere in the range of questions 20-50 (for BS and PS). Most people will at least answer 50 of the questions. I think it is kind of cruel that they tell you about these "experiments" because it only makes people freak out and worry that they waste time on them. But then again, maybe by law they have to tell us that they are in there.

I strongly doubt that the AAMC has any legal obligations to the examinees.
And every standardized test has to have experimental questions- how else would they see where future sample items lie on the difficulty scale?

Additionally, since the MCAT is a content test and not a speeded test, 80% of examinees by definition must finish the entire thing, so this may allow them to place experimental questions at the end. Additionally, they may screen out obvious out-of-time guessers from the analysis of those questions by eliminating anyone who answered the same letter choice for the last 5 to 10 questions.

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

I strongly doubt that the AAMC has any legal obligations to the examinees.
And every standardized test has to have experimental questions- how else would they see where future sample items lie on the difficulty scale?

Additionally, since the MCAT is a content test and not a speeded test, 80% of examinees by definition must finish the entire thing, so this may allow them to place experimental questions at the end. Additionally, they may screen out obvious out-of-time guessers from the analysis of those questions by eliminating anyone who answered the same letter choice for the last 5 to 10 questions.

Your saying it is legal to perform experiments on people, even if they are by throwing in questions on a test? I could be wrong, but I thought it was illegal to perform experiments on people, regardless of how it is done, without them knowing about it. The again, I could be wrong 😳

 

[DrBowtie]

Your saying it is legal to perform experiments on people, even if they are by throwing in questions on a test? I could be wrong, but I thought it was illegal to perform experiments on people, regardless of how it is done, without them knowing about it. The again, I could be wrong 😳

You do know about it...
Read the fine print.

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

You do know about it...
Read the fine print.

that's the point i'm trying to make. I'm saying I think they are legally bound to inform us about these types of questions......and why I am saying it sucks to even know about them. the op was saying they do not think they are legally bound to say anything about these questions....they just do it out of the goodness of their hearts.....or to mess with our heads, and if thats the case, I think that is MESSED UP

 

[DrBowtie]

that's the point i'm trying to make. I'm saying I think they are legally bound to inform us about these types of questions......and why I am saying it sucks to even know about them. the op was saying they do not think they are legally bound to say anything about these questions....they just do it out of the goodness of their hearts.....or to mess with our heads, and if thats the case, I think that is MESSED UP

If anything its a good thing. You can potentially miss more questions and still get a good score.

When people complain about timing, they can't point to the experimental as bad. The section X minutes and has Y questions. You answer them all.

 

[DrCurious]

It also depends on how many so called experimental passages/questions there are, if they only have a handful per form than it is unlikely to sway scores much. However, since scores after 8-9 are very close (2-4 questions correct) it may cause a huge jump, or drop, in your score.

Personally I like the idea of the experimentals because, although unlikely, there is the slim possibility I performed better than I suspected because I got lucky by getting the ones wrong that were experimental. But who knows, I guess we will all have an idea in a week or two.

On another note, does verbal also have experimental questions? In which case a whole passage would have to be experimental. Hopefully it was that damn agriculture thing, sad how I still remember it. 🙂

 

[Schaden Freud]

It also depends on how many so called experimental passages/questions there are, if they only have a handful per form than it is unlikely to sway scores much. However, since scores after 8-9 are very close (2-4 questions correct) it may cause a huge jump, or drop, in your score.

Personally I like the idea of the experimentals because, although unlikely, there is the slim possibility I performed better than I suspected because I got lucky by getting the ones wrong that were experimental. But who knows, I guess we will all have an idea in a week or two.

On another note, does verbal also have experimental questions? In which case a whole passage would have to be experimental. Hopefully it was that damn agriculture thing, sad how I still remember it. 🙂

Verbal definitely has experimentals. I think they're individual questions, though, not whole passages.

 

[girlsporty]

Verbal definitely has experimentals. I think they're individual questions, though, not whole passages.

There was something fishy about that agriculture one... I agree.

I'm hoping that the killer O-Chem problem (the +/- one) is experimental. Ironically, it was about an experiment....

 

[choklad]

How does it affect the scoring of the actual exam questions, though?

There will still be 77 questions in PS and BS and those include experimental questions, rt? So the scoring table would be different? 😕

 

[MrMet31]

There was something fishy about that agriculture one... I agree.

I'm hoping that the killer O-Chem problem (the +/- one) is experimental. Ironically, it was about an experiment....

Amen