Can someone explain this scoring issue?

[bigchoader]

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I took CBT 8 from aamc and in the physical sciences i recieved a score of ten. But when I went back and changed two answers to see what I would have gotten had I answered these two easy questions correctly, I found that my score could have been 12. So missing two questions brought me from a 12 to a ten. How is that possible? are some questions worth more than others?

 

[Anastasis]

I took CBT 8 from aamc and in the physical sciences i recieved a score of ten. But when I went back and changed two answers to see what I would have gotten had I answered these two easy questions correctly, I found that my score could have been 12. So missing two questions brought me from a 12 to a ten. How is that possible? are some questions worth more than others?

In theory, yes.

That seems alittle extreme though. I took the practice exams on paper and when you scale those all questions are equal weight.

I didn't realize they were changing the value of each question when it went to CBT. Interesting.

 

[Swatch_VR]

In theory, yes.

That seems alittle extreme though. I took the practice exams on paper and when you scale those all questions are equal weight.

I didn't realize they were changing the value of each question when it went to CBT. Interesting.

But the OP said he changed answers to two easy questions though. How could two easy questions possibly each worth one point each on a 15 point scale?

 

[Anastasis]

But the OP said he changed answers to two easy questions though. How could two easy questions possibly each worth one point each on a 15 point scale?

Okay think about it in the reverse then...

You have someone that started out with a 12 and missed two questions. Now 12 is a decent score, so which makes more sense:

Missing 2 easy questions that most likely most people got right drops you from a 12 to a 10
Or missing 2 hard questions that probably lots of people missed dropping you from a 12 to a 10.

It makes more sense that missing the easy ones will drop you more because more people would have gotten those questions correct.

 

[estairella]

I think OP and Anastasis are not on the same wavelength

To OP: No, some questions are not worth more than others on an individual level. What Anastasis is referring to is the fact that the scale (1 to 15) is based on percentiles, not how many you get right. That means the difference between 7 and 8 might be 10 questions, but the difference between 12 and 13 might only be 1 question. I agree that 1 question between 10/11 and 1 between 11/12 is extreme, but hey, that's the price you pay for having fewer questions.

 

[bigchoader]

Wow, both of those answers make really good sense! I wonder which one actually is true?

 

[gridiron]

Wow, both of those answers make really good sense! I wonder which one actually is true?

Its tough to try to figure out how the MCAT is scored. However, I wouldn't focus to much on the question dillemma. The following is taken from the MCAT student manual:

"For example, if your raw score on one of the sections is between 40 and 43, your converted score might be 11. Scores ranging from 44 to 46 might have a converted score of 12, and so forth. The exact conversion of raw to scaled scores is not constant; because different sets of questions are used on different test dates, the conversion of raw scores to scaled scores compensates for small variations in difficulty between sets of questions."

and--

"Scaled scores on the MCAT can be interpreted as percentile rank ranges based on the performance of all students taking the test during a given administration or in a given year. The percentages of students achieving each scaled score vary somewhat from one administration to another."

Because of this, its tough to get a feel on the scoring of the MCAT. I know this is easier said then done, but don't worry too much on the scoring. On test day, just focus on answering every question because you just never know...