Changes for the NEW MCAT in 2003

[Sm00th13]

I just wanted to get a survey on what people thought about the verbal being condensed from 65 to 60 questions, and more genetics and less orgo. advantage or Disadvantage? And what changes would you suggest to the MCAT people.

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[cheech10]

There are some older threads on this topic; you might want to look them up. Personally, I don't think it will make much of a difference. It's still scored on a percentile basis, and because of this, what matters is how well you do compared to the other test-takers, not how well you do on the exam (ie. # of questions correct). The verbal section decrease in number of questions may make it more competitive, however. As it stands now, speed readers and generally quicker students have an advantage, whereas with the shorter section more reasoning may come into play. But again, it won't make that big a difference.

 

[A. Caveman]

cheech hasnt' been hangin out with chong lately; he's making a lot of sense here (and there).

usually for the verbal most people don't finish, like i didn't. that's ok since most don't, but some do finish and have that advantage. having less questions means that those people who were fast enough to finish before will lost their advantage, and the highest scores will go to those that answer the most questions right out of 60. before it was like most people answering the most out of 60 while some answere the best they could out of 65 (cuz they finished, understand?). now it will all be about who's getting the highest % correct out of the same number of ques, cuz the vast majority can do 60 questions in the time alloted. plus making the scores go up to 15 for the first time in years, should be nice, and will get those verbal scores in line with the scores on other sections (usually verbal is like one point lower)

 

[cheech10]

I like the Chong reference! But my name is actually a family nickname, and I have nothing in common with Cheech Marin. I did enjoy Still Smokin' though....

 

[grunermann]

I think that AMCAS should take it over, and that it should ONLY be web base and done on a dial-up connection. Each section should be limited to 30 minutes and the writing to 20 characters total.

 

[praying mantis]

They are trying to make the Verbal section harder in order to be able to score it on a 1-15 basis. At the moment, the highest score you can get is 13*. So although there will be less questions, it won't be easier!