Do we have any predictions about how the 2015 will affect the admissions process?

[mrh125]

I'm really wondering because based off of my experience and those who have taken trial sections on the current mcat (trial sections basically have 2015 mcat material) the material is a lot harder, requires more reading comprehension, chart analysis, and brute memorization. A lot of us and these are students for SDN who get like 30+ on the current mcat get like 30-40% on these trials sections. There may be some bias to that, but will the 2015 mcat change the admissions process? there are a lot more sections and I really have to wonder what the scores will be like for the first few months especially if there's a very limited amount of practice material and how this will affect admissions at schools.

Any ideas?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[boomshaketheroom]

People who have experience in labs and reading unfamiliar techniques in papers will do better on the biochem section. I don't think I missed one on the biochem trial section until I decided I didn't want to be there anymore and starting randomly guessing.

 

[lmn]

I really don't think it's going to be as bad as people say, I got a 56% after the exhaustion of doing the actual test and just wanting to leave, I was skimming all of the passages and questions in a way that probably took about a 1/4 of the time or less than how I did the actual test, not to mention that I really didn't care the least if I got the questions right, so most of it was just semi-educated guessing. If it hadn't been a few years since taking psych and all the other humanities classes, and/or if I had actually studied the material it could have been really doable I believe. The science passages were more health related and didn't require you to have experience reading academic journals or taking cell bio to understand easily; I really think the only challenging part of this test (besides the first year or two of figuring out what material to study) will be the length of the test.

Granted this is just my experience with the trial section I took, I haven't really looked into the specifics of the new changes.

 

[darklabel]

Isn't it all out of 15 for each section?

My prediction:

40 will be the new 30.

The average applicant will probably have between 34-38 (8's and 9's in each section) and the matriculant average will probably be 41-45 (10's and 11's in each section).

 

[Lucca]

I'm not surprised test takers who trained specifically to take one exam find another version - that they didn't train for - of that exam harder.

Not to mention fatigue, apathy, hunger, boredom, etc.

My guess is that the average will be slightly lower than the equivalent average now simply because less information will be out on the exam but eventually it will even out.

Fatigue will become a much bigger factor in the expanded 7 hour exam so students will have to train their mental stamina as well as their acumen.

I foresee SDN threads on best meal combinations for the lunch break to maximize focus/energy (honestly I dont know why these threads dont already exist, nutrition is an enormous part of performance and you are selling your body short if you are not paying attention).

 

[lmn]

Fatigue will become a much bigger factor in the expanded 7 hour exam so students will have to train their mental stamina as well as their acumen.

I foresee SDN threads on best meal combinations for the lunch break to maximize focus/energy (honestly I dont know why these threads dont already exist, nutrition is an enormous part of performance and you are selling your body short if you are not paying attention).

I'm sure you could go look in the medical forums regarding step exams if you wanted this info from this forum specifically. But I agree that it will become much more important, I was so nervous my test day that I couldn't even eat lol, that would have been much more punishing if the test was as long as it will be in the future.