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I wonder since only ~2000 people took the test, but I see here in SDN and in my school with so many scores of 30 and up
Do you think more people got 30+ on this CBT MCAT than usual?
- Thread starter GoLAClippers
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I'm pretty sure the MCAT scores are scaled based on the scores of everyone else who took it at the same time. This gives the same general % breakdown of scores.
If an unusually large number of people were answering enough questions correctly to get a 30 based on past scales, the scale would change so that the scores more accurately reflect where the individual score was compared to his peers.
If an unusually large number of people were answering enough questions correctly to get a 30 based on past scales, the scale would change so that the scores more accurately reflect where the individual score was compared to his peers.
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obviously people with lower scores are going to be more quiet about it than people with great scores.
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I looked at my old score report (April 06) and compared it with the percentages for my new score. I had all the data for the old one, but only my data for the new test. Believe it or not the percentiles associated with each score were higher for the Jan 07 test than the previous one. I don't have my old report here in my office, but I'll post the comparison when I find that sheet again.
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I concur.
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only mcat masters post up on SDN
But I think SDN is an inaccurate representation of all the Pre Meds in the country.
exactly, see the following threads on today's first page:
Taking the MCATs for a 3rd time..
HOw does a 7 on verbal look?
One Word (verbal) !!!!!!!
Is it possible to increse the score by 8 points in 4 months?
does it look bad to retake the MCAT??
What are discretes???
Am I screwed?
yep... masters
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I think it's actually the opposite. Here are the score percentiles for the two administrations that I participated in. It seems like you had to score in a higher percentile range (especially for VR) in order to get a given scaled score. If this is true, there are actually FEWER high scores on this CBT than on last year's spring administration. If you fill in your own data we might get a more complete picture.
Scaled Score: Apr 06 Jan 07
PS
8 37.5-52
9 52.1-66.6
10 66.7-80.9
11 81.0-90.5
12 90.6-94.6
13 94.7-97.4
14 97.5-99.5 97.6-99.7
15 99.6-99.9
VR
8 35.9-46.6
9 46.7-63.6
10 63.7-78.6
11 78.7-92.2 82.6-94.1
12 92.3-97.3
13 97.4-99.4
14 99.5-99.9
15 99.9-99.9
BS
8 26.6-40.2
9 40.3-59.9
10 60.0-76.8
11 76.9-88.8
12 88.9-93.9 88.0-94.5
13 94.0-98.1
14 98.2-99.7
15 99.8-99.9
Scaled Score: Apr 06 Jan 07
PS
8 37.5-52
9 52.1-66.6
10 66.7-80.9
11 81.0-90.5
12 90.6-94.6
13 94.7-97.4
14 97.5-99.5 97.6-99.7
15 99.6-99.9
VR
8 35.9-46.6
9 46.7-63.6
10 63.7-78.6
11 78.7-92.2 82.6-94.1
12 92.3-97.3
13 97.4-99.4
14 99.5-99.9
15 99.9-99.9
BS
8 26.6-40.2
9 40.3-59.9
10 60.0-76.8
11 76.9-88.8
12 88.9-93.9 88.0-94.5
13 94.0-98.1
14 98.2-99.7
15 99.8-99.9
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1) i would take the scores reported on SDN with a grain of salt. We all know ppl may say whatever they want and there is no proof they are reporting the acctual score.
2) obviously 20+ ppl reporting their score are not a representative sample of thousands of ppl who acctually took test.
3) many of my pre-med friends asked about the SDN where like :"HUUUUHHH???"
4) in general ppl who care a lot about getting into med school as well as those who are quite resourceful will run into this website.
Now if you care/are resourceful you are most likely to study your brains out, find out what materials are good (for instance most ppl at my school have no clue what EK is but they took Kaplan or TPR and did really bad on the MCAT...not to bash Kaplan or TPR but different things work for different ppl and SDN is a huuuuuge source of info and advice which definetly can make one find the right approach and score much higher on the MCAT).
Besides ppl here on SDN help each other out. It really helps to study when you can talk to other ppl in the same possition or can ask questions to figure out the best way to beat the MCAT.
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I agree. I scored in the low 30s and was incredibly excited (apparently the "I'm going to medical school victory dance" was fairly impressive to everyone else in lab). Then I signed on to SDN and saw all these people posting with 37 and 36 and started getting less excited. But then I got my brain back to the real world and was started looking at average MCATs for acceptance to medical school and realized that hey, whole bunches of people get low 30s and go to medical school. So SDN is not a great place to look for what an "average MCAT score" is. If your school as a pre-med report that's a good resource, or the MSAR can give you an idea about past years.
sorry if my question is stupid, but based on the scaled scores that are posted does it mean that you can get an 8 in a section by getting 35% of the questions right? or is that the curve? thanks
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I think that the percentile means that you did better than 35% of the applicants. Try looking here. http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/mcatessentials.pdf
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Fiddle girl is correct except it's the percentage of test takers that you scored higher than. A lot of test takers don't end up becoming applicants after they get their scores.
