Flagged mcat

[Neya89]

I was curious if anyone knew how med schools would respond to a mcat taken under non-standard conditions?

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[tncekm]

The only "flagging" I'm familiar with involves people who took the MCAT in conditions that were unfavorable to the student and the AAMC has noticed that schools seem to be taking the flagging seriously and admitting flagged students with lower scores to compensate for the poor testing conditions.

 

[Neya89]

I am dyslexic and have been receiving certain accommodations (in this case, additional testing time and a reader) since the 4th grade. The first time I took the mcat w/o any accommodations bc the aamc had rejected my request and I received a 12N. I re-took it w/ the same accommodations I have been receiving since grade school and got a 34Q. Will med schools take this second attempt seriously even though it was taken under non-standard conditions?

 

[AmjedatKaplan]

The AAMC has some research (not sure if published or not) that they often discuss that deals with this exact topic. The results of the research shows that those who's results were flagged and were accepted typically had higher GPAs than those that were not flagged. This can be interpreted in two ways:

1. Students who's results were flagged were given special accomodations. Assuming that the AAMC precedent for giving accomodation is very strict (it is), then that same student would have received the same accomodation throughout their college career. On average, that accomodation means that their GPA will be slightly higher than those that didn't receive accomodations.

2. MCAT results of students who's results were flagged were looked upon slightly negatively by admissions, which led to slightly higher focus (transated into higher GPA requirement) for those candidates who would've otherwise gotten in with average MCAT scores and GPAs.

I like #2, but it goes against the medical schools' company line of 'flagging does not affect admissions', so they don't like to mention it.

As for what flagging does. Any research that we've done (and AAMC has done too) shows that additional time on the MCAT yields two things:

1. Better scores as the MCAT is a truely speeded tests, and ...
2. Slightly lower validity of the test as it correlates to later performance on boards and in med school.

Neither one of these should be much of a surprise if you think about how 'speeded' a typical physician's life is.

Hope this clarifies some misconceptions on the topic.

Good luck-

The Kaplan Pre-Health Team

 

[Zinger09]

AmjedatKaplan - A flagged MCAT doesn't automatically mean the person had additional time. What if the person needed larger font or even needed to have the test presented to them in brail? A person could be physically impaired so that he/she could not use a computer and needed a different type testing format. Different conditions could be defined as non-standard conditions that would not change the time of the exam.

 

[skijumpbump]

As far as brail goes, can you even be a physician if you are visually impaired to such a level that you must read in brail. If you were blind and a physician would everything for you to practice medicine be in brail, such as syringes, monitors, patient's history information. Not to be un-PC or to anger anyone but in all honesty if you need brail I don't think you should be an MD.

 

[skijumpbump]

Ooops, I guess I am too mentally impaired to post only once.

 

[QofQuimica]

1. Students who's results were flagged were given special accomodations.

I don't think this is always true. My MCAT was apparently flagged since my original test date got cancelled courtesy of Hurricane Charley along with many other Floridian test-takers in August 2004. Floridians took the test two weeks later under otherwise completely standard conditions. I didn't even know that my MCAT was flagged until an interviewer at one OOS school asked me about it; none of the Gulf State school interviewers mentioned the hurricane flag since they must have been seeing tons of them that year. So it seems the flags must be for *any* unusual circumstances, and not just for the student being given increased time. I can darn well guarantee you that I would not have qualified for extra time or any other special accomodations on the MCAT.

2. MCAT results of students who's results were flagged were looked upon slightly negatively by admissions, which led to slightly higher focus (transated into higher GPA requirement) for those candidates who would've otherwise gotten in with average MCAT scores and GPAs.

I had no UG GPA at all, so I have no idea on this one.

OP, in answer to your question, I am sure it depends on the overall strength of your app as well as the overall strength of the app pool, and on the individual adcom. My best advice to you is to apply broadly and choose schools wisely. Get an MSAR, look through the schools' stats and missions, and choose ones that match well with your stats and goals (and that take students from your state). Best of to you.