From the AAMC: MCAT Registration Update

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copa

copa

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Our servers are being swamped, so people are getting timeouts.
:oops:
It seems everyone wanted to get in EXACTLY at 9:00, so now, it's very, very slow. At 8:45, everything worked fine. There's a bottleneck somewhere in the system that shouldn't be there, and 5000 hits in a second is bogging it down. Our system guys are on the hunt, but in the meantime, going to get a cup of coffee and letting the load die down a bit could actually help solve the problem.

We're fully staffed this fine holiday, and working to get us all past this hump. We appreciate your patience.

Thank you,
Ellen Julian
Director of the MCAT
(yes, I'm outting myself)
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copa said:
Our servers are being swamped, so people are getting timeouts.
:oops:
It seems everyone wanted to get in EXACTLY at 9:00, so now, it's very, very slow. At 8:45, everything worked fine. There's a bottleneck somewhere in the system that shouldn't be there, and 5000 hits in a second is bogging it down. Our system guys are on the hunt, but in the meantime, going to get a cup of coffee and letting the load die down a bit could actually help solve the problem.

We're fully staffed this fine holiday, and working to get us all past this hump. We appreciate your patience.

Thank you,
Ellen Julian
Director of the MCAT
(yes, I'm outting myself)
Click to expand...

Would you post back here when the site's back up?

Thanks
 
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yeah man, posting when it's a lot more easy to register would be grand
 
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I understand that the last two dates in May, and a number of the special-administration (i.e., temporary) sites in Canada are not showing up. Sigh.

We should have the May dates fixed today. The special Canadian sites may take a few days to appear. I will post here when they are up.
 
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rcd said:
Would you post back here when the site's back up?
Click to expand...
Her techies will probably tell her that that would be an awful idea. If everyone is given a time, you'll have 5K premeds/second hitting the system and bringing it back down again.
 
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notdeadyet said:
Her techies will probably tell her that that would be an awful idea. If everyone is given a time, you'll have 5K premeds/second hitting the system and bringing it back down again.
Click to expand...

Yup. We're such premeds, sitting here wasting sleep while unable to register. If I was home, i'd go to starbucks (but i'm still at my parents from the holidays...and we dont have one around here)
 
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It's so bogged down that it might as well be shut down.
Go take a nap. Eat lunch. Practice your Writing Samples.
Just please quit hitting Refresh for a little while! ;)
Thanks.
With apologies,
Ellen
 
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If you really want people to stop refreshing you should add some more saturday testing dates!
 
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I finally got into the registration pages, but the pull-down menu for "Primary Undergraduate College" isn't working- I can't type in my answer, and I can't proceed to the next page without this information. Did anybody else have the same problem?
 
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as if I wasn't stressed enough about the MCAT. now I get to worry if there are enough seats for me to sit for my desired date at my desired location. its unbelievable how unprepared AAMC is for registration. wasn't this foreseeable? and the kicker is that we all get to pay $210 at the end of dealing with this headache. good lord, patience is one thing, but this is ridiculous; 4.5 hours and counting. thanks AAMC.



ps: I'm in the system, and am also having problems with the school selection menues (yes, there is more than one). particularly the one under the score release section.
 
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chitownmed said:
I finally got into the registration pages, but the pull-down menu for "Primary Undergraduate College" isn't working- I can't type in my answer, and I can't proceed to the next page without this information. Did anybody else have the same problem?
Click to expand...
Yep--I was stuck on that for a couple hours. Keep trying to refresh. You get to do it again on the next step--that's where I've been stuck since about 9:45.
 
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I can login to the main page, but the test location/date page doesn't show the map... is anyone else having this problem?
 
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copa said:
It's so bogged down that it might as well be shut down.
Go take a nap. Eat lunch. Practice your Writing Samples.
Just please quit hitting Refresh for a little while! ;)
Thanks.
With apologies,
Ellen
Click to expand...

This is so unacceptable. A terrible lack of foresight on the part of the AAMC.
 
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gradu8in2003 said:
exactly!! I have to miss TWO DAYS of school to take it any other time... and that's impossible.. i'm trying to graduate here!
Click to expand...

I cannot answer for AAMC since I was not involved with the selection of test dates. I'm guessing that Saturdays are prime days for Thomson Prometric, and they probably could only offer those select Saturdays due to other contractual obligations. But I'm sure that everyone will push for Saturdays as much as we can, but anything we get is subject to what TP will give us.
 
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MasonPrehealth said:
I cannot answer for AAMC since I was not involved with the selection of test dates. I'm guessing that Saturdays are prime days for Thomson Prometric, and they probably could only offer those select Saturdays due to other contractual obligations. But I'm sure that everyone will push for Saturdays as much as we can, but anything we get is subject to what TP will give us.
Click to expand...

True, but every praxis test is offered on a saturday.. why can't we be given the same?
 
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Countrywide, there have been about 500 successful registrations. NO sites or dates are full. The system is still bogged down. We're embarrassed and distressed and trying desperately to figure out where the bottleneck is. But that isn't making it move any faster.

Our suggestion: let it go for tonight. Try tomorrow. Continuing to pound at it, at this point, is only going to make things worse, here and for your blood pressure.

Regarding having a confirmation email, but the login page still showing no registration: the earlier guess is correct - if you have the email, your seat is reserved. That reservation exists at Prometric. The AAMC's login page isn't getting that information back from Prometric in a timely manner (!), so it may not realize you're registered, but you still are.

We're keeping an eye out for double payments, and trying to get them cancelled/refunded asap.

I know you've all had a terribly frustrating day. Please accept my personal apology for the delays. They're not from a shortage of servers, staff or resources. They're from a mystery bottleneck. Other problems, like the double payments, are cascading from that. I hope to have more positive information for you early tomorrow.

Thank you for your forbearance.
Ellen Julian
Director of the MCAT
 
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copa said:
Countrywide, there have been about 500 successful registrations. NO sites or dates are full. The system is still bogged down. We're embarrassed and distressed and trying desperately to figure out where the bottleneck is. But that isn't making it move any faster.


Thank you for your forbearance.
Ellen Julian
Director of the MCAT
Click to expand...

Thanks for keeping the students updated Ellen. I do have a question for you regarding no sites or dates being full. Are all sites offering tests on all dates? Idaho has only one site and I was unable to get a seat on 4/7, 5/25, 5/31 and it seems like there was at least one other date I tried.

I was able to get in 4/16, so I am not overly concerned now, but would have liked a different date. I suppose I could call the local center, but I thought this might be something you would like to be aware of.
 
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I wasn't able to get 5/25 at the site I wanted either. (I ended up getting 5/16) So to me it looks like some sites are full or maybe that site wasn't offering anything on that date in the first place?
 
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Ellen-

I was fortunate enough after a few attempts this morning to get the site I wanted in Wisconsin in Madison on April 7th. The browser rerouted me to the payment page and then gave me an error prompt after it told me I had successfully enrolled. Did I in fact get registered successfully even though I am yet to recieve a confirmation email? I travel 5 days a week and am unable to be persistent during the day in my attempts. I hoped to have a score prior to June 1st so I could be one of the first to apply to my schools of choice. I truly hope the problems with the system will not postpone my hopes of leaving the heartless business world and pursuing a more satisfying career in medicine starting in late summer of 2008.

Sincerely,

Non-Traditional Applicant
 
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copa said:
They're not from a shortage of servers, staff or resources. They're from a mystery bottleneck.
Click to expand...
If, on the day of your launch, you've only had 500 applications get through successfully out of the thousands of people trying to apply over the last 9 hours, have you folks considered doing what is considered industry standard?

Take the application offline, put up up-to-date information on the page that launches the application so users will know when to try again, blow out all the temp apps and actually diagnose the problem without all that live data going through and compounding the problem?

Again, I sympathize. Bad launches are painful to go through. Lot of lost pride, face, and time. But I would think that letting customers continue to hack away at a system that may or may not ever let them finish their simple task even after hours of attempts is wasting hours of time of thousands of applicants.

Your desperate customers, since they're allowed to gimp through the app, are doing multiple refreshes on multiple windows. This further hampers your staff's efforts to actually solve the problem.

Any consideration of taking it down and fixing it?
 
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And yet, somehow, universities with thousands of college students are able to register students online three times a year.

The number of registrants is easy to predict based on previous testings. I hope the AAMC gets it together.
 
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megboo said:
I will give props for at least giving updates. I know it's not fair to "kill the messenger", but the AAMC has to know how important this test is and how important the timeline is for this.
Click to expand...
Agreed and agreed. SDN is not the end-all-be-all, so logging in here to keep folks up to date was a nice touch.
 
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megboo said:
And yet, somehow, universities with thousands of college students are able to register students online three times a year.

The number of registrants is easy to predict based on previous testings. I hope the AAMC gets it together.
Click to expand...

i work in the admit office of my university. our registration goes almost exactly like this. :laugh: :laugh:
 
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Response times appear to be much improved this morning.
 
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wait, my registration says Exam starts at 8AM, but I called the Prometric center and they said it should start at 9AM b/c they open at 8:30. I got worried, so I called the AAMC office and they said probably 9. I was like "probably" what the heck? I dont know now. Can someone clarify, which is it. Go with the paper registration or what?
 
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I registered yesterday afternoon and received my confirmation e-mail,but my account still does not say I am registered. Its been almost 24 hours. Should I register again before the site I want is filled up or should I just wait? Any help would be appreciated.
 
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koopa_troopa said:
I registered yesterday afternoon and received my confirmation e-mail,but my account still does not say I am registered. Its been almost 24 hours. Should I register again before the site I want is filled up or should I just wait? Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

same issue. i just emailed AAMC.. it's been two days since i got to this point. I'll let u know..
 
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It's been nearly a week since I registered and I still haven't gotten the confirmation e-mail. My account does say I am registered though.

Should I call AAMC?
 
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gradu8in2003 said:
Got an email from AAMC. Said to copy & paste my confirmation into that return email and they would verify.

*crossing fingers*
Click to expand...

Really?, I got a different e-mail. It just said that if I got a confirmation e-mail, then I am registered. I'm still a little concerned. They haven't updated my account after replying to me. This is the e-mail I got:



Hello,



Thank You for contacting the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) program.

If you received a email stating you are confirmed for the test , then your seat is reserved and you are confirmed.



Please let us know if you need any additional assistance.



The MCAT Care Team

Association of American Medical Colleges

Section for Applicant Assessment Services

2450 N St., NW

Washington, DC 20037

U.S.A.
 
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If my account says I'm registered and my bank account has been charged, I'm not going to really worry about it. I tried to call them but I guess I dialed the wrong number because there was only an option to hear information about the MCAT.
 
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All 3 centers in my area are all full for the April Saturday MCAT. I had to go with with a Monday testing date :(. Is there any possibility of more locations opening up? I think I heard someone saying about mobile testing centers :confused:
 
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I'm taking the exam on Jan 29, and I still have not received my confirmation email. I was charged the $210, and I called Prometric and was told that I'm registered and that they would send me an email, but I still haven't received any notice. I registered for the exam in November, right when registration began. Should I be worried?
 
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Hi, I just registerd for May. I got a confirmation email from AAMC saying that I need to wait 60 days for the report.....
see below:
"SCORE REPORTS: Scores will be available approximately 60 days after the exam"

Do you guys also get the same thing? Or it is because I am taking it outside of US?
Thanks for any info. I am really worried.
 
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mct31 said:
Hi, I just registerd for May. I got a confirmation email from AAMC saying that I need to wait 60 days for the report.....
see below:
"SCORE REPORTS: Scores will be available approximately 60 days after the exam"

Do you guys also get the same thing? Or it is because I am taking it outside of US?
Thanks for any info. I am really worried.
Click to expand...

http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/datesdeadlines.pdf
 
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