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When you say they do it for GPAs, you mean adjust for variations in the rigor of the undergraduate institution and/or major ?
How do yall think COVID affected this year's applicants?
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@gyngyn @LizzyM @Angus Avagadro @gonnif @Goro -- Have any of you seen a table like this? Is it real? If so, it shows a huge jump in MCAT scores from last year!!!!! No doubt due to issues surrounding the shortened exam. Again, if it's real, any idea whether your schools would make an adjustment to equalize pre and post COVID test dates?
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No -- I mean that they don't, because there are too many variables between schools, majors, specific classes taken, etc. A Harvard grad might get a bump because he's coming from Harvard (plus, they are known to INFLATE!), but plenty of people from known deflators like WashU have reported no special consideration.
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I doubt they would adjust MCAT scores and I don't see how they could even if they wanted to.
I agree that reduced fatigue probably played a big role in the increased scores. I was almost falling asleep during my P/S section.
Unfortunately, it is what it is. This has been such a crazy year that it would be virtually impossible to make the process "fair" for all applicants. The bump in score is pretty significant though. A 503.8 last year would have put you at the 59.44 percentile of all test takers during that period, a 9.44 percentile bump.
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It looks like this information probably came from the AIS (advisor information system). See the link I found below and it looks like Official health professions advisors do have access to this kind of data
Advisor Information System: MCAT® Roster and Summary
This AIS report allows authorized prehealth advisors to create a list of MCAT® examinees who released their scores to your institution.
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Yup, I think most people were aware that this was available to advisors. The catch with that spreadsheet is that it has data compiled through 7/31/20, while the data released to candidates contains percentile data as of May 1st reflecting three years' worth of data (through September of the prior year), which is consistent with the way AAMC reports all kinds of stats regarding the MCAT.It looks like this information probably came from the AIS (advisor information system). See the link I found below and it looks like Official health professions advisors do have access to this kind of data
Advisor Information System: MCAT® Roster and Summary
This AIS report allows authorized prehealth advisors to create a list of MCAT® examinees who released their scores to your institution.students-residents.aamc.org
So, are they really compiling statistics in real time for release to advisors? My spidey sense tells me maybe not, especially since the person who was kind enough to share it has not been back since to answer questions.
Edit: The more I think about it, the more I convince myself that the spreadsheet is well executed, but fake. Since when does AAMC select random 4 month slices in the middle of a test year for reporting aggregate statistical data? How convenient that the period just so happened to begin after the COVID shutdown, but in the prior year (2019) for comparison, and end precisely at the end of the last calendar month prior to the date of posting!!!!
I fell for it too, but, on second thought, there is no way mean MCAT score data for the period April 1, 2020, through July 31, 2020, has been compiled and released by AAMC on or before August 27, 2020. I am pretty sure mere mortals, including health professions advisors, will never have access to such a thinly sliced segment of AAMC's data set. They report in 3 year tranches, almost a year after the end of the period, precisely to avoid this sort of use of a small subset of their data.
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The information in the AIS is forbidden to admissions officers.
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Or it could be because they have signed an attestation that they would not share information gleaned from the AIS.
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Whoa!!!!!! But, given how they like to mask single year data by bundling it in a multi-year format, is it really possible that they would share narrow slices of partial year data with these people in near real-time? Especially given how many people would have access to it, notwithstanding the attestation?
From what you are saying, anything is possible, but whoa! Not to mention, if the data was this startling (you'll agree that a 2.4 jump in one year would be huge, no?), would they release it so casually, with no fanfare, to a subset of their constituency?
Not to mention, would they really make you fly blind as an adcom if the mean scores post-COVID were really 2.4 points higher than pre? Having that information available but denying it to you while you are making decisions, while at the same time sharing it with random UG advisors?
You are way more experienced that me, but this really doesn't sound right! I know you'll say lots of things in this process don't sound right, but still!
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I think you know my answer to all the above!Whoa!!!!!! But, given how they like to mask single year data by bundling it in a multi-year format, is it really possible that they would share narrow slices of partial year data with these people in near real-time? Especially given how many people would have access to it, notwithstanding the attestation?
From what you are saying, anything is possible, but whoa! Not to mention, if the data was this startling (you'll agree that a 2.4 jump in one year would be huge, no?), would they release it so casually, with no fanfare, to a subset of their constituency?
Not to mention, would they really make you fly blind as an adcom if the mean scores post-COVID were really 2.4 points higher than pre? Having that information available but denying it to you while you are making decisions, while at the same time sharing it with random UG advisors?
You are way more experienced that me, but this really doesn't sound right! I know you'll say lots of things in this process don't sound right, but still!
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My phone might be glitching but it seems the data poster has since deleted their comment and photo either because it’s fake or they broke an agreement with AAMC. Guess we’ll never know it’s validity, but I don’t think it’s that surprising that the score distribution is different for Covid mcats. The fact that the mean is nearly a 504 is still a bit alarming though.
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You phone's not glitching -- SDN took it down! @gonnif -- without violating your NDA, can you comment on whether the advisor tool AAMC gives you would allow you to run aggregate reports on mean MCAT scores, broken down by section, that is current to the present time (i.e., could you run a report in August 2020 that shows how many people took the test in July, and what their mean scores were)?
Without commenting on whether the since removed table is real, if post-COVID scores did in fact increase 2.4 points on a 56 point scale, on a test AAMC has publicly said is identical in scoring to the pre-COVID version, and this fact is known to advisors and, through the grapevine, to schools, but not to candidates, who will submit applications not realizing that their 515 is not comparable to a 515 on a test taken prior to May 2020, this would be quite a scandal!!!!
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It says here the mean is a 501.1. Am I missing something?
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That's the publicly available data based on the last 3 years. Someone posted a chart showing the mean from April 1- July 31 2019 to be a 501.4, whereas the mean from Apil 1- July 31 2020 was a 503.8
Could there also be the possibility that test takers just did better? When the pandemic began I was of the opinion that overall scores would increase. For a lot of people the combination of 0 extracurricular work (volunteering, scribing, shadowing etc.) + decreased social activity + extra study time due to displaced MCAT dates seems to me like the perfect storm for scores to increase.
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The dates on this figure say 5/1/2020 - 4/30/2021
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The notes at the bottom of the first page says it's based on 2017, 2018, 2019 test taker data.
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Thank you VERY, VERY much for shedding some much needed and valuable light on this.
So, to be clear, the tool does not give you access to everyone's data, correct? If so, that's where we were trolled. Without getting into specifics, that post purported to show all test takers during a recent time period, and compared that data set to the same data from the same period last year.
If that were available to advisors and not schools or candidates, and then showed what it purported to show, that would be a huge deal. An even bigger deal would be that some people had access to it and others didn't. What you are describing makes perfect sense, and leads to a very different, and reasonable, conclusion. Thanks again!!!
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That's the date that those percentile ranks are in effect for (they update them every year based on all the new exam scores). They state that the ranks are based on the previous 3 years of scores. So on 5/1 2021 they will update the percentile ranks based on the 2018, 2019, and 2020 testers scored, and those percentiles will be in effect until 4/30 2022.
time for happy hours !!!Thank you VERY, VERY much for shedding some much needed and valuable light on this.
So, to be clear, the tool does not give you access to everyone's data, correct? If so, that's where we were trolled. Without getting into specifics, that post purported to show all test takers during a recent time period, and compared that data set to the same data from the same period last year.
If that were available to advisors and not schools or candidates, and then showed what it purported to show, that would be a huge deal. An even bigger deal would be that some people had access to it and others didn't. What you are describing makes perfect sense, and leads to a very different, and reasonable, conclusion. Thanks again!!!
No so I have sent a few secondaries and plan on finishing and sending the rest by next week. It’s just that they won’t be review by several schools before my Casper. And I’m worried about the 2 week submission period. I don’t want schools to think I’m not interested.
