How does AAMC grade the WS?

[itsover26]

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i know it's 1 essay human graded and 1 essay computer graded. i don't understand how a computer could grade an essay, though. it can't judge the content and the logic behind the argument whatsoever.

my first essay was good. my second essay's prompt sorta confused me, so i went off on a tangent. when i realized half way thru that i went pretty offtopic, i just redefined my terms of the statement to make it fit lol. anyone with a brain would instantly think "wtf he basically changed the wording of the prompt. can't even read correctly. F!" (or is it J? haha)

however, the actual structure, organization, high word count, warranted claims and so forth were all present making it a complete, finished essay. i just deviated from the actual prompt. so basically, i'm hoping essay #2 is computer graded. 👍 the first essay should get a decent score from either a human or computer grader.

i just don't really understand the grading. my last mcat my essays were unfinished. i attempted to answer the prompts but had completely wrong answers, and i still got an R. that makes no sense.

 

[SN2ed]

According to the AAMC: "Each of your responses to the Writing Sample items was read and scored by at least two different readers."

So I don't think a computer "reads" your papers, but I could be wrong. Either way, it's not without reason that med schools don't place a large emphasis on the writing score.

 

[DrYoda]

After looking at the the very non-normal score distribution, and considering the fact that it is impossible to objectively grade an essay. I have come to the conclusion that it is all a series of elaborate coin flipping.

 

[Vihsadas]

According to the AAMC: "Each of your responses to the Writing Sample items was read and scored by at least two different readers."

So I don't think a computer "reads" your papers, but I could be wrong. Either way, it's not without reason that med schools don't place a large emphasis on the writing score.

A computer does read your essays. It's been done that way since last year. There is one human grader and one computer grader. If the scores from the computer and the human vary greatly, then a second human grader is used.

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

A computer does read your essays. It's been done that way since last year. There is one human grader and one computer grader. If the scores from the computer and the human vary greatly, then a second human grader is used.

Thanks, Vihsadas, I'm curious/interested in this area. I'm a nontrad w/many years corporate experience, not a writer in any sense but I've e-mailed or corresponded with customers & internal managers for my full career, read widely, and have good recall for arcane words.

I'm thinking, if I were designing the computer app that "grades" an essay, I would doubt the computer could do much with sentence structure, and I'd read spelling errors aren't counted against the writer. All I can think of is word count, level of difficulty of words chosen (I've seen programs that somehow judge this), possibly length of sentences?

I'll post my 7/10 mcat writing sample grade when avaialble in a month, last year I was at an "s", this year I took a similar tact of including a substantical amount of college level/arcane words when writing, hopefully the argument was also solid, but I'll be curious if this helps the score much.

 

[mterp45]

i know it's 1 essay human graded and 1 essay computer graded. i don't understand how a computer could grade an essay, though. it can't judge the content and the logic behind the argument whatsoever.

my first essay was good. my second essay's prompt sorta confused me, so i went off on a tangent. when i realized half way thru that i went pretty offtopic, i just redefined my terms of the statement to make it fit lol. anyone with a brain would instantly think "wtf he basically changed the wording of the prompt. can't even read correctly. F!" (or is it J? haha)

however, the actual structure, organization, high word count, warranted claims and so forth were all present making it a complete, finished essay. i just deviated from the actual prompt. so basically, i'm hoping essay #2 is computer graded. 👍 the first essay should get a decent score from either a human or computer grader.

i just don't really understand the grading. my last mcat my essays were unfinished. i attempted to answer the prompts but had completely wrong answers, and i still got an R. that makes no sense.

I will tell you when I can figure out how I didn't practice this, did it half a..s during the test, and still ended up with T. I am no where near a good writer. I got a B- in english 101.

 

[stixx]

A computer does read your essays. It's been done that way since last year. There is one human grader and one computer grader. If the scores from the computer and the human vary greatly, then a second human grader is used.

What does the computer look for? Spelling/grammar or advanced vocabulary?

If I had known one of the readers was a computer I definitely would've made an effort to use more obnoxious/unnecessarily precise wording.

The WS does matter for me because a few schools I'm applying to had R as the cutoff last year.

 

[Vihsadas]

What does the computer look for? Spelling/grammar or advanced vocabulary?

If I had known one of the readers was a computer I definitely would've made an effort to use more obnoxious/unnecessarily precise wording.

The WS does matter for me because a few schools I'm applying to had R as the cutoff last year.

I have no idea what it looks for, sorry. 🙁

From Canada eh?

 

[stixx]

I have no idea what it looks for, sorry. 🙁

From Canada eh?

Ha of course, AAMC isn't about to let their secrets out that easily. Thanks for the info.

And yep you got me. It's funny I could get a 40+ and still consider retaking because of one school in Ontario's desire to find any possible way to weed us out.

 

[BloodySurgeon]

By going to this link you may have found this site which answers your question: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/preparing/wsscore.htm