"I screwed up the writing" Aug 2006 MCAT Thread

[drslc134]

---

Members do not see this ad.

n/a

 

[poly800rock]

Haha...thought I'd copy the thread idea, but for writing!

How the heck did this happen is my question:

13P
11V
10B
N in writing

N is 29.6-41.5 percentile!
No idea how this happened. I prepped w/ TPR, and my writing was praised from the outset. Even my first diagnositc's writing was an N, and from then on, graders were giving me 5's and 4's consistently (at least the P-Q range).

So, anyone know about rescoring on writing samples and have any experience with a higher rescored letter?

I called the MCAT office to inquire, it'll cost $50, and it'll be 4 months before they even start re-looking at exams no matter when you request a rescore. I also asked if the rescorers will be privy to the previously given scores and they said no, but I still have my suspicions, because I'm pretty sure that on the bottom of our actually writing sample, there was a little white box, which I assumed was for a numerical score. Anyone else up for such theories?

Please share in the writing madness!

it really does blow my mind how you can get such awesome scores on everything else and the w/s is so errr....yeah, have them recheck that....

 

[Avalanche21]

Lol, I got an N and was never even asked about it. not sure what happened there.

 

[Jack Swift]

how terrible is an O ?.. thats what I got

 

[DrBowtie]

I was honestly expecting a J after hearing about how it is best to stay neutral about politics. I couldn't think of anything other than polarized issues but it ended up turning out all right.

 

[smuwillobrien]

I was honestly expecting a J after hearing about how it is best to stay neutral about politics. I couldn't think of anything other than polarized issues but it ended up turning out all right.

LOL - same here - I talked about those Quran drawings that offended an entire religion, ... ended up with a Q, and I'm happy about that.

 

[87138]

I was honestly expecting a J after hearing about how it is best to stay neutral about politics. I couldn't think of anything other than polarized issues but it ended up turning out all right.

Brett, how'd you do overall? I don't think I've seen your results posted. You can PM me....

 

[jamie_kee_mac85]

I ended up with an 18O on the MCAT...really disappointed. I have a 3.2 GPA. I am also graduating at the end of this year. Should I retake this exam or just consider the Carribean's? Also, is this even enough to get into a Carribean school? Thanks in advance for the replies.

 

[sendwich]

I ended up with an 18O on the MCAT...really disappointed. I have a 3.2 GPA. I am also graduating at the end of this year. Should I retake this exam or just consider the Carribean's? Also, is this even enough to get into a Carribean school? Thanks in advance for the replies.

what were your practice scores? I'd definitely re-take if i were you. i think you need to be in the 20-somethings for the carribeans.

 

[jamie_kee_mac85]

I was getting around 22-26 on the practise tests. I kind of expected a low score, but not this low. Its hard for me to take in. I am going to try my best getting into non-MCAT schools, but if not, I will probably rewrite. Although I have been hearing from a lot of people who retook that they generally don't improve their scores. This really worries me...

 

[mprover]

I right there with you on the crappy writing. It blows my mind. Ive been praised for my writing before. I do however have terrible handwriting. I had a 33N . 33 is 87-91st percentile. Writing is like , 10th percentile. Maybe they got behind on grading, and just started assigning grades.

 

[Noeljan]

ya I got an 11 on VR but an N on the writing as well. I never really practiced the writing until a day before though, I wrote one brief outline to a prompt and had my kaplan instructor go over it. I mean writing is subjective anyways right? I hope they don't care about it.

 

[StellarOrigins]

I got a T on the writing section, but med schools I think could care less about the writing score....I would rather have a 13 on the PS and an N in writing than an 11 and a T. My writing was extremely generic, pedestrian, and enthusiastic....I stated the obvious but did it with clarity and detail. I guess that is what they wanted. Don't worry about it....you have an interview to show your communication skills.

 

[Noeljan]

Ya I straight up had an adcom tell me writing doesn't matter much, which is why I didn't focus on it. I was just thinking of something funny. Often, people say we do X and Y bc we want to see if you can read and write. Well when they see my app they will say, "well she can read but she can't write" lol.

 

[IckeyShuffle]

i dont think writing carries any weight

 

[Footyfanatic]

In Canada, the writing sample DOES carry weight, almost all schools have a writing cutoff, lowest being M or N and highest being Q.

 

[myKuduSlewaZulu]

Is this a competition?....Cause I think we've found a winner!! I got a 31....K, with an 11 in VR. Apparently the consensus is that my sentence structure and paragraph organization resemble public restroom graffiti. I could've doodled for an hour and scored higher. K is about the 1 to 3 percentile. Ironically, several professors have complimented my writing skills. Oh well, not gonna complain too much about my score, its good enough for me.

 

[Noeljan]

Is this a competition?....Cause I think we've found a winner!! I got a 31....K, with an 11 in VR. Apparently the consensus is that my sentence structure and paragraph organization resemble public restroom graffiti. I could've doodled for an hour and scored higher. K is about the 1 to 3 percentile. Ironically, several professors have complimented my writing skills. Oh well, not gonna complain too much about my score, its good enough for me.

ooohhh man you got me soo beat with that K!!!!

 

[OregonTrail]

I got a 30M. How bad will that M look?

I got a 7 in the Verbal section.

So it seems like my reading and writing skills suck.

How will that look?

 

[Pshizzle]

I got an M, too. I'm pretty sure it isnt so much my bad writing skillz, but their bad grading skillz... =/

 

[xylem29]

ooohhh man you got me soo beat with that K!!!!

For those who never practiced...did you guys at least go over the structure of the essay and read over some sample answers? b/c i also didn't practice at all but i did look over some sample essays and was also aware that i had to write it in a strict format: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Perhaps you didn't follow the format?

but anyway, the consensus is that the WS doesn't mean nothin! so it's all good

 

[Noeljan]

For those who never practiced...did you guys at least go over the structure of the essay and read over some sample answers? b/c i also didn't practice at all but i did look over some sample essays and was also aware that i had to write it in a strict format: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Perhaps you didn't follow the format?

but anyway, the consensus is that the WS doesn't mean nothin! so it's all good

well basically the day before the test I looked at one of the prompts from an AAMC test and wrote out an outline more and less, and had my kaplan instructor/friend look at it. She said I had good ideas, but did always yell at me bc she knew I kept putting off the writing I got an N. On the other hand, I actually enjoyed verbal during my prep because you didnt have to know anything for it, IMO. I read a lot of economist and Wall street. I do think they helped me. I am not a big reader of like novels or anything like that. I never fell for any "techniques" companies or people were trying to say. I would just read the passage and answer the questions. I did always have enough time to re-read each passage, so I guess I might just be a fast reader. I also didn't sleep for two days, so I was happy with my 11. I also didn't do too great on SAT verbal, and would argue with people who did that the two were not correlated (note: most of my friends who did great on the SAT, and had all the prep for it, etc, had the most trouble with the VR section). I'm not the best with vocabulary or sitting around memorizing words, but I guess I am good with reading comprehension.

 

[mmmkay121]

Importance of the color of the tie you wear during your interview > Importance of the score on the writing SAMPLE.

Wear a bright colored tie that contrasts the color of your suit.

 

[noht]

p10 v8 b11 S

this is kind of a lesser known secret, but since i'm not plannning on retakin this stupid test, i'll pass some info along.

a friend (who is now an MD) scored a T on the writing sample when he took it. he told me the secret was to use a quote in the beginning (even if it's made up) and to use try and use some humor if at all possible. apparently, these graders get bored from reading so many of the same essays trying to get at the same point.

on the governemnt censorship question, one of my examples was of "a naked man running down the street with his testicles exposed." that must've had the readers in a riot. i won't go into too much detail, but my essay wasn't all that great and it merited me a big ol S. too bad the rest of my score is still under 30 🙁

 

[nbandy13]

I scored a (14P 11V 13B) 38N; I thought my essays were really good too. Oh well. It's nice to hear that Adcoms don't care too much about the essay lol.

 

[mam3456]

12 BS, 12 PS, 10 VR, M

M is 8.9-29.5 %ile. I definitely think my essays were much better than that and I've been complimented on my writing as well.

I'd like to regrade the essays but I don't think it's worth the $50 for a potential N.

 

[myKuduSlewaZulu]

ooohhh man you got me soo beat with that K!!!!

Darn right! Its hard to get a K. Probably harder than getting an S or a T.🙂 I didn't spend any time practicing for it, I think I just read maybe one or two of the samples, so I guess I deserve it.

 

[Beamer128]

I got an M, too. I'm pretty sure it isnt so much my bad writing skillz, but their bad grading skillz... =/

I agree 👍

 

[smuwillobrien]

I got a Q in writing, and I'm pretty happy with that. I have no idea how I got it though - I never practiced writing once. I didn't take the advice of EK either - I talked about heated social and political issues. =\

 

[jujubeansrgr8]

Is this a competition?....Cause I think we've found a winner!! I got a 31....K, with an 11 in VR. Apparently the consensus is that my sentence structure and paragraph organization resemble public restroom graffiti. I could've doodled for an hour and scored higher. K is about the 1 to 3 percentile. Ironically, several professors have complimented my writing skills. Oh well, not gonna complain too much about my score, its good enough for me.

haha k is pretty bad. Amusingly so. i got a 40M which is pretty amusing too. is this a competition for greatest difference or just absolute lowest ws. i want to win greatest difference.

 

[Mr. Itchy]

31 N here. Verbal was an 11.

 

[Captain Caveman]

This was my first time taking the MCAT and I scored 31M. I'm glad to hear that others were as surprised with their low writing sample score as I was.

 

[graphyte]

I got a 30M. How bad will that M look?

I got a 7 in the Verbal section.

So it seems like my reading and writing skills suck.

How will that look?

I'm in the same boat. I received a 30N with a 7 in verbal.

Not exactly stoked about that score.

 

[Dr.D-man]

I got an M, too. I'm pretty sure it isnt so much my bad writing skillz, but their bad grading skillz... =/

Here!! Here!!

 

[smuwillobrien]

I didn't know you liked the MCAT VR writers so much, Dan. =P

 

[lunaire]

36M.. with a 9 for VR.

I guess the language processing part of my brain went dead during the exam.

 

[JRmed41]

Haha I totally feel this thread...

P - 8
V - 11
B - 12

31 N...wtf? I have been published in a medical journal for an abstract I wrote haha...craziness.

My ps was lower than average too...weird stuff.

 

[TankMasterFlex]

haha noht, I am still laughing at that example, if I was marking I would have definitely given points for that!

 

[Christofurrr]

PS: 11 VR: 10 BS: 12 WS: M 33M

I consider myself a relatively good writer, but i expected this. I couldn't stop thinking about how much i bombed PS and VR, and wasn't able to come up with a good topic for the first prompt. I was too busy worrying about studying for my retake haha. Oh well, everyone says that the writing section doesn't matter.

 

[Noeljan]

Haha I totally feel this thread...

P - 8
V - 11
B - 12

31 N...wtf? I have been published in a medical journal for an abstract I wrote haha...craziness.

My ps was lower than average too...weird stuff.

N🙂

 

[drslc134]

n/a

 

[UnderdogMD]

We had a question and answer session at my state school with two different adcoms. Someone asked the question about a low writing score. My understanding from their responses is that an excellent personal statement can more than make up for a low writing score. Just backs up what everybody has been saying. I made a N and I do NOT plan to retake.

 

[Mr. Itchy]

Don't retake because of your letter. Nobody cares about it in the US.

 

[noht]

haha noht, I am still laughing at that example, if I was marking I would have definitely given points for that!

i should start a new post: "perverted responses to writing topics"

 

[drslc134]

n/a

 

[Green Apple]

I got 14PS, 13BS, and 12VR, which are all 95th percentile and above. But I got a P on my WS, which is only a bit above the 50th percentile. I wrote about the Danish cartoons of Mohammud and Piss Christ.

 

[Quix]

I got 14PS, 13BS, and 12VR, which are all 95th percentile and above. But I got a P on my WS, which is only a bit above the 50th percentile. I wrote about the Danish cartoons of Mohammud and Piss Christ.

I wrote about Mappelthorpe, too, but I related it to Cassat's feminist iconography, and then discussed John Stuart Mill's take on the repression of unpopular/challenging opinions.

 

[socal78]

thats what i wrote about too.

I got 14PS, 13BS, and 12VR, which are all 95th percentile and above. But I got a P on my WS, which is only a bit above the 50th percentile. I wrote about the Danish cartoons of Mohammud and Piss Christ.

 

[Skillbot]

I was getting around 22-26 on the practise tests. I kind of expected a low score, but not this low. Its hard for me to take in. I am going to try my best getting into non-MCAT schools, but if not, I will probably rewrite. Although I have been hearing from a lot of people who retook that they generally don't improve their scores. This really worries me...

Dont worry, I took the MCAT this Aug. and my score went up 10 points, though my writing sample went from p to m (Glad to hear that it doesnt count for much)
Previous Score Aug 2006
9V 12V
6P 10P
8B 11B

Just make sure you study either differntly or harder for the next go around.

 

[realmadridstorm]

I got have 39N, with 11 in VR and the last time I got a 31M, at least I have an upward trend