J on writing section?!

[mdavid]

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I just received my scores from the April MCAT. I got a combined 38, but it says that my writing score is a J, which is just not possible. That equivalent to handing it in blank. So it must be a mistake, but what do I do now? Who do I call? Will they look into the situation and tell me what happened? Anyone have a similar experience?

 

[jjmack]

I think you can request to have it rescored, but can take weeks. Maybe that was just the whole test being rescored. If I were you I would retake it hehe. I got an R and I think only one person at my many interviews ever said a word about it.

 

[drat]

Did you write your essays in a foreign language?

 

[mdavid]

I think you can request to have it rescored, but can take weeks. Maybe that was just the whole test being rescored. If I were you I would retake it hehe. I got an R and I think only one person at my many interviews ever said a word about it.

An R and J are far apart. A few weeks for a response? There's nothing better to do? Will a rescore even help? Could it be that they misplaced my paper or in that case would they leave my score blank? Do i submit my AMCAS application or wait for more information?

 

[Law2Doc]

Did you write your essays in a foreign language?

Might they have been totally illegible? That's the only thought I had if it wasn't just a glitch or they got lost somehow. Definitely get in touch with AMCAS (or whoever is the subdivision in charge of the test). Adcoms don't usually put a lot of stress on the writing sample if it is average or above, but certainly would be concerned if it is a J.

 

[mdavid]

Did you write your essays in a foreign language?

No of course not. I wrote two solid essays. I was expecting at least a Q if not better.

 

[mdavid]

Might they have been totally illegible? That's the only thought I had if it wasn't just a glitch or they got lost somehow. Definitely get in touch with AMCAS (or whoever is the subdivision in charge of the test). Adcoms don't usually put a lot of stress on the writing sample if it is average or above, but certainly would be concerned if it is a J.

My handwriting is pretty good so I dont think it could have been a legibility problem. Do you know who is in charge of grading the test?

 

[cromagnon]

it costs $50 to rescore the writing samples and you have to request it in writing...info here (p17) ...i would definitely NOT retake it with a 38. As long as your verbal score is decent and you write a good personal statement for amcas you should be fine. I would also recommend two other things:

1) Add a few lines at the beginning or end of your personal statement explaining your situation and that you have requested that your writing sample be rescored.

2) Hire a lawyer. It can take up to four months for your essays to be rescored and they will not provide you with copies of your essays. Four month to read two essays is BS and in the meantime the rest of your life is riding on them getting their act together. I would write down as much as you can about what you wrote so that the lawayer can positively identify the essays as belonging to you.

- on a side note I wrote both my essays from a "conservative" viewpoint and received extremely low writing scores. My verbal score was a twelve and one of my interviewers said that I wrote like an english major after reading my personal statement...Hmmmm... My point is that I dont puch much faith in the AAMC "essay readers"....I dont think many schools do either but i would still get a lawyer if you want this to be resolved.

 

[frantic983]

.

 

[g3pro]

Liberal bias is everywhere, and you just have to deal with it. If it means making a writing sample less convincing than it would be with a conservative viewpoint then you should write the less convincing sample. There are enough liberal nut-jobs on the grading committee that would take great pleasure in preventing conservative students from entering medicine that you should not risk going from a conservative viewpoint.

My advice: don't upset the waters.

 

[drat]

- on a side note I wrote both my essays from a "conservative" viewpoint and received extremely low writing scores. My verbal score was a twelve and one of my interviewers said that I wrote like an english major after reading my personal statement...Hmmmm... My point is that I dont puch much faith in the AAMC "essay readers"....I dont think many schools do either but i would still get a lawyer if you want this to be resolved.

Cromagnon, if you wrote "You have poop inside U" in your essay, although true, this may have turned off the readers. 😉

I don't think it's worth a regrade if you scored >10 on the verbal. For the most part, ADCOMs knows essay grading is subjective.

 

[mdavid]

it costs $50 to rescore the writing samples and you have to request it in writing...info here (p17) ...i would definitely NOT retake it with a 38. As long as your verbal score is decent and you write a good personal statement for amcas you should be fine. I would also recommend two other things:

1) Add a few lines at the beginning or end of your personal statement explaining your situation and that you have requested that your writing sample be rescored.

2) Hire a lawyer. It can take up to four months for your essays to be rescored and they will not provide you with copies of your essays. Four month to read two essays is BS and in the meantime the rest of your life is riding on them getting their act together. I would write down as much as you can about what you wrote so that the lawayer can positively identify the essays as belonging to you.

- on a side note I wrote both my essays from a "conservative" viewpoint and received extremely low writing scores. My verbal score was a twelve and one of my interviewers said that I wrote like an english major after reading my personal statement...Hmmmm... My point is that I dont puch much faith in the AAMC "essay readers"....I dont think many schools do either but i would still get a lawyer if you want this to be resolved.

Thanks for the advice. Im gonna try to get in touch with them today to see if they can resolve it without the lawyer, but if not....

 

[beanbean]

Don't worry about the writing section grade...the rest of your score is great. I think the J score combined with a well written application and good verbal score will be seen as an error in scoring. It shouldn't effect you.

 

[a_ditchdoc]

Thanks for the advice. Im gonna try to get in touch with them today to see if they can resolve it without the lawyer, but if not....

With a score of 38 I would not even worry about it. I would make sure they did not lose it, but otherwise it is not worth the hassel. When I took the MCAT they apparently thought I was fairly illiterate as well (although it was not a J, I think it was an M or N). I must admit that my handwriting does resemble hieroglyphics at times. Either way, noone ever said a word about it. If they bring it up in an interview, just tell them that you do not have a clue as to what happened. They will be more than impressed with your 38.

Congrats on a great score...

 

[tigress]

it costs $50 to rescore the writing samples and you have to request it in writing...info here (p17) ...i would definitely NOT retake it with a 38. As long as your verbal score is decent and you write a good personal statement for amcas you should be fine. I would also recommend two other things:

1) Add a few lines at the beginning or end of your personal statement explaining your situation and that you have requested that your writing sample be rescored.

2) Hire a lawyer. It can take up to four months for your essays to be rescored and they will not provide you with copies of your essays. Four month to read two essays is BS and in the meantime the rest of your life is riding on them getting their act together. I would write down as much as you can about what you wrote so that the lawayer can positively identify the essays as belonging to you.

- on a side note I wrote both my essays from a "conservative" viewpoint and received extremely low writing scores. My verbal score was a twelve and one of my interviewers said that I wrote like an english major after reading my personal statement...Hmmmm... My point is that I dont puch much faith in the AAMC "essay readers"....I dont think many schools do either but i would still get a lawyer if you want this to be resolved.

FYI, I know plenty of people who wrote from a liberal viewpoint and received very low scores. I think it has absolutely nothing to do with politics. To be on the safe side, however, I didn't write about politics at all. I still got a low score

 

[LizzyM]

You might consider adding a LOR from whomever taught you English composition or someone else who has graded a number of your papers (humanities or social science professor, maybe?).

I also agree that adding a couple of lines at the end of your PS would be informative. I just hope that you don't get the axe based on #s (or the letter grade) without a more thorough look at your appie. If that seems to happen (you don't get a secondary or don't get an interview), ask your advisor to go to bat for you or find someone inside the medical school who can speak with the Dean of Admissions. I know someone who graduated this year who did that -- he was thwarted at every turn and ended up being a top student who matched at an excellent location. (His problem wasn't a low MCAT but was a low undergrad gpa and an unusual undergrad major)

 

[mdavid]

I called MCAT and they said it can take up to 4 months for processing. I pushed and talked to an administrator there who looked into it for me and said my papers werent switched and im gonna have to wait for a regrade. Not only does this cost 50 bucks but it will take forever to get the grade back. Am I better off not getting a regrade and just letting the schools assume it was a mistake or do I have to go for the regrade??

 

[tigress]

I mentioned this story to my husband because I thought it was crazy, and he had some interesting insight. If you leave it like this, it will look like a mistake. You're lucky you got a J and not K or an L, because the latter scores would look like you just wrote a crappy essay. A J seems so impossible to get that it just looks like a total fluke, something to laugh at. If you get it rescored you may end up with an L, and then you would might have to explain.

So I'd say forget it and just laugh if it comes up on an interview. With a good GPA and your high score otherwise, it really shouldn't affect you. Most people don't look at the WS anyway.

 

[dajimmers]

I called MCAT and they said it can take up to 4 months for processing. I pushed and talked to an administrator there who looked into it for me and said my papers werent switched and im gonna have to wait for a regrade. Not only does this cost 50 bucks but it will take forever to get the grade back. Am I better off not getting a regrade and just letting the schools assume it was a mistake or do I have to go for the regrade??

I don't know... I might consider the regrade. If it comes up in interviews, what would you say? If you lie, they may be able to check w/ AAMC. If they know you could have had it regraded, they may wonder why you didn't go for it- it would suggest that you aren't confident in your writing ability.

Pay the $50, and let schools know what's up either in your PS, EC's, or in secondaries. They may even take pity on you when you explain the hassle caused by AAMC's goof-up.

In another note, I wonder whose paper they switched yours with? I certainly hope it wasn't mine- if mine switches to a J because of you I'll be rather mad.

 

[dilated]

- on a side note I wrote both my essays from a "conservative" viewpoint and received extremely low writing scores. My verbal score was a twelve and one of my interviewers said that I wrote like an english major after reading my personal statement...Hmmmm... My point is that I dont puch much faith in the AAMC "essay readers"....I dont think many schools do either but i would still get a lawyer if you want this to be resolved.

I got a 39, I WAS a humanities major who never got less than an A- on any of my papers (many of which were >8 pages long) in college, and I got a P. I know other good writers who got the same result, whereas a chem major friend who can literally not string two sentences together without a grammatical error got an S.

It doesn't have to do with "liberal bias", it has to do with artificial grading criteria that have nothing to do with actual good writing. I imagine the thought stream running through the grader's head to be something like "Hmm.. these paragraphs seem to have a displeasing shape. L it is."

 

[Law2Doc]

I mentioned this story to my husband because I thought it was crazy, and he had some interesting insight. If you leave it like this, it will look like a mistake. You're lucky you got a J and not K or an L, because the latter scores would look like you just wrote a crappy essay. A J seems so impossible to get that it just looks like a total fluke, something to laugh at. If you get it rescored you may end up with an L, and then you would might have to explain.

So I'd say forget it and just laugh if it comes up on an interview. With a good GPA and your high score otherwise, it really shouldn't affect you. Most people don't look at the WS anyway.

I'd be uncomfortable with this approach. You can't know if it looks to people like a fluke or a choke, and you don't know if with that letter score you even get past the secondary screening and get an interview. Most adcoms don't seem to look at the WS because from what I've been told (by adcoms), they only worry if it's unusually low, which is not the case for most applicants. Thus I like the idea of seeking a regrade, and making a note to this effect in the PS.

 

[tigress]

I'd be uncomfortable with this approach. You can't know if it looks to people like a fluke or a choke, and you don't know if with that letter score you even get past the secondary screening and get an interview. Most adcoms don't seem to look at the WS because from what I've been told (by adcoms), they only worry if it's unusually low, which is not the case for most applicants. Thus I like the idea of seeking a regrade, and making a note to this effect in the PS.

Yeah, it does seem rather risky. But isn't asking for a regrade risky? What if he ends up with a K on his regrade? Who knows what could happen? If he tells the schools, "don't worry, it's getting re-graded," they will expect a higher score.

 

[Law2Doc]

Yeah, it does seem rather risky. But isn't asking for a regrade risky? What if he ends up with a K on his regrade? Who knows what could happen? If he tells the schools, "don't worry, it's getting re-graded," they will expect a higher score.

It's a tough call, I admit, but I think he needs to go with his gut as to whether he did okay or not. If he gets a similarly bad score on the regrade, that's apparently what he's earned under these subjective grading standards, and he has to live with that. But at least by indicating someplace that it is being regraded, he has a shot at getting an interview at some places that might otherwise reject a J offhand.

 

[tigress]

I'm actually curious. I got a P, and I bet if I asked for 2 separate re-grades (assuming that were possible) I could get one M and one S! Stupid section.

Maybe since it's a re-grade they will spend more time on it? mdavid, if you do decide to get it re-graded, please tell us the result!

 

[MattD]

I'm not usually the devious type, but there is one possible thing you COULD do, although you may not want to. Assuming your GPA was high enough, and since your MCAT score is definately high enough, you could always request a regrade, write about it in your essay, AND...... apply to your state school EDP (if they have that option). By applying EDP you would probably have an acceptance decision before your regrade was finished, so you could have your little laugh with the interviewer about the crazy messed-up score, then (possibly) get accepted before AAMC has a chance to confirm the J. Of course this totally depends on how much the school likes EDP'ers, but I know my state school very rarely turns down a qualified applicant who makes that commitment. Just a thought.......

 

[Medikit]

I think having your writing section rescored is a good idea.

 

[coincidental]

Good god... comments about "liberal bias" always make me take a moment to despise/marvel at the conservatives in this country. For god's sake, everyone is NOT out to get you. Given that the AAMC is a business that rather comprehensively gouges applicants for money, I'd half suspect it was repubican run.

I have no memory of what I wrote on my MCAT, but given that I'm dedicately liberal, it was probably in that vein. And I received a pretty crappy writing sample score. I don't think there is any political bias - it's just random and the adcoms know it.


Oy.

 

[cromagnon]

Good god... comments about "liberal bias" always make me take a moment to despise/marvel at the conservatives in this country. For god's sake, everyone is NOT out to get you. Given that the AAMC is a business that rather comprehensively gouges applicants for money, I'd half suspect it was repubican run.

I have no memory of what I wrote on my MCAT, but given that I'm dedicately liberal, it was probably in that vein. And I received a pretty crappy writing sample score. I don't think there is any political bias - it's just random and the adcoms know it.


Oy.

...irony alert...

 

[mdavid]

I'm actually curious. I got a P, and I bet if I asked for 2 separate re-grades (assuming that were possible) I could get one M and one S! Stupid section.

Maybe since it's a re-grade they will spend more time on it? mdavid, if you do decide to get it re-graded, please tell us the result!

Will do...in about 4 months

 

[mdavid]

I'm not usually the devious type, but there is one possible thing you COULD do, although you may not want to. Assuming your GPA was high enough, and since your MCAT score is definately high enough, you could always request a regrade, write about it in your essay, AND...... apply to your state school EDP (if they have that option). By applying EDP you would probably have an acceptance decision before your regrade was finished, so you could have your little laugh with the interviewer about the crazy messed-up score, then (possibly) get accepted before AAMC has a chance to confirm the J. Of course this totally depends on how much the school likes EDP'ers, but I know my state school very rarely turns down a qualified applicant who makes that commitment. Just a thought.......

Thanks for the idea, but I dont think I want to apply EDP...but not a bad option, maybe ill look into it further

 

[mdavid]

It's a tough call, I admit, but I think he needs to go with his gut as to whether he did okay or not. If he gets a similarly bad score on the regrade, that's apparently what he's earned under these subjective grading standards, and he has to live with that. But at least by indicating someplace that it is being regraded, he has a shot at getting an interview at some places that might otherwise reject a J offhand.

I think I wrote good essays--definately better than a J. I should get at least a Q, but who knows with these things. I think my best option is the regrade and hope its all just a bad mistake.

 

[SpeedRacer]

not to stray from the J topic, but what about an M? kaplan told me i was getting S and Ts...i really don't know what happened, oh and composite was a 31, 10 on verbal

 

[superdevil]

FYI, I know plenty of people who wrote from a liberal viewpoint and received very low scores. I think it has absolutely nothing to do with politics.

yes, it is affected by politics. the lesson here is: be a fence-riding bitch. seriously. one of my essay prompts was something to the effect of "should the president be the equal of the common citizen, or greater in some regard". anyway, for each example of aspects in which the president should be equal/greater than the average joe, i would list one democrat and one republican, being meticulously even-handed with my praise of each. playing both sides of the aisle probably helped my WS score (97-99th percentile). i ain't no bill shakespeare, but i'm not a damn fool, either.

the WS is not a political soapbox for either side (and neither is your personal statement, for that matter--but that's a long, ugly discussion), and if you use it as such, then you've probably earned whatever score you got. (i'm not addressing tigress, here, just cautioning future test-takers).

 

[tigress]

yes, it is affected by politics. the lesson here is: be a fence-riding bitch. seriously. one of my essay prompts was something to the effect of "should the president be the equal of the common citizen, or greater in some regard". anyway, for each example of aspects in which the president should be equal/greater than the average joe, i would list one democrat and one republican, being meticulously even-handed with my praise of each. playing both sides of the aisle probably helped my WS score (97-99th percentile). i ain't no bill shakespeare, but i'm not a damn fool, either.

the WS is not a political soapbox for either side (and neither is your personal statement, for that matter--but that's a long, ugly discussion), and if you use it as such, then you've probably earned whatever score you got. (i'm not addressing tigress, here, just cautioning future test-takers).

you left out the last sentence of my post! lol...I said that I didn't bring politics in, and I still got a sucky score. Of course the best idea is to leave politics out, just like it's best to leave politics, religion, etc. out of a PS. But I still think it has nothing to do with the score. I firmly believe the score is based on absolutely nothing. I wouldn't be surprised if they throw them down a staircase to determine scores, seriously.

 

[superdevil]

you left out the last sentence of my post! lol...I said that I didn't bring politics in, and I still got a sucky score.

i know, that's why i included the last sentence of my post "i'm not addressing tigress, here, just cautioning future test-takers". i just wanted people to know that talking politics in the WS isn't too clever, and your post provided a good quote to begin my post. 😉

 

[ForbiddenComma]

remember that they grade these things by a checklist... address each of the 3 main "tasks" of the essay, with at least a paragraph each, and you can't go wrong. Think about how they grade freshman comp essays. There's too many students to really pore through any essay, so they go by a checklist. OTOH, the adcoms KNOW that this is basically a freshman comp essay test so they really don't care too much about how you do. I got a perfect score on WS but nobody gave two s**ts about it. I would have gladly traded it for an extra point or two on my bio score... :/

 

[tigress]

remember that they grade these things by a checklist... address each of the 3 main "tasks" of the essay, with at least a paragraph each, and you can't go wrong. Think about how they grade freshman comp essays. There's too many students to really pore through any essay, so they go by a checklist. OTOH, the adcoms KNOW that this is basically a freshman comp essay test so they really don't care too much about how you do. I got a perfect score on WS but nobody gave two s**ts about it. I would have gladly traded it for an extra point or two on my bio score... :/

I think what everybody is saying is that the checklist may be a great concept, but there is obviously something wrong with it. I am absolutely sure that I completed the "three tasks" in my essays. How well I completed them could be debated, but I wrote something for each part. Personally I think I wrote intelligent, reasoned, and well-written essays, and I was expecting a Q or R or higher. Granted I didn't get much below this, but I still think it's a crap-shoot. My husband also took TPR, did well on his essays for the course, says he addressed all three tasks, and ended up with an N. He knows exactly why, too: his essays were relatively short. It's like that dude who analyzed the new SAT essays and showed that the score directly correlated with the length. My essays were pretty long, so I'm not sure exactly why I got what I did.

And, as I said in every previous post, I know it doesn't matter 😛

 

[Steiner]

I just received my scores from the April MCAT. I got a combined 38, but it says that my writing score is a J, which is just not possible. That equivalent to handing it in blank. So it must be a mistake, but what do I do now? Who do I call? Will they look into the situation and tell me what happened? Anyone have a similar experience?

Not to scare you, but I had a 38L and got rejected from all 5 schools I applied to. I had other issues with my application though (Low undergrad GPA). My writing score was brought up by a school I talked to after rejection. They said it was one of the lower ones they looked at. On a positive note, I've also heard that more med schools are starting to not even look at it because the writing score and verbal score often do not reflect one another. 6VR and S's and then 13-14 VR and L-N's.

 

[AStudent]

Actually not handing in your writing sections results in a score of "X" which voids your entire MCAT.

 

[ForbiddenComma]

verbal has nothing to do with the writing section.

The verbal section's formal name is Verbal Reasoning, and it has a LOT more to do with reasoning than verbal. You don't get any antonym questions here, for instance. It is designed to make you read material from an *unfamiliar* discipline and then apply what you've read to the questions. The essays are academic and they do occasionally throw out big words, but mostly, this section is about how rapidly you can absorb new knowledge and apply it.

One of the most critical mistakes an MCAT student can make is to underestimate verbal. Like I said earlier, the writing section doesn't mean jack. But not only does the verbal contribute to your total score -- but for some schools, it is the MAIN score to look at. More important than the sciences! Like steiner says, there is little coorelation between verbal and writing scores -- because they have so little to do with one another.

 

[WayChanger]

Getting a J is so bizarre...is there any chance whatsoever you might have misread the prompts somehow? I think if your essays are both entirely off topic, you would get a J. As it is, though, the J definitely seems like a mistake...I would get it rescored and put a blurb about it in the PS, like others have suggested.