LizzyM score new MCAT

[md-2020]

Since the 2015 MCAT I have seen an absurd amount of SDN users claiming to have 80+ LizzyM scores. That's a 4.0/40 or 3.8/42....Are you guys converting the new scores correctly by percentiles? Or are high stats people in the entire US just literally all on SDN these days? Because AAMC isn't reporting a marked shift in scores and it's kind of weird seeing every other poster applying to like Drexel with 80+ LM (a bad choice btw).

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[md-2020]

Only about 5% of those accepted to med school probably post on SDN. There also seems to be a huge sampling bias. I would not be deterred by what I see on here. Those stats are not too common. While scores for average matriculants are on the rise, it is not by a huge amount.

I mean I'm cramming for Step at this point so IDGAF really about the future of admissions competitiveness (sorry) but its a big difference from back when even on SDN 80+'s were pretty rare.

 

[DrHart]

Since the 2015 MCAT I have seen an absurd amount of SDN users claiming to have 80+ LizzyM scores. That's a 4.0/40 or 3.8/42....Are you guys converting the new scores correctly by percentiles? Or are high stats people in the entire US just literally all on SDN these days? Because AAMC isn't reporting a marked shift in scores and it's kind of weird seeing every other poster applying to like Drexel with 80+ LM (a bad choice btw).

As someone with as many likes and posts as you, I'm surprised that you would post something like this. People can very easily convert their new MCAT to the old scale and then find their LizzyM. You should know by now that the subset of premeds who post on SDN is not representative of the entire group of applicants.... and should seriously not get your panties in a bundle because of this.
Also, people with all sorts of scores apply to Drexel. Why do you think it has such a high number of applicants? Low stat applicants feel they have a good shot because the median scores aren't too high. High stats applicants apply thinking it makes a good safety school. I mean no offense but you should seriously just mind your own. This post was (a bad choice).

 

[Lawpy]

As someone with as many likes and posts as you, I'm surprised that you would post something like this. People can very easily convert their new MCAT to the old scale and then find their LizzyM. You should know by now that the subset of premeds who post on SDN is not representative of the entire group of applicants.... and should seriously not get your panties in a bundle because of this.
Also, people with all sorts of scores apply to Drexel. Why do you think it has such a high number of applicants? Low stat applicants feel they have a good shot because the median scores aren't too high. High stats applicants apply thinking it makes a good safety school. I mean no offense but you should seriously just mind your own. This post was (a bad choice).

 

[md-2020]

As someone with as many likes and posts as you, I'm surprised that you would post something like this. People can very easily convert their new MCAT to the old scale and then find their LizzyM. You should know by now that the subset of premeds who post on SDN is not representative of the entire group of applicants.... and should seriously not get your panties in a bundle because of this.
Also, people with all sorts of scores apply to Drexel. Why do you think it has such a high number of applicants? Low stat applicants feel they have a good shot because the median scores aren't too high. High stats applicants apply thinking it makes a good safety school. I mean no offense but you should seriously just mind your own. This post was (a bad choice).

I'm curious, and just wondering whether people might be misjudging what new scores mean. I am clearly aware of SDN self selection.

It is objectively a low-yield proposition to apply to schools with stats above their 99%iles.

 

[DrHart]

Sorry for bluntness, its just a pointless post

 

[DrHart]

I'm curious, and just wondering whether people might be misjudging what new scores mean. I am clearly aware of SDN self selection.

It is objectively a low-yield proposition to apply to schools with stats above their 99%iles.

I agree entirely. It's a low-yield proposition for anyone with a LizzyM ~80 to apply to over 15 schools.... yet here we are

 

[efle]

I noticed this too. I think people do misjudge scores sometimes, and think things like 130 CARS = 13 V in that section, or 523 = 40 because they're both five away from max.

Because the dropoff used to be so steep per point at the far right tail, where 0.5% had a 39+ but only 0.2-0.1% had a 40-41+, people accidentally giving themselves a bonus point or two has the effect of making "80+" appear 2-5x more common.

It doesn't really matter anyways though of course. The list that is appropriate for an 82 LizzyM is also going to be appropriate for a 79 LizzyM.

 

[fdgjfg]

@efle is right on both points I think.

I think a large number of people are overestimating their scores due to bad information on how to convert between old and new. I've seen this a bunch in person, where someone I know who had say, a 521, was telling people they got a 40 (2 points above what it actually equates to). It seems like this is due to bad resources. If I google "mcat conversion calculator" two out of the top three results are these:

MCAT Score Converter - New to Old MCAT Conversion

How to convert Old MCAT Scores to new (and vice versa)

Which give the overestimated number (I think with the first batch of info on the 2015 MCAT the percentile ranks/scores were different and ended up not being used, where more numbers occupied the extreme percentile ranges, and these pages are based on those primitive equivalence tables). I feel like a lot of people just google that, accidentally go to a bad link, and then don't really bother digging deeper to check if their info is right.

It also seems that they're spreading out the distribution of scores in the 100th% range too; for example, I don't think I ever saw someone reporting a 44 or 45, but you do see 527s and 528s described now. While people have kind of been equating 523=39, 524=40, 525=41, etc., I don't think it's that strict of an equivalence, causing high-scorers to overestimate. More scores might be clustered at the bottom part of the 100th%, so that a 528 is actually more equivalent to something like a ~43.

 

[efle]

Wow, those calculators are waaaay too generous. I put in 523 composite and it said 42 ??? I've no idea how that is arrived at.

And I think you nailed it about the upper end being distributed differently now. Take an example score of 14/13/14 = 41, so 4 points shy of max. But when you line up percentiles, that is the same as 132/132/131 in the comparable sections, potentially on track for a 527!

 

[WildWing]

Throwing in a plug for the SDN Application Assistant:

LizzyM Score Calculator | Student Doctor Network

It calculates your LizzyM and lets you compare your stats versus other applicants and matriculants based on AAMC data.

 

[WedgeDawg]

I mean I'm cramming for Step at this point so IDGAF really about the future of admissions competitiveness (sorry) but its a big difference from back when even on SDN 80+'s were pretty rare.

How on earth can you be cramming for step already

 

[efle]

How on earth can you be cramming for step already

isn't he in M2? we had people telling us here that some of the tryhards start looking over First Aid by the end of M1

 

[md-2020]

How on earth can you be cramming for step already

I mean I just bought like $300 worth of study guides last week.

Starting mad early on MCAT worked for me, so might as well try it again for the most important test of em all.

Edit: I'm also trying to get it taken kinda early, at the start of M3 (aka next calendar yr) when I'm back on the East Coast at my fav prometric place in Maryland. Yeah kinda dumb, but I'm taking this serious mate

 

[WedgeDawg]

isn't he in M2? we had people telling us here that some of the tryhards start looking over First Aid by the end of M1

WHAT. How are you an M2 already @md-2020

 

[md-2020]

WHAT. How are you an M2 already @md-2020

yeah I keep asking myself that too. Time flies lol. Just started back up for second year last week.

I'll be on campus for an extra year to do the mba but pre-clinical yrs 1-2 and rotations happen before I take a break and go economics it up for a while 😉

 

[Piglet2020]

I mean I just bought like $300 worth of study guides last week.

Starting mad early on MCAT worked for me, so might as well try it again for the most important test of em all.

Edit: I'm also trying to get it taken kinda early, at the start of M3 (aka next calendar yr) when I'm back on the East Coast at my fav prometric place in Maryland. Yeah kinda dumb, but I'm taking this serious mate

Woot woot Maryland MD represent. 😀