Luck is a big part of the MCAT

[FreeMeDoctor]

I feel pretty confident in saying that luck plays a huge role in taking the MCAT. Luck gives you passages you understand and are familiar with or luck makes a simple topic incomprehensible. Do you know anyone who scored way above or below their average on the real thing ? My scores deviate from 7 or to all the way up to 11-12. I think it is just the luck of the passages.

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[Lests55]

I feel pretty confident in saying that luck plays a huge role in taking the MCAT. Luck gives you passages you understand and are familiar with or luck makes a simple topic incomprehensible. Do you know anyone who scored way above or below their average on the real thing ? My scores deviate from 7 or to all the way up to 11-12. I think it is just the luck of the passages.

I scored two points higher on the real deal than I did on practice tests 7-9. My highest score was on 9, and I scored one point higher on 9. When I was preparing I thought luck was definitely a big part of it. Verbal perhaps the most. I think the key to verbal was being interested in what I was reading, and it just so happened that the easier passages were things that I found boring and the more difficult passage was on a topic that I found interesting.

The sciences obviously has some degree of radnomness as well. I think this is even a bigger deal now because there are fewer questions (I took the paper version). The only think you can do is to be prepared for as much as possible.

 

[spicedmanna]

I feel pretty confident in saying that luck plays a huge role in taking the MCAT. Luck gives you passages you understand and are familiar with or luck makes a simple topic incomprehensible. Do you know anyone who scored way above or below their average on the real thing ? My scores deviate from 7 or to all the way up to 11-12. I think it is just the luck of the passages.

Sure there is the element of chance on the MCAT. Do you know how to minimize the effect of that element? Study intelligently, take lots of practice tests, and leave no stone unturned.

 

[Nomemory]

I think luck becomes less of an issue than good problem-solving/critical-thinking skills because the passages are made in such a way that you *should* be able to solve them with minimal prior knowledge (i.e., just your basic science stuff). A person might luck out on one or two topics that happen to be familiar to them thereby circumventing the need to apply the fundamentals in novel ways (i.e., problem solve). However, it's highly unlikely that top-scorers have acquired detailed knowledge in nearly all topics. Chances are (luck notwithstanding) that they've scored well by exhibiting the very skills the MCAT is trying to test (e.g., critical thinking, etc.).

That is to say, if you hit 40 luck had a smaller part to play than did your actual skills. Conversely, if you hit a composite score of 12 then it's all you 'cause the answers were there for the taking luck or no luck. Does luck play a part? Yeah, sure, such is life. But I doubt luck alone (good, bad or ugly) would be enough to put someone in an entirely different score range.

 

[akinf]

There certainly is luck...and even worse...unluckiness. I mean, if you were gettings 11s, then suddenly you get a 13...probably luck. However, on the opposite side, I know someone who was getting 13s and 14s on PS...then on MCAT day...got an 11. He wasn't very excited.