MCAT Horror Stories

[AlternateSome1]

Ok...VT Campus. I arrive at the testing room about 20 minutes early only to find it filled with students about to take the Praxis exams (teaching certification exams). They are having their information sessions about where to go for which exam and they tell all MCAT takers to wait outside until 8:00. Well...we all go into the room at 8:00, finally get sent to the actual testing room. As the proctor is reading the instructions, the construction begins on the building that they are erecting just outside the window. That dies down for the most part, when suddenly there is an enormous BOOM. It took the band starting up before it was evident that the Corps of Cadets had just fired their cannon, which they did a total of three times during the testing, intermixed with their music. I hate this school.

~AS1~

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[woolie]

I always wondered what people did when they had REALLY mega MCAT test taking disturbances and this one takes the cookie.

I felt like I was fine until the guy behind me started digging into his Verbal like he was digging to China with his pencil. Suddenly, jiggling desks, loud scatching and banging on the desk started to really freak me out. Eventually I moved but then the proctors were sitting around me eating candies from noisy wrappers and the fan was buzzing .... etc.

I usually think I'm pretty good at ignoring this stuff but having to work out these passages and focus is hard enough. Any other people freaked out by these noises?

This test is so hard as it is and we're all so stressed ...

 

[nbharara]

hey AlternateSome1,

I go to tech and took the MCAT at tech also, what room were you in? I got there around 7:45 and went into the room and found out we had to wait outside till 8. I waited for it and finally got room 3008. The corps of cadets were doing stuff when I was testing too.. However, I only heard 2 booms (really loud). Other than that, I thought the testing conditions weren't too bad. We got tables so we could spread out. What'd you think of it your testing room? I ended up getting out around 4:30.

Although I thought there were some small problems with the testing site, overall i thought it was an okay experience.

 

[JimiThing]

As long as we're on the subject, my day went a little like this.

Show up at testing location (about a 3 minute drive from my dorm room). Spend fifteen minutes trying to first find the building we're supposed to be in (you would figure they would at least put up one sign), then to find parking. Enter building and try to find room (again no signs). Get to room at 8, and they are just letting people in. Spend a good hour and a half while they do all the security measure thumb printstuff, and then try to seat everyone in lecture hall (they had to do it twice since, using the first arangement they tried, they ran out of room with half of us still standing). Get seated. Fill out the answer form. Test starts at two hours after I got there, 10 am. During the first section at least a dozen people have beeping timers, a few cell phones go off, but, to prove the proctors hove no control over the test takers, four or five people who finish early get up and go to the bathroom. Finish the Phyiscal Science Section. The ten minute break turns into a 30-35 minute break since the proctors couldnt figure out a way to get all the answer sheats efficiently, or pass out the next test booklet. The same crap happens during every other section and break (except for the cell phones).
The test on the whole took about 12 hours (got there at 7:45, left at 7:30).
Luckily I was sitting with a bunch of my friends, so I had people to talk to during the breaks, but this wasnt really the greatest thing either, since the whole process became trivial and any conception of the importance of the test was lost to a desire to get the hell out of there before the sun went down.

 

[Amit1]

Did you read my post about the Christian rap-rock band??? Everything that could have went wrong did go wrong. After the band a fire alarm went off and stayed on until the morning, I slept through most of it. In the morning I had the sh*ts from all the Popeyes Louisiana Spicy Chicken I ate the night before. I got to the test center to find two old crotchety proctors that are paranoid about cheating. I got the only full size desk in the room and they kicked me off it and put me in a baby tiny desk that couldn't fit my test booklet and answer sheet at once.

. . . As soon as that seal broke on the physical sciences section I was gold though. And thats all that matters.

 

[BushBaby]

Well I got my unexpected "monthly" visitor during the verbal section. It was three days early and I was unprepared....woes me
Life is not fair....it is fairer than death though.

 

[AlternateSome1]

nbharara,
I was in room 3001. I really didn't think it was all bad, I mean the tables were nice since we had so much room. I just wanted to gripe a bit. I think BushBaby's story takes the cake for the horror stories so far...not exactly the best situation to end up in unprepared! Anyway, I hope everyone has had a nice evening to simmer down after a stressful test day.

~AS1~

 

[DrLady]

AS1 and JimiThing,

You guys can report to the AAMC about the disturbances that took place while you guys were taking the MCAT. I know that tweetie bird knows more about this. Let me give you the thread from last august.

Click Here

Another one: Link

 

[vixenell]

Originally posted by BushBaby
Well I got my unexpected "monthly" visitor during the verbal section. It was three days early and I was unprepared....woes me
Life is not fair....it is fairer than death though.

\

Oh wow... Ok, I'm definately going to come "prepared" when I take it next year.

Add that to the "what to pack" list...

 

[heldicus]

U of Cincinnati's test center was pretty good overall. There was this one girl in my room that asked the proctor if she could unplug the wall phone before the test began...only to have some electronic device in her bag start beeping in the middle of a test section. Instead of trying to turn it off, she just held her bag up and asked the proctor to come get it and take it outside. Rediculous.

Later in the day someone else had a timer go off. It's not that hard, people. Here's the logic to follow: (1) The rules say that beeping things are not allowed. (2) My electronic device emits an occasional beep, ring, howl, or barnyard noise. (3) I cannot use this device, and I will leave it at home.

My solution...after taking each person's fingerprint to get in, give each person a medium sized rock. If you beep during the test, you get stoned. It's that simple.

 

[spumoni620]

wow. i agree w/dr. lady, you two with the wack testing rooms and proctors should report it to the aamc. that seems really unfair...

compared to that our test site was pretty good. we had nice big tables and plenty of breathing room. even though the test site was in this really bad run-down area of town...of course we started only at 9:30 b/c of all the security stuff. i was irritated b/c i could have gotten another 1 hr of sleep. but then before the test begins the lady reading the proctor instructions (very thick accent) asks if we have any questions and since this is my first time i'm just wanting to get the thing over with and break the seal and my palms are sweaty, mind spinning, etc. etc. but then five ppl ask questions (who knew?) about the timers vs. watches, etc. adn insist that their timers be allowed. proctor has to go get an aamc supervisor to tell them that no timers are allowed. then this one girl gets into a discussion about beeping vs. non beeping watches (is it okay if my watch just beeps once when it starts? answer: no. but are you sure? even just once? etc. etc.) i'm about to die. but we finally do get started. and there are 3 timer beeps....

we finally get out around 6:00. not too bad, considering....

 

[maoeris]

How unfair that you guys got timers! according to our proctors no timers were allowed at all. We got jipped!

 

[Doctor&Geek]

Betya these are worse:

Wrong Section
Weapons

 

[DrLady]

Originally posted by JPaikman
Betya these are worse:

Wrong Section
Weapons

Oh...that is so horrible!! Poor students and yes, these do take the prize for being the worst situations!

 

[LoneCoyote]

Wow, I'm now feeling really good about my testing experience hearing what others suffered through! The big drama at the U of A was that they printed the wrong address for the building on the admissions tickets. For me it was no big deal since I knew where the building was. Anyway, on late Friday afternoon I get a message that the MCAT called my house in San Francisco (not too convenient since I'm obviously not there) to leave a message about the new address of the building. Nice of them to do so, but a bit late and people at the test the next day were pissed and some had trouble finding the building. Our test ran pretty smoothly, starting around 8:45 and ending before 5pm. Just a few minor problems. They did not let us use the non-beeping timer that TPR had told us to buy so that was a bit stressful not having a timer. We did convince them to write the test start and end times on the board which helped. Some girl's Palm Pilot went insane during the test and started playing music but she turned it off fairly quickly. The only big distraction was the Marine ROTC which kept running by, since their building was very near the test building, shouting cadences and commands. Overall, I think I got lucky in having a pretty decent experience.

 

[earthlink]

This girl in front of me had to void her test because she was marking the answers in the booklet and she ran out of time while filling out the answer form.

 

[bjolly]

Jimithing, I think you and I were at the same testing center--no signs, hard to find bulding, started at 10, got out at 7:30, all of it sounds exactly like my day. Were you in Baltimore? I have no idea how the proctors managed to take so long doing everything but I do know I kept having visions of all of us rising up and stabbing them with out pointy little number 2 pencils!

 

[envelope]

our testing site was at a hotel and thus had background classical music playing for the whole time....got quite annoying until i got used to it.

we started at 10 and finished around 6:30...

no timers allowed...the proctor even CALLED aamc that morning to double check

overall, good testing site, but bad exam. =D