MCAT incident

[lainey234]

I've been posting in the MCAT forum as well - but I was wondering if anyone who has already taken the exam had any issues arise during it. While I was taking the exam a local radio station set up shop outside the building and broadcast live the entire time. It was extremely distracting.

The proctor said he was sending in an official report on the incident. Has anyone had something similar occur - major disturbance during the exam. If so, what happened? Did you take the score, did you have a note on your score?

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[Sunshine1025]

Can I even ask this..?

Was your score alright, or absolutely terrible?

 

[Critical Mass]

Countdown until this gets moved to MCAT or closed as duplicate...

 

[Sunshine1025]

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[lainey234]

Countdown until this gets moved to MCAT or closed as duplicate...

Why is there already a thread about this subject? I didn't see one.

Anyway, I took it yesterday so I have no idea what my score will be

 

[Sunshine1025]

Ohhh.. got it.

Good Luck!!

 

[NN11]

I've been posting in the MCAT forum as well - but I was wondering if anyone who has already taken the exam had any issues arise during it. While I was taking the exam a local radio station set up shop outside the building and broadcast live the entire time. It was extremely distracting.

The proctor said he was sending in an official report on the incident. Has anyone had something similar occur - major disturbance during the exam. If so, what happened? Did you take the score, did you have a note on your score?

the bolded portion of your post is why Critical Mass, myself and others think that this is a duplicate thread....

to address your question though, I sat through a very distracting MCAT administration as well. There was a huge Art fair going on outside (~1000 people), a band was practicing outside, and there was construction going on in the building next to us. And if that wasn't enough, the clock in the room was set to go off every 50 minutes after the hour and on the hour the entire day!!! When the buzzer went off the first time, the proctor almost fell off his chair It was hilarious.

I never complained because I was told that it would only appear as a notation next to my MCAT score.

 

[mongrel]

I've been posting in the MCAT forum as well - but I was wondering if anyone who has already taken the exam had any issues arise during it. While I was taking the exam a local radio station set up shop outside the building and broadcast live the entire time. It was extremely distracting.

The proctor said he was sending in an official report on the incident. Has anyone had something similar occur - major disturbance during the exam. If so, what happened? Did you take the score, did you have a note on your score?

Ha, my test was back in January right after a big snow/ice storm. Right in the middle of my verbal section a huge leak started coming (almost flowing) through the drop ceiling just a few feet away from me. **plop plop plop plop** even through the headphones! So they put a trashcan with a sponge under it. Big help! Talk about distracting during my worst section and continuing through the rest of the test.

 

[lainey234]

the bolded portion of your post is why Critical Mass, myself and others think that this is a duplicate thread....

QUOTE]

Ahh, I understand now. No, I did not start a thread there - just commented on it on another thread regarding yesterdays test. Anyway, I figure only people who have just taken the MCAT or are about to take it check that forum

I wanted to hear from people who had already had similar experiences and find out what the result was. I did not complain, just continued taking the exam. Just curious whether AAMC actually would submit a note with your results and whether that really makes a difference.

 

[NN11]

If enough people complain there will be a notation on your MCAT score, but I highly doubt that will make a difference for med schools.

the only possible scenario that I can think of where the notation would be taken into consideration is when med schools are deciding between you and someone else post-interview, and trying to justify why they should accept you over the other person.

Pre-interview, I don't think that a notation will have much impact, because most often your MCAT score and GPA are INITIALLY screened by a computer and the little details won't be looked at by an actual person until sometime later. If you're applying to a school that gets 10,000+ applications, you're probably out of luck.

 

[apnea]

Pre-interview, I don't think that a notation will have much impact, because most often your MCAT score and GPA are INITIALLY screened by a computer and the little details won't be looked at by an actual person until sometime later. If you're applying to a school that gets 10,000+ applications, you're probably out of luck.

Yeah, welcome to life...
all MCATs should be administered in underground isolation chambers with nice little dimmer switches and scented candles

 

[evade]

On the day of my MCAT some years ago, the air conditioner in our lecture hall broke. It was the middle of August in Sacramento, and there were no windows in this lecture hall; not that it would have helped. The temperature soared to over 100º. We were sweating onto our test forms, but damned if we didn't finish it out.

When I took the GRE (way back when I thought I'd go to grad school), the server that controlled every computer in the test center crashed. Imagine the sense of panic when you realize your computer isn't responding in the middle of a timed test, and when it then gives you the Blue Screen of Death. They kicked us all out for 30 minutes, rebooted everything, and then re-admitted us, one by one. Talk about breaking your rhythm!

"Standardized tests" are never (and can never) truly be standardized. Best you can do is file this away as an amusing story, hope your score is a good one, and never think of it again.

 

[kyley3k]

I don't know the schedule for the new MCAT test, but I kind of thought about distractions when I signed up for the test. I took the MCAT at a college that was on a very late spring break last year. Although the test was administered on a Saturday, this timing helped because it also eliminated any run-ins with extra-curricular activities that might have been taking place, as well.

 

[lainey234]

On the day of my MCAT some years ago, the air conditioner in our lecture hall broke. It was the middle of August in Sacramento, and there were no windows in this lecture hall; not that it would have helped. The temperature soared to over 100º. We were sweating onto our test forms, but damned if we didn't finish it out.

When I took the GRE (way back when I thought I'd go to grad school), the server that controlled every computer in the test center crashed. Imagine the sense of panic when you realize your computer isn't responding in the middle of a timed test, and when it then gives you the Blue Screen of Death. They kicked us all out for 30 minutes, rebooted everything, and then re-admitted us, one by one. Talk about breaking your rhythm!

"Standardized tests" are never (and can never) truly be standardized. Best you can do is file this away as an amusing story, hope your score is a good one, and never think of it again.

Thank you for that response, you are probably right. It was just yesterday and still fresh in my mind, but I'm sure it will be fine. And if not I will simply take it again

 

[GreenShirt]

You can send a letter to AAMC and to your med schools....but I'm guessing they probably won't care all that much. If you do get a low score, it may come up in an interview and you can explain it then. For the most part, you just had bad luck and there's not much you can do about it. I'm glad something like that did not happen when I took the exam; I would have been distracted.

 

[apnea]

As for Apnea, thank you for the welcome to life speech. Be sure to emphasize your amazing empathy and strong sense of compassion when you are applying.

uhm
i was serious about that. no bitchiness. although i'm very good at it...i just think i'd have blown up a radio station in your position. at least then it wouldn't have been my doubtlessly crappy MCAT that kept me out...

 

[NN11]

Hey lainey, I ended up retaking the MCAT and doing really well. don't expect much help from AAMC.

hopefully you won't have to retake it.

Although, your situation is not ideal nor fair, it happens to more people than you think. So keep your head up.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Yeah, the others are right that they're not going to do anything truly useful like letting you retake immediately for free or modifying your score. However, you can get an official comment from them about the testing conditions, and it will be reported with your score. According to the Kaplan people, schools might or might not (most likely) look at that. Mainly, I think it would be helpful if there were only a disturbance during one section -- if that one section were notably lower than your other sections, schools might conclude it's because of the distractions. If all your scores are equally low, I think you'll have to retake.

 

[Quixote MD]

I took the test in Chicago in August 2005. It was the weekend of the Air & Water Show so plenty of traffic and commotion in the city. The icing on the cake was the street performer next to the building who only knew about 10 bars of the Simpson's theme song and played them repeatedly throughout the verbal section of the test. Highly repetitive, familiar tunes have a way of distracting you from what you're reading. It's so easy to go from words to da, da da, dada da da, dadadadada, dadadadada... One of the proctors actually went outside and paid him $50 or something to play somewhere else for a few hours.

Nevertheless, I was too lazy to write a formal complaint or anything like that. I even did pretty well on the verbal section.

 

[Cirrus83]

Wait, since it's all computerized now I thought they all have those headsets that block out sound? I think that makes it harder to argue that noise was a big problem.

 

[lainey234]

The headphones worked for cancelling the sounds of people typing next to you, they were 100% inneffective in drowning out the loud bass from the music. In fact, the headphones actually caused a mini echo so it would make it worse. I ended up not using them at all.

 

[GlobalMD]

You really, really need to file a complaint...others have done this successfully before. If it was that distracting, I believe it's more effective if you get several others to also file complaints. But, there is a time limit, if I remember correctly, in which to file, so I'd look into it quickly...If it's deemed to have been a problem, then they'll offer you various options...good luck!

 

[caliboy007]

send a letter to AAMC describing the circumstances. At minimum, they will provide you a letter to give to your medical schools explaining the circumstance. However, it's unlikely your med school will truly care.