Mcat Score calculation?

[Spectar]

Just took the Mcat today for the first time and without giving any specific information- holy hell I thought 2-3 of those passages were absolutely crazy.

Anyway I wanted to know how the actual percentile/score is calculated... is it calculated by percentage of total (so total correct) or is the calculation more specific about hard questions/easy questions and gives less weight to easy questions etc.

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[pms_testosterone]

Each question has the same weight. However, the conversion from # of questions right to score can vary between tests (and sections) depending on how hard the test/section is.

 

[Johnny Appleseed]

Just took it as well.... I feel like I bombed it. I also felt like it was at least as hard if not harder than all the practice tests I took

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[ChopinLiszt]

The score is based on how well you did compared to others - the score represents a percentile. So if it was hard, most likely everyone else got more wrong, too. Supposedly we're supposed to trust our AAMC FL scores..

 

[Spectar]

The score is based on how well you did compared to others - the score represents a percentile. So if it was hard, most likely everyone else got more wrong, too. Supposedly we're supposed to trust our AAMC FL scores..

Yeah I know it's compared to others, I just wanted to know if they compare the overall percent correct or go question by question.

I hate how the the AAMC practice exams were, in my opinion, so much easier than my actual exam. Even though it's standardized, it's stressful for me if I'm not understanding things... which impacts my performance on later questions.

 

[ChopinLiszt]

Yeah, I agree. The purpose of practice tests from the company making the real thing should be to represent what the actual test will be like! So many people say the real thing is much harder in a way that is impossible to prepare for. Really looking forward to taking this beast on Friday..

 

[harkas]

Yeah I know it's compared to others, I just wanted to know if they compare the overall percent correct or go question by question.

I hate how the the AAMC practice exams were, in my opinion, so much easier than my actual exam. Even though it's standardized, it's stressful for me if I'm not understanding things... which impacts my performance on later questions.

I don't know if you're allowed to answer this question but when you say it was so much harder, do you mean the content was super difficult and covered more than you thought, or the passages were really dense and difficult to read hence you had trouble answering the question? I take the test on Friday.

 

[Poppin]

Just took it as well.... I feel like I bombed it. I also felt like it was at least as hard if not harder than all the practice tests I took

Sent from my Moto G (4) using SDN mobile

Yeah I know it's compared to others, I just wanted to know if they compare the overall percent correct or go question by question.

I hate how the the AAMC practice exams were, in my opinion, so much easier than my actual exam. Even though it's standardized, it's stressful for me if I'm not understanding things... which impacts my performance on later questions.

Very few people come out of the actual exam thinking they did well. That's normal. In my case, even though I found AAMC FL 1 vastly "easier", I ended up doing considerably better in terms of score on the actual exam. If your practice exam scores came out to your satisfaction (assuming you took a reasonable amount), I'm confident you will get the score you want or perhaps even better. There used to be a spreadsheet floating around in which people compiled their Kaplan/NS/TPR/AAMC FL 1 practice exam scores and compared to the actual. In a vast majority of cases actual performance was pretty in line with what one would expect when considering practice exam scores for many people.

Edit:

 

[Spectar]

I don't know if you're allowed to answer this question but when you say it was so much harder, do you mean the content was super difficult and covered more than you thought, or the passages were really dense and difficult to read hence you had trouble answering the question? I take the test on Friday.

So I personally felt it was harder because there was never a time in the practice exams where I didn't understand a passage. For the actual test there were definitely two passages that were just too outrageous - however I want to point out that it could have been completely subjective, maybe it was just two topics that I suck at. Hopefully the normalization works out in my favor.

Just make sure you do the section banks, they are not that important for the content but they are good for getting your mind thinking.

 

[Spectar]

Very few people come out of the actual exam thinking they did well. That's normal. In my case, even though I found AAMC FL 1 vastly "easier", I ended up doing considerably better in terms of score on the actual exam. If your practice exam scores came out to your satisfaction (assuming you took a reasonable amount), I'm confident you will get the score you want or perhaps even better. There used to be a spreadsheet floating around in which people compiled their Kaplan/NS/TPR/AAMC FL 1 practice exam scores and compared to the actual. In a vast majority of cases actual performance was pretty in line with what one would expect when considering practice exam scores for many people.

Edit:

Hopefully that spreadsheet is accurate. Guess I'll find out in 30 days.

 

[Yhorm the Giant]

So I personally felt it was harder because there was never a time in the practice exams where I didn't understand a passage. For the actual test there were definitely two passages that were just too outrageous - however I want to point out that it could have been completely subjective, maybe it was just two topics that I suck at. Hopefully the normalization works out in my favor.

Just make sure you do the section banks, they are not that important for the content but they are good for getting your mind thinking.

What did you feel like was best for the actual content then? I was about to start the section banks this week, hoping it would give a good idea of any other content I haven't been able to at least look at once. I've got one month and a lot further to go content wise than I had hoped😕

 

[Johnny Appleseed]

I don't know if you're allowed to answer this question but when you say it was so much harder, do you mean the content was super difficult and covered more than you thought, or the passages were really dense and difficult to read hence you had trouble answering the question? I take the test on Friday.

Be prepared to read! Passages were long and complex. I felt there was a good mix of easy/medium/difficult questions, but passages were more complex than in the practice exams. If your get confused during a passage like I did it can get you in trouble

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[Spectar]

I wanted to update everyone/ let anybody who stumbles across this thread know: I did a lot better than I thought I would. If you come out of the exam feeling terrible DON'T STRESS ABOUT IT, as long as you were scoring well on your practice exams YOU'LL BE FINE.

Thank you to everybody who posted here