MCAT scores in new MSAR

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So I picked up one of the new MSAR books. At first glance, median MCAT scores seem to be much higher than in previous years. Anybody feel the same?

 

[ajt2003]

So I picked up one of the new MSAR books. At first glance, median MCAT scores seem to be much higher than in previous years. Anybody feel the same?

I felt that way this year - 33 is the new 30.

 

[wetlightning]

umm, what do you mean? (i haven't ordered the new msar yet)
schools that previously had 30 avg's have 33 avg's now? i better order one asap....
this is depressing

 

[dr.z]

I felt that way this year - 33 is the new 30.

Wow, that's impressive.

 

[PhillyEaglesFan]

Yikes! Isn't 33 around ninetieth percentile?

 

[Sanctuary]

So I picked up one of the new MSAR books. At first glance, median MCAT scores seem to be much higher than in previous years. Anybody feel the same?

YEs that appears to be true off first glance. It is also important to note that overall MCAT takers are doing better too!
Perhaps the test has lightened up a little bit too? Also, some test takers are taking the computer version.

 

[wetlightning]

YEs that appears to be true off first glance. It is also important to note that overall MCAT takers are doing better too!
Perhaps the test has lightened up a little bit too? Also, some test takers are taking the computer version.

if it lightened up, i didn't feel it at this past april administration 😱

but maybe you're right...maybe the curve eases things a bit....(fingers crossed)

 

[domukin]

YEs that appears to be true off first glance. It is also important to note that overall MCAT takers are doing better too!
Perhaps the test has lightened up a little bit too? Also, some test takers are taking the computer version.

Sorry, but how can overall MCAT takers do better??? I thought the test was curved with 24 being the average (50th percentile), do you mean they are doing better as in getting a higher % of correct answers? If that is so, their grade would still be normalized, wouldn't it?

 

[crazy_cavalier]

I felt that way this year - 33 is the new 30.

daaaaayyyuuum 😱

 

[tennisnr]

So I picked up one of the new MSAR books. At first glance, median MCAT scores seem to be much higher than in previous years. Anybody feel the same?

Where did you pick it up if you didn't order it online?

 

[tank you]

i hope this is not the case at every school. how are the UCs looking?

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

This is all BS, guys, the OP is messing with you. MCAT scores have risen very slightly and is not significantly different than past years.

 

[PreMedDrMom]

Whoo Hoo! Fed ex guy just dropped off my new MSAR this morning. The kiddos have been crazy this morning cause they have chicken pox - ugh. I haven't had a chance to even open the cover yet.

Off to read for myself if this MCAT rising is something else to freak out about. 🙁 *sigh*

 

[nockamura]

I think this is probably likely. A 3 point jump is too much in one year (for national average). Also, scores would be normalized to make the average 24 even if the MCAT got easier.

 

[tigress]

Whoo Hoo! Fed ex guy just dropped off my new MSAR this morning. The kiddos have been crazy this morning cause they have chicken pox - ugh. I haven't had a chance to even open the cover yet.

Off to read for myself if this MCAT rising is something else to freak out about. 🙁 *sigh*

Hey, sorry to hijack this thread and totally change the topic, but how common are chickenpox outbreaks these days? I was under the impression that varicella vaccination has become fairly routine, and many (most?) school districts are requiring it now. I'm just curious how this has affected the rate of infection. Do you have any clue?

Hope your kids feel better soon!

 

[jjmack]

I think this is probably likely. A 3 point jump is too much in one year (for national average). Also, scores would be normalized to make the average 24 even if the MCAT got easier.

this is how standardized tests work. It's the only way you can compare scores form different testings.

 

[indo]

the vaccine is showing to be not as effective as they thought.

 

[tigress]

the vaccine is showing to be not as effective as they thought.

Oh really? That's interesting. Do you know offhand of any good resources to read about this? I spent some time at the Wistar Institute with a woman who does vaccine development and I'm really curious about this topic.

 

[tennisnr]

this is how standardized tests work. It's the only way you can compare scores form different testings.

I agree. There is no way the average has increased because that is set by test. They set the avg to a 24. But this won't change the fact that schools that had an avg matriculant mcat of 30 now are being more selective and their matrics now have an avg of 33. Though this seems unlikely also because a 3 pt jump is very significant.

 

[indo]

I doubt the average overall mcat score changed any. There were probably many more applicants so they could fill their classes with students who scored higher.

 

[shinji]

I guess it just meant more high MCAT score applicants got accepted to medical school or more applicants had a score of 36 or higher, which screwed up the average.

 

[indo]

Oh really? That's interesting. Do you know offhand of any good resources to read about this? I spent some time at the Wistar Institute with a woman who does vaccine development and I'm really curious about this topic.

I don't know of any research articles or anything like that. I only know what our employee health nurse told me. I had to get a varicella vaccine since I apparently didn't develope immunity to chicken pox when I had it. She said the vaccine wasn't nearly as effective as just getting chicken pox when you are young.

 

[DrBowtie]

Imagine how ridiculous the average would be if there were 20 testing dates as proposed. People would just take it and take it and take it. There would be a bunch more people with higher scores and hence the average will go up I suspect.

 

[tank you]

I guess it just meant more high MCAT score applicants got accepted to medical school or more applicants had a score of 36 or higher, which screwed up the average.

if the former is true, that would indicate that it's becoming more difficult to get accepted in med school.

 

[tkim]

Oh really? That's interesting. Do you know offhand of any good resources to read about this? I spent some time at the Wistar Institute with a woman who does vaccine development and I'm really curious about this topic.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/7/851

 

[nockamura]

But the number of applicants hasn't increased that much. At least not enough to push averages up 3 points in a year.

 

[SOUNDMAN]

I doubt the average overall mcat score changed any. There were probably many more applicants so they could fill their classes with students who scored higher.

I think this is the key. Applications HAVE increased over the last few years. Med school slots have not. There fore better applicants and more selectivity by the schools.

 

[shinji]

Look on the bright side-- 50% of med students had MCAT score lower than 33. There is still a pretty good chance of getting in a med school.

 

[brynn7]

i remember someone on the MCAT forum suggested that if everyone brought along one friend that was completely unprepared ie: someone with no interest in science or medicine or actually taking the MCAT, that this would really change the percentiles. hmmmmm.... i would be willing to pay for 2 admission tickets to get a better score...and then you would also have someone to hang out with during breaks!!!! just a stupid but interesting idea..that i didnt actually come up with...

 

[DrBowtie]

If everyone did that it might have an effect. I would be pissed though if my friend scored better by natural testtaking ability.

 

[PreMedDrMom]

Re: Varicella vax

Chicken pox isn't as common today as when we were little kids. The Varivax came out in 1995 and is now required by almost all schools. It is in the process of being added to the required vaccinations for schooling/daycare.

However, it is not as effective as they orginally thought, and boosters are required later in life to retain 'immunity'. But this immunity is about a 75% +/- whereas getting chicken pox is a much stronger immunity. Myself, I turned down the varicella vax for my 3 year old (babies get the vax at 1 year of age), hoping he'd get in naturally. Many parents do this, while still vax'ing everything else on schedule.

Turns out my 1 year old (who when was exposed was too young to get the vax even if I had changed my mind about it), picked up chicken pox from church. My 3 year old hasn't got it yet, but I'm just waiting, since baby has only had it a short time, and the incubation period is 7-21 days - ugh - housebound sucks!

So I chose to let the boys get it naturally rather than vax for it. They are not at risk for an extreme case, otherwise I might've considered it. If you get the vax and then forget to get your booster as an adult (which many adults do forget vax's), then you stand a great chance of getting an extreme case of chicken pox, should you pick it up, and end up going on medication immediately.

However, I was not hoping they'd get chicken pox this early, and some fool woman at church thought it was ok to bring her child into the nursery whilst contagious, thus exposing my baby. 🙁

On the MCAT side - if people are really getting 33 and above as an average score, well now I'm just stressed even more about this test.

 

[horton thruggle]

I think this is the key. Applications HAVE increased over the last few years. Med school slots have not. There fore better applicants and more selectivity by the schools.

Sorry, untrue. see http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/2004mcatgpa.htm

Applications have been slightly declining over the past few year, and MCATs have been slightly increasing ove the same period. Neither is sufficient to create a 3 point movement.

I am quite sure the OP is either:

1) an obnoxious a$$hole with too much time on his/her hands;

2) simply misinformed and lacking the common sense to reason that this is nonsense

3) seriously humor-challenged.

Note: all of the above is a possible answer.

 

[YzIa]

Yikes! Isn't 33 around ninetieth percentile?

I don't know the exact numbers, indeed 33 is 90-9? percentile (at first I read it as 19th and assumed you meant 81st.)

 

[Law2Doc]

i remember someone on the MCAT forum suggested that if everyone brought along one friend that was completely unprepared ie: someone with no interest in science or medicine or actually taking the MCAT, that this would really change the percentiles. hmmmmm.... i would be willing to pay for 2 admission tickets to get a better score...and then you would also have someone to hang out with during breaks!!!! just a stupid but interesting idea..that i didnt actually come up with...

It likely wouldn't work -- there would always be a "cut-off" since the number of med school spots are fixed. If double the number of people took the MCAT and med schools saw they could fill their classes with people with much higher MCATs, they'd do so. All you'd succeed in doing would be to raise the minimum MCAT required. Kind of like raising the minimum wage -- the lowest will always be minimum no matter what dollar value it actually is. Although perhaps there would be a lag, and if you got your app in early you could get interviewed before the med schools realized that your score was the same as everyone elses...

 

[YzIa]

Imagine how ridiculous the average would be if there were 20 testing dates as proposed. People would just take it and take it and take it. There would be a bunch more people with higher scores and hence the average will go up I suspect.

I don't know if this has been answered yet, but AAMC would likely create new regulations on limiting applicants to 2-3 exams (as is now) and schools would have to adjust how they look at multiple MCAT scores to counter applicants who crammed for a single section and retook the test multiple times.

 

[beastmaster]

I would be pissed though if my friend scored better by natural testtaking ability.

This has happened in the past. I don't remember the link to the website but one guy decided to take the MCAT without any preparation or background science study whatsoever. He scored pretty high in verbal, not great but decent in physical sciences (which is very easy to do because the curve is the easiest on this section), and similarly on bio (via verbal skills). He scored a 29. I imagine there are many who can score 30+ without any prep.

 

[tigress]

Re: Varicella vax

Chicken pox isn't as common today as when we were little kids. The Varivax came out in 1995 and is now required by almost all schools. It is in the process of being added to the required vaccinations for schooling/daycare.

However, it is not as effective as they orginally thought, and boosters are required later in life to retain 'immunity'. But this immunity is about a 75% +/- whereas getting chicken pox is a much stronger immunity. Myself, I turned down the varicella vax for my 3 year old (babies get the vax at 1 year of age), hoping he'd get in naturally. Many parents do this, while still vax'ing everything else on schedule.

Turns out my 1 year old (who when was exposed was too young to get the vax even if I had changed my mind about it), picked up chicken pox from church. My 3 year old hasn't got it yet, but I'm just waiting, since baby has only had it a short time, and the incubation period is 7-21 days - ugh - housebound sucks!

So I chose to let the boys get it naturally rather than vax for it. They are not at risk for an extreme case, otherwise I might've considered it. If you get the vax and then forget to get your booster as an adult (which many adults do forget vax's), then you stand a great chance of getting an extreme case of chicken pox, should you pick it up, and end up going on medication immediately.

However, I was not hoping they'd get chicken pox this early, and some fool woman at church thought it was ok to bring her child into the nursery whilst contagious, thus exposing my baby. 🙁

On the MCAT side - if people are really getting 33 and above as an average score, well now I'm just stressed even more about this test.

Thanks for the info. That's a really good point -- if you forget to get to get the booster you're at a much greater risk. I remember when I was a kid, about 5 or so, and my brother was 3, a kid in our neighborhood got chicken pox, and my mother made us play with him 😛. So of course we both got it, and at the same time (which was good for my mother, since she didn't have to take off twice from work), at a young age and normal cases. Not sure I'd do that (I've read too much about possible complications from the virus). Too bad about the vaccine.

 

[godawgs39]

I just received the MSAR today and the national median for 2004 accepted applicants was a 31 P. The breakdown was 10V, 10PS, and 11BS.

 

[horton thruggle]

I just received the MSAR today and the national median for 2004 accepted applicants was a 31 P. The breakdown was 10V, 10PS, and 11BS.

Unless there is a significant difference between "Accepted applicants" and "Matriculants," you are wrong. See http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/2004mcatgpa.htm

According to the Web data, the 2004 averages for Matriculants are:

V: 9.7
B: 10.3
P: 9.9,

which total 29.9, not 31.

Perhaps the difference is that higher scorers have multiple acceptances and are therefore counted several times, while lower scorers have fewer acceptances and are counted less often. This would account for an upward bias in average acceptance scores vis-a-vis average matriculant scores.

Overall, a quick glance at the table I cite shows no obvious trend in MCAT scores.

FWIW

 

[godawgs39]

Unless there is a significant difference between "Accepted applicants" and "Matriculants," you are wrong. See http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/2004mcatgpa.htm

According to the Web data, the 2004 averages for Matriculants are:

V: 9.7
B: 10.3
P: 9.9,

which total 29.9, not 31.

Perhaps the difference is that higher scorers have multiple acceptances and are therefore counted several times, while lower scorers have fewer acceptances and are counted less often. This would account for an upward bias in average acceptance scores vis-a-vis average matriculant scores.

Overall, a quick glance at the table I cite shows no obvious trend in MCAT scores.

FWIW

I'm not sure why you felt it was necessary to point out that I was wrong when you clearly know that there is a difference between "accepted applicants" and matriculants. That's the reason I specifically said "accepted applicants" and not matriculants. All I was doing was pointing out what the latest MSAR gives, which is contrary to what the second post in this thread stated. Thanks for letting us know how smart you are, though.

 

[wendywellesley]

I don't know the exact numbers, indeed 33 is 90-9? percentile (at first I read it as 19th and assumed you meant 81st.)

for the aug 2004 MCAT a 33 was 89-91 percentile.

this thread is scaring me.

 

[nockamura]

I just received the MSAR today and the national median for 2004 accepted applicants was a 31 P. The breakdown was 10V, 10PS, and 11BS.

So you're pointing out that people who score higher than average on the MCAT are accepted to more places?

In other news, the sky is blue.

 

[BaylorGuy]

Is it just me or is anyone else not too excited about the new MSAR....there were 2 main things i was looking for 1) % of students in-state, and 2) Situations if MCAT taken more than once. I've only read like 2 or 3 of the individual schools reports and perhaps i'm getting unlucky. Anyone know where these are???

 

[45408]

Imagine how ridiculous the average would be if there were 20 testing dates as proposed. People would just take it and take it and take it. There would be a bunch more people with higher scores and hence the average will go up I suspect.

Not likely. They probably can't take it more than a certain number of times, and a med school would freak out if you took the MCAT fourteen times.

 

[godawgs39]

So you're pointing out that people who score higher than average on the MCAT are accepted to more places?

In other news, the sky is blue.

Are you serious? How did you get that from what I posted? I didn't mean for my post to imply that the information I was providing was something groundbreaking or anything that can't be found in two seconds by looking at the MSAR. I was simply stating what the book said because the 2nd poster in this thread said it was 33. Why do you feel the need to be a smarta$$ about it?

 

[domukin]

I wouldn't worry too much about it guys, just keep taking practice tests. I did at least 10 full length before the real thing, they are pretty indicative of what you'll get.

 

[patzan]

the vaccine is showing to be not as effective as they thought.

This study came out last year.

Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2004 Feb;23(2):132-7.
Ten year follow-up of healthy children who received one or two injections of varicella vaccine.

Kuter B, Matthews H, Shinefield H, Black S, Dennehy P, Watson B, Reisinger K, Kim LL, Lupinacci L, Hartzel J, Chan I; Study Group for Varivax.



The estimated vaccine efficacy for the 10-year observation period was 94.4% for one injection and 98.3% for two injections (P < 0.001). Measurable serum antibody persisted for 9 years in all subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Administration of either one or two injections of varicella vaccine to healthy children results in long term protection against most varicella disease. The two dose regimen was significantly more effective than a single injection.




It is a great vaccine.

 

[MJB]

Can someone tell me if the MSAR also includes DO schools?

 

[SamDC]

Can someone tell me if the MSAR also includes DO schools?

If you're still in school, most university libraries will have a copy.

 

[BaylorGuy]

Can someone tell me if the MSAR also includes DO schools?

no it doesnt