Back in the eighties the MCAT was a much easier exam. The people I know that took it then never complained about it being so tough!!! Even the testing centers will testify to the fact that the exam was easier back then.
Sure, but back in the 80's, there weren't nearly as many people applying. It makes perfect sense that as the number of people went up and the number of seats stayed constant, the competitiveness would go up. Med schools could be more choosey about who to accept, and so the MCAT became more difficult to reflect this.
Out of curiosity I looked at some old tests and it does look alot easier than what people are going through now. But, what the poster above me said makes alot of sense.
like fudd said more people are applying now and taking the mcat--the test may have been easier back then but the curve was a lot harder too. now i think they try and make the test harder with a bigger curve so it's easier to differentiate from everybody (rather than have clumps of people with perfect scores) I was wondering if they were going to try and do something like this with the SATs--is it just me or does it seems like it's no big deal these days to get in the 1500's in your SATs--seems like it's almost expected! Looking at the SAT scores at Harvard, they have their 75th percentile mark as a 1590! 25% of their class has a 1590 or above?? that's crazy to me. anyway, that's just a slightly related thought.
are you sure about that? because even if you look at the released AAMC tests, there are some tests where you can only miss one or two questions to get above a 12. I was under the impression that it took a lot more accuracy to do well on the mcat twenty years ago than it does now. I'm not sure though
