Partially marked ovals

[lady bug]

Is it OK to only partially fill in the oval on the answer sheet? I noticed some people in my mcat class doing this and it saves some time, especially on verbal.

 

[limit]

That's an intriguing idea. I too would like to hear comments from anyone with experience on this issue. It seems like a lot of time is wasted in perfectly filling out the ovals, I estimate approximately 2 minutes of time that could instead be spent on the exam.

 

[lady bug]

Yeah, I know some people in my Kaplan class who have been doing this....they say they've always done it for every multiple choice test and never had a problem with it because as long as the scanner can pick up the #2 pencil mark, they are fine.

 

[limit]

I suppose that you can take the gamble, and if anything goes wrong you can opt to have it hand-scored.

 

[Street Philosopher]

yo yo yo
I had a similar question/discussion going on here
how completely do you have to bubble in your answer?

 

[CoffeeCat]

Completely enough! Don't waste time on it, but don't skimp. Can you imagine getting a lower-than-expected score and wondering if it was because of how you bubbled?!?

 

[Wahoo07]

I once had a teacher who worked at a standardized testing center and she said that you didn't even need to fill it in half way. Just a dark mark in the center was sufficient. Though, with something as important as the MCAT I don't know if I would take that sort of a risk. Who knows, even if you get it graded by hand, you might get some anal person who says that your answer is wrong because you didn't fill it in all the way.

 

[Chronotropic]

When I took the MCAT in April I bought a Sumo brand pencil. That thing was great it was huge and used .7 lead. It was like I was stamping in the ovals.