Percentage score vs. Percentile

[Dr. Stalker]

Ello everyone! I've been preparing for the new mcat exam (based on the 528 point scale, my old score on the 45 point scale wasn't the hottest) and I've been using some practice exams. Specifically, I've been using the FL exams released by Examkrackers. I've taken FL 1 and 2. Upon completing the exams, no score is given, rather a percentage followed by how many questions you got correct out of the total number of questions in that particular section. I was wondering what to do with these percents, can I just use the percentile chart the official AAMC released to approximate my score? Or is there another type of conversion available that everyone uses?

Here are my scores thus far:
Exam 1: 57%
Chemical: 38/59
CARS: 37/53
Biological: 29-59
Psychological: 26/59

Exam 2: 68%
ChemicaL 40/59
CARS: 31/53
Biological: 41/59
Psychological: 44/59

So, what score would I receive on the 528 point scale, and what would my score in each section be? Thanks in advance folks!

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[NextStepTutor_3]

Hi there, good question! There are conversion charts floating around SDN, and I think other people with more EK-specific experience are better equipped than me to give you an exact number score. However, I just wanted to mention that % correct and percentile are very different, so the AAMC percentile chart isn't applicable here! That chart is more useful for comparing, say, an "old MCAT" score with a new one. (If I remember correctly, a 34 on the old exam was somewhere around 94th percentile in the MCATs administered immediately before the switch. So, if you wanted to see what "new" score you'd need to get to approximately equal an old 34, you could look at the AAMC chart.)

Percentile just refers to your score in relation to other people. So (simply put), if you score better than 60% of other test-takers, you'll fall into the 60th percentile. This doesn't mean you got 60% of questions right, or necessarily anywhere close to that number.

Good luck 🙂 in any case, it certainly seems like your science scores have improved significantly!

 

[aalamruad]

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[Gurby]

I'm not sure how to link the spreadsheet directly or even where it came from, but I've been referring to the this post (this is probably what walloobi was trying to link to):

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/how-i-studied-for-a-526.1162745/#post-17385283

Compare your scores to other people's scores, and see how they did on the actual MCAT. It's highly unscientific, and certainly doesn't guarantee anything, but I think it's the best we can do. Important to consider that somebody's score on a practice test represents their knowledge/skill at that point in time. In other words, they probably kept on studying after taking that test, and so should you. I'd really just use this to gauge whether you're on track or not.

 

[EverStriving]

The AAMC Sample test and Scored Practice Test are the only performances you should give any weight to. The exams from other test makers do not correlate nearly as well with actual test score.