Question

[Avicenna04]

Regarding scaling:

Does the MCAT get scaled to an medium of 24 (or whatever it is) no matter what?

What if, say, during one exam period, people are much more prepared than any of the previous exams. Does it still get scaled down?

I have a feeling this coming august exam will have a lot of well prepared test writers. Seeing how it is the last paper exam and all. Was wondering if it is an disadvantage for the average test taker. Or will AAMC realize that a lot of people will study harder for this "last paper exam" and thus scale it to a higher average?

...I'm trying to make excuses for myself not take the exam, if you haven't noticed.

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[Avicenna04]

bump

 

[braluk]

i never heard of them scaling down the scores if a majority of applicants on average, get a better score. i believe their curves run more on how difficult their perceived their problems to be. They will leave it up to medical schools to determine whos score is better or not. i doubt they want to hear another months worth of calls asking why they got an 8 or 9 in a seciton if they scored 80% of the section correct, just to answer "because the rest of the country did just as good"

med schools have that wonderful job of whos determining whos "better".

 

[So...Paradox]

Realistically, with such a large sampling of students, every administration of the MCAT probably has a pretty similar set of students in terms of abiliity and preparedness. I think it is probably a combination of how hard they think the tests are vs. how the students do. If you really are curious, check out the performance stastistics on the AAMC website that shows you percentiles and scaled scores and all these graphs and helpful things. I was told in my Kaplan class that it is a little better to take it in April if you can devote the time because in August there are a lot of people who have no obligations but to study for the MCAT, but probably doesn't make that much difference.