Guess who's back!!!
Fellas, I think it is my duty to clarify some views that I hold about the MCAT.
First of all, I have no vested interest whether you believe my theory or not. You are entitled to your opinion. I would just like a logical forum to discuss some of my premises. Your feedback is welcome. However, I will not respond to you, IF YOU START EXPRESSING an EMOTIONAL argument. MUDD KNOWS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.
As many of you know, I am a very analytical person that loves to solve puzzles. I have taken the MCAT. 13's on BS and PS. I have also taught an MCAT class.
With that said, here we go.
I believe that the MCAT has an experimental section. This is how I have come to this conclusion.
1. I snooped the MCAT website to find information about the
MCAT. I found this link.
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/research/gsrp/kmmono2.pdf
This link is a promotion for new students to join a gsrp research program. If you open up the sample GSRP(you need adobe acrobat). YOu will find the goal of one of the projects is to compare MCAT scores from 2 different years(i.e. to test long term reliability). If you look at the number of questions on the 1997 and 1993. IT SPECIFIES THE NUMBER OF GRADED QUESTIONS as 55 FOR VERBAL AND 63 FROM PS AND BS.
2. I called up the MCAT office. I asked them whether the experimental section was graded (kudos if you see the INTENDED assumption). The gatekeeper asked the supervisor. And, then told me NO. The experimental section was not graded. I asked him than you are saying that there is INDEED an experimental section. He said he was not at liberty to talk about the MCAT.
3. 65-10=55, Thus it would fit perfectly if a 10 question experimental section was NOT GRADED. This would fit the GSRP research quota of ONLY 55 Graded questions on verbal.
4. I took the Aug 2000 MCAT. AAMC practice test 6 is the exact exam that I took. Although, I can't verify all 65 questions since it was two years ago, however, all of the passages are in the same order, and some of the questions, I do remember. One of the reasons I remember is the frankenstein and the invisible hand passages handcuffed me. Also, the ps and bs were the same.
This is where I got the theory that old AAMC exams are actual exams. I have also heard that AAMC 5 was given in 1998.
5. Simple logic. 65 questions divided by 9 passages. That is about 7 questions/passage. If the questions are selected randomly at best you would get 6, 7, or 8 questions per passage. This is exactly how many questions you get for ALL KAPLAN AND TPR practice tests. However, AAMC has couple 10 question passages on the real mcat and the practice exams. BUT NO PASSAGES HAVE 9 QUESTIONS. Furthermore, NO TPR OR KAPLAN TEST HAS 10 QUESTIONS PER PASSAGE. NONE!!! This implies that the 10 question passage was a goal of the test writer.
6. Reliablity. I agree with SHAM, that all questions are written to be tested. However, all test writers KNOW that they have an inherent bias on whether a test question is easy or hard. The only way to be fair is to FIELD TEST potential questions. This will allow a test writer to receive a feedback on questions ideal for the MCAT. For example, an ideal "hard" question on the MCAT is a question only the students that scored 12, 13, 14, or 15 got correctly. If a student with a 12, 13, 14, or 15 got this question wrong too, than it is not a good question to ask. All multiple choice exams give out a stastical feedback to the instructor. Hard questions are judged as fair or unfair. Fair hard questions are answered correctly by the students with the highest scores. Unfair hard questions have a random correct distribution.
7. The 10 question MCAT passages on the practice tests have the highest variability. The Confucious passage on 3, the brand awareness on 5, the picasso passage on 6. The experimental passages are NOT HARD PER SE. But have a nice easy to hard spectrum. Notice on AAMC 6, the last verbal passage about icebergs is actually the HARDEST PASSAGE. However, it doesn't have a good distribution(i.e. variability).
8. Actual MCAT on test day seems more difficult. Some of it is psychological. However, another part of it is that some of the difficult experiemental questions are not graded. It is human nature to focus on one's mistakes. Thus, when we walk out of the test room. We focus on the hard questions we missed. This snowballs into thinking the exam was hard.
9. Although I didn't recheck. I do believe by extrapolation that 2 BS and PS sections are experimental. I believe that 2 experimental science passages have 6 questions. 77-12= 65. And I think 2 free response questions are experimental 65-2=63.
10. Lastly, as some of you guys know. Some of the forms are very close to one another. For example EK and EG, from aug 2002. Check out
www.examkrackers.com. I believe the only difference between these two forms are the experimental sections. Thus, students with different forms feel like they had the same form. This would also apply to the other forms.
This is all i can think for now, but I will add some more later.
One more thing. If you are looking for indisputable confirmation about the experimental section on the MCAT from the MCAT people, you will not get it. It is in the best interest of an experimental test to NOT be thought of as one with an experimental section.
