Scores..April vs August MCAT!!!

[spyyder31]

Is there any kind of trend in the scores from Aug. to April? Which generally has the higher scores?

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[fiatslug]

I've heard the August exam is harder, but that's probably urban myth. I'm not aware of any publication of national averages for each exam, but it would be cool to know!

 

[reed0104]

There both on a curve, so you can't really have "higher" scores. At least that is my understanding.

 

[carolyn]

the students who take it in august usually have had more time to study than the ones in april [who had to deal with classes concurrently] so the curve is generally a little bit higher than the one in april. but this is all equalized/standarized in the end somehow... personally, it's just nicer to able to devote your entire summer to studying for the MCATs rather than trying to juggle it with your other classes.

[This message has been edited by carolyn (edited 06-14-2000).]

 

[Nanook]

Allright, here goes--

The August one is not actually any harder, in terms of how the AAMC structures the test questions. The reason it may be scored "tougher" has nothing to do with the test creators, with the test takers--it makes sense if you think about it.

Let's say you take the April MCAT and get 65 right out of 77. This may give you a score of 12, and place you at the 90th percentile (meaning that 89% of the people scored lower than you, and 10% or so scored higher).

Now let's say you take the test again in August, and again score 65 correct out of 77. But now, you are competing with a bunch of people who have studied all summer, devoted big chunks of time to review courses, even MCAT camps (like one at UC Berkley). So now, it just so happens that 15% of the people outscore you, and you are at the 85th percentile, which would give you a score of 11. So, even though you turned in the exact same performance, you were "graded harder".

I hope that makes sense. The test is completely graded on a curve (ie, by percentiles, not by percent correct). The test itself is not any more difficult in August than in April, just your competition.

 

[scully]

Nanook- what is this Berkeley MCAT camp?

 

[blanemccalister]

Scully...this Berkeley thing sparked my interest, too. Here's what I found http://www.berkeley-review.com/

Blane

 

[Nanook]

I don't know many specifics on it, only that one of my classmates is attending it next summer.

I checked out the above link, and that's probably it.

Personally, I think it's a waste of money, and that one could do roughly the same thing at home with $200 worth of supplies from a well-chosen bookstore. However, different strokes for different folks.