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- Jun 11, 2002
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I read some journal articles referenced from the amcas website concerning the MCAT. Two findings seemed very interesting to me.
1. Students that take the August MCAT seem to
get less questions right per se to get a
higher scaled score. This fact is attributed
to the BEST students electing not to
retake the exam in august and retake students
scores remaining essentially the same
on subsequent tests. Of course the
assumption is that the silver lining would
hold most water for the first time
test taker. Also, The belief that students
score higher in the summer because they
have more time is a fallacy. Fact is that
Competition(bell curve) is less cut throat
for the summer MCAT.
2. Verbal section on the MCAT seems to have the
most weight of all the sections since it is
the most postively correlated to actual
clinical skills mastery. One can argue that
the biological section should be the most
important, however, the exam is for entering
the medical field, not one for a PHD in
genetics or physiology.
The old adage, "the art of medicine" rather than medicine being an exact science holds true.
1. Students that take the August MCAT seem to
get less questions right per se to get a
higher scaled score. This fact is attributed
to the BEST students electing not to
retake the exam in august and retake students
scores remaining essentially the same
on subsequent tests. Of course the
assumption is that the silver lining would
hold most water for the first time
test taker. Also, The belief that students
score higher in the summer because they
have more time is a fallacy. Fact is that
Competition(bell curve) is less cut throat
for the summer MCAT.
2. Verbal section on the MCAT seems to have the
most weight of all the sections since it is
the most postively correlated to actual
clinical skills mastery. One can argue that
the biological section should be the most
important, however, the exam is for entering
the medical field, not one for a PHD in
genetics or physiology.
The old adage, "the art of medicine" rather than medicine being an exact science holds true.