Skewed MCAT Curve...In Your Favor?

[Detective SnowBucket]

Hi all,
So if the MCAT is graded on a percentile scale, this means your percentage correct is converted to a percentile based on the other test taker's results in your cohort.
Then, assume one time of the year continually shows lower raw scores, if you continue to have the same raw score you'd have a far higher scaled score by the percentile were you to take the MCAT again with this cohort.
Is there any time of the year that consistently has a lower raw score which would make competition a lil lighter and hopefully your percentile higher?

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[NotASerialKiller]

Hi all,
So if the MCAT is graded on a percentile scale, this means your percentage correct is converted to a percentile based on the other test taker's results in your cohort.
Then, assume one time of the year continually shows lower raw scores, if you continue to have the same raw score you'd have a far higher scaled score by the percentile were you to take the MCAT again with this cohort.
Is there any time of the year that consistently has a lower raw score which would make competition a lil lighter and hopefully your percentile higher?

You could try waiting for a horrifying national tragedy to occur before you sign up, hoping that the sorrow and grief of decent human beings will bring their MCAT performances down. That's when you strike!

 

[•Syzygy•]

you shouldn't be relying on something like this, but the only thing i can think of is taking it during the school year and not after a long break like the summer. people in theory would have had more to juggle and may have prepared less. this doesn't matter nearly as much as the difficulty of your test, which is something you won't be able to predict. a harder test means more forgiving curves, and if you knew your stuff / guessed well, that means a lot of potential for a high score.

 

[Lucca]

It makes far, far, far more sense to schedule your test on a date that maximizes your ability to prepare for the exam (for most people, this is towards the end of the summer) than it is to schedule your test in an attempt to "game" the percentile system. If youre good enough to do score well, you will score well no matter when you take the exam.

 

[prerevenue]

tl;dr -- there's no point in trying to game the system by picking an "easier" test date. An "easier" test date doesn't exist.

The AAMC is not stupid, so (from my limited understanding) they are comparing you to multiple test-takers across multiple administrations. With the disclaimer that I might not have all the details right, this is approximately how it works.

Your test is comprised of 4 sections of 9 or so passages per section.

Some of these are "experimental passages." This means that this passage will not actually be factored into your score. However, your (and everyone else's) score on these experimental passages helps to determine the difficulty of that passage. When that passage is then given on a subsequent administration, the AAMC knows how raw score on that passage correlate with overall performance on that section. They use these to build the curve.

The sections that you see that you will actually be actually scored on are passages that were previously experimental on someone else's test, so they already have a good idea of how your raw scores - on a passage by passage basis - will translate to a scaled score. This is how they can ensure validity of their scaled scores.

Essentially you're not even really being compared to the test-takers who took the test the same day and had the exact same form as you - although that might be something they do after all the aforementioned stuff.

 

[MCATISEZ]

From what I understand the scale is calculated before the exam is even administered.


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[TheBiologist]

You could try waiting for a horrifying national tragedy to occur before you sign up, hoping that the sorrow and grief of decent human beings will bring their MCAT performances down. That's when you strike!

only a sociopath would think of that 😛😛😛

 

[workaholic181]

If you take it when you’re prepared and take care of business then all of this is moot. Regardless there is no angle for “gaming” the mcat. Just do your best and don’t worry about everyone else.

 

[Goro]

Hi all,
So if the MCAT is graded on a percentile scale, this means your percentage correct is converted to a percentile based on the other test taker's results in your cohort.
Then, assume one time of the year continually shows lower raw scores, if you continue to have the same raw score you'd have a far higher scaled score by the percentile were you to take the MCAT again with this cohort.
Is there any time of the year that consistently has a lower raw score which would make competition a lil lighter and hopefully your percentile higher?

Stop thinking like a pre-med.

 

[AnotherLawyer]

Hi all,
So if the MCAT is graded on a percentile scale, this means your percentage correct is converted to a percentile based on the other test taker's results in your cohort.
Then, assume one time of the year continually shows lower raw scores, if you continue to have the same raw score you'd have a far higher scaled score by the percentile were you to take the MCAT again with this cohort.
Is there any time of the year that consistently has a lower raw score which would make competition a lil lighter and hopefully your percentile higher?

Is the exam graded on a curve?

Test takers often ask if obtaining a high score is easier or harder at different times of the testing year, or, in other words, if the exam is scored on a curve. For exams graded on a curve, a final score depends on how an individual performs in comparison to other test takers from the same test day or same time of year.

The MCAT exam is not graded on a curve. Instead, the MCAT exam is scaled and equated so that scores have the same meaning, no matter when you test or who tests at the same time you did.

Although there may be small differences in the form of the MCAT exam you took compared to another examinee (because you answered different sets of questions), the scoring process accounts for these differences. For example, a 124 earned on, the Critical Analysis and Reasoning section of one test form means the same thing as a 124 earned on that section on any other form. How you score on the MCAT exam is not reflective of the particular form you took or the group of examinees you tested with—the test date or the time of year—since any difference in difficulty level is accounted for when calculating your scaled scores (see above for information about scaling).

Source.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

So if the MCAT is graded on a percentile scale, this means your percentage correct is converted to a percentile based on the other test taker's results in your cohort

This isn’t how it works. Your score is scaled to fit historical norms, and this means that everyone in a given cohort could theoretically score a 30. Your cohort doesn’t have anything to do with it