This year Verbal undeniably low

[Tweetie_bird]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I am just looking at a LOT of these posts and it seems as though this year's Verbal tests were quite polarized in relation to sciences. I mean, most people seem happy with their Science scores, and seem to be complaining about Verbal.

Even the national average was only a 7, which usually is a high 8 or atleast an 8. Right?
I wonder how med schools are going to look at this. I personally got a 7, and I'm feeling horrible about it..but I remind myself that the average of thousands of other tests this year is also a 7. Should I be this pissed off about getting a 7? I don't know. I do wish I could have done better. I just wish I knew if med schools will take the low Verbal average into consideration this year.

I also had a Q on the essay. I don't know to what extent the med schools might say, "hhmm, obviously she can't comprehend what's given to her, but judging from her essay she sure can communicate!!" 🙄 Any thoughts about this year's Verbal?

Tweetie

 

[NMH2001]

I'm in the same boat as you. I scored a 9B,8P,Q and get this...5V!!! Never scored below a 7 on any Kaplans or AAMC items. I think I may have misbubbled, or maybe I am a ***** and really got a 5!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

 

[Blitzkrieg]

verbal was quite hard. Maybe that's why the highest score was only 13, not 13-15?

 

[mpp]

For the April 2001 test, the average for the verbal section was an 8.0. It does seem strange for the average to go down one whole point between years.

The average verbal score for those that actually submitted an application was an 8.6 for the 2001 entering class. The average verbal score for those that matriculated in 2001 was 9.5. Those statistics are available <a href="http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/famg62001a.htm" target="_blank">here</a>. But don't confuse these statistics with test-takers overall. These are only the statistics for those that actually submitted an application and are therefore skewed a bit to the high side as those with very low scores tend not to submit an application.

 

[Mire]

Tweety,

where did you find stats on this years MCAT?

 

[jkai]

My premed advisor told me today that a lot of people didn't do well on the verbal section this year. She got an email from the MCAT people saying that most students did worse than expected. So I think if you did well on other sections, a 9 on verbal wouldn't ruin your application.

She also showed me her "insider" guide to med school admissions. A lot of schools make it very clear that anything less than a 9 (or 8 for some) is unacceptable. I was surprised that some of them are schools that claim to look beyond our MCAT scores in their MSAR descriptions.

 

[Street Philosopher]

The mean was 7.8 this year. Is that lower than last year? That's kind of strange because I thought the whole point of having a curve-based scoring system was to keep the scores steady...

 

[RT]

what?

•••quote:•••A lot of schools make it very clear that anything less than a 9 (or 8 for some) is unacceptable</font>•••😡 that's not good news

•••quote:•••I was surprised that some of them are schools that claim to look beyond our MCAT scores in their MSAR descriptions. ••••yeah... what's up with that?

heheh hmm... ok ... i'm wondering how did i do...

•••quote:•••That's kind of strange because I thought the whole point of having a curve-based scoring system was to keep the scores steady...••••Hmm don't we just love to be in the dark...

RT

 

[Yogi Bear]

april 2002: 7.8, 8.2, 8.4
april 2001: 8.0, 8.3, 8.4
april 2000: 7.9, 8.2, 8.4

aug 2001: 7.8, 8.1, 8.3
aug 2000: 7.7, 8.2, 8.3

 

[Tweetie_bird]

wow! I was under the impression (I read somewhere on this board) that Verbal median has not been a 7 in a long looong time.

🙁
That's not good news for me

 

[Bikini Princess]

Yup, it certainly seems like it should be scales exactly the same each year, otherwise one group does better overall than another.

I'm not complaining about getting a "10" but I wouldn't have minded doing better..I got a 750 on the SAT verbal - shouldn't you do better than "10" on the MCAT? I think there should be more questions, so it spreads people out better. Oh well.

 

[Premed2003]

In previous averages, did they use 14, or 15 for the 13-15? Do we know they used 13? Because this year, the highest is 13, not 13-15.

Lots of people have been saying verbal was lower this year, which is odd...

 

[Yogi Bear]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Bikini Princess:
•Yup, it certainly seems like it should be scales exactly the same each year, otherwise one group does better overall than another.

I'm not complaining about getting a "10" but I wouldn't have minded doing better..I got a 750 on the SAT verbal - shouldn't you do better than "10" on the MCAT? I think there should be more questions, so it spreads people out better. Oh well.•••••LOL! I got a 760v on SATs and also got a 10. what were u averaging on pratice tests? i kept getting 7-8 on kaplan's fl, and 6 on aamc vi, 9 on aamc 5.

 

[seaturtle112]

yeah. i used to think i was something cause i did well on the SAT verbal; 800. but i had to let that go. the first mcat i took i got a 9 on verbal. it wasn't the test's fault; it was mine. i mean, heck, you're going against future doctors here; a much more elite group than every college bound senior in america.

SAT, GRE verbal are totally different than MCAT verbal, also. knowing a lot of words ain't gonna help you out on the MCAT. its a (#&*^!, no doubt about it.

 

[blz]

How is the scale like for the verbal reasoning section? Like do you have to get a perfect raw score to get a 13-15? If you miss like 3 questions do you all ready have a 10?

 

[Legend]

My 2001 August MCAT: V6 PS13 BS10 (studied for a week)
2002 April: V6 PS11 BS10.. (zero studying)

I proved myself stupid by getting '6' twice in a row...

I am going to take two years off.

It is really weird though becuase I thought I did pretty well this time. Two months ago, I had form EH and even finished every passage.
On the other hand, last year, I knew I did bad because I was very drugged... (couldn't touch 3 passages). But, I got the same score as April 2001.
It is very disheartening because I was scoring 8~11 on AAMC tests.

There is no way I am going to apply with two '6's. It is 6 times worse than one '6'. 😡

 

[Caffeinated]

I find it encouraging that someone's pre-med advisor got a message from the MCAT people saying that verbal appeared skewed this year. Hopefully med school adcoms got the same email!

 

[Spiderman [RNA Ladder 2003]]

I got a 6, too.

 

[08031982]

i was bitchslapped with a 6 too! <img border="0" alt="[Pity]" title="" src="graemlins/pity.gif" /> hopefully more practice will get me something better next time! If any of ya'll can recommend me some good practice material..i'd be very grateful! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

 

[blz]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by blz:
•How is the scale like for the verbal reasoning section? Like do you have to get a perfect raw score to get a 13-15? If you miss like 3 questions do you all ready have a 10?•••••Anyone know?

 

[RT]

AAMC #4-6:

15: Perfect
14: 1-2 wrongs
13: 3-6
12: 7-10
11: 11-14
10: 15-17
9: 18-21
8: 22-25
7: 26-28
6: 29-33
5: 34-36

 

[Legend]

f^*&&*K ....

6 and 7 can be as little as one question differnce. 😡

 

[Spiderman [RNA Ladder 2003]]

Actually, AAMC posted matching table for this MCAT. It is completely different from practice tests. Here is the table:
15 ? 99.9?99.9 99.9?99.9
14 ? 99.4?99.8 99.1?99.8
13 98.4?99.9 97.1?99.3 96.5?99.0
12 95.7?98.3 92.3?97.0 92.8?96.4
11 87.4?95.6 85.1?92.2 82.7?92.7
10 71.8?87.3 70.6?85.0 67.5?82.6
9 57.1?71.7 57.8?70.5 48.0?67.4
8 44.2?57.0 39.6?57.7 31.5?47.9
7 31.0?44.1 22.9?39.5 20.0?31.4
6 16.6?30.9 11.6?22.8 11.4?19.9
5 09.3?16.5 04.4?11.5 06.4?11.3
4 04.3?09.2 01.3?04.3 03.4?06.3
3 01.5?04.2 00.3?01.2 01.2?03.3
2 00.3?01.4 00.1?00.2 00.2?01.1
1 00.0?00.2 00.0?00.0 00.0?00.1

Scaled Score Scaled Score Scaled Score
Mean = 7.8
Std Dev. = 2.40 Mean = 8.2
Std Dev. = 2.24 Mean = 8.4
Std Dev. = 2.35

 

[Spiderman [RNA Ladder 2003]]

Anyway, this table is unreadbale. 6 is 16.6%-30.9%

 

[Tweetie_bird]

haha Spiderman.
Gotta love that quote. 🙂 The second comment in there makes it sound cuter. 🙂

 

[RT]

RNA: :wink: Se la vi
DNA: 😕 C'est ... huh...?

RNA: 🙂 Se la vi. Oui, Moi spell ce la
DNA: 😕 Toi certainly dun noe Francais

RNA: 😡 Moi wasn't speaking Francais...
DNA: <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

 

[Tweetie_bird]

LOLOLOL!!!!!
Aye hope ces dun mayke ye right un peu francais at le interview!

 

[Bikini Princess]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by blz:
•How is the scale like for the verbal reasoning section? Like do you have to get a perfect raw score to get a 13-15? If you miss like 3 questions do you all ready have a 10?•••••I'm almost certain this is true, blz. Sounds unfair, huh? oh well...remember they are making the verbal questions harder for future tests, and permitting 14, 15 scores. So they are trying to fix this.

 

[Bikini Princess]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by RT:
•AAMC #4-6:

15: Perfect
14: 1-2 wrongs
13: 3-6
12: 7-10
11: 11-14
10: 15-17
9: 18-21
8: 22-25
7: 26-28
6: 29-33
5: 34-36•••••I think the 2002 was like this.

13-15: 0-2
12: 2-5
11: 5-8
10: 8-11
9: 11-18
8: 18-22
7: 22-26
6: 26-31
5: 31-36

 

[relatively prime]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Bikini Princess:
• •••quote:•••Originally posted by blz:
•How is the scale like for the verbal reasoning section? Like do you have to get a perfect raw score to get a 13-15? If you miss like 3 questions do you all ready have a 10?•••••I'm almost certain this is true, blz. Sounds unfair, huh? oh well...remember they are making the verbal questions harder for future tests, and permitting 14, 15 scores. So they are trying to fix this.•••••Huh? No... you don't have to get a perfect to get a 13-15. I'm pretty sure you can miss 2 or 3 and still get a 13-15.

I think the scale Bikini is probably accurate.