- Joined
- Jun 18, 2005
- Messages
- 910
- Reaction score
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The writing sample means essentially nothing. It can only hurt you if you score low (like J or K), but if you score high it really means very little. Remember it is subjectively scored and chances are if the two graders reading your essays dislike your writing style it will reflect in your score. It's complete BS. As a matter of fact I think a score of for example a 33K will still look good regardless of the low writing score (if they ask you about it at an interview, hey, the graders didn't like your essays). As long as you aced your english courses, you're ok. On the exam, aim for average, somewhere in the middle and you'll be fine. That being said a stellar writing score will NOT save you from a low verbal score. The verbal score weighs MUCH more in your overall exam score.
Another thing: it is complete BS that the verbal score correlates with your step 1 score. I have no idea who came up with that, but it was obviously someone or some institution that never took the exam. Verbal on the mcat gives you several passages (I don't know if it's still 9 like it was on mine) and then Q's on these passages. Step 1 is nothing like that...there are NO passages, and all Q's are stand-alone questions. Most Q's are clinical vignette format, or a small scenario (max one paragraph) set up for you where a patient is described, and relevant findings are discussed (physical exam, labs, etc.). You get anywhere from 4-10 answer choices multiple choice, you pick one and you move on. All questions are stand alone and reading is really minimal. All vignettes are written in straightforward fashion and there is no fancy writing that a high verbal score would have to interpret for you. Whereas the verbal section has many passages about humanities and written in weird styles and other crap, step 1 is written entirely in scientific fashion. If you can read one paragraph at a time from a biology text and answer a question after each one, you can read for the step 1 (assuming you know all the material on the exam, but that however, is a completely different question).
Another thing: it is complete BS that the verbal score correlates with your step 1 score. I have no idea who came up with that, but it was obviously someone or some institution that never took the exam. Verbal on the mcat gives you several passages (I don't know if it's still 9 like it was on mine) and then Q's on these passages. Step 1 is nothing like that...there are NO passages, and all Q's are stand-alone questions. Most Q's are clinical vignette format, or a small scenario (max one paragraph) set up for you where a patient is described, and relevant findings are discussed (physical exam, labs, etc.). You get anywhere from 4-10 answer choices multiple choice, you pick one and you move on. All questions are stand alone and reading is really minimal. All vignettes are written in straightforward fashion and there is no fancy writing that a high verbal score would have to interpret for you. Whereas the verbal section has many passages about humanities and written in weird styles and other crap, step 1 is written entirely in scientific fashion. If you can read one paragraph at a time from a biology text and answer a question after each one, you can read for the step 1 (assuming you know all the material on the exam, but that however, is a completely different question).
