Why is one's MCAT Writing score generally considered meaningless?

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Primary reason why MCAT writing score is meaningless?

  • Because it's scored funny...if it was scored 1-11 and added to your cummulative it would count more

    Votes: 15 13.5%

  • Because it's not an accurate measure of writing skill

    Votes: 40 36.0%

  • Because you get to write a PS and secondary essays which will overshadow your writing score.

    Votes: 47 42.3%

  • Other (explain)

    Votes: 9 8.1%
  • Total voters
    111
flatearth22

flatearth22

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When I look at someone's MCAT score I tend not to notice the writing subsection score unless it is very good (S, T) or very bad (J, K). The scores in between all seem to muddle together and I often have to do the ABC song in my head to figure out stuff like "is P before R?" or is "N before O?"

The general consensus here seems to be the same - unless you don't bomb your writing section it doesn't matter what you get. The difference between a 9 and a 12 on the VR, BS, or PS is huge whereas the difference between a N and a Q pretty much goes unnoticed.

I just wanted to gauge what the primary cause of this phenomenon is....
 
I think its a mix of 1 and 3.

As you said, the letter scores tend to get muddled together in the mind so it takes more time to gauge how well an applicant did unless they received the very top or very bottom scores.

Also, the PS and secondaries are much more representative of you writing skills assuming that you wrote them yourself. Writing is re-writing; considering this, how well will 1 section on a timed test truly gauge how well you write? You are not a better writer if you can spit out pages of BS that seem sincere and thoughtful, which is what test takers often do on the writing part of any standardized test. Writing is a process that takes time.
 
flatearth22..flatearth23, flatearth223..so confused.
 
It would be nice to add it to the cumulative I did well on the essay.

However the writing section isn't totally meaningless. I've heard it can be a potential tiebreaker between two applicants. I can't verify that though.
 
Person0715 said:
I think its a mix of 1 and 3.

As you said, the letter scores tend to get muddled together in the mind so it takes more time to gauge how well an applicant did unless they received the very top or very bottom scores.

Also, the PS and secondaries are much more representative of you writing skills assuming that you wrote them yourself. Writing is re-writing; considering this, how well will 1 section on a 5 hour test truly gauge how well you write?
Click to expand...

The thing about MCAT writing though is that it's standardized. It's only what your brain can come up with and type in 1 hour. No outside help, no editing, no dictionary, etc.

For writing PS and secondaries you can buy books with actual students' essays, do research online, get help from teachers and peers....but the level to which different students can do this varies. It's not standardized.

Also MCAT writing is graded by people who's job it is to grade writing and they don't know anything about the person who wrote the essay...just the content. Adcoms reading essays have your entire application in front of them and could have already formulated a biased lens through which they read your PS and secondary essays.
 
flatearth22 said:
The thing about MCAT writing though is that it's standardized. It's only what your brain can come up with and type in 1 hour. No outside help, no editing, no dictionary, etc.
Click to expand...
It's not really standardized if you think about it. The writing section is still subjectively marked and everyone has a slightly different style of writing. It's the reason I hate essay-writing courses.

Also, research indicates that there's no correlation between the writing score and med school and clerkship performance.
 
flatearth22 said:
The thing about MCAT writing though is that it's standardized. It's only what your brain can come up with and type in 1 hour. No outside help, no editing, no dictionary, etc.

For writing PS and secondaries you can buy books with actual students' essays, do research online, get help from teachers and peers....but the level to which different students can do this varies. It's not standardized.

Also MCAT writing is graded by people who's job it is to grade writing and they don't know anything about the person who wrote the essay...just the content. Adcoms reading essays have your entire application in front of them and could have already formulated a biased lens through which they read your PS and secondary essays.
Click to expand...

My biggest issue with the writing section is that the most important part of the writing process is editing. Get your thoughts out on paper, leave it alone for a few days, then come back and rip it apart. MCAT writing obviously can't test this, so it doesn't give an accurate representation of how well the applicant can actually write. It can give a general sense of whether the applicant can at least express himself clearly/argue a point, though.
 
Mithril said:
It's not really standardized if you think about it. The writing section is still subjectively marked and everyone has a slightly different style of writing. It's the reason I hate essay-writing courses.

Also, research indicates that there's no correlation between the writing score and med school and clerkship performance.
Click to expand...

Eh, it's as standardized as writing is going to get - I'm sure it works exactly like every other standardized test where you have two trained readers read and score the piece, and they get flagged for a supervisor if they differ too much. I don't buy the "all writing grading is subjective" argument unless were telling personal narratives or something. It's definitely possible to grade the ability of people to put forth coherent and logically organized arguments. There are specific goals/abilities they are looking for in the sample and style is a pretty limited factor.

And there are many pieces of the application process that aren't hard-wired and correlated to med school performance, I don't really buy this as reason for cutting things out or you end up picking people solely based on gpa/mcat. Although I voted for changing it to a number score for this very reason - a lot of the people evaluating these things need everything to be quantified and I think a number speaks more to them than a letter. I could see a little bit of #3 but in my mind the purpose of the writing score and the personal statement are extremely different.
 
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I think its another conspiracy to keep asians out of med school. dun dun dunnnnn
 
rossbossss said:
I think its another conspiracy to keep asians out of med school. dun dun dunnnnn
Click to expand...

😕

are you implying that asians write very well but because the MCAT writing score is meaningless it doesn't showcase their writing talent?
 
mcat essays are so tedious, you just repeat the format inserting whatever examples you happen to have memorized. If you do that you are bound to get a decent writing score. Maybe that's why no one cares about it.
 
flatearth22 said:
😕

are you implying that asians write very well but because the MCAT writing score is meaningless it doesn't showcase their writing talent?
Click to expand...


lol no, but many schools do have a cut off for the writing section. Someone could have a 34j and barely get accepted to a low end school. It seperates two candidates also. a 33R>>33L
 
cowsgomuon said:
My biggest issue with the writing section is that the most important part of the writing process is editing. Get your thoughts out on paper, leave it alone for a few days, then come back and rip it apart. MCAT writing obviously can't test this, so it doesn't give an accurate representation of how well the applicant can actually write. It can give a general sense of whether the applicant can at least express himself clearly/argue a point, though.
Click to expand...

True but in the case of the MCAT they are testing your ability to think on the fly and come up with an intelligent argument under pressure. I think thats a pretty good quality to have in a doctor
 
TOcho118 said:
True but in the case of the MCAT they are testing your ability to think on the fly and come up with an intelligent argument under pressure. I think thats a pretty good quality to have in a doctor
Click to expand...

There's a pretty big difference between coming up with a good argument in a short period of time and putting that argument down on paper, unfortunately.
 
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rossbossss said:
lol no, but many schools do have a cut off for the writing section. Someone could have a 34j and barely get accepted to a low end school. It seperates two candidates also. a 33R>>33L
Click to expand...

I would respectfully disagree with this entire statement.
 
When I was studying last year I heard that part of it is/will be scored by a computer. Any of this true?
 
Other:

I cannot speak or write English very well in real life. However, online, since I can type and review what I write before I post (and keep in mind I'm using spoken English to write...I've been drinking...) it appears better.

I have written hundreds of SOAP notes. None of that has JACK ****ING **** to do with the ability to write proper English, reading NYTimes, whatever magazine have you.

OP is a 28 y/o male s/p vasectomy with a PMH of BPH x 2 years, DM for 3 yrs. OP presented to the clinic with acute seizures and was put on Phenytoin 250 mg IV BID. CC is paresthesia in the genitalia. S&Sx consistant with rapid Dilantin infusion. Recommend administering 250 mg PE FPHT at 150 mg/min, Cp monitoring and optic exam.

No ****ing English necessary. When you're dealing with patient after patient do you really think you're going to be using proper English? CUT, CLEAR, CONCISE, TO THE POINT.



Whatyousay said:
There's a pretty big difference between coming up with a good argument in a short period of time and putting it that argument down on paper, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

This. It's one thing to think on your feet, and as people are moving towards CPOE, it gives them even more time to reason and logic. Remember that you'd most likely NEVER talk in the same fashion that you type and you have no ****ing time so you'd get to the point instead of making it a point how awesome your vocabulary is.
 
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rentedmule said:
When I was studying last year I heard that part of it is/will be scored by a computer. Any of this true?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. The reviewers might have the text loaded into a word processor that flags bad grammar or spelling, but the grades are still marked by a human. Changes like this would make big waves in MCAT-related news, similar to the potential decision to include a behavioral & social sciences section in the 2015 MCAT.
 
I wrote nothing but an introduction and a few sentences on one of my essays, and still did okay. It did nothing to impress upon me the value of the MCAT's writing section.
 
how does a computer actually grade it? anyone have any idea?
 
You can't judge how well someone writes by forcing them to write a response to an essay prompt in 30 minutes. Writing is a much longer process that has no time limit. Like someone said earlier, a big part of it is editing so you can polish your crappy writing to solid work with time. Besides you want to be a doctor, not a newspaper editor. They just want you to know you can write in english. If you can do that, you're good.
 
gettheleadout said:
I'm guessing this is because there is no computer scoring of the writing section...
Click to expand...

You know what? Its odd, I think I was told by princeton review that its scored with a comp and a person. Wiki has a section on the scoring and says its a comp and person but has no references...I guess I just took princeton review's word for it.
 
hiyaman said:
You know what? Its odd, I think I was told by princeton review that its scored with a comp and a person. Wiki has a section on the scoring and says its a comp and person but has no references...I guess I just took princeton review's word for it.
Click to expand...
Kaplan here. I don't see why they would tell that to all their students if they weren't completely sure... but then again who knows.
 
As someone with a T in the writing, I wish this thread was wrong 🙄

(And don't you go through my past history to judge how I write; I write nothing online like I do when I'm trying to write)
 
latrala2300 said:
As someone with a T in the writing, I wish this thread was wrong 🙄

(And don't you go through my past history to judge how I write; I write nothing online like I do when I'm trying to write)
Click to expand...

Judging commenced.
 
flatearth22 said:
The thing about MCAT writing though is that it's standardized. It's only what your brain can come up with and type in 1 hour. No outside help, no editing, no dictionary, etc.

For writing PS and secondaries you can buy books with actual students' essays, do research online, get help from teachers and peers....but the level to which different students can do this varies. It's not standardized.

Also MCAT writing is graded by people who's job it is to grade writing and they don't know anything about the person who wrote the essay...just the content. Adcoms reading essays have your entire application in front of them and could have already formulated a biased lens through which they read your PS and secondary essays.
Click to expand...

And this is why it doesn't count. It's not real. The MCAT is to test your ability to learn/remain material, pass medical school and boards.

Timed writing is stupid. If you have to write a professional paper, you are not timed. You can use outside sources.
 
I'm guessing this is because there is no computer scoring of the writing section...
Click to expand...

https://www.aamc.org/download/101020/data/writingsample.pdf.pdf

The details of how the writing section is scored from the AAMC. Looks like one human graded score and one computer graded score.

FTA:
• Each essay is scored twice on a 6-point scale:
- Human
- Machine
• This results in four scores (2 scores for each essay)
• These scores are summed (4-24) and then converted converted to the alphabetic scale
Click to expand...
 
jm192 said:
Timed writing is stupid. If you have to write a professional paper, you are not timed. You can use outside sources.
Click to expand...
Not unless you procrastinate until 2am the night before it's due. :laugh:
 
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