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October 15th Score Release Date


eng_dude786

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An experimental passage? The hell?

 

There is one passage in the VR section that will not be graded. Its results are used for calibration purposes and/or future MCATs. You can find this information in the MCAT handbook. It could mean good news for us...but we have no way of telling which passage it is.

 

3 days...

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Be careful Jixe, that statement is only partially correct.

 

As per the MCAT Essentials: "Please note that each multiple-choice section will include some experimental items that do not count toward your score."

 

You are correct that there are potentially some questions that will not count towards your score. However, the statement above makes it clear that these questions may be from any of the multiple-choice sections, which would include Verbal Reasoning as well as Physical and Biological Science.

 

Keep in mind that this following statement is my opinion only. I believe it is safe to say that such experimental questions are not likely to be entire passages and the corresponding questions. The CBT is much shorter than the original paper test. To further remove an entire passage and its associated 6-8 questions would reduce the number of questions in a particular section dramatically, and ultimately the total number of questions in the entire exam.

 

As anyone in science knows, the greater the sample size (in this case the greater the number of questions) the more the data (in this case the number of correct answers you provide) truly represents actual/real/in vivo conditions (in this case your true ability to ace the MCAT). To put it more simply, the fewer the questions the greater the chance you might encounter a question that you simply have no clue about and (more importantly) an incorrect answer would ultimately hurt your final score more if the total number of questions were lower, arguably misrepresenting your true ability to ace the MCAT.

 

Thus, I think it follows that any experimental questions are likely to be stand-alone questions or one of the questions associated with a particular passage. I do not think it likely that an entire passage and its associated questions would be left unscored.

 

Cheers

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