MCAT grading

[boobiman]

Just curious how the grading in each of the sections is converted to a score out of 15. Like for the verbal, theres 40 questions, if you get lets say 32 right, do you get a 12 (80%) and then they change it around depending on the curve?

 

Also,

 

I havent started studying for the mcat (will be writing in september) but i was just looking through the examcrackers verbal reasoning 101 passages, and for the few passages that i just tried I keep getting at least 1 wrong for the 5 question passages. Is this a bad sign?

 

Thanks

[Recoil]

Oh god, the MCAT would be easier to score real high if the grading was like that. Each scale depends on the specific test, but it might look something like this (for Verbal)

 

15 - 40

14 - 39

13 - 37-38

12 - 35-36

11 - 33-34

10 - 30-32

9 - 27 - 29

8 - 24-26

 

Etc. Of course, if it is a harder test you will be able to get a few more wrong while getting the same number score.

Your score isn't a bad sign. (Actually 4/5 right is really good for a beginner). With practice you will kind of start to get the hang of verbal reasoning questions.

[rmorelan]

Oh god, the MCAT would be easier to score real high if the grading was like that. Each scale depends on the specific test, but it might look something like this (for Verbal)

 

15 - 40

14 - 39

13 - 37-38

12 - 35-36

11 - 33-34

10 - 30-32

9 - 27 - 29

8 - 24-26

 

Etc. Of course, if it is a harder test you will be able to get a few more wrong while getting the same number score.

Your score isn't a bad sign. (Actually 4/5 right is really good for a beginner). With practice you will kind of start to get the hang of verbal reasoning questions.

 

Yeah they method does make it a bit confusing for more If you know stats it is better to think that your score is converted to a z score - which is a standardized measure of how far away your performance is away from the overall average of all people taking the test. The fact that it is standardized means that if you had an z score of say "X" you automatically know there is always the same percentage of people who scored above and below the score you got.

 

As a result of this it doesn't matter how hard or easy the test is, you complete with everyone else writing the test

 

Thats why with the mcat people report you are then the so and so percentile all the time (which like z scores, tells you exactly what fraction got above and people your score).