MCAT Scoring - Verbal

[Guest Joe]

Hello all,

 

In getting ready for Aug. 18, 2001, I'm doing reviews from the Gold Standard, Arco, Barrons and Peterson's. Some problems, though..

 

All the exam formats are different and the scoring scales are totally skewed. For example making 10 mistakes on the verbal is bad on some tables, but much worse on others.

 

What do you figure the best verbal review is and more importantly, is there any real info out there on what a raw score out of 65 actually scales to? Is the Gold Standard's table of 5+ mistakes amounting to a score of less than ten a real reflection of the MCAT's level of difficulty?

 

I appreciate your input!

[Guest JD]

On the first TPR diagnostic, a 50-54 out of 65 corresponds to a 10. Also, I think I remember that on AAMC V (which I haven't done yet, but I read about it somewhere), a high 50 would be a 12... Basically, the real MCAT is MUCH harder than most practice materials out there, so the scores are scaled accordingly to keep a mean score of 8 on the verbal.

[Guest Kirsteen Can MBA]

Hi,

 

Having taken the Kaplan course and written last August's MCAT I found the VR section quite a bit more challenging than any which were found in most practice materials. (Incidentally, Kaplan noted similar in their MCAT review on their website.)

 

When marking the VR (and other MCQ sections of the MCAT) you are scored against those who are writing the same test form as you. Therefore, 8 will be assigned as the median (and this will vary depending on how difficult your form is) and your raw score will be adjusted accordingly. If everyone finds the section incredibly challenging, then the median will be lower, etc., therefore it is difficult to use any yardstick given in any book to apply to the test that you will actually write on test day.

 

Good luck,

Kirsteen

[Guest YongQ]

Joe, I suggest you get the AAMC Practice Tests and Practice Items - they're by far the most reliable, and for many people the most useful, resource when studying for the MCAT. Each test also has the marking scale on the back. Usually for VR, it's 0-1 wrong = 13-15, 2-6 wrong = 12, 7-12 wrong = 11, 13-16 wrong = 10, but don't memorize this since each test differs.

 

P.S. I wish I'd gotten 10 wrong on my VR! Only 10 wrong is good for any MCAT!

[Guest Ian Wong]

Same reply here. The AAMC materials will be the most representative of all, and you can access the link at the top of this forum to find them.

 

Since the MCAT is scored relative to other text-takers, it's impossible to say what a given fraction of correct answers will correlate to as a final numerical score. For this reason, it's also impossible for the TPR, Kaplan, Gold Standard, etc folks to really say that getting 5 questions wrong on their practice exam would correlate to a score of X on the actual MCAT. The best they could hope to do is observationally compare the practice scores of their students to the students' actual MCAT scores, but as the MCAT test content changes at every sitting, and in fact at every table (there will be multiple versions of the exam in August to prevent cheating), you've got to take their conclusions with a grain of salt.

 

The most important part of the practice exams should be getting your fundamentals down. Figure out which question-answering strategy you're going to use for each section, figure out for yourself how long it takes to read a passage and still finish on time, and learn which areas of the MCAT subjects you are weakest in, and improve those. If you get those basic principles down, and then study the content, you'll get the maximum benefit from the practice exams.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3