Anyone irritated with AAMC?

[MoosePilot]

Is anyone irritated with the amount of time it takes AAMC to grade and post the scores to this test? I definitely realize it takes a while to grade and post tens of thousands of MCATs with 100% accuracy, but I just don't know how it can take two months when the most important parts are on SCANTRON!

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[Cerbernator]

Of course, its ****ing ridiculous! How many test takers were there? At 190$ a pop, they should be able to hire enough staff to have this damn thing done far sooner than they have. It is bloody ridiculous! WHAT IS THE HOLDUP?

 

[wylie313]

from what i hear theres a crapload of statistical analysis that every single question undergoes. so lets say thats 214 questions, i dunno how many forms, anywhere from 10-20 you think maybe even more? im really not sure, but that would be over 4000 questions, but then they gotta see how each and every student did on that particular question so they can scale it! so anyhow thats like thousands of students X thousands of questions = absolute hell for 2 months
im not justifying the incredibly long ass time its taking, im just dispelling the myth that since its scantron, all they do is run it through the feeder for 2 hours and the rest of the time sit on their asses laughing at all our posts, lol

 

[JohnDO]

thousands of students X thousands of questions =

plus any old home computer = computation done in less than a day :\

 

[wylie313]

yea i hear that definately! you know whats weird what i heard. i heard that they use the 1991 students who took that mcat and do all these calcs to see how they would have faired on the questions we just took, and when the results come back, they scale and curve accordingly. why i have no clue, but this is the ass backwards approach they take. lol

 

[Cerbernator]

plus any old home computer = computation done in less than a day :\

exactly! The number of computations that go into the MCAT are nothing that a decent computer cant easily handle. I can only suspect that the AAMC is understaffed when it comes to grading the MCAT. HIRE SOME MO PEOPLE YA BUMS!!!

 

[wylie313]

maybe they dont offer a good benefits plan......

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Chill out, your scores ain't gonna go down with time.

 

[wylie313]

Chill out, your scores ain't gonna go down with time.

hopefully my blood pressure will though

 

[lissa1217]

yea i hear that definately! you know whats weird what i heard. i heard that they use the 1991 students who took that mcat and do all these calcs to see how they would have faired on the questions we just took, and when the results come back, they scale and curve accordingly. why i have no clue, but this is the ass backwards approach they take. lol

yup:
from the aamc:
Information about the number of forms is proprietary, this may help you to understand the scoring. For the multiple-choice sections, raw scores are calculated by summing the number of questions answered correctly, with no penalty for incorrect answers. The raw scores are converted to scaled scores through a process called equipercentile equating. Although all editions of the MCAT measure the same basic skills and concepts, each edition contains different questions. Since one edition may be slightly easier or more difficult than another, it is necessary to perform analyses to equate the various test editions. The result of such analyses is a set of conversions that allows translation of the raw scores to the scaled scores. The conversions take into account differences in the difficulty of test questions. Therefore, regardless of the particular edition used or the particular administration at which the test is taken, equal scaled scores will represent the same level of skill mastery. Best wishes.

 

[Rugger81]

Whatever the process is, it takes way too long.

I'll grade my own essay to save them time...

 

[wylie313]

ill grade the whole damn thing! wow look at that i ended up with a 45t what a surprise, lol

 

[MoosePilot]

ill grade the whole damn thing! wow look at that i ended up with a 45t what a surprise, lol

You know, if I graded my own, I still wouldn't get a 45T?

Not only could I not give myself a T (What is it that Doc Holliday says in the movie Tombstone about hypocrisy?), but I wouldn't give myself a 45, because I'd be afraid they'd make me retake it.

I've worried about that a bit. My last MCAT scores were decent, but not stellar. This time I put a whole lot more effort into the test. Since their numbers show retesters don't usually change much, I wonder what the threshold would be before they make you retest under more supervised conditions to "validate" your improved score?

 

[superdevil]

yea, i must agree with everyone here. i mean, for $190 per tester times the amount of testers (april 2003 n = 25,972) equals almost 5 million dollars. for that, they could pay for a weeks worth of salary for 10 stat PhD's to use 10 new Apple G4 cpu's to standardize this bitch in no-time flat. the remaining $$$ could buy them wild turkey and prostitutes for all i care.

oh, and the writing sample be damned.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Yeah, they should just save time and give everyone P's for WS.

 

[R_C_Hutchinson]

standardize this bitch in no-time flat.

i don't know why, but that line was incredibly funny to me. not something ya hear every day

 

[derf]

they could pay for a weeks worth of salary for 10 stat PhD's to use 10 new Apple G4 cpu's to standardize this bitch in no-time flat.

you're right, that's hilarious!

 

[MD Rapper]

i mean, for $190 per tester times the amount of testers (april 2003 n = 25,972) equals almost 5 million dollars.

5 MILLION DOLLARS!! I think it would be a better career move for me to stop pursuing medical school and to go work in the AAMC's corporate office.

 

[pinkey]

Chill out, your scores ain't gonna go down with time.

you sure?

 

[ms2209]

hopefully my blood pressure will though

LMAO! That's a good one !

 

[bigdan]

i don't know why, but that line was incredibly funny to me. not something ya hear every day

RC-

I couldn't agree more

dc

 

[ASDIC]

you have to realize that the AAMC is a monopoly, just like the regular healthcare industry. So they can do wutever they want however they want.

 

[Treg]

I would like to personally thank the AAMC for the new patch of pimples on my chin. Nothing like a little stress and uneasiness to mess with your appearance.

Treg

 

[superdevil]

I would like to personally thank the AAMC for the new patch of pimples on my chin. Nothing like a little stress and uneasiness to mess with your appearance.

in the 2-3 weeks preceding the MCAT, these little appearance-busters fiercly attacked my nose. post-4.17, i have now regained the look of a man well beyond puberty (thank god, for a while there i was waiting for those devastating, never-gonna-get-laid voice-cracking incidents).

one more week

 

[flighterdoc]

Is anyone irritated with the amount of time it takes AAMC to grade and post the scores to this test? I definitely realize it takes a while to grade and post tens of thousands of MCATs with 100% accuracy, but I just don't know how it can take two months when the most important parts are on SCANTRON!

USMLE is worse. The entire test is online, why does it take 3+ weeks to get the scores? Why not print them out as you leave?

And, why is there a writing sample on the MCAT? Who the hell cares? If you can follow the freakin directions to bubble in your name, you can probably write well enough to get to medical school. The looser english majors who read the damned writing samples are the major hold up in releasing the scores. Do away with the writing sample and the whole thing can be done on line and scored as soon as it's done. Then, no huge surges of people taking the test, a lot less anxiety, etc.

Its about time that technology caught up with the fu*king AAMC.

 

[flighterdoc]

in the 2-3 weeks preceding the MCAT, these little appearance-busters fiercly attacked my nose. post-4.17, i have now regained the look of a man well beyond puberty (thank god, for a while there i was waiting for those devastating, never-gonna-get-laid voice-cracking incidents).

one more week

I was having TMJ type pains in the weeks prior to the MCAT. I had a routine dental check the week after, and everything was fine (and the pain was gone).

We may not be doctors yet, but stress like this can't be good

 

[flighterdoc]

You know, if I graded my own, I still wouldn't get a 45T?

Not only could I not give myself a T (What is it that Doc Holliday says in the movie Tombstone about hypocrisy?), but I wouldn't give myself a 45, because I'd be afraid they'd make me retake it.

I've worried about that a bit. My last MCAT scores were decent, but not stellar. This time I put a whole lot more effort into the test. Since their numbers show retesters don't usually change much, I wonder what the threshold would be before they make you retest under more supervised conditions to "validate" your improved score?

I'd settle for a 40R, myself. Unless everyone else was giving themselves a 45T.