The AAMC LOVES manipulating the MCAT’s curve.
Sure some of it is related to them deflating students scores.
But a lot of these mechanics are baked into the design of the exam itself and they unfairly affect average test takers.
The MCAT is a norm referenced exam( it's expected to follow a bell curve distribution). But this bell curve distribution is for the SCALED MCAT score NOT the raw score.
Remember on test day you will be doing questions (59 in C/P, B/B, P/S and 53 in CARS) as you get them correct you get a “raw” score. That raw score (let's say 43/59) will then be converted into a scaled score for each section between 118 and 132. The scores from all 4 sections will be added up for your total score anywhere between 472 and 528.
Why did they pick these numbers for the scaled score? Who knows, they probably asked a magic 8 ball. (they just love psychological tricks anyway)
Scaled scores are necessary for admissions because they help clearly differentiate test takers by assigning a percentile to the raw score. A student who gets 51/59 vs someone who gets 54/59 doesn’t seem any different. But if the scaled scores are 129 vs 131 it's easier for admissions committees to make distinctions.
This becomes an issue for average students because the connection between raw score and scaled score is not linear.
We repeat. The relationship between raw and scaled score is NON LINEAR.
The curve is also adjusted (*cough* manipulated) so that it gets harder and harder to gain scaled score points as your raw score increases. This manipulation is necessary to get the scaled score to fit a bell curve.
It might take you 5 raw score points to climb from 124 to 125 but then will cost you 3 raw score points to go from 126 to 127 or 2 raw score points to go from 127 to 128. Initially that seems like a good deal but remember that although all questions are worth the same amount of points, not every question is equal in difficulty.
The raw score points you need to climb up the scaled score
will come exclusively from higher level(harder) questions
The easy/medium questions are basically built to allow you to get to the 50th percentile(501~) and from there you have to fight for the remaining medium/hard questions.
If you are an average test taker this actually hurts you because you have to get more questions correct to move up 1 or 2 points. You are in the part of the curve that requires more effort to gain points in.
Now if you are a naturally intelligent student who leapfrogs over easy/medium questions and is only fighting a few hard questions your score is going to jump very quickly with just a few more questions correct(granted those questions will be difficult).
This scoring is approximate but mirrors AAMC’s practice Full length tests.
Average student that gets 45/59 and scaled score of 126(60th %ile)
Naturally intelligent student that gets 51/59 and scaled score 131(99th %ile)
A difference of 6 questions can hardly be called significant on a test with thousands of topics. But unfortunately the AAMC manipulates the curve in such a fashion that the scaled score has to fit a bell curve distribution and this has consequences(especially for average students). As you can see, average students in general are not that much behind our high scoring counterparts and we can take many steps to even that playing field.
At MCATSavior we think the AAMC is inherently unfair so we have built tons of free strategy courses to help fight it. Hopefully this helped shed some light on why our scores don’t climb as quickly as we would like them too and if this was interesting feel free to check out our other material as well!
