It's because they are smarter than us.
I'm not kidding the way they retain information is drastically different and more of what they learned is encoded in recall based format.
This gives them a supreme tactical advantage on test day.
Questions only take a really long time when we lack the content required to find the best answer, especially in C/P, B/B and P/S. But since naturally intelligent students retain information better they solve questions faster. They also tend to have innate passage reading skills that give them better access to passage info.
If you combine these two qualities they can read passages AND answer questions quicker than an average student. This saves a lot of time. But what do they do with this time?
They distribute it to the hardest questions and passages. No matter how good of a test taker you are the AAMC can create something to beat you. Of course if you have 2 minutes left on the exam you will get beat, but what if you had 5? That gives you leeway to keep smashing the question until something clicks.
Basic Mantra: Take time from easy/medium questions and REDISTRIBUTE that time to hard/ ultra-hard questions
This basic mantra is how naturally intelligent students do incredibly well on the MCAT with minimal strategy use. They brutalize the easy and medium questions quickly and use the time saved to bear down on hard questions and passages to increase their overall raw score. But if its just a few questions why does this distinction matter?
Well average students typically struggle just to finish all the easy and medium questions and we can barely make it to the hard ones. This is a big problem because the AAMC grading scale to convert raw scores to scaled scores is non linear.
Every question is worth the same point value BUT depending on where you are in the overall curve your raw points could translate to a bigger change in scaled your scaled score.
Getting 5 raw score points at the 125 level can jump you maybe to a 126.
Getting 5 raw score points at the 128 level could get you a 132.
It's pretty unfair but it's unfortunately how the MCAT's scoring is built. This is why naturally intelligent students don't need strategy, they are fast enough and capable enough on the test that they get into the “juicy” part of the curve and get disproportionate benefits from it.
Average students can’t do that. At least not without significant training in proper passage reading, question answering and time management strategy skills.
It can feel very discouraging to work hard day in and day out but not be able to climb into the higher parts of the scoring curve. Good news though, the MCATSavior has a ton of material for all the MCAT sections(here it is and it's free!) So check out whatever you would like and we hope it gives everyone, even the "naturally intelligent" students a better chance at fighting the AAMC.
