Comments on: Your Royal Screwing Was Just A Fluke, Our Apologies

By: J

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:58:17 +0000

When I took the MCAT in Spring 2005, they “lost” one of my two essay submissions — this was a computer-based test, mind you — and counted it as a zero.

I freaked out when I received a score in the ~15th percentile for writing; called the AAMC to ask for a re-grade, but was given such a runaround that I gave up. Imagine my surprise 6 months later, mid-application-cycle, when I logged in to the AAMC web site to see that my score had suddenly jumped to the 95th percentile! Two weeks after that, a letter arrived in the mail explaining that their “database system” failed, and they had mis-categorized my second essay. (Apparently instead of investigating the missing essay up front, they just decided to count it as zero.)

By: BitBitter

BitBitter — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:48:36 +0000

I looked up the definition for “Fluke” and it didn’t say anything about willful refusal to perform quality assurance on a national exam that costs over $200, so I guess Dr Jones is a bit confused…either that or the AAMC believes they don’t need to perform to industry standards because of their “noble mission”.

I was B-F’d to the tune of 2 verbal points because of the “tuna finch” passage - thanks for taking the time to keep people informed.

By: Med School Hell » Ceremony Hell

Med School Hell » Ceremony Hell — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 03:57:45 +0000

[…] to train to become a physician! Luckily for me, the version of the MCAT I took wasn’t one of the AAMC’s special ass-raping versions where the passages and questions have no correlation, so I did […]

By: exi

exi — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:37:46 +0000

Re: “Extrapolated scores could mean a much *higher* or lower result […]”

Well hey, as far as the emphasized part of this goes, I can imagine some people being happy with it if they still scored reasonably well on the exam.

But yes, this is a pretty notable fuckup, not a “fluke.” Silly AAMC.

By: Hoover

Hoover — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:11:56 +0000

Ridiculous. A point made in the article

“What’s bubbling to the surface, and what scares me” he said, “is that this organization has a monopoly on the business of making doctors.”

is absolutely true. This is the case with Step I, Step II, etc. as well. The monopoly is a huge problem, too. Just like in business, a monopoly is not healthy in the long run.

I would like to see a class action lawsuit where every last student who took this flawed version of the MCAT successfully sue the AAMC and win.