Kaplan MCAT General Chemistry Review

The number of multiple-choice questions that you answer correctly per section is your “raw score.” Your raw score will then be converted to yield the “scaled score”—the one that will fall somewhere in that 1–15 range. These scaled scores are what are reported to medical schools as your MCAT scores. All multiple-choice questions are worth the same amount—one raw point—and there’s no penalty for guessing. That means that you should always select an answer for every question, whether you get to that question or not! This is an important piece of advice, so pay it heed. Never let time run out on any section without selecting an answer for every question.

The raw score of each administration is converted to a scaled score. The conversion varies with administrations. Hence, the same raw score will not always give you the same scaled score.

Your score report will tell you—and your potential medical schools—not only your scaled scores, but also the national mean score for each section, standard deviation, national scoring profile for each section, and your percentile ranking.

WHAT’S A GOOD SCORE?

There’s no such thing as a cut-and-dry “good score.” Much depends on the strength of the rest of your application (if your transcript is first rate, the pressure to strut your stuff on the MCAT isn’t as intense) and on where you want to go to school (different schools have different score expectations). Here are a few interesting statistics:

or each MCAT administration, the average scaled scores are approximately 8s for Physical Sciences, Verbal Reasoning, and Biological Sciences, and N for the Writing Sample. You need scores of at least 10–11s to be considered competitive by most medical schools, and if you’re aiming for the top you’ve got to do even better, and score 12s and above.

You don’t have to be perfect to do well. For instance, on the AAMC’s Practice Test 5R, you could get as many as 10 questions wrong in Verbal Reasoning, 17 in Physical Sciences, and 16 in Biological Sciences and still score in the 80th percentile. To score in the 90th percentile, you could get as many as 7 wrong in Verbal Reasoning, 12 in Physical Sciences, and 12 in Biological Sciences. Even students who receive perfect scaled scores usually get a handful of questions wrong.

It’s important to maximize your performance on every question. Just a few questions one way or the other can make a big difference in your scaled score. Here’s a look at recent score profiles so you can get an idea of the shape of a typical score distribution.

Physical Sciences Scaled Score Percent Achieving Score Percentile Rank Range 150.199.9–99.9141.298.7–99.8132.596.2–98.6125.191.1–96.1117.283.9–91.01012.171.8–83.8912.958.9–71.1816.542.4–58.5716.725.7–42.3613.012.7–25.657.904.8–12.643.301.5–04.731.300.2–01.420.100.1–00.110.000.0–00.0Scaled ScoreMean = 8.1Standard Deviation = 2.32

Verbal Reasoning Scaled Score Percent Achieving Score Percentile Rank Range 150.199.9–99.9140.299.7–99.8131.897.9–99.6123.694.3–97.81110.583.8–94.21015.668.2–83.7917.251.0–68.1815.435.6–50.9710.325.3–35.5610.914.4–25.256.907.5–14.343.903.6–07.432.001.6–03.520.500.1–01.510.000.0–00.0Scaled ScoreMean = 8.0Standard Deviation = 2.43

Writing Sample Scaled Score Percent Achieving Score Percentile Rank Range T0.599.9–99.9S2.894.7–99.8R7.296.0–99.3Q14.291.0–95.9P9.781.2–90.9O17.964.0–81.1N14.747.1–63.9M18.830.4–47.0L9.521.2–30.3K3.613.5–21.1J1.206.8–13.402.9–06.700.9–02.800.2–00.800.0–00.175th Percentile = Q50th Percentile = O25th Percentile = M

Biological Sciences Scaled Score Percent Achieving Score Percentile Rank Range 150.199.9–99.9141.298.7–99.8132.596.2–98.6125.191.1–96.1117.283.9–91.01012.171.8–83.8912.958.9–71.1816.542.4–58.5716.725.7–42.3613.012.7–25.657.904.8–12.643.301.5–04.731.300.2–01.420.100.1–00.110.000.0–00.0Scaled ScoreMean = 8.2Standard Deviation = 2.39

WHAT THE MCAT REALLY TESTS

It’s important to grasp not only the nuts and bolts of the MCAT, so you’ll know what to do on Test Day, but also the underlying principles of the test so you’ll know why you’re doing what you’re doing on Test Day. We’ll cover the straightforward MCAT facts later. Now it’s time to examine the heart and soul of the MCAT, to see what it’s really about.

THE MYTH

Most people preparing for the MCAT fall prey to the myth that the MCAT is a straightforward science test. They think something like this: