2007 MCAT Update
The test was administered on 12 different dates between January and July. It will be administered 11 more times in August and September. Statistics about the first half year’s experience follow:
Students took the MCAT 38,700 times between January and July. Including check-in, the length of the testing day for the average student was six hours, almost three hours shorter than it was under paper delivery. Just as they did in the past, students with disabilities received suitable testing accommodations. Fewer than 90 of the first 38,700 testings were interrupted by technical problems that were preventable (e.g., registration errors, server failures). Additionally, thirty-five students were unable to test due to inclement weather. All of these students were rescheduled and tested or have reservations to test.¼br> Students submitted fewer complaints about excessive noise, heat and other bothersome testing conditions than in the past. With 200 complaints filed thus far, test center complaints are down by 80% compared to this time last year. AAMC staff has responded to all of the students’ complaints, making determinations about the probable impact of these circumstances on students’ scores, retesting students when needed, and refunding testing fees. (This process is described more fully below.) The time needed to report students’ scores was cut in half from 60 to 30 days.
There are two ways that students can register complaints about the conditions of their test administration:
(1) Students who feel that testing conditions may have disadvantaged them on the test day are invited to file a test center complaint (called Center Problem Reports or ‘CPRs’) before they leave the center. The test center administrators will submit the CPRs to Prometric and AAMC. These reports are used for general monitoring of test center conditions and as background for further investigation. Please tell your students to file these reports as they are vital to correcting procedural, room, equipment and any other issues.
(2) If students decide after they leave the testing center but before they receive their scores, that their testing conditions were problematic, they are instructed to write to AAMC about their complaints. Instructions for students who want to file complaints to the AAMC are provided in the MCAT Essentials document and on the MCAT Website .
Prometric staffs review complaints. Students are rescheduled/retested when the conditions are deemed likely to have effected test scores. AAMC also prepares letters for the medical schools to which students apply that describe the testing conditions and their likely impact on student performance.
