By Paul TakahashiThe Daily Northwestern
McCormick junior John Selimkhanov said he felt prepared for the Medical College Admission Test before taking it late last month.
One thing he wasn’t prepared for was a publishing error in the verbal reasoning section of the popular standardized test for students applying to medical schools.
“I finished reading passage six and I got a question for another passage,” he said. “I raised my hand and told the proctor what happened.”
Selimkhanov said the proctor told him other students taking the exam were having similar problems and to just go on.
But Selimkhanov said he had lost focus by that time and found it difficult to return to the test.
“The thing that bothered me is that I lost my concentration after it happened,” Selimkhanov said. “I think that wasn’t completely fair.”
A press release issued by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions estimated that 800 test takers out of the 2,500 taking the MCAT on Jan. 27 were affected by the test publishing error.
The MCAT – administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges – moved to a computer-based format in January.
But Robert Jones, the company’s senior vice president for medical school services and studies, said the problem was not unique to the format.
“This is the kind of error that may affect paper exams and is not specific to the introduction of the computer format,” he said.
Despite the MCAT error, Matt Fidler, Kaplan’s MCAT program manager, said there are several benefits to computerized tests.
“This is where the industry is going,” Fidler said. “There are now only two tests for grad students still on paper; all others are computerized.”
The time spent taking the exam is now five-and-a-half hours – down from eight or nine – and the time spent grading it is now 30 days – down from 60.
Despite the time difference, Kaplan’s press release noted drops in the “quality of experience” in taking the computerized test versus the paper version.
Selimkhanov, however, said he preferred the computerized test format.
“I had fewer distractions since we had headphones on and it was a shorter exam,” he said. “I think the test is fine.”
Selimkhanov received a letter Sunday from the MCAT’s test administrators which outlined the two options he could take.
“I can void the test and get a refund (for the $210 testing fee),” he said. “Or I can do nothing and have the exam graded without the (mismatched) passage.”
About 4 percent of test takers chose to void their exams at the exam site, according to AAMC’s press release. They were given the option to reconsider, now that there’s an option to have the test graded without the problematic passage.
Still, Kaplan’s Fidler recommends students be aware of the fact that testing mishaps may occur.
“We can’t predict computer malfunctions,” he said. “But we can practice using the new interface and to know the content well enough to refocus.”
Reach Paul Takahashi at [email protected].
