While pre-med students are used to routinely facing extreme pressure, those who took the first computerized administration of the test in January were in for several problems, including finding testing sites and handling an error on the exam itself.

Of the 2,500 students that took the January MCAT, 800 found an error in the verbal section, where a passage was mistakenly matched with unrelated questions. While the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has offered a full refund of the $210 registration fee and a chance to void the scores, they are confident that they can accurately score the exams without the erroneous passage.

According to the AAMC Web site, approximately four percent of examinees voided the exam at the test center itself. However, the administrators assured students that publishing errors occur “very infrequently” and that future problems of this nature should not recur.

“It’s really important, even though AAMC is going to contact the affected students, that they should still call AAMC just to make sure they were on their lists,” said Matt Fidler, MCAT program manager for Kaplan Test Prep.

Some of the other changes to the new MCAT include reducing the testing time from 8 hours to 5.5 hours and reducing the number of questions asked by one-third.

While there are still two essays to complete in one hour, the grading will be performed by one human grader as well as one computer grader. The computer will do basic spelling and grammar checks and is based on an algorithm to see if the essay prompt has been satisfactorily answered.

“Of the folks who took both the August pencil and paper exam and the January exam, 59 percent said that the new format was easier than the old format. There are lots of ancillary benefits because it’s 3 hours shorter, and there is a 30-day score turnaround time, which affects how late students can test and still make the admissions deadlines,” said Fidler.

Jonathan Dworak, an MCAT verbal instructor for the Princeton Review, said that most of the students had favorable reports of the January exam, although a few minor issues still remained.

“Apparently, the AAMC said that certain organic chemistry topics, like esters, would not be tested, but some test-takers received those topics anyway.

“Another complaint was that all of the practice tests that the AAMC made available had a search feature in the verbal passages, and apparently the real test didn’t have that,” added Dworak.

All computerized MCAT exams are proctored through the Thomson-Prometric company, which has five testing sites in Missouri, two of which are located in the St. Louis area.

“[The AAMC] hasn’t planned very well for the number of students who were taking it. All the April sites are already taken up. There’s no testing site in Columbia, Missouri, so all those people have to go to Kansas City or St. Louis,” said Dworak.

Junior Emily Torell, who registered for the April MCAT, was frustrated that she was not able to find a testing center in Missouri.

“I had to register in a small town called Carterville, Illinois, which is two hours away. I was really upset because I signed up the first week I got back in January and all the testing sites were full.”

“There are ups and downs to taking the computerized version. The essay will definitely be much easier online. But the fact that there are fewer questions makes me nervous because there’s less chance for error,” added Torell.

“According to our survey, 80 percent of people found a test site within 30 miles of their house. It shows how important it is to register as early as they can. Before, it was okay to register a month in advance, but these new test sites only hold about 20 people or so,” said Fidler.

Junior Lucy Chen, member of Alpha Epsilon Delta, the University’s pre-health honor society, was optimistic about the new challenges computer testing provided.

“It’s a new skill you have to learn because you’re so used to taking paper and pencil on standardized tests up until now. With practice, I think people will be fine,” said Chen. “A lot of people are going back home and taking the test. [The AAMC] might add in more mobile testing sites later, but they’re waiting to see.”

According to Fidler, the MCAT’s decision to move to computers is “where the industry is headed.” Fidler noted that all other graduate standardized exams except the LSAT have already switched to computer-based testing.

Neither Washington University nor the University of Missouri-Columbia currently accepts the January 2007 MCAT test scores for the 2006-2007 admissions process. Registration for the upcoming June and July testing dates opens on Feb. 14. More information about the MCAT can be found at www.aamc.org.

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