The effect of speededness on MCAT scores: An initial examination

Abstract

Effects of speededness on MCAT examinee performance were examined to determine whether examinees taking the test at its current length would benefit from additional test administration time for two scales: Verbal Reasoning (VR) and Physical Sciences (PS). Scale scores based on extended test administration time were significantly greater than the corresponding scores based on the standard operational test administration time for both the VR and PS scales. Specifically, responses made during the additional administration time resulted in an average increase of 0.71 scale score points, or 0.27 standard deviation units for VR, and an increase of 0.72 scale score points, or 0.31 standard deviation units for PS. For the VR scale, lower scoring examinees benefited more than higher scoring examinees from the additional test administration time. For the PS scale, examinees in the middle of the scale score distribution benefited somewhat more than those at the lower and upper segments of the distribution. Findings in the present study do not necessarily indicate that the standard test administration times associated with the current MCAT sections should be modified to reflect the time extensions examined in the present investigation.