- - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL - -

Test Assessment Program Report

MCAT
January 2009

¾ Test Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009

¾ General Overview
This exam confirms the features we have come to see as standard for the MCAT CBT.
In general, checking in to the center was reported as smooth and all the rules are expected to
be followed (nothing in test area except I.D., can access belongings for food but not notes,
signing in/signing out, scratch paper, etc.).
.
All sections contained seven passages with a range of 5-7 questions per passage. More
details on the individual sections follow. Information that is different from the 2008 TAP
reports has been highlighted in yellow.

Overall the test was reported to be about as difficult as the AAMC Practice Test 10.

¾ General Test Experience and Overall Test Features

Check-in is as expected and takes anywhere from 5-30 minutes. ID check and fingerprint
scanning is done each time an examinee exits or enters the testing room, and returning a little
bit late from the break has no consequences; the test does not restart without the examinee
present.
The tutorial time remains at 10 minutes.
A packet of colored scratch paper (4 pages) and 2 sharpened pencils are handed out at the
start of the test and collected at the end of the test. The scratch paper is shredded. The
amount of scratch paper seems sufficient for the entire exam, although more can be requested
if needed. Noise reduction headphones were available at all cubicles.
MCAT T.A.P. Report January 2009

The layout of the passages, questions, and buttons has also not changed from the earlier
tests. As expected, the passages are on the left and the questions for that passage were
grouped together on the right, and they can be scrolled independently. At the bottom of the
screen, the left corner states “Passage ___ of ___”. Also along the bottom are the timer, the
Previous and Next buttons, a Mark button, and the Review button. An Exhibit button opens
the periodic table.
Tools include highlighting (of the passage text), strikeout (of the answer choices), and the
Mark button. Highlighting and striking out are both done by left-clicking; there is no right-
click functionality. In addition to passage text, individual cells in data tables could be
highlighted, and all equations could be highlighted. Clicking a second time removes the
highlight or strikeout; highlights do NOT persist when moving from passage to passage, and
strikeouts DO persist. NO chemical structures could be highlighted in any way, and neither
questions nor answer choices could be highlighted. Clicking the MARK button turns it red
and changes it to MARKED (flags the question for later review). The question currently
being worked on by a test-taker is outlined with a bold red line. If the test-taker chooses to
MARK that questions, the outline becomes yellow.
Notably absent are the Search function and the Notes feature, both of which are still
available on AAMC’s online practice tests.
Moving around within the sections is reported as being very easy, both with the Previous
and Next buttons and with the Review screen. The Review screen itself is very helpful;
questions are clearly indicated as “Marked”, “Incomplete”, and/or “Complete”. Clicking
“Next” from the last question brings you immediately to the Review screen, from which you
can either review your answers, or choose to end the section. If you choose to end, a pop-up
window asks you to confirm before actually ending. Two additional pop-up windows
announce time remaining. One pops up at the halfway point and says “You have used half of
your time” and a second window pops up when there are 5 minutes remaining. This is true
for all sections, PS, VR, WS, and BS. You have to click “OK” to make the window go away.
Double clicking on any question number from the Review screen brings test takers
directly to that question. Test takers could also "Review All", "Review Marked", or "Review
Incomplete" questions by choosing the appropriate button at the bottom of the page. After
clicking “Review Marked” or “Review Incomplete”, test takers are brought to the passage
containing the appropriate question, and the question itself would appear at the top of the
right-hand column, and all the other questions associated with that passage were still visible.
One bug that was noticed was that if another marked question was lower in the column in the
same passage, and the user clicks the NEXT button to jump to the next marked question, it
brings you to the next passage with a marked question, NOT the question lower on the page
that was off the scroll screen.
As stated before, pop-up windows appear to announce time remaining and to announce
the end of a section. Note that if you leave the room and DO NOT click OK to end the
section, the proctor would end if for you.
The post-test survey was fairly short and had about 10 questions on how satisfied the user
was with the computer test, the testing location and staff, the exam tools, and the registration
process. There was a space to add comments.

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MCAT T.A.P. Report January 2009

¾ Physical Sciences Section

Key Points
1. 7 passages with an average of 5 questions per passage. Two passages were small, with
only 4 questions.
2. About 15 questions required calculations, and one question required remembering a
formula.
3. 13 freestanding questions, in three separate groups.
4. No Roman Numeral questions.
5. Roughly 50% Physics (4 passages and 7 FSQs) and 50% General Chemistry (3 passages
and 6 FSQs).
6. Difficulty level similar to AAMC 10. Challenging, but no excessively difficult passages
or questions.

Physics topics included: AC/DC, circuits, magnetic fields, right-hand rule, kinematics,
collisions, waves, refraction/reflection, Doppler effect, capacitance, optics, potential energy,
mechanics, mass on a spring, simple harmonic motion, fluids, gravitational potential energy,
experiment/data analysis.

General Chemistry topics included: ozone, halocarbons, fullerenes, aspirin, electrochemistry,

molarity, molecular radius, pH, molecular weight, specific gravity, dimensional (units)
analysis, experiment/data analysis.

¾ Verbal Reasoning Section

Key Points
1. 7 passages with an average of 5 questions per passage. No extremely small (4 questions)
or extremely large (8 questions) passages.
2. All passages had more than 5 paragraphs and required scrolling down to read.
3. Only 1 Roman Numeral Question; most questions were Strengthen/Weaken questions.

Details
The order of difficulty seemed random. The Verbal passage topics included: ethics,
morality, culture, ecology, citizenship, marine ecology, meteorology.

¾ Writing Sample Section

Key Points
1. No keyboard functionality except backspace, delete, end, home, and arrow keys.
2. No spell check.
3. Editing buttons and screen layout have not changed.

Details
Prompt topics were typical of MCAT essay prompts on ethics, business, culture, and
social progress.

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MCAT T.A.P. Report January 2009

¾ Biological Sciences Section

Key Points
1. 7 passages with an average of 5 questions per passage. Two passages were very small
(only 4 questions) and two were large (7 questions).
2. 13 freestanding questions, in three separate groups.
3. Roughly 80% Biology (6 passages and 9 FSQs) and 20% Organic Chemistry (1 passage
and 4 FSQs). Note that the one O-Chem passage was a crossover with biology.
4. Difficulty level similar to AAMC 10.

Biology topics included: collagen, genes, RNA, protein coding, introns/exons,

antidepressants, neurotransmitters, botulism, fluid homeostasis, renal failure, digestion,
genetics, bacteria vs. fungi, centromeres, structure of nucleotides, hydrolysis,
experiment/data analysis.

Organic Chemistry topics included: synthetic amino acids, isomers, acid strength,
classification of amines, long-chain hydrocarbons, pH, amino acid residues, hydrolysis,
reaction mechanisms, experiment/data analysis.