And You May Bend Over...Now

Uncool.

In an exam where time is such a big factor, having the above happen to me would have burned off quite a bit of it. When I was prepping for the MCAT, I tried my damndest to take nine and only nine minutes per passage/questions, and then move on. Even doing this on test day, I only finished Verbal Reasoning with less than a minute left. To start off with, some of the passages they use for VR are just weird. Some are on topics I just don't care about. And sometimes paragraphs are omitted just to make things more interesting. All of the above: not necessarily enjoyed, but to be expected. Having questions that actually don't make sense with the passage is just wrong. Really, it's sad - people supposedly reviewing the MCAT and not catching such a gross mistake. Kinda like the original NBA 2K, where you could dunk free throws, except a lot more stressful.

What does the good ole AAMC have to say about this? Take the score we give you, or take it again. Eh, no. I wouldn't be happy about having my VR graded on some modified scale, with no assurance of fairness while thousands of other MCATers don't have to deal with this. No special asterisk on med school apps denoting that something nonstandard happened. Take it again? Oh yeah, sure. I disvalue my time and enjoyed prepping for one MCAT that I want to do it again. Ooor, since the AAMC screwed up, they could let you see your score, let you decide if you want to keep it or not, and then let you proceed from there.

You would think that with $210 per test and 70,000 people taking the test per year, one could figure out a decent solution, or at least hire some mad test proofreaders.