My little complaint to AAMC about the MCAT

Just to fill in some dead-time with some personal business...
btw. my MCAT score came in and it was a 34N... I could have done, much, much better... I know. Typical Asian overachievement, but the score distribution was all weird: P14;V09;B11;WN

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Dear MCAT Program Office:

I am writing to you to file a complaint/concern in the testing procedures and environmental conditions of the MCAT administered at Case Western Reserve University (a.k.a. Case or CWRU) on April 17, 2004. Upon reading the statement on the AAMC's MCAT website on "Test Center Regulations," "The MCAT Program Office and AAMC attempt to ensure that the testing environment is comfortable and that testing procedures provide for fair, equal, and secure testing conditions." Despite this statement, CWRU's testing environment was short of comfortable; the testing procedures, unfair.

Upon entrance into the examination building before the examination began, I noticed that the building was warmer and more humid than the pervious day, when the building was comfortably cool (around 70 degrees with low humidity). After testing check-in and moments before the examination began, the test proctors acknowledged the air conditioner system was not functioning, since the system was under maintenance. Whether the system was broken was uncertain, though unlikely. The test proctors did not make any effort in considering the relocation of everyone to a different building to administer the MCAT exam under more controlled and more comfortable environmental conditions. Instead, they brought in one stationary 26" fan to replace the role of the air conditioners that absent as an attempt to ventilate and cool down the 35ft by 35ft examination room in which I and more than twenty other people were testing.

As the examination proceeded, the small testing room steadily became warmer and more humid as the examination proceeded. By the end of the Writing Section and through the Biological Section, the room temperature was at least 90 degrees with humidity that was absolutely unbearable (I am guessing around 95% to 100%). The room was poorly ventilated; there were no open windows and no air movement whatsoever through any vents. Despite its presence, the fan did little to alleviate the miserable testing conditions. No other steps were taken by the test proctors to make testing environment conditions more comfortable.

After the examination was finished, the air conditioners were still non-functional, as the room conditions were still muggy. The building would continue to be muggy for another four to five days. (I noticed the duration of the lack of environmental control, since I work for a research group in an adjacent building that shares the same air conditioning system.)

In retrospect, I believe that the testing proctors should have had some notice from the university administration, warning that such an essential building function was not operational, and that the testing proctors should have relocated or should have at least made attempts to relocate the examination to another building on campus that had better environmental controls and that was more comfortable. Yet, the test proctors did not take such measures.

I also believe that my performance on the MCAT was adversely affected by this substandard maintenance of testing environment quality. The excessive heat and humidity was unbearable and deterred me from focusing on the exam. I had taken precautions to adjust to any reasonable variances in normal examination room conditions, given that the proper cooling, or at least ventilation, of the test room. I was not notified that the air conditioners would be shut off own for maintenance, even though my office was affected. There was no way I could have prepared for such an extreme testing environment.
Granted, everyone else taking the MCAT exam at CWRU also received equal treatment in environmental conditions. However, what had happened there was certainly not standard or equal in any way compared to every other examination site, in the United States and abroad, that had reasonable and operational environmental controls. I believe that the testing environment at CWRU and how the test administrators handled the aberrant testing conditions were completely unacceptable for me and other test takers at CWRU, which put us at a disadvantage relative to other MCAT examinees in the rest of the world.


In short, these were several deficiencies in environmental controls that resulted in stiflingly uncomfortable and substandard testing conditions that I am absolutely sure no other examinee outside of CWRU experienced during the MCAT:
-- broken building (central) air conditioner
-- high ambient (outdoor) temperature
-- poor to non-existent ventilation
-- small room
-- no attempt to relocate the testing area to a more controlled and comfortable environment

Such poor environmental controls resulted in:
-- room temperature of 80+ degrees
-- high humidity, probably 95+%
-- (what I believe to be) poorer MCAT performance compared to how I would have performed in a more controlled and comfortable environment and compared to the rest of the world

The fans that were used as an attempt to control room conditions failed to alleviate the discomfort in the testing environment.

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Thank you for considering and addressing my concerns.


Sincerely.....