| Statistics Which group would you rather be in? 2010 NATIONWIDE SCORE DISTRIBUTION 2010-2011 ALTIUS SCORE DISTRIBUTION  Interpreting These Results Many students fail to realize just how impressive the results outlined on this page truly are. Nationwide, one-half of all students score a 25 or below. At Altius, we have essentially annihilated the bottom half of that distribution. The 50% of all students who score at or below the national mean simply do not exist among Altius students, because essentially everyone is scoring above the mean. On the upper end, our students earn 40s and high 30s at many times the national average. To score in the 95th percentile you must outscore 95 out of every 100 MCAT examinees. As truly difficult as that feat is, one-quarter of all Altius students surveyed last year did that very thing. Of course, individual results will vary according to each student's work ethic and discipline. Scores vary slightly from year to year, school to school, and among different groups of students. The random telephone survey used to calculate the mean, mode and other parameters listed on this page was conducted among all Altius students nationwide, so students at your school may have scored slightly above or below these averages. Altius does not guarantee any specific score or result. The above data is a random survey, and thus does not include every score earned by every Altius student. Students who do not complete the Altius course or who grossly deviate from our study program are not included in the annual survey. Truth in Reporting As far as we know, Altius is the only major MCAT preparation program in the country that regularly reports student performance stats. We know of one small program that reported an average score one year only, and several years ago Princeton Review was advertising that the upper quartile of their students averaged a 30. That's it. No one publishes full stats as we do at Altius, not even a regular mean each year. What are MCAT programs afraid of? More importantly, why do students continue to pay thousands of dollars for a service touted to produce results that are never revealed? At Altius, we strive to make all of our statistics entirely transparent. We report the average, the mode, the median, a histogram distribution, a pie distribution and quartiles--a favorite among statisticians for their unique ability to reveal unexpected trends hiding behind a mean. The more types of data and the more unique slices or perspectives you take on a sample, the more obvious the "true results" become. The astute observer can use the information on this page to paint a very clear picture of exactly how Altius students score as a group. Notes on Methodology The data for each school year are obtained via a random telephone survey of all students who completed one of our courses at any Altius location. Each student is assigned a unique number as an identifier. A computer software program is then used to generate random numbers. When a student's number is generated, he or she receives a single telephone call to request his or her score. If the student does not answer, he or she enters back into the pool and will only be called again if his or her number is generated a second time. This approach alleviates two potential sources of bias. First, if students must respond to an email or voicemail to report their scores, some students inevitably fail to report. Those with higher scores might be more likely to report than those with lower scores. However, when reaching a student live on the telephone we have experienced 100% success in obtaining their score. Second, if an attempt is made to obtain the entire population of scores, it is inevitable that a small percentage of students will never be reached. Those scores are unknown and may not be representative of the whole population. In a randomized telephone survey, however, all students have an equal chance of having their unique number identifier generated, and thus receiving a phone call, regardless of their score or likelihood to self-report. | | How well do Altius students score on the MCAT? Well, take a look around. The graphics on this webpage tell their own story. Year after year, Altius students earn scores that are nothing short of miraculous. For six straight years we have consistently produced an average MCAT score in the 32 to 33 range program wide. Even more impressive, however, is the abnormally high number of scores in the upper 30s and low 40s and the virtual non-existence of scores below the national mean. The results of a random survey of all 2010-2011 Altius students is presented below. 2010-2011 Program-Wide Score Results AVERAGE SCORE: 32 Standard Deviation, 3.3 Mode, 31 Median, 31 Mean, Upper Quartile, 37 Mean, Upper-Middle Quartile, 33 Mean, Lower-Middle Quartile, 31 Mean, Lower Quartile, 28 Examining each quartile in the list above reveals the remarkable nature of the Altius score distribution. Our best students don't just earn very good scores, they average an amazing 37; a score which equates to the 98th percentile. The quartile just below this group is still averaging well above the 90th percentile, and the third quartile is still earning average scores above a 30. As you can see, you must be in the bottom quartile of all Altius students to have any real chance of dropping below a 30, and even then you are likely to score in the very high 20s. Score Distribution The data below indicate the percentage of surveyed Altius students who earned a score within the given range. The number in brackets is the percentage of students nationwide who earned scores in that same range, according to the AAMC's latest report. 35 or above (95th percentile): 25% [5%] or 5 times the national average! 32 or above (90th percentile): 45% [10%] or 4.5 times the national average! 29 or above (75th percentile): 88% [25%] or over 3.5 times the national average! 25 or above (national mean): 98% [50%] or nearly 100% of all Altius students scored above the national mean. Score Distribution Graphs 2010 NATIONWIDE SCORE DISTRIBUTION 2010-2011 ALTIUS SCORE DISTRIBUTION
 Students who complete every aspect of our proven program score even higher! The data below separate student performance into three categories based on adherence to the Altius program on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being most adherent and 1 being least adherent). 9-10 AVERAGE SCORE: 36 95% Confidence Interval, 35.88 +/- 0.85 7-8: AVERAGE SCORE: 31 95% Confidence Interval, 31.17 +/- 0.57 6 or Below AVERAGE SCORE: 29 95% Confidence Interval, 28.80 +/- 0.47 Students self-evalute their own compliance throughout the program. At the end of the program, they and their tutor determine their level of adherence to ten carefully defined "Indicators of Success." The two numbers so derived are combined to produce the adherence ratings used above. Students often feel that prior science background or native aptitude is the best predictor of MCAT performance. To the contrary, our research indicates that, among Altius students, the single greatest predictor of how well you will score is your level of adherence to the proven Altius system. | |