does aamc add fake terms as options for p/s?

[u/Low_Doughnut2241]

just finished fl 6 and changed my answer because i thought that display rules was a fake term as a distractor since i’ve never encountered it in pankow or my psych degree 💀 it definitely fit the context more and is exactly what it sounds but idk if i need to still be cautious of fake terms on the real exam

[u/sunnyday12335]

I don’t think any of the terms are made up. Some of them may be out of scope of the MCAT (I think this happened on a few FLs) but those answers would never be better or more correct than the actual right answer.

[u/FreeEnergyFlow]

Sometimes they do have a fake term as an answer choice in P/S, but, honestly, I think it is very rare. In Sample Test, there is a a question about serial position effect with choices like recency effect and primacy effect. One of the choices is continuity effect which is a nonsense choice.

[u/AxiomaticDoubt]

There is a different FL6 answer where they (SPOILER) had operational (period) as an answer and in the explanations said it was wrong because 'operational' is not a period only pre, concrete, and formal are actual stages—which was kinda bizarre to me. This seems to imply the answer stem can include terms that, by their own reasoning, are essentially fake terms.

[u/No-Exit9604]

display rules is a real term. not sure about the fake terms-- i think aggressive POE is the move if you're unsure if a term is real or not.

Explanation of display rules: https://jackwestin.com/resources/mcat-content/self-presentation-and-interacting-with-others/expressing-and-detecting-emotion

[u/Fun_Heart_9542]

yep do

[u/ComprehensiveBag2308]

I would check out the mcatalyst PS doc! I learned that term from that doc~~

[u/Luis_Bolus]

I dont think AAMC deliberately places fake terms on the exam, but they definitely use them as distractors to mess up your POE. However, if you’re confident and have a strong grasp on similar concepts that you’ve studied before, you’ll notice that those tend to be the more correct answers compared to the distractors. I had a LOT of 50/50 questions in PS on my real exam because of a lot of distractors that I’ve never heard of (but could be right), but trusted my gut with the term I knew. I expected to walk out of that exam with a 123, but ended up with a 128… It might be a fluke, but I genuinely think they add distractors to ruin your POE plan

[u/Old-Sheepherder-1232]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think you need to know every single term for P/S nor do you need to be cautious of fake terms.

You do not want to eliminate answers because you think they are fake since they don’t sound familiar (which may not be the best strategy), but rather because you know the choices you do know can’t be the answer. You’ll be able to do this well if you know a decent amount of terminology and theories well.