Kaplan Practice Tests Vs. Real Thing and AAMC Practice Tests Vs. Real Thing?

Colleges00701 · 07-12-2011, 07:46 PM

How well do the kaplan practice exams correspond to the real thing? Their curves seem really inflated especially on the PS section. The verbal section curves seems to be about right. The BS section curve also seems a little inflated. I took my first real practice mcat exam today and didn't do that well (scored a 31). The timing really killed me. I had to guess randomly on 1 verbal passage because I ran out of time. I had to guess randomly on 2 physical science passages because I ran out of time and I had to guess randomly on 1 BS passage because I ran out of time. I ended up getting a 9 on verbal (the passage that I ended up guessing randomly on this section resulted in me getting 5 wrong questions, I missed another 6 questions from the other 6 passages). I ended up with a 11 on PS. (ended up getting like 15 wrong, but a lot of them were from the 2 passages that I guessed randomly on and I didn't have time to answer). The BS section I ended up with a 11 and I missed 11 questions total (that passage that I skipped resulted in me getting 6 questions wrong).

My diagnostic score was a 26, 9 PS/9 V/8 BS. I have roughly 5 weeks until exam day (August 18th). I really have to work on my timing, so I will be sure to do tons of practice tests. According to my schedule I should be able to squeeze in another 13 practice exams before test day so that should help with the timing.

How similar are the AAMC tests to the real thing? I hear a lot of people on SDN saying that the AAMC exams are much easier than the real MCAT. I have heard that the kaplan exams are similar to the real exam in terms of difficulty but not similar in terms of the inflated curve.

Also are kaplan's verbal tests easier/harder/or about the same in terms of difficulty on the real mcat verbal? This will help me see what resources to use.

i_wanna_be_Brown · 07-12-2011, 09:25 PM

The aamc tests are old actual
MCATs, so they are the same difficulty.

Kaplan's curve is definitely easier, but the individual questions are supposed to be harder/test you on knowledge more.

kristin5792 · 07-12-2011, 10:46 PM

No reason to do 13 full lengths! Do about half that and you'll be just fine. Are you self studying? Kaplan's timing strategy is basically to give yourself 1m per discrete question and do all those first; then give yourself like, 6.5m per passage (reading + questions) but time passages as a pair; then give yourself like, 1-1.5m at the end to fill in answers for the questions you didn't answer.

Always select an answer. Don't second guess yourself. Move fast. Don't let your performance on a previous passage affect your performance on the next one. Force yourself to finish the passage pair on time.

Pacing is huge. That, and the other Kaplan strategies, were definitely worth paying for in my opinion. The books and flash cards were fine--but nothing special. The online resources, discipline, and strategy's what you pay for!

I found AAMC to be a joke compared to the real thing, and Kaplan to be closer but for the most part easier than the real thing too. My real thing had much more immuno/genetics/molecular bio on it, much more theoretical physics, and much less organic than I was expecting--for what it's worth.

(Edit: the AAMC tests that are available online for free are the only AAMC tests I took, but I assume that's what you're talking about. I found those to be much more general bio and physiology focused than the real thing, which felt like I was reading straight out of a research journal I had never seen before)

plumazul · 07-12-2011, 10:56 PM

@iwbBrown, "Kaplan's curve is definitely easier, but the individual questions are supposed to be harder/test you on knowledge more. "

I just took the Kaplan a few weeks ago and missed only 2 on the verbal. That scored as a 13! How is THAT an "easy curve"?

Colleges00701 · 07-12-2011, 11:16 PM

Quote:

(Edit: the AAMC tests that are available online for free are the only AAMC tests I took, but I assume that's what you're talking about. I found those to be much more general bio and physiology focused than the real thing, which felt like I was reading straight out of a research journal I had never seen before)

Idk, my kaplan class provided me with all the aamc free, it came with the course.

i_wanna_be_Brown · 07-12-2011, 11:27 PM

Plumazul,

Are you referring to the diagnostic? The verbal curve on that one is steep. Thats part because its so short and i think it might be part that since that is the section that is most "valuable" (hardest to study on your own) and they want kids to sign up, they deflate your score.

On most of the tests you could get 15s without a perfect score (I recall missing as many as 6 sometimes). I got multiple 40+ scores including a 44 on my final practice test. I got a 36 on the real one. Felt the real one was easy compared to several Kaplan ones. Definitely thought I got 40+ based on how I was doing with Kaplan. If I could do it all over again I would take some aamc ones (I didn't do any).

Colleges00701 · 07-13-2011, 12:17 AM

Lol, after doing some post game analysis I realized I could have done a lot better with pacing and getting the timing right. Even on the questions that I did attempt and did not guess randomly on, I could have done a lot better had I just focused a little bit more.

Quote:

No reason to do 13 full lengths

^^^ I haven't really done any practice yet. This is the first full length that I have taken. I have just done 3 section tests from TPR, covered all the content found in those kaplan science books, and done half the topical tests (didn't do all of them because I wanted to do real timed mcat sections) and memorized all my flashcards. I feel like I have the content down, I just have to figure out how to apply that content knowledge with real mcat like practice problems.

Over the next 5 weeks in addition to doing the practice tests, and flashcard review, I am going to focus on the Berkely Review's practice physics passages. I feel I am weaker in Physics then I am in Gen Chem, Bio, and Orgo.

MiamiDAP · 07-14-2011, 09:33 AM

"How well do the kaplan practice exams correspond to the real thing? "

-Somebody here suggested that the real score is often 2 point below your best practice score and (unrelated to the topic) within 2 points of your ACT. Asuming that you prepare hard enough, it seems to be very reasonable estimate. I can only base it on my D. experience. She took MCAT once, she took ACT also once. She prepared very hard for MCAT, she took Kaplan prep. class. Her real MCAT was exactly 2 point below her best practice score and it was 2 points above her ACT. Estimate worked perfectly. She was very happy with her score.

phonyreal98 · 07-14-2011, 12:16 PM

Quote:

-Somebody here suggested that the real score is often 2 point below your best practice score and (unrelated to the topic) within 2 points of your ACT. Asuming that you prepare hard enough, it seems to be very reasonable estimate. I can only base it on my D. experience. She took MCAT once, she took ACT also once. She prepared very hard for MCAT, she took Kaplan prep. class. Her real MCAT was exactly 2 point below her best practice score and it was 2 points above her ACT. Estimate worked perfectly. She was very happy with her score.

In my experience, my actual MCAT score reflected my AAMC practice test scores almost perfectly. I scored about a half a point higher on my actual MCAT than my AAMC practice test average.

Also, to the OP, try to work on your reading speed some. I felt like the verbal passages on the actual thing were longer than the AAMC practice tests (although there is absolutely no way to verify this...it may have just been me psyching myself out).

kristin5792 · 07-14-2011, 12:36 PM

I agree with phony that the passages on the real thing seemed long compared to the practice ones. But I also think the questions on verbal seemed easier than I was expecting. Then again, my collection of passages seemed easier/friendlier than previously (ie, out of the like...8 possible topic areas for passages to be from, I found 2 of them to be pretty difficult, and didn't get passages with either difficult topic on my real one), which might have been what caused me to think the questions were easier.

Colleges00701 · 07-14-2011, 12:38 PM

^^ What kind of timing do you suggest for the passages phonyreal? So far it takes me 3 minitues to read a verbal passage, and then I spend 1 minute per question. (There are 7 passages, so it takes me 21 minutes to read them, and then I spend 39-40 minutes on the questions for 60-61 minutes total). On my first practice test, I went over on this time frame on one or two convoluted passages which resulted in me having to guess randomly on an entire verbal passage.

How long should I spend reading the science passages? The reason I had to guess on so many in the PS section is because this is the section that I am really weak in. It takes me forever to get through a PS section and then working through all the calculations and remembering the right formulas takes a significant amount of time. That is what I like about BS, there are hardly any calculations, and most of it seems like a verbal test.

phonyreal98 · 07-14-2011, 01:48 PM

Quote:

^^ What kind of timing do you suggest for the passages phonyreal? So far it takes me 3 minitues to read a verbal passage, and then I spend 1 minute per question. (There are 7 passages, so it takes me 21 minutes to read them, and then I spend 39-40 minutes on the questions for 60-61 minutes total). On my first practice test, I went over on this time frame on one or two convoluted passages which resulted in me having to guess randomly on an entire verbal passage.

How long should I spend reading the science passages? The reason I had to guess on so many in the PS section is because this is the section that I am really weak in. It takes me forever to get through a PS section and then working through all the calculations and remembering the right formulas takes a significant amount of time. That is what I like about BS, there are hardly any calculations, and most of it seems like a verbal test.

I believe I was down to about 7-7.5 minutes/passage on my practice verbal going into the real thing. You have approximately 8.5 minutes/passage on the real thing.

I remember not thoroughly reading all of the material in the science passages, but learning to pick out only what I needed. Also, I remember using quick estimations on a lot of questions as a way to narrow down 1-3 of the answer choices rather than doing the full calculation.

Colleges00701 · 07-14-2011, 02:45 PM

^ K thanks for the help phonyreal and kristen.

mcat2 · 07-14-2011, 03:44 PM

Quote:

the passages on the real thing seemed long compared to the practice ones.

If I remember correctly, DS made the same comment on his real MCAT test (that is, the passage is longer than the one in most of his Kaplan practice tests) He also thought VR is easier than, say, BS section. The funny thing is he is a bio major and still thinks the bio section is the hardest on the test he took. Go figure.

But in the end, his perception about the difficulty of each section seems has little to do with the actually section score he got. (e.g., his BS score is the highest even though he thought it was the hardest after the test.)

Colleges00701 · 07-21-2011, 05:45 PM

Wow so I took AAMC 3 and scored a 34 (which is my target score). I guess I am just going to stick with AAMC exams from here on out. Hopefully it works out. I also finished each AAMC exam on time. I had 5 minutes left on verbal, 3 minutes left on PS, and 3-4 minutes left on BS. Breakdown was a 11-PS, 11-V, 12-BS