Next Step CARS book

[Rousey]

Has anybody used the Next Step CARS book? I've been getting about 65% of the questions correct on those. I was curious how closely they related to AAMC in terms of difficulty

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[basophilic]

I used it only for practicing reading dense passages under time limit; their questions are terrible in quality and completely unrepresentative.

 

[FutureDoc3094]

I used it only for practicing reading dense passages under time limit; their questions are terrible in quality and completely unrepresentative.

I completely agree with the above post here. These are just terrible questions and I used them too for reading practice. I would suggest EK 101 Verbal passages, I heard they are much better compared to Next Step.

 

[GrapesofRath]

I personally am a fan of Nextstep CARs. It is a bit too focused on details in some of their questions but the complaint that the passages are thick is foolish; you want the passages you practice with to be difficult to read, there's a good chance they will be on the real thing. Bottom line some of the questions suck yes, but alot of them are good and the logic is difficult for a number of them(which is just like the real deal). I personally recommend them, at least way more than a company like BR or Kaplan.

 

[Rousey]

I've just been noticing that most passages are reasonable with reasonable questions. Then there comes 1-2 impossible passages with crazy questions. I don't mind it though. Practicing for a harder test may be good when it comes down to the real one

 

[GrapesofRath]

I'll add I didn't really find these passages any less difficult or occasionally unreasonable than some of the EK CARs one. In particular, the EK CARs book for this year with about 15 passages had a couple questions where the rational made absolutely no sense to me or the inference/speculation they wanted you to make was rather far-fetched.

 

[Rousey]

I'll add I didn't really find these passages any less difficult or occasionally unreasonable than some of the EK CARs one. In particular, the EK CARs book for this year with about 15 passages had a couple questions where the rational made absolutely no sense to me or the inference/speculation they wanted you to make was rather far-fetched.

What about compared to the actual exam, if you have taken that?

 

[GrapesofRath]

What about compared to the actual exam, if you have taken that?

For that I found AAMC the best practice. All the other companies alot of them are good but it's hit and miss. I view TPR Next Step and EK all about equally in that regard. They are all good practice; it's just some passages and questions are more realistic than others. On my real exam(I took the old one but the verbal and CARs are basically identical now minus natural science based passages) there were questions that tested on rather obscure things or really made you make rough inferences based on little which is why I always hesitate to say that the tougher questions that don't make a ton of sense aren't important. Well guess what, you'll probably end up with some of those on the real deal. Fortunately, you are graded based on how you did to others so those rough questions aren't necessarily so detrimental. Even only getting 60% of the hardest type of questions right on the test might make you better than 70-75% of the other test takers which would put you in 127/10 territory.

I'll also note that the AAMC passages while all realistic vary in difficulty. Some through those question packs and exams 3-11 are rather straight forward and are full of simple questions. You are more likely to get more passages on the harder side of the AAMC Practice Exam samples than the easier ones in there. I think that's what throws a bunch of people off when they do a lot worse than they did in their practice tests. Odds are even if you got a 11 on the AAMC verbals and only got an 8 on the real deal you didn't do that great on the harder passages in those exams and the real thing consists of more of those than the practice.

 

[Rousey]

For that I found AAMC the best practice. All the other companies alot of them are good but it's hit and miss. I view TPR Next Step and EK all about equally in that regard. They are all good practice; it's just some passages and questions are more realistic than others. On my real exam(I took the old one but the verbal and CARs are basically identical now minus natural science based passages) there were questions that tested on rather obscure things or really made you make rough inferences based on little which is why I always hesitate to say that the tougher questions that don't make a ton of sense aren't important. Well guess what, you'll probably end up with some of those on the real deal. Fortunately, you are graded based on how you did to others so those rough questions aren't necessarily so detrimental. Even only getting 60% of the hardest type of questions right on the test might make you better than 70-75% of the other test takers which would put you in 127/10 territory.

I'll also note that the AAMC passages while all realistic vary in difficulty. Some through those question packs and exams 3-11 are rather straight forward and are full of simple questions. You are more likely to get more passages on the harder side of the AAMC Practice Exam samples than the easier ones in there. I think that's what throws a bunch of people off when they do a lot worse than they did in their practice tests. Odds are even if you got a 11 on the AAMC verbals and only got an 8 on the real deal you didn't do that great on the harder passages in those exams and the real thing consists of more of those than the practice.

Cool. Thanks for the in-depth analysis

 

[ElectricNoogie]

I've just been noticing that most passages are reasonable with reasonable questions. Then there comes 1-2 impossible passages with crazy questions. I don't mind it though. Practicing for a harder test may be good when it comes down to the real one

You've just described pretty much every CARS section on the real thing I have ever taken. A few easier passages, a bit more medium and 1-2 really tough passages. The AAMC material is the closest but as mentioned above, varies very widely in its difficulty. I always tell my students to err on the side of difficult practice when preparing for the exam, especially in CARS where it is all about thinking.

Good luck!