retaking AAMC practice tests

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eggs13

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i took the mcat in may 2011, got a PS 10 VB 6 BS 12, so because of the killer verbal score, I am planning on taking the test again in april. Im doing PR one on one tutoring for verbal so I have access to PR practice tests and the AAMC practice tests. Since its been about 9 months or more since I've taken the AAMC tests, is it such a bad thing to take them again? I've taken one and i only vaguely remembered some of the topics of the verbal passages, everything else seemed fresh. I have heard the PR practice tests arent the best, so I figured it would be better to take the AAMC full lengths for a better predictor of where I am. is this the right rationale?

Thanks in advance!

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I would retake them again if I were you too. I also recommend reading newspaper every day, for about an hour. Make sure it's a sophisticated one though and read something that is not sports. (I know 50% is usually sports the rest is politics et al.) Good luck!
 
Should I retake FL X?

I don't suggest it for a few reasons. First, your score will be inflated. This alone negates the predictive power of the test. If you don't need it to gauge where you are, fine, retake them. For instance, you could simply be going over the problems again to, as others have mentioned, understand the thinking behind it. However, if you are using it as a practice FL, don't.

One of the most important aspects of a FL is that it's material you've never seen before. It forces you to quickly analyze an unknown passage, tap into your knowledge, and answer questions you've never seen. If you knew exactly what was going to be on the test, it would take away from the somewhat frantic experience of getting that weird passage. It also makes you more relaxed overall because you know what's coming. Unfortunately, you will not have the luxury of either on the test. You will have to deal with weird passages. You will have to get out of your comfort zone of knowing what's ahead.

Then, you get into the timing issues which you MUST get down before the test. When you have prior knowledge of the material, you miss the chance at gaining more experience with the clock. Too many people underestimate the effect of the timer. Again, you have to get used to it and retaking problems won't help.

Think of the whole thing like sports practice. Sure, you go over some standard plays again and again to get a feel for them. However, to practice for a real game, you have a scrimmage match or an exhibition game. The other team doesn't tell you what plays they're going to run. If they did, it would eliminate the usefulness of the scrimmage or exhibition game.
 
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i took the mcat in may 2011, got a PS 10 VB 6 BS 12, so because of the killer verbal score, I am planning on taking the test again in april. Im doing PR one on one tutoring for verbal so I have access to PR practice tests and the AAMC practice tests. Since its been about 9 months or more since I've taken the AAMC tests, is it such a bad thing to take them again? I've taken one and i only vaguely remembered some of the topics of the verbal passages, everything else seemed fresh. I have heard the PR practice tests arent the best, so I figured it would be better to take the AAMC full lengths for a better predictor of where I am. is this the right rationale?

Thanks in advance!

I personally wouldn't suggest it unless you've exhausted most of your other materials... The first time I took AAMC 11 I got a 39. A couple months later I retook and got a 45. Even subconsciously, I felt moved toward the correct answer because I had looked over all of the questions. You may improve your score dramatically, but you'll only be deceiving yourself. My AAMC average was ~39.5, so the 45 was definitely a fluke. Best of luck!
 
I personally wouldn't suggest it unless you've exhausted most of your other materials... The first time I took AAMC 11 I got a 39. A couple months later I retook and got a 45. Even subconsciously, I felt moved toward the correct answer because I had looked over all of the questions. You may improve your score dramatically, but you'll only be deceiving yourself. My AAMC average was ~39.5, so the 45 was definitely a fluke. Best of luck!

Lol a 40-->45 is literally like 5 questions XD probably wasn't a fluke man, you were just killing it.

Is it a general consensus not to retake AAMC tests after 1 year+?
 
Don't do this. I did this as a retaker and I averaged 37. I ended up with a 31 on the real deal. I'm now on my second retake. Look to other companies for FL material. You can definiltey use it as practice, but don't use it as, as SN2ed said, a gauge of where you are.
 
i took the mcat in may 2011, got a PS 10 VB 6 BS 12, so because of the killer verbal score, I am planning on taking the test again in april. Im doing PR one on one tutoring for verbal so I have access to PR practice tests and the AAMC practice tests. Since its been about 9 months or more since I've taken the AAMC tests, is it such a bad thing to take them again? I've taken one and i only vaguely remembered some of the topics of the verbal passages, everything else seemed fresh. I have heard the PR practice tests arent the best, so I figured it would be better to take the AAMC full lengths for a better predictor of where I am. is this the right rationale?

Thanks in advance!

Do it, I did it as a re-taker, averaged a 30 and ended up getting a 32. Sorry, just making your life a bit more difficult I guess since you can't get a straight answer.

What I did was take AAMC 3 and 4 then did 5 CBTs from another company and finished off with Self-Assesments, and CBT 9-11. I had taken all of the AAMCs 1R-11 in 2012, which means I had seen every question AAMC offers twice.

For me there was no inflation, however, it had been two years since I had seen all the material. AAMCs are the closest thing to the MCAT, why would you not want to practice with them?

Nice Strength Training Anatomy avatar, BTW. Best of luck!
 
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