Should I just go straight to AAMC CARS question packs or do more UEarth/Jack Westin first?

[tneduts lacidem-erp]

Hi guys!

I started working on CARS this week and have been doing Jack Westin and UEarth so far. I've been averaging around ~80% on Jack Westin (200 questions) and slightly better on UEarth (50 questions) but I've read that these scores aren't representative or even a reasonable predictor of scores for AAMC resources and spending too much time with third party resources has conditioned some people to become too used to their sometimes illogical logic, particularly for JW.

My anticipated test date is 1/2023 and I was originally planning to get through all the UEarth CARS and a good amount of JW before getting to the AAMC materials to save them, but should I integrate them with my JW and UEarth practice, do only AAMC, continue with my original plan, or is there something else you guys would recommend?

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[Neuroscifan]

I personally never recommend students use the Jack Westin questions and answers. They just aren’t realistic at all. The passages and main ideas can be very valuable to help you increase your ability to synthesize main ideas within a reasonable timeframe though.

 

[penguinalhernia]

Absolutely save the AAMC materials until the very end. I tested in January 2022 and waited until the middle or end of November to start the AAMC materials. Even CARS. You're super ahead of the game in terms of studying; I didn't even start content review til September and got a 519. Honestly, something helpful for CARS studying can just be reading. Find some interesting books (I've been reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari), and really try to understand what you're reading. The best practice, especially for CARS, will always be AAMC. The logic will be most similar to test day. Save AAMC material for the end, and you'll avoid any issues with getting "too used" to weird third-party logic.

UEarth has 2000+ questions. I would abandon JackWestin and focus more on the UEarth question bank, especially once done with your content review. You're starting to study so early that you have time to go slower and not get so burnt out. The goal with third-party practice material isn't to predict your score. It's to get more practice and see where the gaps in your knowledge are.

 

[PhoenixRising77]

Thanks for asking this! I'm taking the MCAT in January too and am also getting 80% on JW.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

We all have different opinions, so please indulge me. I think doing AAMC materials early and often is your best bet. No one simulates the CARS section well, so you are better off doing everything the AAMC releases two or three times than counting on us in the removed, third-party world. We generate materials that are at their core based on AAMC materials. So you can try other stuff and then move to AAMC or you can do the AAMC materials multiple times, and learn their style and nuances.

I have heard great things from our past students about EK, JW, and TPR for CARS. I am sure they all offer something worthwhile and are great for increasing the quantity of what you do. But I think it's a mistake to just do AAMC CARS one time, near the very end, when you don't have time to analyze it and really learn from it.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

I like JW for CARS more than other resources, but EK was helpful once you get a working knowledge of how CARS passages are written. Definitely stick to JW as your primary resource. Khan is surprisingly good too.