2015 Kaplan Full Length 1

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Heisenberg 41

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Just finished my first Kaplan full length 2015 MCAT... 7.5 hrs is a looooong time to sit through a practice test. I hope kaplan's first full length is harder than the real thing... I haven't really started any science content review yet, though.

Not too sure what to make of my score:
496 (Chem/Phys: 122 CARS: 126 Bio/Biochem: 124 Psych/Soc: 124)

Anyone else taken a full length yet?

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So I would like to think of it like this. The real MCAT tests ability to apply knowledge and reason through using scientific understanding to come to an answer. Kaplan tests if you have the basic scientific knowledge rather than understanding and application which can only be possible after basic understanding. Atleast thats how I interpret it. If you do well on the Kaplan tests you are more than likely to do well on the real thing provided you understand the material. If you do poorly on the Kaplan you should still focus your study on the weak areas. Is it possible that on exam day you got lucky and got passages from your strong suite? sure. But you are also likely to get run over by passages that you have difficulty understanding the underlying basic science. This is apparent if you look at the AAMC practice tests that force you to analyze and apply vs the Kaplan tests that ask more basic content questions. My two cents.
 
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So I would like to think of it like this. The real MCAT tests ability to apply knowledge and reason through using scientific understanding to come to an answer. Kaplan tests if you have the basic scientific knowledge rather than understanding and application which can only be possible after basic understanding. Atleast thats how I interpret it. If you do well on the Kaplan tests you are more than likely to do well on the real thing provided you understand the material. If you do poorly on the Kaplan you should still focus your study on the weak areas. Is it possible that on exam day you got lucky and got passages from your strong suite? sure. But you are also likely to get run over by passages that you have difficulty understanding the underlying basic science. This is apparent if you look at the AAMC practice tests that force you to analyze and apply vs the Kaplan tests that ask more basic content questions. My two cents.

Agreed so far I have taken 2 Kaplan full lengths and got 499,501 with very little content review. I'm on the lunch break of my third right now and it seems Kaplan is really testing what you know rather than applying it. Still, it's definently necessary to test what you know because you can't apply what you don't know
 
Diagnostic: 487 (no content review)
FL 1: 489 (half the content review) I was hoping for a better improvement but I was taken back by CARS and ended up running out of time; this lead to not being able to read 2 passages and guessing on the answers. What are you guys doing to improve your verbal + chem/physics scores? This is a discouraging outcome but it makes me want to improve even more.
 
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Diagnostic: 487 (no content review)
FL 1: 489 (half the content review) I was hoping for a better improvement but I was taken back by CARS and ended up running out of time; this lead to not being able to read 2 passages and guessing on the answers. What are you guys doing to improve your verbal + chem/physics scores? This is a discouraging outcome but it makes me want to improve even more.

Verbal is simple repetition - just keep at it and your scores tend to get better. For chem/phys, you just need to know your stuff, equations and conceptual.
 
Does anyone writing here have results from their actual MCAT compared to Kaplan practice? :)
 
Does anyone writing here have results from their actual MCAT compared to Kaplan practice? :)

I've posted it elsewhere, but here ya go:

Kaplan 1: 499
Kaplan 2: 498
Kaplan 3: 503 (taken close to actual exam)
May MCAT: 519
 
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I personally did very little content review and am waiting to see my official scores from the July exam. I was scoring around 500 for all three Kaplan FL's. The MCAT is not a content test. It's a "read and apply what you learned in school" test.
 
Agreed so far I have taken 2 Kaplan full lengths and got 499,501 with very little content review. I'm on the lunch break of my third right now and it seems Kaplan is really testing what you know rather than applying it. Still, it's definently necessary to test what you know because you can't apply what you don't know

I would argue TPR was a little bit like that too from TPR FL Course Tests 1-5 and Complete Test 1.
 
I've posted it elsewhere, but here ya go:

Kaplan 1: 499
Kaplan 2: 498
Kaplan 3: 503 (taken close to actual exam)
May MCAT: 519

Nice! In what way would you say the real thing was different in comparison to the Kaplan FLs?
 
Nice! In what way would you say the real thing was different in comparison to the Kaplan FLs?

It wasn't that I performed way better on the real thing, but more that Kaplan's scoring scales are pretty far off. They also tested more minutiae and obscure concepts. While the MCAT definitely tests some details, I thought Kaplan had more nit-picky questions.

Kaplan was good for testing content and getting timing down, but EK's exams were much more representative of the real deal.
 
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