31 on Berkley Practice 1? Comparison of difficulty against real MCAT/AAMC prac?

[salim271]

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Hi, I've been studying for MCAT for a few months now, and i still have a few months until I actually take the test. My verbal has always been good and ive taken like 4 standalone verbal tests through EK 101, and i averaged 11 on them and I think I'm getting better.

Just to see where I stood I took Berkley's practice exam 1, its in the old format however so i followed those guidelines with 77 questions for PS, 60 for verbal and 77 for biological sci. My scores:

PS: 10
VR: 11
BS: 10

I was close to a 12 on verbal, and one away from an 11 on PS where most of my mistakes were mathmatical/feeling crunched on time. I was disappointed with my BS score, I think most of my problems were due to the fact that although my molecular bio is good, my systems and general physiology needs brushing up (I could tell that when I was strong I barely needed to refer to the passage, and when I wasnt, I was just confused out of my mind).

I think I can improve in the month and three weeks I have remaining before I take the actual test, I just want to make sure I maximize my studying.... I figure brushing up on physics concepts will help, and practicing the math for it as well. I'm retaking analytical chem atm because it didnt transfer with me to my new university, so that should be a good review, but I got most of that stuff right on the practice. For bio should I just keep reviewing the book I have (exam krackers bio)? Ive on/off studied the first 5 chapters basically, and looking at what I havent studied is basically all the different organ systems, which seemed to come up in the passages a lot.

Verbal I dont think I'll have a problem with if i keep doing practice passages.

Summary (I'm not good at being concise :/): What should I do to study, how does the berkley practice exam compare to a real MCAT and/or an AAMC practice?

 

[zoner]

Hi, I've been studying for MCAT for a few months now, and i still have a few months until I actually take the test. My verbal has always been good and ive taken like 4 standalone verbal tests through EK 101, and i averaged 11 on them and I think I'm getting better.

Just to see where I stood I took Berkley's practice exam 1, its in the old format however so i followed those guidelines with 77 questions for PS, 60 for verbal and 77 for biological sci. My scores:

PS: 10
VR: 11
BS: 10

I was close to a 12 on verbal, and one away from an 11 on PS where most of my mistakes were mathmatical/feeling crunched on time. I was disappointed with my BS score, I think most of my problems were due to the fact that although my molecular bio is good, my systems and general physiology needs brushing up (I could tell that when I was strong I barely needed to refer to the passage, and when I wasnt, I was just confused out of my mind).

I think I can improve in the month and three weeks I have remaining before I take the actual test, I just want to make sure I maximize my studying.... I figure brushing up on physics concepts will help, and practicing the math for it as well. I'm retaking analytical chem atm because it didnt transfer with me to my new university, so that should be a good review, but I got most of that stuff right on the practice. For bio should I just keep reviewing the book I have (exam krackers bio)? Ive on/off studied the first 5 chapters basically, and looking at what I havent studied is basically all the different organ systems, which seemed to come up in the passages a lot.

Verbal I dont think I'll have a problem with if i keep doing practice passages.

Summary (I'm not good at being concise :/): What should I do to study, how does the berkley practice exam compare to a real MCAT and/or an AAMC practice?

AAMC is MUCH MUCH harder and tests you on how you read the passage.

 

[salim271]

AAMC is MUCH MUCH harder and tests you on how you read the passage.

Yeah from all indications I've seen that seems to be the case. I'll have to buy those, but the berkley test was good enough to show me my major weaknesses so I'm going to shore those up the next few weeks then get back to taking practice tests religiously from AAMC and move on from there. I have time but not as much as I want :/

 

[enTropeeeeeeeee]

AAMC is MUCH MUCH harder and tests you on how you read the passage.

Double Much? Seems a bit inflated. From my experience, it seems that AAMC emphasizes different things than BR. When taking BR, I often find that I can answer most Q's in PS without picking up the pencil. However, AAMC seems to want more calculations. There's also another something about AAMCs that I can't quite get my fingers on. I still have a few left so hopefully I figure it out soon.

 

[gunj122]

AAMC and the real MCAT involve a lot more integration of different science topics. like it'll combine kinematics with electromagnetism, or some other random combination. this is why the hat trick is useful for thinking like the testmakers.

 

[zoner]

AAMC and the real MCAT involve a lot more integration of different science topics. like it'll combine kinematics with electromagnetism, or some other random combination. this is why the hat trick is useful for thinking like the testmakers.

not only that, you have dig **** load of information out form the passage and for someone so used to just skimming through the science passages, this is most difficult part of AAMC test.

 

[ru4real1666]

It feels "harder" because it is the real deal. Still, most people are right stating it is way more reasoning oriented and often you have to read the whole passage and cannot skim the passages like you can in most review books that deal with science concepts (especially PS). With both of these things in mind, I still find BR to be somewhat harder than the real AAMC because of the difficulty of the questions and it should be more than adequate preparation for the PS and BS sections if you devote enough time and use your reasoning. My real AAMC score was +1 in PS compared to BR and +2 in BS compared to BR.