AAMC practice exam curve, difficulty vs real MCAT

[ScarletKnights]

I keep hearing that the AAMC exams are the best predictors of your score. But i also keep hearing that that they are easier than the real thing but the curve is similar. So heres my question, if the real MCAT is harder but the curve is the same how would these practice exams be a good indicator of your score. Seems like your score would be less since the difficulty is harder on a similar curve.

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[kehlsh]

u and i must have heard the different thing.

I thought real thing is harder than AAMC but has more generous curve? 😱😕

 

[ScarletKnights]

u and i must have heard the different thing.

I thought real thing is harder than AAMC but has more generous curve? 😱😕

haha that would make alot more sense but i keep reading different things. If the curve is more generous then i guess the AAMC practice exams would be a good indicator of your score.

 

[coyfish]

The curves are much more variable on the real MCAT. They can be similar to the AAMC or significantly more lenient.

The AAMC is the closest thing to the real MCAT but I think its unanimous that the real MCAT is harder.

 

[Brasco888]

Real thing is harder, but statistically you are likely to score close to your AAMC average. I assume that means you can miss more and get a similar score, although that is a generalization.

 

[startoverat40]

the curve on the MCAT does not depend on how well people do. it is only based on the mix of questions. i think each question or passage has a difficulty level assigned to it, and they reach into the hat and pull out a mix of passages and discretes which will add up in difficulty to give a particular bell curve in the results. that's probably why they stick "experimental" questions into the test, so they can figure out the difficulty score to assign to the question. so it's like they're field-testing the question.

don't make a decision to test at a particular time of year because you think you will get a higher score because other examinees may not score as well—the test is not scored on a curve.

https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/85436/preparing_understandingscores.html

i think the practice aamc tests are very close to the real thing. the real test might be slightly harder. but i don't think by much, maybe 10%. it's not as hard as the kaplan FL tests. so the (predetermined) curve might be a bit more lenient than the practice tests, but not as much as the kaplan ones.

on the practice aamc tests i always had about 12 minutes time remaining at the end, but on the real PS section i scrambled to finish and didn't get to really work on the last two questions. it was partly due to it being early in the morning, and partly due to my overconfidence and letting the clock run down too much. i should've paced myself faster. i don't think it was because the real test was significantly harder than the practice. others may feel differently though...

anyway, i hope the curve is a bit more lenient so i can hit my practice average.

 

[4thQTHailMary]

the curve on the MCAT does not depend on how well people do. it is only based on the mix of questions. i think each question or passage has a difficulty level assigned to it, and they reach into the hat and pull out a mix of passages and discretes which will add up in difficulty to give a particular bell curve in the results. that's probably why they stick "experimental" questions into the test, so they can figure out the difficulty score to assign to the question. so it's like they're field-testing the question.

https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/85436/preparing_understandingscores.html

i think the practice aamc tests are very close to the real thing. the real test might be slightly harder. but i don't think by much, maybe 10%. it's not as hard as the kaplan FL tests. so the (predetermined) curve might be a bit more lenient than the practice tests, but not as much as the kaplan ones.

on the practice aamc tests i always had about 12 minutes time remaining at the end, but on the real PS section i scrambled to finish and didn't get to really work on the last two questions. it was partly due to it being early in the morning, and partly due to my overconfidence and letting the clock run down too much. i should've paced myself faster. i don't think it was because the real test was significantly harder than the practice. others may feel differently though...

anyway, i hope the curve is a bit more lenient so i can hit my practice average.

This.