AAMC question style

[mohad]

Does anyone else feel like some of the questions are worded strangely? Maybe I just suck at understanding what they're asking, but I feel like some questions can be convoluted. I felt this way on like 5 questions throughout AAMC 3. Are the other AAMCs like this, or am I just being an idiot?

For example, I didn't particularly like the way these 2 questions were worded:

I edited the questions out since I realized I wasn't supposed to post the questions.

I just feel that the questions are really vague. Maybe I'm just not used to the style since I've been doing TPR tests.

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[salim271]

They do feel vague, as are their solutions. Its hard to deal with after using TBR where every solution was given with immense reasoning and review of concepts on what was the correct answer and why. I mostly feeling it in the VR section, going with my gut seems to work for most of the questions but there are always 2-3 questions that come down to two and its up in the air which one im picking as the right answer, and when i pick the wrong one it feels like the justification for why its wrong is so weak. It leaves me with a sense of foreboding for the real test tbh :/.

 

[liveoak]

Does anyone else feel like some of the questions are worded strangely? Maybe I just suck at understanding what they're asking, but I feel like some questions can be convoluted. I felt this way on like 5 questions throughout AAMC 3. Are the other AAMCs like this, or am I just being an idiot?

For example, I didn't particularly like the way these 2 questions were worded:

I edited the questions out since I realized I wasn't supposed to post the questions.

I just feel that the questions are really vague. Maybe I'm just not used to the style since I've been doing TPR tests.

yes, it's f*cking ridiculous. but the AAMC is all about separating the population into groups, so whatever.

 

[paul411]

But I think once you do enough practice, you begin to see the nuances of the MCAT and it doesn't feel as frustrating as your first practice tests.

 

[mohad]

Ok, thanks Paul. I was just getting a little bit worried cause the questions kind of trip me up here and there occasionally. Plus, some of the ones that I got wrong were gimmies once I read the explanation and finally understood what they were asking for. I'm gonna take my second AAMC now (4), so hopefully I'll fare better with that.

 

[tak08810]

They do feel vague, as are their solutions. Its hard to deal with after using TBR where every solution was given with immense reasoning and review of concepts on what was the correct answer and why. I mostly feeling it in the VR section, going with my gut seems to work for most of the questions but there are always 2-3 questions that come down to two and its up in the air which one im picking as the right answer, and when i pick the wrong one it feels like the justification for why its wrong is so weak. It leaves me with a sense of foreboding for the real test tbh :/.

I think OP is referring to the wording of the questions, not the wording of the solutions, which is indeed pretty damn poor a lot of times especially compared to the much better solutions keys written by BR. I think BR does a fairly decent job or imitating the way AAMC asks simple questions in very convoluted ways. They do this on purpose. They'll take an easy question that anyone can answer and reword it in crazy ways so only a few diligent test takers realize what's really being asked. You'll have to get used to it to do well.

A good analogy I saw on this boards by a high scoring person compared the questions to a ten feet tall wall covered with poison ivy with barbed wires on top blocking your path. However if you take a few steps back you realize the wall is only three feet long and you only have to walk across it instead of climbing it.