Does anyone else feel like the AAMC section banks/volumes are harder than AAMC's FL exams? The only resources I thought resembled the FL was the sample FL of course and the official guide.
AAMC resources
- Thread starter bbdylan87
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The section banks are definitely harder and like... not traditional AAMC style. I haven't verified these claims but I was told it's because the section banks weren't really written by the writers but they commissioned it from another group? Or something... hence the difference in style.
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I was told that AAMC B/B section bank was good practice
It's definitely good practice, but I was wondering how similar it is to the AAMC FL and real MCAT, like are they produced by the AAMC themselves or from a third party, because they defiantly do not appear to be the same format and level of difficulty.
For reference, I tested on April 20th. On my MCAT C/P consisted of about 7-8/10 passages that resembled the section bank in terms of difficulty. About 2-3 were full length difficulty. From what I remember the discretes were pretty straight forward. Much like the full lengths. I think question 59 was pretty crazy, though. May have been a different section, though. I remember clicking to question 59 on one of the sections and just laughing because it was almost a passage in and of itself with a graph and all. Definitely not a 1 minute question. Lol
CARS was CARS. Started easy and got extremely hard towards the end. Really messed with timing. Be careful.
B/B about 5-6 section bank level difficulty/style. 4-5 full length style. Some discretes were data interpretation, but most were you either knew it or you didn't.
P/S had maybe 2 section bank like passages. The rest were just long. Almost a CARS 2.0. They tried to relate a lot of concepts in weird ways that I didn't feel fit the passage. Had an incredible amount of sociology terms. A lot of passage interpretation. Some data interpretation too. Not a lot of psych.
The section banks are made to be the hardest stuff you'll see on test day. I've never heard that it's not made by AAMC test writers. Assume everything on the AAMC website is their material and a representation of what you could see on test day. Also, sample test is incredibly easy comparatively speaking. I think FL 3 was the most representative of the exam I had. Real thing was a bit harder than any aamc FL. Next step was pretty on par in terms of difficulty in my opinion.
CARS was CARS. Started easy and got extremely hard towards the end. Really messed with timing. Be careful.
B/B about 5-6 section bank level difficulty/style. 4-5 full length style. Some discretes were data interpretation, but most were you either knew it or you didn't.
P/S had maybe 2 section bank like passages. The rest were just long. Almost a CARS 2.0. They tried to relate a lot of concepts in weird ways that I didn't feel fit the passage. Had an incredible amount of sociology terms. A lot of passage interpretation. Some data interpretation too. Not a lot of psych.
The section banks are made to be the hardest stuff you'll see on test day. I've never heard that it's not made by AAMC test writers. Assume everything on the AAMC website is their material and a representation of what you could see on test day. Also, sample test is incredibly easy comparatively speaking. I think FL 3 was the most representative of the exam I had. Real thing was a bit harder than any aamc FL. Next step was pretty on par in terms of difficulty in my opinion.
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Can't answer the last question, but one of my friend who took it said he felt it was similar to the real test. He only mentioned the B/B section though.
Most people I've spoken to, as well as reading online, it seems that usually people score higher on the real MCAT than the practice, was that not the case with you? Also, personally, I think NS is pretty deflated, I averaged 508 on their tests and scored as my lowest 512 on the practice. From what I've heard, NS only seems to be predictive is if you're scoring in the 500 region. Also, would you mind sharing your practice FL scores as well as actual MCAT so I can get a better perspective. Thanks
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I get my score back on May 22nd, so I can't confirm that. However, there is a document floating around that has hundreds to thousands of scores and most people to score better on the real MCAT than they do on their last practice exam. I guess there is some validity to Yerkes Dodson theory. I took 7 NS exams. 6&7 were not representative at all in my opinion. I took them in December and got a 505 and 503. Then NS 1-5 were 509, 508, 508, 507, 509. AAMC sample I scored 70/77/85/82. AAMC FL 1 505 (February), AAMC FL 2 505 (one week later). Section bank C/P 70%, B/B 80%, P/S 72%. AAMC FL 3 I took 4/13/18 (one week out) and scored a 511.
There are always outliers that do much worse or much better. Maybe they get a bad test that tested their weaknesses. I got a test that I felt tested nearly all of my strengths, so I'm hoping that shows up when I get my score. My biggest piece of advice is to just not let the test get to you. When I hit start, I was not ready. I could hear my heartbeat with those noise cancelling headphones on. It drove me crazy. I started to freak out, so I took my headphones off and just sat there for 2 minutes. Ended up finishing C/P with about 7 minutes left over after all. I had been in that position before, so I knew what I needed to do. Practicing the worst will save you on test day. You have to learn how to get it together when you get to a hard passage. NS and the section banks are honestly what saved me. After I got it together in the first couple minutes I was in a great mindset the rest of the exam. As the old saying goes, the question that keeps you out of medical school won't be the one you get wrong, its the one you spend too long on. good luck and celebrate when you finish!!
