Actual VR section too long?

Started by Samuel3
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Samuel3

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I see this posted often by individuals sharing their experience with the MCAT. I found the practice AAMC's to be quite long enough for the 60 minutes.

I know the actual AAMC font is bigger on the exam so you have to scroll more. Does this give people a false illusion of the section being bigger when its actually about the same amount of writing?

Please share your thought about this.
 
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8/12 2PM had very long passages. The shortest of ours was equivalent in length to the longest ones on AAMC easily, so all of the passages were lengthy. The general consensus from us is that we just got a really harsh VR, so take what I said with a grain of salt.
 
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One factor that many people seem to overlook is screen resolution. The monitors used by Prometric are often smaller than the ones you might use during your practice, so it might appear that the passages are longer, when really the font is just bigger. AAMC says that their passages are all 500-600 words. There's no reason to believe that their real exams are longer than AAMC practice exams.

Try setting your screen resolution to about 1280 x 800. It'll look more similar to the actual exam that way.
 
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8/19 taker here...I think the general trend for the entire test is towards far longer passages. That being said, though the VR passages were long, they were by no means dense. So, though you may be reading a passage double the size of what you're used to, you won't need to think that hard about what you read.
 
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user3 said:
I took it 8/5. the passages were a little longer but manageable (provided I did decently, I don't know my score yet).
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Yep. A little longer but by no means was I about to start cursing at the computer screen about length.

Everyone says it's longer; it is.

Agree with Abscissa as well. The added length gives you more time to absorb the tone of the passage, and isn't a bad thing. The practice AAMC passages were too short/detail dense IMO.
 
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8/18 had not only long passages, but a lot of long questions as well. I struggled to finish VR on time while rushing throughout the entire thing, and I've never, on any of the AAMC practice tests, come even close to running out of time.
 
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hahaha 6-7 paragraphs longer! really! really! why the hell are you counting paragraphs. Next time please tell me how many extra words there are. OP I took the test, VR isn't longer than practice exams but the screen resolution is less which makes everything looks bigger/longer.
 
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MCATBUSTER said:
hahaha 6-7 paragraphs longer! really! really! why the hell are you counting paragraphs. Next time please tell me how many extra words there are. OP I took the test, VR isn't longer than practice exams but the screen resolution is less which makes everything looks bigger/longer.
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You must suck at VR. No one ever said they were 6-7 paragraphs longer.
 
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mejorization said:
One factor that many people seem to overlook is screen resolution. The monitors used by Prometric are often smaller than the ones you might use during your practice, so it might appear that the passages are longer, when really the font is just bigger. AAMC says that their passages are all 500-600 words. There's no reason to believe that their real exams are longer than AAMC practice exams.

Try setting your screen resolution to about 1280 x 800. It'll look more similar to the actual exam that way.
Click to expand...

That is what I thought. Are we allowed to change the resolution? I am afraid to mess something up 🙂
 
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