Altius tests

[laballsummer]

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Anyone have any experience with the Altius practice full lengths? I'm considering making the purchase, but wondering how close they mimic AAMC content.

Thanks!

 

[CHoge25]

Anyone have any experience with the Altius practice full lengths? I'm considering making the purchase, but wondering how close they mimic AAMC content.

Thanks!

I took the free one and really liked the test and wanted to buy them, but couldnt get myself to pay 300 dollars 3 weeks before the test =/

 

[hugh2012]

If anyone bought the 10 Full Length, please respond. I am also curious as to how good and representative they are.

 

[Summerlax2016]

Bought the 10, done with 6, I like them more then Nextstep, Kaplan, and TBR. I found them most similar to the AAMC practice tests

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

Anyone have any experience with the Altius practice full lengths? I'm considering making the purchase, but wondering how close they mimic AAMC content.

Thanks!

Have you taken the free 1/2-length exam available on the website yet? That was written/created by the exact same people and matched to the same specifications, so it will show you exactly what to expect on the full-length exams.

 

[Summerlax2016]

Mixed feelings overall on the altius, difficulty wise I would say they were on par with EK. Only thing that kind of bugged me was that there were repeat passages within the test (like a passage from say test 1 C/P found in test 5 c/p which is nit picky I know) also there were a handful of errors in each of the test, typos and such, but not all the problems had correction boxes to mark this comment.

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

Hey Summerlax,

Thanks for the feedback. I just spoke with the main office about there being a duplication of passages between exams and they said they triple-checked the software and said all passages on all of the 10 exams are unique. There are a few passages duplicated from the free 1/2-length diagnostic to one of the full-length exams, could that be what you recognized? The office said there is a slight chance the software could serve the wrong passage to the examinee, as that happened occasionally during beta testing. If you know for sure of duplicates and can tell us which ones we'll be able to look at your records on the server and identify/fix what caused you to be served the wrong passage.

I know there are typos here and there, but they are being removed as found and should be very minimal as time goes on. I'm told every passage has been edited by a PhD content editor in that field 4-5 times by now and has been proofread several times. Typos are notoriously hard to eliminate completely, but I like the fact that as a tutor when I point out a typo I usually find it has been fixed the next time I log-on, so I know they are taking it seriously.

Most importantly, what did you think of the kind of critical thinking and reasoning required, the question blueprint match, the software functionality match, the passage content/difficulty match, etc. This is where I believe all of the status quo materials still have a long way to go. Many of the passages out there right now frequently have 2-3 times the word count you will see on AAMC which will destroy your timing/pacing, passages not based on journal excerpts as almost all AAMC passages now are, questions and question types that would never be on MCAT-2015 (i.e., pharmacology, centripetal force, patient diagnosis, fill-in-the-blank, multi-part questions, etc.). That's where I feel like my students have a huge advantage. Most SDNers are still coming back and saying that the real test is quite different from the practice tests they took. I believe that after doing all of the Altius exams there will be no surprises for my students as to what the MCAT is actually testing, how they are testing it, and how my students will have to reason/think in order to score well. If that's in place, I can live with a few typos. By the way, feel free to PM me anytime if you have questions or want to point out a possible typo/errata. I'll get you taken care of 🙂

 

[zhonghang]

This is where I believe all of the status quo materials still have a long way to go. Many of the passages out there right now frequently have 2-3 times the word count you will see on AAMC which will destroy your timing/pacing, passages not based on journal excerpts as almost all AAMC passages now are, questions and question types that would never be on MCAT-2015

In terms of the real MCAT, is every single passage in the science sections of the mcat directly adapted from research journals?

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

In terms of the real MCAT, is every single passage in the science sections of the mcat directly adapted from research journals?

Essentially, yes. They will occasionally throw one in that is taken from a textbook or similar resource but those are quite rare. If you look at everything the AAMC has either pre-released for MCAT 2015, or what is in the two practice tests they released you will find only a couple of non-journal passages. This matches the feedback we are receiving from examinees.

This shift means a potential examinee had better get comfortable reading about real live research, actual experiments, and the more challenging level of scientific language found in journals. It also influences the difficulty of the figures. Nearly all of the figures they are using now are being taken directly from those academic journals-which means they too are more complicated, often have multiple axes, usually contain statistical data/error bars/etc. far too many of the practice passages out there right now have super simple graphs with nothing more then an X-Y axis and a straight line. Those aren't exactly good preparation for an academic figure that could have multiple things going on at one time in the same diagram.

 

[tavokeri9]

Have you taken the free 1/2-length exam available on the website yet? That was written/created by the exact same people and matched to the same specifications, so it will show you exactly what to expect on the full-length exams.

Will this half-length give us a score? And if so, does this score predict how we will do on the full-lengths? Also, how long does the free half-length take to complete? Are there detailed solutions afterwards?

 

[FutureFloridaDr]

I bought the ten practice tests.

I have taken 3 of them so far... My scores are pretty low on these consistently (average 22/23 C/P, 125 CARS, 124/125 ish Bio, 125 Psych/Soc), so I'm planning to take 3 weeks off and just do a lot of content review and exam review on the stuff I'm getting wrong. The passages are also very experimental heavy.

The only other FL I have used is TPR, which is harder IMO. But, TPR is known to be notoriously hard, so I'm not sure good of a comparison that is.

Once I take EK or Next step, I'll let y'all know how it compares to those and of course, the real MCAT as well.

 

[zhonghang]

I bought the ten practice tests.

I have taken 3 of them so far... My scores are pretty low on these consistently (average 22/23 C/P, 125 CARS, 124/125 ish Bio, 125 Psych/Soc), so I'm planning to take 3 weeks off and just do a lot of content review and exam review on the stuff I'm getting wrong. The passages are also very experimental heavy.

The only other FL I have used is TPR, which is harder IMO. But, TPR is known to be notoriously hard, so I'm not sure good of a comparison that is.

Once I take EK or Next step, I'll let y'all know how it compares to those and of course, the real MCAT as well.

I'd like to hear what you think of EK vs. NS vs. Altius after you take a test from each company. When's your actual date?

 

[FutureFloridaDr]

I'd like to hear what you think of EK vs. NS vs. Altius after you take a test from each company. When's your actual date?

May 14th. Getting closer and closer everyday and the nerves are starting to kick in now..

 

[CHoge25]

I'd like to hear what you think of EK vs. NS vs. Altius after you take a test from each company. When's your actual date?

I took tests from each of the companies, they would probably go EK>>NS=Altius with NS slighty better but close

 

[zhonghang]

I took tests from each of the companies, they would probably go EK>>NS=Altius with NS slighty better but close

Hey thanks for the response. Just curious, what makes EK so much better than the rest? Also, are you ranking all of EK's tests 1-4 significantly better than the rest or just their more recent ones 3-4? Oh and were the NS tests you took the ones from before their update in January (they updated and added 5 new tests since then)?

 

[CHoge25]

Hey thanks for the response. Just curious, what makes EK so much better than the rest? Also, are you ranking all of EK's tests 1-4 significantly better than the rest or just their more recent ones 3-4? Oh and were the NS tests you took the ones from before their update in January (they updated and added 5 new tests since then)?

I just thought EK was most realistic, I only took #3 and #4 which I heard were the best. I took NS 1-5 before the update and I took NS 6, which was a free one they gave us (which actually was by far the worst one)


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[CHoge25]

Hey thanks for the response. Just curious, what makes EK so much better than the rest? Also, are you ranking all of EK's tests 1-4 significantly better than the rest or just their more recent ones 3-4? Oh and were the NS tests you took the ones from before their update in January (they updated and added 5 new tests since then)?

If you only have a certain amount of money obviously it is better to by NS (150 for 5) vs 50 per EK... Quantity is more important than quality


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[zhonghang]

I just thought EK was most realistic, I only took #3 and #4 which I heard were the best. I took NS 1-5 before the update and I took NS 6, which was a free one they gave us (which actually was by far the worst one)


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Hey sorry to keep bothering you with questions but I'm just wondering why you thought the new free NS test was the worst. I just took it over the weekend and it's the first practice FL I have taken so far (thus I have nothing to compare it to)... So yeah I just want to know what I should be looking for when it comes to judging the quality of a practice test.

BTW, thanks for the responses. Everything you have said has been so helpful.

 

[CHoge25]

Hey sorry to keep bothering you with questions but I'm just wondering why you thought the new free NS test was the worst. I just took it over the weekend and it's the first practice FL I have taken so far (thus I have nothing to compare it to)... So yeah I just want to know what I should be looking for when it comes to judging the quality of a practice test.

BTW, thanks for the responses. Everything you have said has been so helpful.

Questions were much more vague and unrealistic to what I saw on test day. I was originally planned to take the Jan 23rd date, but got pushed to Feb 3rd because of blizzard. NS gave us that extra test so it was the last one I took a couple days before. I score like a 504 on it (508-509 on the other one's), and was freaked out because I felt like I was forgetting everything. I did feel like that test was by far the worst (I don't mean tough, I mean just poor questions), I think I had just taken so many tests that I could judge which one was good/bad. Anyway that 504 freaked me out for test day, but my test ended up going pretty smoothly. No problem with asking questions, I gained a lot of clarity using this site for my prep so I have to give back!

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Mixed feelings overall on the altius, difficulty wise I would say they were on par with EK. Only thing that kind of bugged me was that there were repeat passages within the test (like a passage from say test 1 C/P found in test 5 c/p which is nit picky I know) also there were a handful of errors in each of the test, typos and such, but not all the problems had correction boxes to mark this comment.

Also noticed this.

May 14th. Getting closer and closer everyday and the nerves are starting to kick in now..

Did you get better on the Altius exams as time went on? How did they compare to your mcat score?

 

[zhonghang]

Questions were much more vague and unrealistic to what I saw on test day. I was originally planned to take the Jan 23rd date, but got pushed to Feb 3rd because of blizzard. NS gave us that extra test so it was the last one I took a couple days before. I score like a 504 on it (508-509 on the other one's), and was freaked out because I felt like I was forgetting everything. I did feel like that test was by far the worst (I don't mean tough, I mean just poor questions), I think I had just taken so many tests that I could judge which one was good/bad. Anyway that 504 freaked me out for test day, but my test ended up going pretty smoothly. No problem with asking questions, I gained a lot of clarity using this site for my prep so I have to give back!

What did you end up getting on the actual MCAT if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Summerlax2016]

Also noticed this.


Did you get better on the Altius exams as time went on? How did they compare to your mcat score?

513 on the actual my altius were around 505

 

[zhonghang]

Hey Summerlax,

Thanks for the feedback. I just spoke with the main office about there being a duplication of passages between exams and they said they triple-checked the software and said all passages on all of the 10 exams are unique. There are a few passages duplicated from the free 1/2-length diagnostic to one of the full-length exams, could that be what you recognized? The office said there is a slight chance the software could serve the wrong passage to the examinee, as that happened occasionally during beta testing. If you know for sure of duplicates and can tell us which ones we'll be able to look at your records on the server and identify/fix what caused you to be served the wrong passage.

I know there are typos here and there, but they are being removed as found and should be very minimal as time goes on. I'm told every passage has been edited by a PhD content editor in that field 4-5 times by now and has been proofread several times. Typos are notoriously hard to eliminate completely, but I like the fact that as a tutor when I point out a typo I usually find it has been fixed the next time I log-on, so I know they are taking it seriously.

Most importantly, what did you think of the kind of critical thinking and reasoning required, the question blueprint match, the software functionality match, the passage content/difficulty match, etc. This is where I believe all of the status quo materials still have a long way to go. Many of the passages out there right now frequently have 2-3 times the word count you will see on AAMC which will destroy your timing/pacing, passages not based on journal excerpts as almost all AAMC passages now are, questions and question types that would never be on MCAT-2015 (i.e., pharmacology, centripetal force, patient diagnosis, fill-in-the-blank, multi-part questions, etc.). That's where I feel like my students have a huge advantage. Most SDNers are still coming back and saying that the real test is quite different from the practice tests they took. I believe that after doing all of the Altius exams there will be no surprises for my students as to what the MCAT is actually testing, how they are testing it, and how my students will have to reason/think in order to score well. If that's in place, I can live with a few typos. By the way, feel free to PM me anytime if you have questions or want to point out a possible typo/errata. I'll get you taken care of 🙂

You should "triple-check" again because there are definitely repeated passages and questions in Altius FL 1 & 6.... Kinda disappointed about that. Hopefully a quadruple-check can actually corect this problem. @Altius Premier Tutor

Just wanted to mention that I think the Altius exams are great. Very experimentally based passages that seem more in line with the section banks than anything else. I'm just disappointed I got a repeated passage in FL 6. Really hoping there are no more repeats in 7-10.

 

[Ryomagoku]

You should "triple-check" again because there are definitely repeated passages and questions in Altius FL 1 & 6.... Kinda disappointed about that. Hopefully a quadruple-check can actually corect this problem.

Just wanted to mention that I think the Altius exams are great. Very experimentally based passages that seem more in line with the section banks than anything else. I'm just disappointed I got a repeated passage in FL 6. Really hoping there are no more repeats in 7-10.

you have to buy the 10 tests right? not individual ones? man... too much for two weeks.

 

[zhonghang]

you have to buy the 10 tests right? not individual ones? man... too much for two weeks.

Yeah that's right. Unfortunately they only sell the tests as a package of 10 :/

 

[kitkat13]

Yeah that's right. Unfortunately they only sell the tests as a package of 10 :/

So annoying, I just want to do a few from EK, NS, and Altius. Idk why the other companies can offer this, but not Altius.

 

[TheColorofNight]

Yeah, I didn’t like the altius tests too much after I took a free one a couple months back. Repeating material is a big red flag. EK may be expensive but you can buy them one at a time. Next step are good too, you have buy 3, 6 or 10 now.


But really, 10 or nothing? Does anyone know if how they verify that "score" result analysis they publish? They didn't publish much on where there 3rd party analysis comes from or what they do to verify it. I did a Google search for the "TD Price & Associates" firm they claim to use and did not find anything. Do you agree to have your scores verified or contacted by an outside firm by signing up for their exams? The results also say they were from 2014, so that means it’s not at all based on the new MCAT, right?


All I found was this "First, each enrolled student was assigned a random number as an identifier. A random number generator was then used to select students from among the population. When a student’s number was randomly chosen, they received an immediate phone call. If they picked up the phone they were asked three standardized questions about their MCAT score. If they did not answer the phone another number was selected. 621 phone calls were placed to obtain 121 successful survey responses. One person declined to reveal their MCAT score. After sufficient data was collected to achieve statistical power, the data were tabulated. "


So we are taking 121 kids words for it, anonymously? We got more responses on the SDN thread here. 121 samples gave them statistical power to extrapolate to the 60+ thousand who site for the exam?

 

[zhonghang]

So annoying, I just want to do a few from EK, NS, and Altius. Idk why the other companies can offer this, but not Altius.

yeah tell me about it.. so dumb. what tests have you already completed and how have you generally done?

 

[zhonghang]

Yeah, I didn’t like the altius tests too much after I took a free one a couple months back. Repeating material is a big red flag. EK may be expensive but you can buy them one at a time. Next step are good too, you have buy 3, 6 or 10 now.


But really, 10 or nothing? Does anyone know if how they verify that "score" result analysis they publish? They didn't publish much on where there 3rd party analysis comes from or what they do to verify it. I did a Google search for the "TD Price & Associates" firm they claim to use and did not find anything. Do you agree to have your scores verified or contacted by an outside firm by signing up for their exams? The results also say they were from 2014, so that means it’s not at all based on the new MCAT, right?


All I found was this "First, each enrolled student was assigned a random number as an identifier. A random number generator was then used to select students from among the population. When a student’s number was randomly chosen, they received an immediate phone call. If they picked up the phone they were asked three standardized questions about their MCAT score. If they did not answer the phone another number was selected. 621 phone calls were placed to obtain 121 successful survey responses. One person declined to reveal their MCAT score. After sufficient data was collected to achieve statistical power, the data were tabulated. "


So we are taking 121 kids words for it, anonymously? We got more responses on the SDN thread here. 121 samples gave them statistical power to extrapolate to the 60+ thousand who site for the exam?

yeah i was pretty pissed about the repeated passage but so far that is the only one i have come across after taking Altius 1-6. i'm really hoping the last four do not have anymore repeats. we'll see tho!

 

[zhonghang]

From what I understand the free half length test is taken from the other full length exams. So there will probably be a few more repeats.

I can understand that. But what doesn't make any sense to me is the fact that there are repeats in tests 1-10 (not just the free half length). The actually FLs themselves have repeats which is really annoying.

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

@TheColorofNight. The score results published on the Altius website are more than "verified" by a third-party, the third-party, TD Price & Associates, conducts the entire score survey independently. We never see or touch the data until it is released. How can it be anything but AWESOME that an MCAT prep company is publishing third-party data on student performance? Would you rather they didn't? I think Altius 1) Is being more transparent about results than any other MCAT prep company has ever been before, and 2) Is holding themselves accountable. The day our mentoring programs fail to give students a true, measurable advantage, I'll probably quit being a tutor. We only want to do this if we are truly making a difference. The truth is, companies in this industry often provide no statistical benefit whatsoever to their students, but can hide behind a veil of "lack of accountability."

If you are genuinely that skeptical, the Altius office would be happy to give you the number of the accountant who does the survey and you can discuss it with him directly--I know they've done this in the past. The results are for students who enroll in and complete Altius 1-on-1 mentoring programs, so beyond proving that we know what we are doing and are the only company willing to publish actual performance stats, they don't apply to you if you are purchasing only the exams themselves.

As for extrapolating 121 respondents to everyone who sits for the exam, that is NOT what our results purport to do. They use a random survey to describe the population of students who complete one of the Altius 1-on-1 mentoring programs, not every examinee in the country. In fact, that's the entire point of the data. Most students nationwide do not take Altius as of this moment, but the population that does take Altius is outscoring the general population by a wide margin--and again that relates to Altius students, not just those who purchase tests. Wouldn't it be best for all premeds if every MCAT prep program published some kind of third-party-verified report on how their students score on the exam they are supposedly helping you with? Our founder has said repeatedly that he wishes there were some non-profit agency that would start collecting score data like this themselves for all MCAT prep companies. We'd sign-up to participate in a second, but I GUARANTEE you the status quo companies would run for the hills to avoid it. There is NO WAY they would want it publicly known exactly how their students scored.

The survey size is actually larger than it needs to be to describe the population. A random telephone survey of this kind is the same data type you are consuming when you hear just about any statistic, percentage, or figure on the evening news. Look at those sample sizes next time. They are usually surveying a few hundred households and using that to describe 320 MILLION Americans. Ever taken a drug? That drug was tested on a sample size that is so small compared to "every person in the world who might take the drug once approved," that it would make the Altius sample size look like the know universe. Surveys of this kind are widely accepted, not because the means or other values are a 100% true reflection of every member of the population, but because they let us know with confidence that the "real value" is somewhere very close to the reported one. The random nature of a study gives it power. The more random it is, the more likely that if the entire population was known it would match the random sample. 2015 stats with 100% MCAT-2015 exam scores are coming out very soon. They were supposed to be ready a while back but we don't have control over that because we don't do them ourselves, we are WAITING on the third-party accountant to release them.

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

@zhonghang. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I believe we have all of the duplication problems fixed. I'm also going to PM you about a nice thank you from Altius for pointing this out.

There were potentially 4 out of the ~400 passages that could have appeared twice in an earlier version of the ten exams, but which should now be corrected for any student signing up for a new account. It would have been on FLE6 and FLE7 that the passages repeated. The problem arose from the fact that our software maintains multiple "versions" of each exam on a per-user basis. This is so that during review you see the exact test as you took it, even if we've made edits to the master files in between. That is why when this came up on SDN a few months ago I told you I had "triple-checked" and could not find duplicates...but I was checking the master files and that wasn't the version being served to some students.

Again, our software guys are confident it is now fixed, but they are humans, so if you find otherwise, let us know and we'll be happy to make it up to you. If you restart any exam in which there used to be a duplicate, you will see the updated version which will also include one extra "new" passage you haven't seen--the replacement for the duplicate.

IMPORTANT NOTES: While there should be no duplicates between FLE1 through FLE10, the free half-length exam is taken from FLE1 so there will definitely be some duplicates there. Also, if you are enrolled in an Altius mentoring program we analyze FLE6, FLE7 and a bit off FLE5 during the interactive small group classes. For someone just buying the tests, however, FLE1 through FLE10 should now stand alone and be 100% unique.

Thank you for your continued feedback. Let me know if there are any other ways I can be of help.

 

[mluna066]

@Altius Premier Tutor is there any type of discounts for students and also is there anyway to just buy single practice tests?

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

We're currently offering a free FLE for SDN members willing to write about their experience. Call our office at 435-671-5783 and give them code: SDN0416

 

[mluna066]

We're currently offering a free FLE for SDN members willing to write about their experience. Call our office at 435-671-5783 and give them code: SDN0416

I took the half lenght test. will the questions be different for this full lenght?

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

I took the half lenght test. will the questions be different for this full lenght?

Some of HLE is taken from FLE1, I think about 10-15%. So you would see some of the HLE passages but all the rest will be brand-new.

 

[Altius Premier Tutor]

Since someone bumped a thread with a link to this thread for info on Altius exams, I should clarify that nearly all of this information is outdated. For example, you no longer have to buy all ten tests to access Altius exams. You can now buy 1, 5 or 10 tests at a prorated price. There are also many more recent, relevant threads about Altius exams from the past few months. Just search "Altius" if you want more up-to-date feedback.