Best full length practice test for self assessment?

[EdgeTrimmer]

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What's the best practice test for self assessment? My son is a sophomore and wants to take a practice test in winter break. Plan is to take MCAT in January of Junior year.

 

[toedrag]

Doesn't make a lot of sense to take a practice exam when you're in your first semester of your sophomore year. Most premeds haven't finished Gen Chem I and II, Gen Bio I and II, Gen Physics I and II, Organic Chem I and II, Intro Psych, Intro Soc, and Biochem I at this point in their undergrad careers!

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Doesn't make a lot of sense to take a practice exam when you're in your first semester of your sophomore year. Most premeds haven't finished Gen Chem I and II, Gen Bio I and II, Gen Physics I and II, Organic Chem I and II, Intro Psych, Intro Soc, and Biochem I at this point in their undergrad careers!

He will be completing Gen Chem I and II, Gen Bio I and II, Gen Physics I and Organic Chem I by end of this semester.

 

[brownsfan999]

Personally, I don't think it's necessary or particularly helpful to take a practice test that early. I would take one right before he starts dedicated MCAT studying as a diagnostic test. The very best practice tests are the ones by the AAMC, but I definitely wouldn't waste one of them this early on, they should be taken close to the test date. I would tell him to focus on his classes and extracurricular and worry about the MCAT ~4 months prior to the scheduled date. For future reference, I used Kaplan prep books and online practice tests and liked them.

Edit: For reference, I spent 3.5 months studying for the MCAT while working part-time and went from a 496 diagnostic to a 520 on test day by using the Kaplan books and the AAMC online question banks and practice tests. Really don't think it's of any use to practice this early.

 

[toedrag]

Personally, I don't think it's necessary or particularly helpful to take a practice test that early. I would take one right before he starts dedicated MCAT studying as a diagnostic test. The very best practice tests are the ones by the AAMC, but I definitely wouldn't waste one of them this early on, they should be taken close to the test date. I would tell him to focus on his classes and extracurricular and worry about the MCAT ~4 months prior to the scheduled date. For future reference, I used Kaplan prep books and online practice tests and liked them.

This ^^

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Personally, I don't think it's necessary or particularly helpful to take a practice test that early. I would take one right before he starts dedicated MCAT studying as a diagnostic test. The very best practice tests are the ones by the AAMC, but I definitely wouldn't waste one of them this early on, they should be taken close to the test date. I would tell him to focus on his classes and extracurricular and worry about the MCAT ~4 months prior to the scheduled date. For future reference, I used Kaplan prep books and online practice tests and liked them.

Edit: For reference, I spent 3.5 months studying for the MCAT while working part-time and went from a 496 diagnostic to a 520 on test day by using the Kaplan books and the AAMC online question banks and practice tests. Really don't think it's of any use to practice this early.

Thanks for the suggestion. Most of next summer he will be doing research abroad so that's why he wanted to start little early.

 

[OrganRepo]

Biochem is the single most important class for the mcat

 

[Skeletorr]

It's too early. There's no need for a diagnostic test, which I don't advocate for anyway. Once he finishes his prereqs for med school (chem, ochem, physics, biochem, etc) then he can begin the study process for the MCAT. If he hasn't finished all of these courses, the diagnostic will be futile.

 

[deleted938090]

Best practice exams are the AAMC FL1-3 and the section banks. Doing the section banks under time pressure is a good gauge of actual test day performance.

 

[lm1106]

If he really wants to take a diagnostic exam this early, definitely don't use the AAMC material. The AAMC FL and question banks are limited in quantity and SUPER valuable, so it would be wasteful to use them at this point. He should save them for closer to his exam date.

Like most people have already said, it's kinda pointless for him to take a diagnostic exam right now, but if he's really set on it he could maybe take Next Step's half-length MCAT diagnostic exam.

 

[MyOdyssey]

What are the best practice exams apart from AAMC materials?

 

[Skeletorr]

What are the best practice exams apart from AAMC materials?

Nextstep

 

[jarednogeek]

AAMC Exam is the most accurate, tests like Kaplan will deflate your score. I got 505-508 on Kaplan, 510-516 on AAMC, 513 on real.