Can someone explain why I do well on Kaplan FL and not on AAMC?

[zhaizor]

This is really frustrating that I average 33~ with highs up to 36 on Kaplan FL, and only averaging 29 on AAMC 3-9 with top score 30, wtf?

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[ru4real1666]

The curve is INSANELY lenient for kaplan. I remember taking a Kaplan FL and feeling like I got a 25 and got a 38 because 12 questions wrong in verbal was around a 12 (usually I average a 33 on AAMC with a 10 on verbal). I think most people would agree that Kaplan FLs are good for practice but for an accurate prediction, nothing beats AAMC (especially AAMC #7-11).

 

[zhaizor]

fu*k im going to fail hahaha

 

[flodhi1]

fu*k im going to fail hahaha

Same here there's a couple reasons and I was just about to post this.

1) Kaplan curve is pretty outrageous- You can guess and still get away with a good score. I know this point has been made several times because it's a very valid point. On the AAMC exam any guess or even a slight mistake could cost you BIG time (at least 1-2 point loss per section). On Kaplan any guess or slight mistake will win you big time ( a 1-2 point GAIN per section lmao).

2) The Kaplan full lengths are kind of straight forward. Like in their questions they will give you all wrong options and 1 correct answer so you can process and eliminate based on what is correct or incorrect WITHOUT even understanding what's going on in the passage. However on the AAMC you really have to know what's going on. I wouldn't say they trick you but they give you a bunch of correct answers as the choice. However only ONE of those correct answers truly resolves the question/issue. Plus the correct answer mostly correlates with the purpose of the passage. In my opinion the BS section is just a scientific steroid version of the AAMC VR section. So I wouldn't say the AAMC exams are harder but they require MORE critical thinking and conceptual understanding of new data/ the passage compared to the straight forward Kaplan exams.

3) Personally I think the AAMC VR is a lot better than the Kaplan VR. The AAMC VR has a systematic approach of asking questions and requires a lot of critical thinking which I actually enjoy. The Kaplan VR is just a bunch of BS thrown at you left and right that you have to find from the passage. Kaplan VR requires little to no critical thinking just reading speed and going back to the passage (which might help on some AAMC questions but definitely not all).

Point 2 is THE MAIN REASON why you're scores are NOT as high as KP full lengths. Option 1 and 3 are most likely secondary boots to the ass lol

Either way no worries you will get used to the AAMC style "critical thinking" and it will pay off on exam day. I would suggest not really relying on the KP full lengths. I started scoring in the 13-14s on the PS and BS for KP full length but am only getting 10s on the AAMC (Again due to point 2 that I stated).

 

[feipar]

I've also been taking kaplan and aamc full lengths, and surprisingly they have been rather accurate. I suspect it is because they are generally more accurate towards the upper end because even with Kaplan's curve, there needs to be substantial analysis and reasoning in order to get a 13 - 15. But once you get to 10-12s on Kaplan, it doesn't matter if you get all the hard questions wrong, you can still get that score with the curve.

another difference is you have to be absolutely on top of all other questions to get a high score on AAMC, because there is no room for error. for kaplan, you can get away with silly errors b/c the gap is very generous.

having said that, the reason the kaplan scores are not entirely meaningless is because they have scaled the test to include more difficult questions, with the assumption that you will perform per difficulty level on the AAMC tests. so if you do as well on each difficulty level question, then you should obtain similar scores on the AAMCs.