Can you guys help me decide which practice full lengths to take and the order I should take them in?

[779663]

I plan on taking 8 full length exams between today and my real MCAT exam on the 20th of August. The problem is that I have access to more than 8 exams and I often hear discussions regarding how some are better reflections of the real MCAT than others, so I want to be sure i write the best 8 exams for me.

I am essentially interested in two things when deciding how I want to take these practice full length exams. Firstly, I'm interested in their relative level of difficulty compared to the real AAMC MCAT exam, as well as how similar they are in testing style.

The following are the exams that i have access to:

1. AAMC Practice Exam 1
2. Next Step full length exams 1-5
3. Kaplan full length 1-3
4. The Princeton Review MCAT test 1-3

That's a total of 12 exams. Can anyone here who as used some or all of these full length exams before the real MCAT exam tell me what they thought of these practice exams and what their advice to me about them is.

I always hear different things in regards to various practice exams from all of these test prep companies.

Also, if anyone has any input, advice, or recommendations regarding the best way to order taking MCAT practice full lengths, I'd greatly appreciate that advice as well.

Thanks!

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[dontforgetxx]

AAMC should be the last one you take. I would suggest taking both the scored and unscored rather than just one. They are better than any other company's practice exams.

 

[779663]

AAMC should be the last one you take. I would suggest taking both the scored and unscored rather than just one. They are better than any other company's practice exams.

What is the difference between the scored and unscored?

Also, do i need to pay for both of those?

 

[dontforgetxx]

What is the difference between the scored and unscored?

Also, do i need to pay for both of those?

They are both released by AAMC - one exam (the AAMC MCAT Practice Exam 1) will give you a score for each section. The unscored exam (Official MCAT Sample Test) will give you a percentage. If you are not taking a prep course that offers AAMC material (like Kaplan and TPR) then you will have to buy them from the AAMC website.

 

[theonlytycrane]

@cantcatchme

Have you done the section banks? If not do those and throw away Kaplan / TPR.

Run the NS and AAMC stuff. If you want more, buy EK.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Practice exams are meant to do two things:

(1) Give you an indication of what to expect on your MCAT.

and

(2) Teach you how to spend your time wisely and work efficiently through questions.

For the first purpose, the actual authors of the MCAT are pretty much unbeatable. The rest of us are chasing them. For the second purpose, although we have been dropped from the SDN radar, people using our exams are doing extremely well on their actual MCATs because they learn how to think their way through passages (many of which are surprisingly realistic).

You should do exposure and learning practice exams first before graduating to the AAMC exams.

 

[alpha-GTP]

This is just based on my personal experience.

EK 3 and 4
NS 1-4
AAMC unscored
AAMC scored

I feel EK and NS were the closest to AAMC

 

[DrMantisTobogganMD]

Can only speak for Kaplan here. I did 11 of those bad boys and I thought that they were harder than AAMC practice and the real thing. I would suggest doing all of Kaplan's tests if you can get a hand on them. I also agree that the AAMC practice exams should be the last that you take. I felt they were pretty accurate +/- 3 points.