CARS Help

[abs5394]

This is probably a silly question but are the AAMC CARS question packs representative of the real exam? You might be thinking, of course they are, since they're made by AAMC. But they're sooo hard, i literally get like 1-2 right per passage. I do considerably better on other material from prep companies (khan, kaplan I get like 50%, still sucks but better).

Is the real thing as hard as these question packs? It seems like I always misinterpret the passage's main idea for one that's similar but wrong, which then makes me get all the questions wrong.

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[Jack Westin]

The AAMC CARS questions are nearly identical to what you will see on test day. There are certain passages/questions in the packs that they tend to not test anymore but overall, it's the most representative. It's good that you are concerned about this right now. Focus on those packs and try to understand how to approach those specific passages. Once you find a pattern, use that on test day.

 

[Jack Westin]

lol that passage isn't so bad! Students get intimidated when they see passages on Picasso or Cezanne because they don't know much about those guys. But just remember: you don't need to know anything. You just have to read it and understand it right then and there. Students hate learning new things on a timed exam which is why they resort to panic. The moment you become comfortable with being uncomfortable, is the moment you have unchained yourself from the beast that is the MCAT. I agree that there were a couple of tough questions on that specific passage though.

 

[abs5394]

thats so funny you say that, I had my dad try and do the picasso passage (he's an ENT doc) and he got every question wrong and immediately made me enroll in a kaplan course. Said that passage was the most ludicrous thing he'd ever seen.

 

[abs5394]

For me, it's like I read a line and it goes in one ear out the other. These passages that talk about nothing (arts, literature, philosophy) are just incomprehensible walls of text to me. I can't understand anything and end up reading a line 10 times and still can't get the main idea. Now give me a factual passage or science passage and i'm good to go.

 

[abs5394]

Yep, looks like it's gonna be all luck for us.

 

[Bottle]

The way SDN talks about Picasso makes me feel like he is some kind of boss you find in Dark Souls.

Can't wait to meet him and get murdered.

 

[eyh]

I like AdaptPrep CARS prep.

 

[eyh]

The AAMC CARS questions are nearly identical to what you will see on test day. There are certain passages/questions in the packs that they tend to not test anymore but overall, it's the most representative. It's good that you are concerned about this right now. Focus on those packs and try to understand how to approach those specific passages. Once you find a pattern, use that on test day.

Wow! That is interesting to read.

 

[studentdoctorpremed]

I agree that they are very similar. But I struggled with CARS last time pretty bad and the prep material were equally difficult compared to the real test.

 

[DoctorCrush]

CARS is a beast for me to beat, actually I suck in every section. BUT, I just took the AAMC sample test and I found their car section to be way easier than any practices I've done from Khan, kaplan, examkrackers, princeston and next step. I decided to heck with it all and just practice everyday using Khan and scored 75% on the section. So for me, Khan has been helpful.