Cars Volume 2 (AAMC) and Chemistry (AAMC)

[tvbbnumber41]

I was working on CARS volume 2 and I've been giving myself 10 minutes per passage as practice. I was told by someone that these passages are from old MCAT exams and that the actual passages I will get will be significantly longer and that I should cut my time to 8 minutes per passage with these. I wanted to get some second opinions from you guys.

Also, I noticed that the chemistry practice questions offered by AAMC (the 120 questions one) were very easy compared to the ones in the C/P section in practice test 1 I took. Have I improved in the last week, or has other people thought so as well?

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[Professional Student]

All of the practice CARS passages I ever completed from the AAMC were identical to the passages on the real test. The length of each passage varies no matter if it's for practice or on the real test. That being said, I found that on test day I was much slower than I had been during my practice exams, so I don't think cutting your time to 8 minutes would be a bad idea. Don't stress if you are still taking between 8 and 10 minutes though, just know that for the whole test being faster is better as long as it doesn't lead to more mistakes.

I did not buy the chemistry practice questions, but I also thought the practice biology questions were easier than the my practice tests. But I also thought my real bio section was easier than the bio sections on my practice tests. The newest question bank by AAMC that focusses on the newly added test content was harder than the realt test by far, in my opinion.

My real score was a 514: 128/129/131/126

 

[aldol16]

In my experience, the old CARS sections were shorter but you should be tackling them with the same strategy and methodology.

With regard to the chemistry questions, are you referring to the QPacks or the Section Bank? Section Bank questions are representative of the harder questions you will encounter on test day. QPacks are generally easier because they're recycled from pre-2015 MCAT passages and, in my opinion, have a greater component of content recall than in-depth critical analysis.