i'm currently taking kaplan and was wondering about the diffuculty level of their exams vs. the real thing. are the questions on the same level? i'm not asking whether or not scores are the same... just whether or not the passages are any more or less difficult with kaplan.
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I've only done their exams (not books), but their questions seemed different than the MCAT I took. It's not that they are harder or easier, it just seemed that the real MCAT asked for different things. The Kaplan tests are maybe a bit easier, by the smallest of margins, because they based their questions on the passage. On my MCAT at least, you needed to interpret data and extrapolate information more. I also had to know a few trivial facts on the real MCAT.
As far as difficulty, it's probably a good estimate. But as far as style goes, expect that the MCAT will feel different.
As far as difficulty, it's probably a good estimate. But as far as style goes, expect that the MCAT will feel different.
I felt that Kaplan VR and BS were very comparable to the real McCoy, while Kaplan PS was more calculation heavy.
I agree, all the ones that they will proctor for you (1-5) are pretty good indications of how well you do. Actually many people score higher on the actual one than they do on most of their practice ones (I did). I agree that PS is much harder on Kaplan. To go into a little more detail, BS and VR are pretty similar, but I think BS is slightly harder than the real one and VR I thought was much easier than when I took the real thing (April 2002). However, I scored very similarly on the real one compared to the practice ones, even though it was harder/easier in some respects, so the Kaplan curve is a good indication of how you are doing at a particular point in your study.