Exam Krackers harder than the real thing?

[adamg]

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So far I have taken 2 full length practice tests, first the Exam Krackers 1H, got 11 PS, 10 VR, 8 Bio for a 28.

Next I took the AAMC practice test 3, got 11 PS, 10 VR 13 Bio for a 34.

This seems like a pretty big difference. Does anyone know how close EK is to AAMC? Harder, Easier, the same?

 

[iA-MD2013]

I've heard that the EK full length practice tests aren't that good...but I never tried them. Nevertheless, always trust AAMC over any other practice tests. Although AAMC 3 is much easier than the real deal and least representative of your score compared to all the other AAMCs, it's still more accurate than other prep companies practice tests.

 

[docbrill]

So far I have taken 2 full length practice tests, first the Exam Krackers 1H, got 11 PS, 10 VR, 8 Bio for a 28.

Next I took the AAMC practice test 3, got 11 PS, 10 VR 13 Bio for a 34.

This seems like a pretty big difference. Does anyone know how close EK is to AAMC? Harder, Easier, the same?

Did you mean a total of 29? I haven't taken any EK exams but I've heard that they are not as nearly accurate as the AAMC.

 

[SN2ed]

EK exams are basically worthless as practice tests. They are helpful as practice material, just don't take their score seriously. Follow the later AAMC tests (#7-10). The AAMC tests are better the newer they are with AAMC #3 being both the worst and easiest.

 

[therethere]

Hey SN2ed, can you elaborate on how/why they are bad? I have a practice myself and would like to know what I'm dealing with before I take it. Thanks!

 

[SN2ed]

I knew I forgot to post somewhere.

EK practice tests are not good because they are not representative, or even close, to what you'll be facing on test day. The first question that probably comes up is, "okay how?" For starters, the EK practice tests are NOT in the correct format. They are formatted the same as the old paper tests and, to my knowledge, are on paper. Next, the difficulty of the problems are higher than the actual test. Lastly, EK's practice tests don't have the same style as the actual test or the AAMC practice FLs. Explaining this one is tricky, but once you take a few AAMC practice FLs, I think you'll know what I mean. One of the keys behind a good FL is replicating the AAMC style and EK fails to do so. To sum up, the EK practice tests are good as another source of practice problems, but not as full length MCAT practice material.

 

[AWK87DOC]

I completely agree!!!
I took AAMC 8R 2days ago as my first real test after completing content review and had PS 12, VR 8 and BS 11 total 31. Then today i took examkracker's #1H and got PS 9, VR 7, BS 8 total 24. I was devastated and thought my 31 was a flook until i read all y'alls post, its good to know i'm not the only one who thinks 1H is harder than the real thing!

Thx guys!

 

[MIkeNB]

Im a pre-pharm, this post is for my brother just to make it clear to some of the forum investigators (you know who you are):

Since the practice test are "different" from the real test, are their studying materials reliable and a good way t prep for MCAT? Is it an overkill, no kill, or perfect kill =)

 

[InquisitiveDoc]

i'm taking the mcats on 4/18 and have been using examkrackers for the past 2 months now. so far, i feel that it can sometimes be overkill but the book does a fair job in explaining what is important for the exam and what is just good for background knowledge and understanding. I havent taken any AAMC practice exams yet but i will presume that if the examkrackers examples are harder, and you are achieving a 10+ on the 30-minute mock exams, you should be fine in terms of a 30+ on the real exam. Harder is sometimes better in terms of preparation.

thats just my 2 cents, do with it as u may!

 

[KunalOak]

i'm taking the mcats on 4/18 and have been using examkrackers for the past 2 months now. so far, i feel that it can sometimes be overkill but the book does a fair job in explaining what is important for the exam and what is just good for background knowledge and understanding. I havent taken any AAMC practice exams yet but i will presume that if the examkrackers examples are harder, and you are achieving a 10+ on the 30-minute mock exams, you should be fine in terms of a 30+ on the real exam. Harder is sometimes better in terms of preparation.

thats just my 2 cents, do with it as u may!

im gonna print it up and light it on fire!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[InquisitiveDoc]

im gonna print it up and light it on fire!!!!!!!!!!!

If that makes u feel better, I say why not!!!

 

[dray5150]

I just took Ek 2f: P9, V5!!!!, B8

Has anybody else taken this test? If so how did you do compared to other AAMCs or real MCAT. Im usually in the upper 20s low 30 range on Kaplan and AAMC.

 

[Malayna]

I just took Ek 2f: P9, V5!!!!, B8

Has anybody else taken this test? If so how did you do compared to other AAMCs or real MCAT. Im usually in the upper 20s low 30 range on Kaplan and AAMC.

I took a couple EK exams during my preparation. I only scored one of them, and it was so far off my AAMC and BR scores, I knew it was off. I think I got a 26 or 27. On my AAMC and BR exams I was in the 30-37 range. On the real test I got a 38. I never got a score on the Kaplan exams I used, but some were pretty good.

The problem with the EK paper tests I took were that they were nothing like my MCAT. The questions were detail oriented while the real MCAT was more about concepts and common sense. The EK explanations didn't help much, so I stopped using them after my second EK exam.

It's worth getting AAMC exams instead of EK exams. EK has a very good biology book and it's worth going through their verbal book. But their tests aren't too useful.

 

[dray5150]

I bought the the exam with a DVD explanation of what I thought was the whole test but it was just PS and BS, so no explanations at all for the Verbal which is ashame because the passages are just like the Verbal 1001 book. Jorden and Johns explanations of the concepts that I missed are great I must say but unfortunately don't look to much into the score.

 

[orangetea]

For what it matters I took the 1H EK test but only the PS section since I didn't have time to sit through the real thing and I feel like the problems are A LOT easier than AAMC. I am not sure why people say it is more difficult but I had to disagree 🙂