free kaplan mcat test events = harder than normal?

[glamqueen]

So I took their free mcat they offer at their free events today, and I scored an 18. A 6 in Phys Sci, a 5 in Bio, and a 7 in Verbal. I haven't taken any organic yet or Physics 2, and I took Gen Chem 1 years ago, so I need to do more review to remember the basics (although apparently I can't do gen chem 2 pretty well). Anyway, the only section I was shocked at was verbal. I've been scoring 10's and 11's with Examkrackers, and I just took the verbal (free sample) off the AAMC website, and I scored a 10. Does Kaplan just make these free test things extra hard to convince people to take the class or what? Or did I just lose my head for a bit in verbal today?

What should I trust?

Is this also a good place to start? I'm taking next April, and I am taking a Kaplan class from Oct - April to prepare (as well as finishing the last three pre-req classes).

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[littlealex]

I'm not sure if it is harder, but my guess is yes.

In terms of your scores, even if that is your real score, you're fine. The test is a long way off and you have plenty of time to study.
Use the score as a motivator and get started!

 

[jzeidenb]

if you are missing course material, dont even worry about your score, you should be doing that bad.

as for verbal, ive scored 8s and 11s on verbal sections scored 2 days apart, random variation can sometimes attribute to the score differences in small sample size, i think it may be a bit too muc hto say its intentionally harder.

i think people just assume that cause it makes sense from a business standpoint. But you have to remember, I dont think kaplan needs to do that, the MCAT is a hard exam! If you haven't been studying for a month or two ur not going to do well unless youre just a natural, kaplan knows this, they dont need to pump harder questions into the free ones

 

[glamqueen]

Good point. I imagine not knowing organic from Greek might have hurt me, as well as the fact that the phys sci section was nearly all phys 2 rather than a mix of 1 and 2. And who knows...I'm in need of practice for verbal for sure, because I want to learn to raise my score even more. I suppose this is a decent place to start!

 

[meowkat444]

actually i think it was pretty representative of the real test.