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I normally don't like making threads on topics that happened before, but I feel this post is worthy to discuss.
I just took my first GS-1 and here are my comments. I'm curious what others in recent period who used GS tests - both GS-1 and other ones - think about them.
PS and BS
- Length of passage is absolutely unrealistic. GS somehow thinks it's "OK" to have passages that fail to meet the correct length of the passages. I don't get it, especially when I saw two paragraph passage with two questions - really?
- Discrete questions sometimes ask some of the most unconventional things I've seen. A question about ductus arteriosus was just thrown out in the discrete. I don't have a problem with seeing something I've never read before. But, in other discrete from my practices, question stem at least tells you more to help you reason things. I got this question right mainly because of some lucky POE.
- There were some OK questions, too, but this test certainly consisted of some questions that did not seem to be MCAT questions. Like, I would look at them and think, "This isn't kind of question that MCAT would test." I also found passages to be very little helpful for questions, which is clearly not the case for AAMC tests.
VR
- Again, it seems OK to GS that not having the proper length of the passages is fine. Except 2-3 passages, other passages' lengths were off by 100 words or more. I also found the style of writing to be very different from something that MCAT tests. This applies to both the structure of argument and details.
- Questions were not good. I thought TPR asked some bad questions... Until I saw this one. Verbal questions I got wrong seemed to be because the wording was bad, or the passages seemed to not completely support the answer choices. I mean, it was to the point that I couldn't think them as the "best answer choice."
I really don't have anything positive to say. This test was just not MCAT at all - and I don't consider this as a learning tool. Anyone wants to give feedback?
P.S. I forgot to mention Writing Samples. I chose to do them with official AAMC prompts, which were not available in this GS-1. Writing samples are not even that important for medical school, but I figured it was a lot better to use the ones that AAMC said that it may use (and provides on its website).
I just took my first GS-1 and here are my comments. I'm curious what others in recent period who used GS tests - both GS-1 and other ones - think about them.
PS and BS
- Length of passage is absolutely unrealistic. GS somehow thinks it's "OK" to have passages that fail to meet the correct length of the passages. I don't get it, especially when I saw two paragraph passage with two questions - really?
- Discrete questions sometimes ask some of the most unconventional things I've seen. A question about ductus arteriosus was just thrown out in the discrete. I don't have a problem with seeing something I've never read before. But, in other discrete from my practices, question stem at least tells you more to help you reason things. I got this question right mainly because of some lucky POE.
- There were some OK questions, too, but this test certainly consisted of some questions that did not seem to be MCAT questions. Like, I would look at them and think, "This isn't kind of question that MCAT would test." I also found passages to be very little helpful for questions, which is clearly not the case for AAMC tests.
VR
- Again, it seems OK to GS that not having the proper length of the passages is fine. Except 2-3 passages, other passages' lengths were off by 100 words or more. I also found the style of writing to be very different from something that MCAT tests. This applies to both the structure of argument and details.
- Questions were not good. I thought TPR asked some bad questions... Until I saw this one. Verbal questions I got wrong seemed to be because the wording was bad, or the passages seemed to not completely support the answer choices. I mean, it was to the point that I couldn't think them as the "best answer choice."
I really don't have anything positive to say. This test was just not MCAT at all - and I don't consider this as a learning tool. Anyone wants to give feedback?
P.S. I forgot to mention Writing Samples. I chose to do them with official AAMC prompts, which were not available in this GS-1. Writing samples are not even that important for medical school, but I figured it was a lot better to use the ones that AAMC said that it may use (and provides on its website).