How do you gauge how prepared you are with TBR CBT scores?

[BeachBlondie]

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I have 19 days left until Game Time.

I have 6 TBR CBTs and 2 AAMCs remaining.

I'm going to take them all.

I'm leaving AAMC#10 and AAMC#11 until the last week to use as my pre-test benchmark, thus leaving me with a bunch of Berkeley work to complete over the next couple of weeks. My question is: how should I treat the score breakdowns of TBR? When should I be elated? When should I be concerned?

I took TBR CBT#1 this evening and received a 29 (10PS/13VR/6BS). The 6 is because I haven't touched orgo in 3 years and (literally) tanked on nearly all of those questions (of which there are many), but I'll be brushing up in that section immediately and I'm not worried about it.

The last AAMC I took, I received a 36. This is something I would like to set as a goal (if not on the low end of said goal) for the April 5th test. How is TBR correlated with this? Are they usually lower than AAMCs? Are they inflated? If I earn, say, consistent 33's in TBR, would I have a shot at the actual 36 on Test Day?

This is long. Well..... *sigh*. Whoops. Because these are, nearly, the only materials I'm working with, I'd like to have SOME indication as to how I'm performing....

 

[jjtheairplane]

I've taken BR1-3 so far. It's weird consistent overall i've gotten 31/32 on all them. Sciences fluctuate on each test for difficulty but verbal just get harder it seems. I went from 12 on cbt 1 to 8 on cbt 3 🙁

 

[MedOldAge]

I've taken BR1-3 so far. It's weird consistent overall i've gotten 31/32 on all them. Sciences fluctuate on each test for difficulty but verbal just get harder it seems. I went from 12 on cbt 1 to 8 on cbt 3 🙁

Hope that helps

The following is from a thread dated3/2/11 from a SDN member BerkReviewTeach:
He compared the 7 BR FL exams.
BR1 - PS (difficult), VR (easy), BS (medium)
BR2 - PS (medium), VR (hard), BS (medium)
BR3 - PS (difficult), VR (difficult), BS (difficult)
BR4 - PS (medium), VR (medium), BS (hard)
BR5 - PS (hard), VR (medium), BS (hard)
BR6 - PS (semi-easy), VR (medium), BS (medium)
BR7 - PS (hard), VR (medium), BS (hard)

 

[BeachBlondie]

Hope that helps

The following is from a thread dated3/2/11 from a SDN member BerkReviewTeach:
He compared the 7 BR FL exams.
BR1 - PS (difficult), VR (easy), BS (medium)
BR2 - PS (medium), VR (hard), BS (medium)
BR3 - PS (difficult), VR (difficult), BS (difficult)
BR4 - PS (medium), VR (medium), BS (hard)
BR5 - PS (hard), VR (medium), BS (hard)
BR6 - PS (semi-easy), VR (medium), BS (medium)
BR7 - PS (hard), VR (medium), BS (hard)

That does help, actually! Thanks! But, is there a reference for these values that you know of? Are they saying GENERALLY difficult? Or difficult in comparison to AAMC standards? Or, are the "hard" and "difficult" sections most reflective of the current MCAT?

 

[BeachBlondie]

I've taken BR1-3 so far. It's weird consistent overall i've gotten 31/32 on all them. Sciences fluctuate on each test for difficulty but verbal just get harder it seems. I went from 12 on cbt 1 to 8 on cbt 3 🙁

How is your performance when compared with AAMC?

 

[jjtheairplane]

How is your performance when compared with AAMC?

Took aamc's before my previous mcat, i was consistently improving but on average i'd say 28/29.

I've done a lot of work since then so that could be the br scores are better..

 

[brood910]

My TBR 1~4 scores are pretty similar to AAMC scores but TBR 5 score is way lower. It's one of the most difficult FLs out there but its scale is the least lenient. I am wondering why.

 

[MedOldAge]

That does help, actually! Thanks! But, is there a reference for these values that you know of? Are they saying GENERALLY difficult? Or difficult in comparison to AAMC standards? Or, are the "hard" and "difficult" sections most reflective of the current MCAT?

BerkReviewTeach can jump in and correct me....but based on our experience, it is [easy > medium > difficult > hard] with respect to the BR FLs themselves and not directly comparing/referencing to AAMC FLs.

For the fact that I didn't have a direct baseline to judge, I used the number of errors as gauge.

EX: [AAMC7/8, (BS) 3 error = 14] [ BR4, (BS) 4 error = 14] --> Hard
[ BR5, (BS) 3 error = 14] -->Hard
[BR6, (BS) 3 error = 14] --> Medium
[AAMC9/10, (BS) 2 error = 14] [ BR7, (BS) 4 error = 14] -->Hard

[AAMC5, (PS) 4 error = 13] [BR1, (PS) 6 error = 13] --> Difficult

In the post test rush, I didn't get the chance to look through the whole BR chart from the score of 12 downward. They may scaled differently.
But you can tell they are close matched; as I felt the BR scale is about 1 to 2 error more lenient comparing AAMC as one can see in BR7 BS and BR1 PS.

Personally, I found BR5 harder as a whole FL comparing with BR FL1-4, 6, 7.
Generally speaking they are very good practice tests.

I am not sure I really pinpoint 100% answering your question. Hope may be 50%? 🙂

 

[BeachBlondie]

I am not sure I really pinpoint 100% answering your question. Hope may be 50%? 🙂

No no.... you've provided a lot of valuable information that I didn't come across in my search. So, I'm certainly grateful for that

I think you understand what I'm after: if this is the only material I have to chart how well I'm doing until a few days before the exam, I'd like to know how similar they are to the actual MCAT. My problem is that I received a 36 the last time I took an AAMC, and a 33 before that. I earned a 29 on TBR#1 (granted, I have an orgo deficit I've not yet filled...and the one section lacking was BS), but I was worried that this 29 may be more reflective of how I could potentially perform on April 5th. Heh... I'd rather keep it at a 36 🙂

 

[brood910]

No no.... you've provided a lot of valuable information that I didn't come across in my search. So, I'm certainly grateful for that

I think you understand what I'm after: if this is the only material I have to chart how well I'm doing until a few days before the exam, I'd like to know how similar they are to the actual MCAT. My problem is that I received a 36 the last time I took an AAMC, and a 33 before that. I earned a 29 on TBR#1 (granted, I have an orgo deficit I've not yet filled...and the one section lacking was BS), but I was worried that this 29 may be more reflective of how I could potentially perform on April 5th. Heh... I'd rather keep it at a 36 🙂

TBR goes into so much detail for BS. That's not what you are gonna see on MCAT anyways.

 

[BeachBlondie]

TBR goes into so much detail for BS. That's not what you are gonna see on MCAT anyways.

Alright.... well.... I suppose that makes me feel better. I'll just plan to go full speed ahead and use TBR as a learning tool. I'll save my panic for AAMC #10 and #11 😉

Thank you for your guidance, guys!