I never took the MCAT but I studied a lot for the GRE and got
1420/1600 (verbal and quantitative) and 6.0/6.0 (perfect) essay
750 - quantitative 81st percentile 670 - verbal 94th percentile
6.0 95th percentile
The test absolutely gets harder. The math section gave me almost all difficulty level 5 out of 5 questions. I thought the powerprep was easy and was scoring 780/800 every time. But I felt like my actual quantiative section was much much harder than any practice test that I had done. In fact my biggest problem was that I ran out of time with five questions left and guessed. But still got a 750 /800 anyway.
The verbal is different from the MCAT. It has vocab words, analogies, sentence completions, and reading comprehension. This is where I had spent most of my time studying. My 670, by the way was in the 94th percentile, while my 750 was only in the 81st percentile. (P.S. an 800 (perfect) on quantative was only in the 92nd percentile). So my verbal was acutally better and that is funny considering that I am just finishing an M.S. in biostatistics and my B.S. is in statistics with a mathematics minor! It was high school math but the questions were darn tricky because I missed very few in the beginning (quantitative section)! This is COMPUTER-ADAPTIVE and uses a complicated scoring system. Always take your time in the beginning of the section and make sure to get the first couple of questions correct.
For the essay, which I scored perfectly on, the best advice is to just look at the practice essays that scored a 6 many in books and on the GRE website.
Write a TEMPLATE!!!!
For the argumentative essay, here are some very valuable tips:
Always start the essay with this opening:
The argument that ------------- is well-meaning but flawed. After all, the author supposes that ----------- occurs. However, there are more factors to consider than just -------- and ------------.
This opening gets right to the point. And I used this in the beginning of EVERY argumentative section. (argument essay 30 minutes)
Write as many paragraphs and type as fast as you can. The argument essay is very easy because all you have to do is to refute what is in the prompt. For each point write a separate paragraphs and tie these paragraphs together. Also, write as much as you possibly can. The GRE people do not like to admit this, but the better the essay sounds on the more detailed it is, the higher the score.
The issue I always believed was harder because you have to come up with pertinent examples yourself rather than just refute what is there. Again 6 paragraph format with a strong thesis statement at the end of the opening paragraph. Along with solid support paragraphs along with appropriate transition words without seeming to artificial. In my essay, I wrote one very controversial paragraph about outsourcing of U.S. jobs to India, but I supported this well through examples and still received a perfect 6.0. But I would have recommended against the strong language that I used in about two sentences. This was 1.5 years ago, but I think I said something like "In a time of terrorism and increasing patriotism after September 11, along with a dwindling economy and uncertain future, it could be considered even treasonous for the American companies to fire their own citizens and replace them with cheaper workers from foreign countries." Very strong language, but the other sentences preceding this had clearly supported this stance.
Always use the 6-7 paragraph template of opening, body and conclusion. Organization is a big part of the score and detailed examples. The more you discuss an example in depth, the better you will score. Observe the sample essays that got a 6.
6 is the 95th percentile by the way.
Hope that this helps.
(By the way MCAT and GRE are apples and oranges. Even the verbal section of the MCAT is ENTIRELY READING unlike the GRE. There is no quantitative section on the MCAT. The essay is quite different as well.)
The MCAT is not even comparable to the DAT or PCAT, by the way!
P.S. I got 1410 on my SAT. (720 - Math, 690 - Verbal)
