How many full length practice tests?

[Lannister]

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I keep seeing people saying they plan on taking like 20 FL practice tests, which seems like a ridiculously high number to me. I plan on taking seven (one old MCAT as a diagnostic because that was my only option, 5 NS, 1 AAMC), is this not enough? I don't really see the point in taking so many. I mean once you are comfortable with the format/length of the test, why bother taking more practice exams? Obviously I'd continue doing review questions from a question bank, but I don't think I'd have the time to take 20+ seven hour-long practice exams by May 22nd...

EDIT: Also a related question: do you guys think it'd be better to take the AAMC practice test first or last? I was going to take it last but now I'm thinking it might be nice to get a score that I know will be probably more accurate than the NS scores first, since I'm about halfway through my content review and it'd be nice to know whether I need to step it up or not.

 

[bee17]

I think the number of FLs to take will vary person to person. I plan on ~10-12 myself. I am also running into a problem finding 7hr blocks to take them, as I'm in school full time. I took the AAMC test after taking 2 Kaplan FLs and the 1/2 length diagnostic from NextStep. I wish I would have taken it first, and I'm glad I didn't wait until 3 weeks before the exam to take it like I originally planned. After taking the AAMC test, I feel like I have a much better idea of how to focus my studying from here on out.

The drawback with AAMC is that it will not give you a score on the 472-528 scale. It just gives you the percentage of how many you got correct.

 

[AM508]

When I took the MCAT, I did ~10 full lengths (5 AAMC and ~5 Kaplan). I think its important to take tests from a couple of different sources as neither the AAMC or Kaplan seemed exactly like the real exam, but when used to together I felt I was pretty well prepared. I am not sure how things work for this new exam though.