how were nextstep fl compared to the real mcat?

[premedkid1994]

for those of you that recently took the exam.

Were the next step fls
a lot easier/slightly easier/similar in difficulty/slightly harder/a lot harder

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[deleted585480]

would like to know as well..

 

[premedkid1994]

A lot of people took nextstep fls but nobody's responding loll

 

[deleted585480]

A lot of people took nextstep fls but nobody's responding loll

lol. Here's to hoping they aren't easier than the actual thing.

 

[Hospitalized]

Harder in sciences, easier scale. Inflated verbal. Averaged 504 throughout 6 of them and got 504 on real with slightly different distribution.

 

[Roayer]

for those of you that recently took the exam.

Were the next step fls
a lot easier/slightly easier/similar in difficulty/slightly harder/a lot harder

Real exam didn't have as badly worded stuff but I felt like it was all around harder in every way than NS. NS has a harsher scale though and I scored 4 points higher than my NS 1

 

[bigindian4891]

NS tends to inflate lower scores (<509) and exaggerate higher ones (>513). I felt like they prepared me the most, between 1-4, they covered a huge range of topics, and the pacing and content felt similar to real. Scored 10 points higher on actual versus NS average.

 

[Kpw101]

Harder in sciences, easier scale. Inflated verbal. Averaged 504 throughout 6 of them and got 504 on real with slightly different distribution.

I think people have been saying that NS is generally inflated <505. I've been averaging 508-510 OP, I'll let you know how I do on the AAMC Scored (taking it in one week).

I know of two friends who took NS exams. One averaged 506-508 and got a 513 on the actual. One was hovering around 510 and got a 518 on the actual.

 

[Gurby]

I wouldn't be surprised if NS was inflated on the lower end, deflated on the upper end. Have heard of several people averaging ~505 on NS, and then scoring 495-500 on the real thing. Also consider reporting bias - many people who that happens to would likely not post about it here. On the other hand, there are many examples of people averaging 510-515 on NS and then scoring 515-520 on the real thing.

I thought NS 1-4 were slightly harder than the real test, and with more focus on calculations. I think they were very good prep for this reason.

 

[premedkid1994]

I wouldn't be surprised if NS was inflated on the lower end, deflated on the upper end. Have heard of several people averaging ~505 on NS, and then scoring 495-500 on the real thing. Also consider reporting bias - many people who that happens to would likely not post about it here. On the other hand, there are many examples of people averaging 510-515 on NS and then scoring 515-520 on the real thing.

I thought NS 1-4 were slightly harder than the real test, and with more focus on calculations. I think they were very good prep for this reason.

Thank you!!
-generally if you start averaging above 505 on nextstep, you should be in good shape.

I've heard someone getting
ns 1: 505, ns 2: 500, ns 3: 501
and then getting like a 494 on the real test.

NS 1 is the easiest nextstep exam so I would not take my score seriously from that exam unless you hit higher than 510

 

[Mr. otcoD]

Thank you!!
-generally if you start averaging above 505 on nextstep, you should be in good shape.

I've heard someone getting
ns 1: 505, ns 2: 500, ns 3: 501
and then getting like a 494 on the real test.

NS 1 is the easiest nextstep exam so I would not take my score seriously from that exam unless you hit higher than 510

It all depends. I took 8 NS exams before taking the exam for the first time back in June 18th.
127/123/125/128
127/127/127/126
126/125/127/127
127/121/126/126
128/125/126/127
126/124/126/125
126/125/127/126
127/126/126/126

On the real exam: 131/122/130/125

 

[Two Sides]

Thank you!!
-generally if you start averaging above 505 on nextstep, you should be in good shape.

I've heard someone getting
ns 1: 505, ns 2: 500, ns 3: 501
and then getting like a 494 on the real test.

NS 1 is the easiest nextstep exam so I would not take my score seriously from that exam unless you hit higher than 510

That was me. But I also took 4 caffeine pills after abstaining from caffeine for a couple of months. I suffer from insomnia+stress of test+caffeine pills (dun goofed). Don't know if that was the main reason for my bad score; my tutor assumes so. Hard to tell. It could be because ns is inflated at lower scores, but that's very difficult to know from selection bias.

 

[Kpw101]

We shouldn't try and predict scores based off your FLs. The databases around reddit and SDN could be affected by bias and you may be very surprised when your score is released. Judge how close you are to your target score based on your AAMC material.

But there's no doubt scoring 510-515 on NS and breaking 510 on the harder exams like Kaplan/TPR is very good; just hard to quantify how good it exactly is.