If the later AAMCs are harder...

[nemo123]

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then why are the curves roughly the same? I just took AAMC 9 and I saw that for the bio section, more than 1/3 of the questions were labelled as "hard," and yet the curve is less forgiving than AAMC 8 (which didn't even have 10% of its questions labelled as "hard").

I'm just asking because I'm a little worried about my AAMC average... If I get a 13 (in both PS and BS), I get the bare minimum right to get a 13, but when I get a 12, I miss getting a 13 by one frickin' question... So I'm wondering how that'll turn out on my actual MCAT... Did anyone else have a similar experience to this on the AAMCs?

 

[akim6890]

The curve is representative of how the students preformed and sometimes is misinterpreted as how hard the test is even though they're related. So even though there may be more "hard" questions, the same amount or even more of the students still were able to answer the questions correctly and that gives you your curve.

It's pretty pointless to try and predict the specific raw score you're going to get and even more pointless to predict your corresponding curved score. It just causes unnecessary stress and distracts you from what really changes your score: you. That being said, you might want to think about the fact that the current MCAT is much harder than the practice AAMCs and your raw score may be lower than what you might expect but will still approximately correspond to your average on the practice AAMCs due to the curve. So in a way, it's the opposite of what you're fearing. To be honest, I'm not sure which way I'd rather have it. Easier test and harder curve or harder test and easier curve. Again, it's pointless to think about. Continue to practice and make sure to take AAMC 11 as that was my biggest wake up call to practice the more reading comprehension-type bio passages. I'm taking it January 26th. Good luck!

 

[angldrps]

the only AAMC exams that I think should be considered "hard", as in the ones that come close to the difficulty on the real deal, are AAMC 10 and 11. The remaining, while still a good practice, are much easier.

 

[nemo123]

^ Yeah, I'm taking it in 2 weeks too... I'm just a little worried because I seem to totter between a 12 and a 13 in both BS and PS.

 

[nemo123]

the only AAMC exams that I think should be considered "hard", as in the ones that come close to the difficulty on the real deal, are AAMC 10 and 11. The remaining, while still a good practice, are much easier.

Are 10 and 11 really that much harder? Bleh, I'm taking 10 tomorrow so I'll see how I do on that... I've heard AAMC 10 has a killer verbal (and verbal for 7 and 8 made my brain explode).

 

[angldrps]

Are 10 and 11 really that much harder? Bleh, I'm taking 10 tomorrow so I'll see how I do on that... I've heard AAMC 10 has a killer verbal (and verbal for 7 and 8 made my brain explode).

10 wasn't that bad for me. 11's Bio was an excellent representation of the real deal's BS section.