Is any practice good practice?

[herky010]

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I found some Barron's MCAT practice exams at my local library for extra practice on the Physical Science section but they are insanely easy. I mean, I'm getting 15's easy (and I got a 7 on the real thing last July). So what do you guys think: is any kind of practice good practice for the MCAT or am I wasting my time taking practice exams that are this easy?

Also, I think I have seen a thread on this before but I'll ask again... Taking practice exams that were written before CBT- is that useful?

Thanks Everyone!

 

[muhali3]

No, Barron's is just the worst book to review from. I was using the Barron's thinking that I was so good on the verbal. I would get 14s or 15s and then I started using Exam Krackers and now I'm getting 8's. Exam Krackers (verbal at least) more accurately reflects the MCAT and leads to more improvement. Barron's makes you overconfident and causes you to bomb on the real thing.

 

[Bernoull]

I found some Barron's MCAT practice exams at my local library for extra practice on the Physical Science section but they are insanely easy. I mean, I'm getting 15's easy (and I got a 7 on the real thing last July). So what do you guys think: is any kind of practice good practice for the MCAT or am I wasting my time taking practice exams that are this easy?

Also, I think I have seen a thread on this before but I'll ask again... Taking practice exams that were written before CBT- is that useful?

Thanks Everyone!

Any practice is better than no practice, some practice materials (AAMCs) are better than the rest. MCAT test content DID NOT change with the CBT, I believe the last change to content was 2003, therefore any practice material 2003 and onwards is relevant. If it's a FL it'll be longer and paperbased that's it.

 

[Mattabet]

Taking practice exams that were written before CBT- is that useful?

Sure, as above, the shift to CBT didn't change anything ipso facto.

But, if you're getting ridiculously inflated scores, it's probably not going to help you too much. You need something that more accurately estimates the difficulty of the actual test, or it's kind of a waste of the practice time. And if we're going to waste practice time, it should at least be entertaining.

Mattabet's Practice Verbal Reasoning:

One time there was a duck that loved to swim. He swam every day.

In the passage, the duck:
a) liked to swim
b) there was no duck
c) liked to dance
d) a true revivalism of 13th century European history would have been impossible without the work of subsequent historical scholars

If you picked 'a', you get a 15. If you picked 'd', we'll call it a 7. All other answers give you a 3 for VR. Congrats on completing this diagnostic.