Is the real mcat much harder than the AAMC practice pack questions?

[ekk88]

i have been doing kaplan qbank questions and kaplan full lengths, and they seem MUCH MUCH more difficult than the practice packs..

how similar are the practice pack questions to the real thing?
how similar are Kaplan's FL's to the real thing?

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[Holmwood]

Official guide questions and the new aamc practice test are similar to the actual exam.

Question pack is just recycled old mcat stuff which is still good practice but not representative.

Kaplan FL is not even close. But it's still good practice nonetheless in terms of improving your test taking abilities.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

The question pack is kind of a mixed bag. Some of the passages are absurdly easier than the current MCAT, whereas others are a not-bad representation. If it's a passage with some confusing figures and an experiment, that's closer to the current test. If it's a simple short passage that's more easy informational-based, then that's less representative of the new exam.

The thing that's actually still fairly similar are the questions, however. If my 4/18 exam was any representation, you should still expect to see questions that are a mix of almost pure recall, some inferences based on the passage, and some tricky analysis of subtle points in the experimental procedure. The old question pack will give you an okay-ish representation (if a little light on the tricksy bits) on that front.

Finally, the verbal is the same as it ever was. The verbal question packs are very good for that and I'm highly recommending them to all of my own students.

Good luck!!

 

[ekk88]

i have been doing kaplan qbank questions and kaplan full lengths, and they seem MUCH MUCH more difficult than the practice packs..

how similar are the practice pack questions to the real thing?
how similar are Kaplan's FL's to the real thing?

Thank you!!! Yes, I found that kaplan's full length much more difficult than the official guide questions....

Why did you find kaplan's FL different? Was it purely the difficulty level of the questions, or was it the amount of detail that they expected you to know?

 

[drechie]

Official guide questions and the new aamc practice test are similar to the actual exam.

Question pack is just recycled old mcat stuff which is still good practice but not representative.

Kaplan FL is not even close. But it's still good practice nonetheless in terms of improving your test taking abilities.

i know this is probably very obvious, but where can one find the "office guide questions?" and are they free? are these different from the aamc practice test?

 

[Holmwood]

i know this is probably very obvious, but where can one find the "office guide questions?" and are they free? are these different from the aamc practice test?

You can get them with the official guide, or you can get them with just questions for 10$. There are 120 questions.
https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/prepare/

Just scroll down to MCAT2015 Online Official Guide Questions

 

[ekk88]

The question pack is kind of a mixed bag. Some of the passages are absurdly easier than the current MCAT, whereas others are a not-bad representation. If it's a passage with some confusing figures and an experiment, that's closer to the current test. If it's a simple short passage that's more easy informational-based, then that's less representative of the new exam.

The thing that's actually still fairly similar are the questions, however. If my 4/18 exam was any representation, you should still expect to see questions that are a mix of almost pure recall, some inferences based on the passage, and some tricky analysis of subtle points in the experimental procedure. The old question pack will give you an okay-ish representation (if a little light on the tricksy bits) on that front.

Finally, the verbal is the same as it ever was. The verbal question packs are very good for that and I'm highly recommending them to all of my own students.

Good luck!!

Thank you so much!!

 

[Sir.SavaLottaLife]

I've only done the two biology packs so far (86% and 91% for volume I and II respectively)
I think the other thing to remember is that the packs (with the exception of the CARS packs) only test one subject and not a whole section as they are tested. My bio Q packs are not indicative of how I'll do on the BIO & BC section of the test because the Q packs had no BC on them.
I think we get too caught up in the difficulty of material rather than the representativeness in terms of what is tested and how its tested. When it comes down to it, yes AAMC materials have a track record of being the "easiest" materials in terms of % correct but they are also the most representative of how things are tested. I can vouch that the new AAMC official guide questions have a different feel than the Q packs/ old material for sure but the test prep companies fail even more to mimic the new stuff. Yet my % correct is notably lower with TPR, kaplan, TBR, etc...

 

[ekk88]

I've only done the two biology packs so far (86% and 91% for volume I and II respectively)
I think the other thing to remember is that the packs (with the exception of the CARS packs) only test one subject and not a whole section as they are tested. My bio Q packs are not indicative of how I'll do on the BIO & BC section of the test because the Q packs had no BC on them.
I think we get too caught up in the difficulty of material rather than the representativeness in terms of what is tested and how its tested. When it comes down to it, yes AAMC materials have a track record of being the "easiest" materials in terms of % correct but they are also the most representative of how things are tested. I can vouch that the new AAMC official guide questions have a different feel than the Q packs/ old material for sure but the test prep companies fail even more to mimic the new stuff. Yet my % correct is notably lower with TPR, kaplan, TBR, etc...

thank you so much for your insight!!!

 

[drechie]

I've only done the two biology packs so far (86% and 91% for volume I and II respectively)
I think the other thing to remember is that the packs (with the exception of the CARS packs) only test one subject and not a whole section as they are tested. My bio Q packs are not indicative of how I'll do on the BIO & BC section of the test because the Q packs had no BC on them.
I think we get too caught up in the difficulty of material rather than the representativeness in terms of what is tested and how its tested. When it comes down to it, yes AAMC materials have a track record of being the "easiest" materials in terms of % correct but they are also the most representative of how things are tested. I can vouch that the new AAMC official guide questions have a different feel than the Q packs/ old material for sure but the test prep companies fail even more to mimic the new stuff. Yet my % correct is notably lower with TPR, kaplan, TBR, etc...

this seems really golden. can you expand more. what is the most representative stuff to practice on?

i want to hear more of your interesting thoughts!

 

[DesitnationMD]

All of the Q pack seems diff from the 2015 stuff, b/c they are just recycled SAP material from the old MCAT. The good nes is this has passed through the AMC filter for whats still useful on the MCAT. The cons is that there is NO biochem, NO psych/soc.

Has anyone made a compilation of how much of the old SAP made it into the Q packs?