Is there such thing as too many full lengths?

[Jlaw]

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I finished a 3 month Kaplan class last month and now I am planning how to spend the last 1.5 months until I take the MCAT on July 16th. Through the Kaplan class I have access to all of the Kaplan full lengths and all of the AAMC full lengths in CBT format. Including the diagnostic I think its something like 21 tests.

For those who have been through this, how many full lengths did you take and do you feel like it was too much or too little? If you are scoring close to your goal should you back off with the full lengths or do more? I'm going to supplement the full lengths by completing the rest of the Kaplan resources and also working through the EK101/1001 books so I have no shortage of prep material.

 

[raltima07]

I took about 12 and I think that was a lot but if I had more I would have taken them

 

[LLB2MD]

I'm doin em all. My MCAT is on July 6th and I am now starting to get results I would be happy with (KAPLAN FL7 = 33). I intend to try my best to increase this score and to establish consistency so that I am as confident as I can be going into the test. Also I am doing 2 full-lengths/week to avoid burning out - which I sort of did early on when i was doing 3/week (first 2 weeks of full-time study) - and to provide adequate time to work on weak areas between tests.

 

[Gnomes]

There is no such thing as too many full length practice exams, unless you go broke or are fatiguing yourself doing them the day before your real MCAT 🙂

 

[kehlsh]

There is no such thing as too many full length practice exams, unless you go broke or are fatiguing yourself doing them the day before your real MCAT 🙂

truth

 

[SN2ed]

You have too many FLs if you don't have the time to fully utilize them and/or you take so many in a short period of time that you burn out.

 

[Jlaw]

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I'm going to basically aim to take two per week until the test. If I get to 3 weeks out and feel like that isn't enough I'll bump it up a notch and finish all 21.

 

[music2doc]

Too many would be enough to burn you out or go broke. Honestly, I wouldn't take more than 10-15. If you're not improving within the first 5-10, I think you should take a look at what you might be doing wrong. I was scoring consistently within 2 half-length tests (Kaplan diags -- 27 & 29 respectively at about the midpoint of studying 1 week apart) and 1 FL practice test (Kap 1 -- 33 -- taken at about 75% through content review). After Kap 1, I scored 3 35s and a 37 on Kaplan (2-5) and 34-40 on AAMC (7-11). Everyone learns at a different pace, but once you get used to the way you're being tested, not much is likely to change in my experience.

 

[epsilonprodigy]

I made the fairly tough decision to eliminate a few of the FL's that I had, because I know myself well enough to know that I'll insist I'm not burned out, be gung-ho about putting in a series of back to back full-lengths... and then scare the **** out of myself when I don't perform up to standard on day 5.

I think most pre-meds are not always in tune with their own physical and mental saturation points.. I know I'm not. When deciding how much you can do and still reap maximal benefits, look at your past patterns (such as the circumstances surrounding a random low score in the past) and try to fix your schedule accordingly.

 

[Swagster]

There is no such thing as too many full length practice exams, unless you go broke or are fatiguing yourself doing them the day before your real MCAT 🙂

I disagree. There is such a thing as taking too many FLs when you don't give yourself time to do a full post-exam analysis and completely review the exam. Doing 21 exams in 21 days would be way too much.

I also think you need to consider the quality of the exams. Doing seven good exams, seven average exams, and seven bad exams won't help you as much as doing seven good exams and taking the time to learn from your mistakes.

I plan to take ten FLs and only take the very best exams (five AAMC and five BR).