Kaplan Biological Sciences too easy?

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I was just wondering what you guys thought about the Kaplan practice tests in terms of the BS section. They just seem a little easy on the bio to me...compared to Princeton at least.

Is Kaplan bio generally a lot easier than what you'll see on test day? I don't want to practice with stuff thats not as hard as the real deal.
 
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From what I have heard, Kaplan is easier than Princeton Review in general. I'm not sure of any specifics though. I do believe I remember seeing that the Kaplan bio was not very good though.
 
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Maygyver said:
From what I have heard, Kaplan is easier than Princeton Review in general. I'm not sure of any specifics though. I do believe I remember seeing that the Kaplan bio was not very good though.
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um no, Kaplan Bio is the best. It is passage based like the real deal. TPR is harder because they are more detailed and have a harder curve. Their BS isn't like the real thing. Kaplan's BS section requires you to extract material from passages. Where did you get this info? It's Kaplan's verbal that is off and their PS is full of calculations which depends on the exam. Some exams have lots of math and others are more conceptual. Finally, Alaska is one of the few people who find Kaplan BS easy.
 
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TheBoondocks said:
um no, Kaplan Bio is the best. It is passage based like the real deal. TPR is harder because they are more detailed and have a harder curve. Their BS isn't like the real thing. Kaplan's BS section requires you to extract material from passages. Where did you get this info? It's Kaplan's verbal that is off and their PS is full of calculations which depends on the exam. Some exams have lots of math and others are more conceptual. Finally, Alaska is one of the few people who find Kaplan BS easy.
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Well it's not like its SO easy...just compared to Princetons test it was IMO. I basically just memorized all of EK Biology and it made the Kaplan BS so much easier.

Thats good news the real thing is the same style as Kaplan...the Princeton stuff makes me depressed haha
 
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TheBoondocks said:
um no, Kaplan Bio is the best. It is passage based like the real deal. TPR is harder because they are more detailed and have a harder curve. Their BS isn't like the real thing. Kaplan's BS section requires you to extract material from passages. Where did you get this info? It's Kaplan's verbal that is off and their PS is full of calculations which depends on the exam. Some exams have lots of math and others are more conceptual. Finally, Alaska is one of the few people who find Kaplan BS easy.
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Sorry, I must have confused them. No need to be extremely rude though.
 
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Kaplan I think is harder than aamc. Especially the physical sciences. I took a kaplan exam yesterday and it was rediculous some of the calculations I had to do, it felt more like a math test than a test of knowledge/critical thinking.
 
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doxycycline said:
Kaplan I think is harder than aamc. Especially the physical sciences. I took a kaplan exam yesterday and it was rediculous some of the calculations I had to do, it felt more like a math test than a test of knowledge/critical thinking.
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The AAMC tests are definitely better written than those from Kaplan. Also, there doesn't seem to be too much math involved on the AAMC exams, and you can do a lot of it without actually memorizing equations. I took a Kaplan exam last week after going through most of the AAMC tests, and the Kaplan test seemed much harder. I scored about the same as on AAMC, but Kaplan has a very generous curve.
 
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TooMuchResearch said:
I scored about the same as on AAMC, but Kaplan has a very generous curve.
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Kaplan's curve is ridiculous for physics- but for Verbal and Bio I don't think so. For verbal a 35/40 is a 10...that's graded harder than the AAMC ones by far. For BS its almost exactly the same..missing 12 is a 10 et.

But the physics curve is laughable!
 
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Alaska21 said:
Kaplan's curve is ridiculous for physics- but for Verbal and Bio I don't think so. For verbal a 35/40 is a 10...that's graded harder than the AAMC ones by far. For BS its almost exactly the same..missing 12 is a 10 et.

But the physics curve is laughable!
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I seem to recall missing 8 or 9 on the last Kaplan BS and getting a 13. Some of their curves are more ridiculous than others.
 
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the curves for Kaplan are the way they are because the FLs are usually harder than the real MCAT/AAMC practice ones. I took many of both and got pretty much the same score for Kaplan tests and AAMC tests. I found the BS on Kaplan to be about the same as AAMC/ Verbal harder for Kaplan (but still got same score)/ and PS harder for Kaplan (still got same score). Don't just look at the curves. I was concerned too until I took some AAMC tests.
 
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Alaska21 said:
Well it's not like its SO easy...just compared to Princetons test it was IMO. I basically just memorized all of EK Biology and it made the Kaplan BS so much easier.

Thats good news the real thing is the same style as Kaplan...the Princeton stuff makes me depressed haha
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We have a winner. EK Bio is conceptual in nature. Consequently, after going through it, you're ability to attack passages is greatly improved. The BS section is more reasoning based. The fact you're getting used to this bodes well for you. Someone in the 30+ section noted how EK materials helped him take Kaplan tests more than Kaplan books:laugh:
 
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I'm happy to see this thread. I've been listening to the EK Audio Osmosis for a while now and went through the books once. Now I'm going through them again in more detail with my prereqs done and am using Kaplan along side with it. I use EK as my main book and then after I'm done with a lecture, I read the related stuff in Kaplan. I find that I can get through a Kaplan chapter in 15 min or so with very little questions. Can't wait to start taking the tests now.
 
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Kaplan Bio is the best. It is passage based like the real deal.... Kaplan's BS section requires you to extract material from passages.
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Yes I think Kaplan BS passages are very very reflective of the real MCAT.

As far as content review, EK Biology is amazing. It is better written than Kaplan Bio by far in my opinion.
 
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