Hey, I was wondering if anyone out there has ever taken Kaplan's full length practice MCAT #1, which I took today. I was wondering if so, if you've taken the real MCAT, which one was harder. The physical science section of this Kaplan test was.....impossible. The biological sciences I would handle just fine. Also, anyone who has taken the real MCAT and Kaplan, let me know what you would think of a comparison between Kaplan's physical science sections and the real MCAT. I think Kaplan's may be way to hard. Thanks
I took the Kaplan half-length practice test in my freshman year. I didn't know any orgo, and hardly any bio, and I scored a 6 on the bio section. However, PS was by far the easiest of the three sections. I scored a 14. (I was a major physics and math geek in high school, i.e., I had done Ap physics, calc and chem... actually I stil am a physics and math geek... hehe) As for it being comparable to the real thing, I thought the BS section was a lot harder than it should've been, and the PS a lot easier than it should've been... But then again, I've never had a problem with the PS section in any of the practice passages/tests I've done so far, so I could be all wrong. Just my 2 cents... I think it's all relative...
I too took the Kaplan full length #1 today. I also thought the physical science section was next to impossible as did others. I haven't taken the "real" MCAT yet, but I can't see it being much harder. "Building a Foundation" --Coach Alford tough loss today---ouch!!
Thanks for the replies. I've taken the AAMC Practice Test 1, which was made in 1990, (so its probably outdated) but I did very well on that and only had a few problems wrong on both the physical science section of it and the biological sciences. I did talk to a Kaplan instructor aboutr the discrepencies I saw in the AAMC practice test and in the Kaplan tests. He did admit that Kaplan makes them more challenging to prepare you for the real MCAT and to make you think that the real MCAT is easy when you take it. The biological science section on the Kaplan Test #1 was reasonable though today. So, I'm not sure. I was able to answer all the biology questions and just missed a few organic chem questions on solubility in NaOH and NaHCO3, but who knows. I'm going to keep it in my mind that the MCAT will be impossible, and study for it that way. Just a thought........ (my $0.02) Mossjoh
Mossjoh...I definitely agree with ya in telling yourself the MCAT is going to be impossible. I'm in TPR and have loads of practice exams, two of which the instructors told me were impossible for them to finish (and these guys got 40's and above). So, today a friend and I woke up early and tried one of the forbidden tests. Of course we did horribly and it was an embarrasment, but I think it's worth being humbled for. Good luck, sdm
hi mossjoh, i took the first full-length a few weeks ago, and here's just a portion of the conversion chart for that exam: . . 32-36 8 37-42 9 43-47 10 48-53 11 54-58 12 59-64 13 65-69 14 70 + 15 amazing, huh? you could get more than 30 wrong and still achieve a 9 for this section. i guess this just shows you that the difficulty of the exam may not necessarily hurt you. wasabi [This message has been edited by wasabi (edited 02-25-2001).]
Food for thought: It wasn't that the sections on the real test were harder than what appeared in the practice test, IMHO they were different. The practice test expect you to know a lot more formulas than the actual test (not that you didn't have to know the formulas) which was more theory based. Not even AAMC 4 was close to what I saw on the actual exam. And bio on the real one had TONS more organic chem than ANY practice test I took. Not easy stuff either, although most could be narrowed back to the basics but the passages were VERY difficult. Hope that helps. SEEK TRUTH -- MAAT
