Kaplan Practice: Close to the Real Deal?

[mac921]

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I just took my first Kaplan full length. I was shocked to see how difficult and complicated the PS section was. I took a TPR free diagnostic exam over the summer, and I didn't find it nearly as hard. I felt entirely lost in most of the passages. How close dose Kaplan's full lengths parallel the actual MCAT? I'm particularly interested in physical sciences and verbal. I was planning to save the AAMC practice materials for the last month. I just want to make sure I am tayloring my studying now toward the nature of the real MCAT.

 

[willthatsall]

I just took my first Kaplan full length. I was shocked to see how difficult and complicated the PS section was. I took a TPR free diagnostic exam over the summer, and I didn't find it nearly as hard. I felt entirely lost in most of the passages. How close dose Kaplan's full lengths parallel the actual MCAT? I'm particularly interested in physical sciences and verbal. I was planning to save the AAMC practice materials for the last month. I just want to make sure I am tayloring my studying now toward the nature of the real MCAT.

I think the real MCAT is somewhere in between the Kaplan full lengths and the AAMC tests. The AAMC test PS sections were pretty easy and I finished them without being too pressed for time, while the Kaplan full-lengths were much harder and I usually had to race through the PS section and skip some that I couldn't figure out in order to finish in time. The real test was pretty difficult and there were a couple I had to skip without being sure if I understood, but the passages were not as long and complicated as the ones on the Kaplan tests. I would advise taking both the Kaplan and the AAMC practice tests because even though the Kaplan PS was a little harder than the real thing for the most part, I was definitely glad I had seen it because it kind of relaxed me when I saw that the real thing was tougher than the AAMC tests.

 

[fahimaz7]

Kaplan's PS section has you do 40+ math problems. the real mcat made me do <10 calculations.

I felt it was way different than the real deal.

Scott

 

[premedgeek]

Kaplan PS is harder than real deal.

However, Kaplan Verbal and BS were definitely easier than real test.

 

[gujuDoc]

Most test prep companies, in general, taylor their MCAT practice tests to be slightly harder than the real deal to push you harder. However, if you do well on them then you should do a lot better on the real MCAT.\

Also, the real MCAT may have a lot of math or very little math depending on the form.

My form did not require any real math.

However, my friend had a form that had a ton of math.

So it all depends.

Just know everything to the best of your ability, be confident, and practice.

With time and confidence I'm sure you can do it.

Also, I take TPR but I know from friends who took Kaplan, they said their score was consistent with the Kaplan scores in many ways.

For instance, a guy I knew got 34's on his Kaplan diags but a 33 on his real deal. Several other people in my area said that their final score was + or - a few points from their kaplan score ranges.

 

[willthatsall]

The amount of calculations on the real MCAT PS might vary slightly from form to form, but there will never be nearly as many calculations required as there are on the Kaplan MCATs.

 

[docchick]

My Kaplan test scores were 5 points below the real deal - the verbal section was esp. off...so don't get discouraged!

 

[clenny]

I'm just curious as to what you guys mean when you say something is "harder." Are you just saying the test itself was harder or that the scale was harder? For example, some of you said that Kaplan PS was harder than the real deal, does that mean you got a higher score on the real deal or does that mean you just thought the material itself was harder and that Kaplan accounted for the harder test pretty well with their scale?

 

[gujuDoc]

I'm just curious as to what you guys mean when you say something is "harder." Are you just saying the test itself was harder or that the scale was harder? For example, some of you said that Kaplan PS was harder than the real deal, does that mean you got a higher score on the real deal or does that mean you just thought the material itself was harder and that Kaplan accounted for the harder test pretty well with their scale?

The test, because generally there is no bell curve on diagnostics, just a scale that they use which is similar to that of which is used on the old practice MCATs from AAMC.

But the questions and test itself is harder on a lot of diags then the real deal.