Kaplan practice tests DO prepare you well

[HussainGQ]

I took the KAPLAN course and I believe that the practice tests did help in a way. see I took all 5 full-lenghts in the weeks leading up to the test,Plus I took 3 of them on my own. I know for the very first Full-Lenght that I was a wreck (1st time doing it, could not imagine spending 8 hrs taking a freqin test), but after the 2nd one, it almost became second nature to me, you know got me in the mode of taking this thing). Even though you can take these full-lenghts on your own(which I took 3 of).............. I honestly felt a huge difference in between taking this test on your own, and in an actual test-taking situation(which Kaplan and Princeton provide). Plus, those 5 full lenghts prepared me psychologically, I kept telling myself that hey, "I am just taking another practice, I have allready taken five of these, so one more is not going to kill me." If Sat. was the 1st time that I was taking a full-lenght in that type of setting, I prolly would have broken down

Verbal and Bio were both pretty tough compared to Kaplans full-lenght, but I was prety confident going in to it, because I had all been in that situation five times before, and that confidence boost cantake you a long way my friends believe me.

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[Elastase]

Did Kaplan pay you to do post that? Sure sounds like it....
I took Kaplan, and yes it is good (not to mention that it costs an arm and a leg)...but it does not reflect the real test at all. The verbal was completely different than Kaplans, especially the difficulty level. The bio was very different as well because Kaplan give you about 2 bio experiment passage, whereas the real on almost all the bio is based on an experiment and you have to reason it out and not just memorize facts. The physics by far is much easier on the real thing. I was getting 38-42/77 on the Kaplan physics (scales are easier too), but on the AAMC test I was getting over 55/77. Even the real thing was much easier than kaplans...especially time-wise because I barely finished Kaplan's tests but on the AAMC i always had time to go back and check answers.

Kaplan is good...but you have to use a combo of things to achieve a high score (such as real AAMC tests and ExamKrackers verbal 101).

 

[HussainGQ]

Thats the good thing about Kaplan my friend......it is harder than the real freqin thing.......Would you have prefered Kaplan to be easier than the real thing??WOuld you like one of your professor to give you simple straightforward notes that a five year old could understand, but then give you a test with all kinds of crazy stuff?? Its good that they prepare you with all that stuff that they provide................ again, confidence is half the game(maybe even more) on a test like the MCAT. And I do believe that the Kaplan material gave me that confidence...... and no they did not pay me, I paid there greedy asses 1400 some odd bucks!

 

[fahimaz7]

Man, every test is different. For some people it's going to be good prep.. For other it isn't. That's just the chance that you take when you have a test like the MCAT to prepare for.

Scott

 

[05med05]

When Kaplan gave me their sales pitch, I asked them if there was some way to just purchase the right to use all of their exams, questions, etc. They replied that I had to buy their whole course. I also contacted TPR and they said that I could spend $1000 or so and get 10 'private tutor' sessions, but that was the only way, other than enroling in a course, that I could access their online resources (I'm assuming there were exams, quesitons, etc)

If I end up rewriting, I'll probably spend most of my time just doing practice questions.

I know its all about applying what you know to many often incomprehensible passages, but how else??

Is there any other way to get my hands on just exams / questions??? I've used up most of the AAMC resources, except 5R and 7R.

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

I took the KAPLAN course and I believe that the practice tests did help in a way. see I took all 5 full-lenghts in the weeks leading up to the test,Plus I took 3 of them on my own. I know for the very first Full-Lenght that I was a wreck (1st time doing it, could not imagine spending 8 hrs taking a freqin test), but after the 2nd one, it almost became second nature to me, you know got me in the mode of taking this thing). Even though you can take these full-lenghts on your own(which I took 3 of).............. I honestly felt a huge difference in between taking this test on your own, and in an actual test-taking situation(which Kaplan and Princeton provide). Plus, those 5 full lenghts prepared me psychologically, I kept telling myself that hey, "I am just taking another practice, I have allready taken five of these, so one more is not going to kill me." If Sat. was the 1st time that I was taking a full-lenght in that type of setting, I prolly would have broken down

Verbal and Bio were both pretty tough compared to Kaplans full-lenght, but I was prety confident going in to it, because I had all been in that situation five times before, and that confidence boost cantake you a long way my friends believe me.

ur insane... im sorry i haveto vent
i took every kaplan test except Fl#8 and 11r
and i didnt feel ready
kaplan fls were easy ..esp the stand alones..many of the passage PS were easy plug and chugs..u just needed the right formula..too bad the real day didnt play the same game

 

[Jon Davis]

I agree with Diesel.

They have been getting away with murder for too long. Their tests are obsolete, but then again, if they have lines of naive kids ready to hand over a thousand bucks, it isnt much of a motivation to revamp their stuff.
I personally think prep companies are all a bunch of bull. Their tests are only good to time yourself during a full length. Thats it. Otherwise, its not really representative. IMHO.

I am a big supporter of going through all your textbooks again and doing the homework. I look at the prep companies as a sort of a quick fix, to help you learn just enough for the test.
The only animal that you have to use practice tests for is VR. Thats the only exception.

 

[05med05]

Interesting how everyone has their own views on the difficulty of the questions...Kaplan's were easy vs Kaplan's were waayy harder. Same with AAMC practice vs the real thing.

On that note, I heard the EK and Gold Standard questions were harder on average, but except for EK's 1001 question books, which I heard were EASIER.

I personally found the real thing to be a mix of both easy and difficult, especially VR. Man there were some big a++ss complicated passages, but it seemed that every really complicated one was followed by an easier one. And that is probably the only reason I almost finished verbal, only filling in about three or four blanks at the end

Can't say the same for PS though.

 

[Magu]

I took the KAPLAN course and I believe that the practice tests did help in a way. see I took all 5 full-lenghts in the weeks leading up to the test,Plus I took 3 of them on my own. I know for the very first Full-Lenght that I was a wreck (1st time doing it, could not imagine spending 8 hrs taking a freqin test), but after the 2nd one, it almost became second nature to me, you know got me in the mode of taking this thing). Even though you can take these full-lenghts on your own(which I took 3 of).............. I honestly felt a huge difference in between taking this test on your own, and in an actual test-taking situation(which Kaplan and Princeton provide). Plus, those 5 full lenghts prepared me psychologically, I kept telling myself that hey, "I am just taking another practice, I have allready taken five of these, so one more is not going to kill me." If Sat. was the 1st time that I was taking a full-lenght in that type of setting, I prolly would have broken down

Verbal and Bio were both pretty tough compared to Kaplans full-lenght, but I was prety confident going in to it, because I had all been in that situation five times before, and that confidence boost cantake you a long way my friends believe me.

tool

 

[HussainGQ]

This test was all about confidence people, which I had none on that 1st day that I took the diagnostic. However, after going through all the vast material that Kaplan offers, I had that confidence in me. And yes, even still some of the stuff on the real thingwas more challenging then expected (like the freqin limestone passage in V.R on version CN), but I felt confident in just about all of my answers. And like I said before, I treated the real thing as if I was going to the Kaplan center(which is across the street from the test center) to take another practice full-lenght.

So as we can see, it comes down to confidence people, That is more important than knowing the difference between the sympathetic nervous system and the Parasympathetic(which one does what now ). And after going through all the crap from Kaplan (literally spending the whole night at the library going through their junk), I was ready.

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

u know
ur not the only person who spend their time in library lofts without bathing this summer * looks arround at all of sdn * ahahhaaaaaa
but really
i feel for what i put in and the 9 pt overall improvent off krappylane's 28 diagnostic i walked out saturday with getting my ass smacked

 

[morganlefay]

I took Kaplan's practice tests in the workbooks that I got from a bookstore, and I think they prepared me well....however, what do you all think about retaking a practice test that you've already taken in April when preparing for the first MCAT? I took a Kaplan practice before the August exam, and got a good score, but I dont know how significant it'll be as a marker b/c I've "seen" it before. I mean, it's not like I memorized the thing, but you get the idea. Any thoughts?

 

[willthatsall]

People get pretty ridiculous about this stuff. I will always believe that Kaplan is what you make of it. It definitely taught me a lot of stuff, but certainly not everything that I saw on my test. I think people have a tendency to forget about all the stuff Kaplan taught them and just focus on the questions that they didn't learn in Kaplan. Did you really expect Kaplan to teach you everything that might end up on the MCAT? This is a test that covers 4 years of undergrad coursework. I definitely agree that there were some things on the MCAT that I hadn't encountered in Kaplan, but I still feel like Kaplan helped in a lot of areas. People have too high of expectations and then cry like little kids when they aren't totally prepared and blame it on Kaplan or TPR or whatever course they took.

 

[Clemson Doc]

I was very pleased with my Kaplan experience. Yes, it's expensive, but you also get a lot of classroom time and the most comprehensive practice items available. As willthatsall stated, the Kaplan course is what you make of it.

I went to every class but one, did every single topical and subject test Kaplan has, as well as almost all of the AAMC practice items. I took the five Kaplan proctored tests, as well as another Kaplan full-length and two AAMC full-lengths. Guess what? None of those things were exactly like the MCAT. That's okay, because I've prepped for this stupid test enough to know that nobody's materials capture the MCAT essence. That's why it's the MCAT.

 

[05med05]

Of course,

The mcat is about applying what you have learned. If it was all just regurgitation, then what would really be the point of the test in the first place??

 

[45408]

This is a test that covers 4 years of undergrad coursework.

It took you four years?


Anyways, I don't see how you could be unprepared after having taken Kaplan's course, because I didn't see hardly anything on test day that didn't look at least reasonably familiar.

 

[willthatsall]

It took you four years?

Yeah I thought about that, but four years total if you think of it as one year each of gen chem, bio, organic, and physics. Kaplan's test weren't all that similar to the real thing in some respects, but there was tons of other material and it covered a lot of other topics. I'm not saying Kaplan is the best thing I've ever done, but I think it helped and it is ridiculous how many people cry about how mad they are at Kaplan.

 

[shad420w]

All I have to say is that most Kaplan tests were easier than the princeton tests...... My friends and I who took kaplan tests felt they were a little too easy and not representative of the AAMCs. JUST MY OPINION! NOT STATING FACTS! But I would say that princeton prepared me well ( I HOPE ! ) because it gave me in class passages, out of class workbook passages and questions, and practice tests that were all harder than the real mcat stuff.

I say go Princeton Review

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

Yeah I thought about that, but four years total if you think of it as one year each of gen chem, bio, organic, and physics. Kaplan's test weren't all that similar to the real thing in some respects, but there was tons of other material and it covered a lot of other topics. I'm not saying Kaplan is the best thing I've ever done, but I think it helped and it is ridiculous how many people cry about how mad they are at Kaplan.

i agree it is WHAT YOU MAKEOF IT
but the OP sounds like kaplan gave him the seed of knowledge or some majic pill
and then went on as if we have not put any effort
i dont care bah
kaplan is ok ...but its not my momma or god or some kind of mcat-drug

 

[Mistress S]

I took Kaplan's practice tests in the workbooks that I got from a bookstore, and I think they prepared me well....however, what do you all think about retaking a practice test that you've already taken in April when preparing for the first MCAT? I took a Kaplan practice before the August exam, and got a good score, but I dont know how significant it'll be as a marker b/c I've "seen" it before. I mean, it's not like I memorized the thing, but you get the idea. Any thoughts?

Hey morganlefay,

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me--I had also taken a Kaplan full-length from a store-bought workbook a year ago, then when I took the course this summer there were passages from it on one of their full-lengths! I scored 2-3 points higher on that test than I did on the other practice tests (got a 34 on that one when I was usually getting 31-32). I think it is still good experience just to practice but don't put a lot of faith in your scores on a test you have taken before, it may or may not be an accurate representation of how you're really doing as familiarity with the passages can give you a (possibly unconscious) advantage.

 

[morganlefay]

Hey MistressS,

Thanks for the reply. I guess all I can do now is wait! I'm hoping I'll get a 30-31 and be set! Good luck to you too.