Kaplan Tests

[kiahs]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone knew how well the Kaplan practice test scores correlate with what you are really going to see on the mcat. (Specificially refering to the tests you take while you are in the class, I don't know if those are any different than the ones in their normal material) Also I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on what books really do provide you with an accurate gadge of what you can expect to see. Thanks in advance.

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[Mudd]

In another thread:

Originally posted by peterockduke
I would just like to say this test is a piece of ****. Did anyone else get an awful score but did fine on the aamc practice tests or the real one?

My friend got a 20 on his diagnostic and got a 34 on the real thing. I got a 21 and my last practice test was a 33-34. I mean I read the kap books and went over problems, but I think kaplan is simply a scam (except the supplemental tests).

A common opinion is that the scores are lower than actual scores, to make it appear that there was a significant improvement. If you can deal with this mentally, not taking the exam to indicate anything about your performance and abilities, then they are good exams.

 

[PrincetonRocks]

I didn't take the Kaplan course, but i got the practice tests from a friend. I think my total score went DOWN on the real test, but it was generally the same. Here's the break down...

-Physical Sciences: Went down a point on this section.
-Biological Sciences: Went up 2 points in this section
-Verbal: Went down a lot on the real test.

When I was practicing with Kaplan tests, my total score was around a 40-42 (on 7 practice tests...they have a total of 11 tests i think) with 13-15 on Verbal (before change of scale) and 15 on PS, but only 10-12 on BS. On the real test, I scored my personal best on BS, but went down in verbal and physical. My total score was a 38T, which is pretty close to 40....

CONCLUSION: Kaplan Practice Tests are acurate! Give or take a few points, but in order to gage your studies...assume that you will go down at least 1-2 points per section.

 

[....]

No FUK way....

Everyone does 2-3 points better on the real one than on the practice ones by kaplan. ANd your initial diagnostic should be even lower than that.

I made a 29 on the diagnostic, 31-33 on the practice tests and made 34-37 on the AAMC exams. Got 2 hours sleep before the exam and made a 35. I think i would have gotten a 37 fresh, but its all 95% percentile + anyway.

Point is, for the vast majority, unless you have WICKED test anxiety youll do much better than kplan indicates and AS well as the AAMC tests inticate.

Think about kaplans position. They make the free diagnostic hard a as hell so that people get crap scores and get motivated to take a course.
Then they engeneer their exams to get progressivly easier so that even the guy who didnt study still tells his premed buddies "kaplan increased my score by 6 pts"

Its a racket.

 

[gary5]

Originally posted by hightrump
No FUK way....

Everyone does 2-3 points better on the real one than on the practice ones by kaplan. ANd your initial diagnostic should be even lower than that.

I made a 29 on the diagnostic, 31-33 on the practice tests and made 34-37 on the AAMC exams. Got 2 hours sleep before the exam and made a 35. I think i would have gotten a 37 fresh, but its all 95% percentile + anyway.

Point is, for the vast majority, unless you have WICKED test anxiety youll do much better than kplan indicates and AS well as the AAMC tests inticate.

Think about kaplans position. They make the free diagnostic hard a as hell so that people get crap scores and get motivated to take a course.
Then they engeneer their exams to get progressivly easier so that even the guy who didnt study still tells his premed buddies "kaplan increased my score by 6 pts"

Its a racket.

I agree. I think Kaplan makes theirs harder so students feel insecure and shell out the $1500. I paid for their online QBank service and it was complete crap. I found lots of problems that had the wrong "correct" answer. There was one question that had no D answer, another where C and D both had the same answer. They hired a ****** to put it together.



I stopped using QBank and I was much happier.

 

[MeowMix]

Some people do better, some people do worse, some people do the same as their practice tests. There is a wide variation because one's results depend more on one's initial knowledge and study habits, etc. than on taking a specific course.

The most common complaint is that students drop a few points on verbal because the MCAT style is very different from Kaplan.

 

[Nutmeg]

Originally posted by gary5
I agree. I think Kaplan makes theirs harder so students feel insecure and shell out the $1500. I paid for their online QBank service and it was complete crap. I found lots of problems that had the wrong "correct" answer. There was one question that had no D answer, another where C and D both had the same answer. They hired a ****** to put it together.



I stopped using QBank and I was much happier.

I'd have to agree with this. I took one of those "free practice MCAT's" that Kaplan hosts, and bombed it so bad that I didn't manage to finish, and I was so baffled by so many of the questions, that I didn't even bother to go get my score from them. I figured they did it on purpose to scare me, so I just did my own thing to study and got a 35+ score. Kaplan can go f themselves, IMHO.

 

[Mudd]

If you were a major company who was forced to offer a money back guarantee by market pressure, and you put in a clause that if they didn't improve from a Kaplan pre-test to the actual MCAT, then they'd get their money back, then you'd probably make the scores really low and test relaly hard too. It's basic business strategy. Kaplan is a company of profit above all, so it shouldn't be that hard to believe.

Hmmm, was that a run-on sentence?

 

[deleted21595]

Originally posted by Mudd
If you were a major company who was forced to offer a money back guarantee by market pressure, and you put in a clause that if they didn't improve from a Kaplan pre-test to the actual MCAT, then they'd get their money back, then you'd probably make the scores really low and test relaly hard too. It's basic business strategy. Kaplan is a company of profit above all, so it shouldn't be that hard to believe.

Hmmm, was that a run-on sentence?

if you have real test scores you can use those as your baseline scores as well... Also remember that Princeton Review tried to match the guarantee right away... unsuccessfully. As far as I know Examkrackers would go out of business if they even tried something like this since they're so young. Its also different as far as I know because a lot their sales are retail book stuff!

How does that old saying go " Don't knock it till you've tried it". If you're gonna take a prep course you might as well guarantee your results.

oh and as far as i know, as a kaplan instructor in the field, is that the princeton review matched only one part of kaplan's guarantee, not the whole thing. All of this is irrelevant to MCAT, too, since it seems they're not as confident with their MCAT course.

One great piece of news is that examkrackers is hitting up other markets, which is pretty cool. I know their whole deal is centered around their instructors. I can't imagine that their instructors have taken their course, unless they've only been teaching for the 3 years that EKs been around. All this makes me wonder how they'll champion a course that jordan and jon made really good!

 

[deleted21595]

jeez I just realized I ramble as much as mudd does!!! you get that same feeling mudd ?