Kaplan v AAMC practice tests

[Pembleton]

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Just to confirm: the Kaplan tests are a lot more rigorous than the AAMC tests? Right?

I can barely finish the Kaplan tests. And I usually wind up getting almost half wrong on PS. But on the AAMC tests, I've scored a 9 and a 11 on PS.

 

[newyorkcougar]

I have to say that the Kaplan and Princeton Review tests did not very well represent the actual MCAT. The nature of the questions on my practice tests was quite different from my actual MCAT. My actual MCAT score was 33R (10 p, 11 b, 12 v) but my Kaplan and Princeton scores jumped all around. The best apporximations are the MCAT practice tests on the AAMC website...they are actual MCAT questions lifted from real MCATs. The frist one you can take for free. Good luck!

 

[FrogE7]

Just to confirm: the Kaplan tests are a lot more rigorous than the AAMC tests? Right?

I can barely finish the Kaplan tests. And I usually wind up getting almost half wrong on PS. But on the AAMC tests, I've scored a 9 and a 11 on PS.

they are definately different. but so is the curve. the aamc curve is a lot different from the kaplan one. thats actually whats hurting me and to be honest, i was doing better on kaplan then aamc. i am actually debating taking the test saturday. i went from 10s on kaplan to 8s on aamc.

 

[Pembleton]

I was going to take one more Kaplan test before the exam. But I get so frustrated with them I'm afraid the frustration might carry over to the real thing.

 

[Clemson Doc]

I think that the AAMC exams are a lot easier than Kaplan full-lengths, at least on the PS and BS sections. In fact, I had a little trouble adjusting to the AAMC question style and grading scale because I was trying to read too much into the questions (as you have to with some of Kaplan's stuff).

Kaplan full-length scores (in order): 28, 31, 32, 28, 27

I got concerned about the downward trend so I took AAMC 7 last Wednesday: 8 PS, 8 VR, 10 BS

I thought PS was fairly easy, but I realized that you can't miss nearly as many. Verbal really put a scare into me. I was freaking out at that point.

Yesterday, I took AAMC 6R. I made a 32 (11 PS, 11 VR, 10 BS) and that was without having time to finish PS or VR - I had to bubble in three or four random answers at the end of both and didn't even get to fully read the last VR passage. I was one question away from a 12 in PS, and two questions away from a 12 in VR.

I say all that because I was questioning whether I should even take the exam this Saturday, mostly due to my downward trend on Kaplan exams and a poor performance on AAMC 7. I realized after going over AAMC 7 that I made some dumb mistakes and even misread a few questions. Take AAMC 6R (or even AAMC 6 if your center doesn't have 6R, because it's exactly the same as 6R except for 5 more verbal questions). I think it will boost your confidence like it did mine, and give you a good idea of your score on Saturday since many people had similar scores on 6R and the actual exam in April.

 

[Pembleton]

Good advice. I'm taking 6R tomorrow and I hope to do well.

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

agreed kaplan PS...miss 30 get a 10..aamc..miss more than 10 u go to HELL 🙁

 

[silkworm]

My impression:
For PS, Kaplan harder. VR: AAMC harder. BS: About the same.
But because of the difference in curves I usually score around the same.

The caveat is that everyone's impression is pretty subjective. What's difficult to one person may be relative easy to another and vice versa. That's why you see some people claiming this particular test was easy while another arise to say "Are you crazy?"