Kaplan Verbal - Like the Real MCAT?

[cardmagi]

I took the Kaplan class last year. During the course, I was a whiz at their verbal.

However, doing some of their verbal passages from the verbal book, I am literally getting my butt kicked. Alot of the passages are really out there and the answer choices/questions are so vague.

I took a look at some of the AAMC tests and they seem alot more straightforward. Which one can I expect this on the real MCAT?

I know you guys are talking about new longer passages on the MCAT. Do you think its just a longer version of the AAMC passages, or the Kaplan passages?

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[Barfalamule]

Longer version of the AAMC. Just ask yourself who makes the test. I am always surprised by how much stock people place in Kaplan, as if they make the test. Well, they dont, and their verbal is particularly bad. There is a whole process by which the questions in an MCAT are tested-serious quality control. When I took a Kaplan test, it was riddled with errors. If their quality control is that bad, then what does that say about the accuracy of the test? Verbal would seem to me to be particularly troublesome to match in quality. EK101 does a pretty good job.

 

[futuredoctor10]

For what it is worth, even though my AAMC & Kaplan verbal scores have been consistent, although I felt like both tests were markedly different. AAMC tends to ask very broad/general questions testing main idea/inferences whereas Kaplan asks more specific/passage-based questions.

And of course, the real MCAT more similarly reflects AAMC exams - at least in terms of Verbal.
(Some people have been saying the PS was more like Kaplan than AAMC on their summer dates)

 

[amar21]

Kaplan verbal is ****!

Not that i've done any AAMC passages yet, but just doing a few verbal ones from kaplan here and there you can tell how vague the answer choices are... a lot of their answers can be contested!

 

[StayingSteady]

For what it is worth, even though my AAMC & Kaplan verbal scores have been consistent, although I felt like both tests were markedly different. AAMC tends to ask very broad/general questions testing main idea/inferences whereas Kaplan asks more specific/passage-based questions.

So after taking a couple Kaplan VR tests, I have to say I agree with you about it being specific. I mean, I read the passage and get a pretty good general understanding of it, but then when I get to the questions it seems like my general understanding is not nearly enough, that I have to go back and reread portions of the passage VERY slowly and take note of e v e r y s i n g l e word because Kaplan tends to ask very detail-oriented questions. In the process I lose a lot of time and I just feel like the questions are way too specific for the time constraints.

However, just flipping through my new EK101 book I can see that the question styles are completely different and are actually a lot more general (asking for the general purpose and such).

Is this kind of what you were talking about? It's really confusing me why I'm having such a hard time finishing the VR passages, even though I feel like i understand them pretty well...