MCAT Practice Scores are Inconsistent

[Groggs]

I am currently preparing to take the MCAT in January. The first two practice exams I took were Kaplan FL 1 and Kaplan FL 2. I got a 509 on the first and 511 on the second. I wanted to see if I could do well on another companies' tests as well, so I took the Princeton Review demo and only scored a 502. This was a huge decrease in score that is really concerning me. I have mainly used Kaplan's books to study and am concerned I may only be prepared for their tests and not the real MCAT. I was mostly wondering how much I should look into scores on practice exams and if they are a decent indicator of how I will perform on the real exam.

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[NextStepTutor_3]

At this point, I wouldn't be worried if I were you. Different companies have different scoring scales, and it's very typical to see a score drop when switching to a new company's tests. One deviant score certainly isn't enough to warrant panic, especially considering that score improvement is rarely linear, even on exams from the same company. 509-511 on Kaplan exams is also a very solid place to be considering that you're still 2 months out from your test date.

That being said, there are students who perform significantly better on one particular company's exams than on AAMC material or other tests. Luckily, there are a bunch of things you can do to make sure you have as realistic an idea of where you are as possible:

- Try a variety of practice exams. One TPR exam isn't enough information - maybe you just had a bad day, or maybe that particular test happened to ask about all of your weak topics. You have plenty of time, and many companies offer free tests or other resources.

- Supplement with AAMC practice (especially the Section Bank). Try to alternate AAMC and non-AAMC material as often as possible, and review everything about the AAMC practice. Getting accustomed to AAMC wording and style is extremely valuable, and if you do well on these passages, it'll boost your confidence that you are where you think you are in terms of score.

- Isolate exactly why your score dropped on the TPR test. Did you do anything differently from your typical approach to a Kaplan test? Did wording/passage style/etc. throw you off? Or did you approach the test normally, but happened to run into topics that gave you trouble? This can be a great way to get to know yourself anyway.

If you do all of these things, you should be in a good place. And the short answer to your question is yes - scored practice tests should be a good indicator of your score on the real exam, but individual students and tests definitely vary. Luckily, now the AAMC has two official scored exams that you can use to predict your score closer to your test date.

Good luck 🙂

 

[Groggs]

At this point, I wouldn't be worried if I were you. Different companies have different scoring scales, and it's very typical to see a score drop when switching to a new company's tests. One deviant score certainly isn't enough to warrant panic, especially considering that score improvement is rarely linear, even on exams from the same company. 509-511 on Kaplan exams is also a very solid place to be considering that you're still 2 months out from your test date.

That being said, there are students who perform significantly better on one particular company's exams than on AAMC material or other tests. Luckily, there are a bunch of things you can do to make sure you have as realistic an idea of where you are as possible:

- Try a variety of practice exams. One TPR exam isn't enough information - maybe you just had a bad day, or maybe that particular test happened to ask about all of your weak topics. You have plenty of time, and many companies offer free tests or other resources.

- Supplement with AAMC practice (especially the Section Bank). Try to alternate AAMC and non-AAMC material as often as possible, and review everything about the AAMC practice. Getting accustomed to AAMC wording and style is extremely valuable, and if you do well on these passages, it'll boost your confidence that you are where you think you are in terms of score.

- Isolate exactly why your score dropped on the TPR test. Did you do anything differently from your typical approach to a Kaplan test? Did wording/passage style/etc. throw you off? Or did you approach the test normally, but happened to run into topics that gave you trouble? This can be a great way to get to know yourself anyway.

If you do all of these things, you should be in a good place. And the short answer to your question is yes - scored practice tests should be a good indicator of your score on the real exam, but individual students and tests definitely vary. Luckily, now the AAMC has two official scored exams that you can use to predict your score closer to your test date.

Good luck 🙂

Thanks so much. I just recently took the Next Step full length 1 and scored a 512. I really thought the lay out and wording of the Next Step passages made more sense than others I have done. Planning on buying several more.

 

[Thoth]

Thanks so much. I just recently took the Next Step full length 1 and scored a 512. I really thought the lay out and wording of the Next Step passages made more sense than others I have done. Planning on buying several more.

Don't fall into the trap of buying more of one company's because you're doing better on them.