Next practice exam to take?

[themetalhawk]

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So it's starting to get down to the wire and I am starting to wonder how to best budget my time in term of practice exams. I am signed up for th 29th (and plan to keep it that way, if at all possible). The first practice exam I took was AAMC9, and I got a 12B 11P 10V. My TPRH instructor recommended that I take a TPR next. I did, and got a 11B 8P 7V (and R for the essays). Honestly, I was dead tired while taking both exams, particularly the second one... which is why I think I did best in bio. By that time, I had woken up. & I think I'll be moving my test back a day so that I take it at 1pm instead of 8am...

But anyways, the next practice exam I was going to take is TPR2. My instructors told me the TPR exams are more difficult than the AAMC exams, but are more like the actual MCAT exams. Is this a good idea? Should I take another AAMC exam first? I plan on taking 5 more practice exams, if possible. Which ones should I look to take?

 

[CodeBlu]

Honestly, I do not think the TPR exams are more like the actual MCAT.

If you're already doing AAMC exams. Stick with those. They are better for verbal, and especially for physical science. The biology may be a bit different on the test currently, with more of a focus on genetics etc. But it all depends on what you get.

The Princeton tests are a bit outlandish in terms of the questions they're asking sometimes. Way too calculation intensive that TPR stuff. I prepped Princeton the first time I wrote the beast and got an 8 in PS, 11 VR and 11 Bio. That 11 in bio would have been a 12 or a 13 if I hadn't messed up 3 or 4 questions on a passage due to some serious stupidity on my part.

The 8 in PS I attribute to my lack of physical intuition, the PS felt more like a verbal reasoning exam with some calculation of molarity and one calculation on period and wave frequency interspersed in there. So generally... I would focus on concepts and understanding what stuff like pH = 1/2pKa- 1/2 log [HA] means, instead of memorizing the formula and that's it.

 

[themetalhawk]

Honestly, I do not think the TPR exams are more like the actual MCAT.

If you're already doing AAMC exams. Stick with those. They are better for verbal, and especially for physical science. The biology may be a bit different on the test currently, with more of a focus on genetics etc. But it all depends on what you get.

The Princeton tests are a bit outlandish in terms of the questions they're asking sometimes. Way too calculation intensive that TPR stuff. I prepped Princeton the first time I wrote the beast and got an 8 in PS, 11 VR and 11 Bio. That 11 in bio would have been a 12 or a 13 if I hadn't messed up 3 or 4 questions on a passage due to some serious stupidity on my part.

The 8 in PS I attribute to my lack of physical intuition, the PS felt more like a verbal reasoning exam with some calculation of molarity and one calculation on period and wave frequency interspersed in there. So generally... I would focus on concepts and understanding what stuff like pH = 1/2pKa- 1/2 log [HA] means, instead of memorizing the formula and that's it.

Okay, thanks for the advice. I just want to clarify a point you are making, though. You're saying the actual MCAT PS has a lot of concept based questions on it, as oppose to calculations? And what is that equation, a variation of Henderson-Hasselbach?

 

[SN2ed]

Okay, thanks for the advice. I just want to clarify a point you are making, though. You're saying the actual MCAT PS has a lot of concept based questions on it, as oppose to calculations? And what is that equation, a variation of Henderson-Hasselbach?

Usually the MCAT is more concept focused. That said, you could get a calculation heavy MCAT. You never know what they'll give you. Remember to round like crazy and prepare yourself for either style of exam.