NS vs Kaplan Full-Lenghts

[YITB536]

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Hey guys,

So I recently took Kaplan FL 1 and NS FL 2 within the past 3 days.

Kaplan FL 1
Chem/Phys: 122
Cars: 125
Bio/Biochem: 125
Psych/Soc: 125
Overall: 496

NS FL 1
Chem/Phys: 123
Cars: 125
Bio/Biochem: 128
Psych/Soc: 125
Overall: 501

I did the Kaplan FL on Saturday and the NS today. I did little to no content review since Saturday, so I was quite pleased with the improvement. Apart from being a lot more level headed when I took the NS FL, I felt that their passages were less convoluted and a lot more manageable to digest. I don't necessarily want to say NS was easier, but I didn't experience a "WTF is this talking about" moment that I had with Kaplan.

If anyone would be so kind to offer some commentary, feedback, etc I will gladly appreciate it!

 

[ElectricNoogie]

HI @YITB536 !

Nice job on the practice tests. I'm glad you find our exams helpful. We work hard to ensure they are difficult without being obtuse, clever in the way the AAMC likes to be. While any score improvement is good, with the quick turnaround between exams you want to take a closer look at the changes.

If I am reading this correctly, your Chem/Phys went up by 1 point, CARS and Psych/Soc stayed the same, and the Bio/biochem increased by 3. A 497 vs a 501.

The Chem/phys could be just do to random fluctuation as each FL exam you take will be slightly different. Were there any topics you saw on the NS exam that were repeated from the Kaplan exam?

The bio/biochem improvement is worth looking at. Compare the score reports of the exams side by side. Was there any topic tested on Kaplan that wasn't on NS? If so, did that topic lead to mistakes that help explain the difference? Review your mistakes to see if they were MCAT related (the WTF moment you mentioned) or simply due to a lack of content knowledge. This will help you know what to do next.

In the future I would definitely avoid taking FL exams so close together. With scores in the high 490s and low 500, you want to take your time reviewing all the Qs you got wrong and any Qs you guessed on as well. You want to determine what topics you should review and/or what strategies (timing, reading, Qs, pacing) you should tweak. This can take a good 2 days alone and then you want to implement these lessons in homework before you jump into the next FL exam.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[nomdeplume1234]

yea I wonder if the scores are made up or if they correlate with other people who have taken the practice test or what.

 

[YITB536]

HI @YITB536 !

Nice job on the practice tests. I'm glad you find our exams helpful. We work hard to ensure they are difficult without being obtuse, clever in the way the AAMC likes to be. While any score improvement is good, with the quick turnaround between exams you want to take a closer look at the changes.

If I am reading this correctly, your Chem/Phys went up by 1 point, CARS and Psych/Soc stayed the same, and the Bio/biochem increased by 3. A 497 vs a 501.

The Chem/phys could be just do to random fluctuation as each FL exam you take will be slightly different. Were there any topics you saw on the NS exam that were repeated from the Kaplan exam?

The bio/biochem improvement is worth looking at. Compare the score reports of the exams side by side. Was there any topic tested on Kaplan that wasn't on NS? If so, did that topic lead to mistakes that help explain the difference? Review your mistakes to see if they were MCAT related (the WTF moment you mentioned) or simply due to a lack of content knowledge. This will help you know what to do next.

In the future I would definitely avoid taking FL exams so close together. With scores in the high 490s and low 500, you want to take your time reviewing all the Qs you got wrong and any Qs you guessed on as well. You want to determine what topics you should review and/or what strategies (timing, reading, Qs, pacing) you should tweak. This can take a good 2 days alone and then you want to implement these lessons in homework before you jump into the next FL exam.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Oh wow... Thank you so much for the thorough response/feedback! In terms of content background, Bio/Biochem and CARS are the only two sections I’m absolutely comfortable and seeing great progress in. In Psych/Soc I’m seeing good progress, I just need to invest more time with it. Chem/Phys on the other hand…….. It’s going so bad. And yes, that is putting it lightly.


I feel like I went through the content review pretty thoroughly. I did 3-4 passages at the end of each chapter, but I still unfortunately caught a lot of “WTF is this” moments.


I’m scheduled for September 23, So I’m getting incredibly nervous. Hope you can offer some insight!


Content Review: BR series (2014) supplemented with EK series (2015)

Content Review start day: July 10