Official AAMC Material. Not even that good?

[KoalaT]

---

Members don't see this ad.

So I have all the AAMC material and have done almost all of it now. Here are my thoughts and I want to hear yours too if you've actually done it.

**I'm yet to take the sample test and practice exam.

The Biology Volume 1, Chemistry, and Physics sections are stupid easy. They are extremely short passages with very few questions and it's almost a joke. I finish with like 30+ extra minutes of time and got a much higher score than would be expected. Also, I recognized a ton of these passages from when I studied for the old MCAT in 2014. I'm pretty sure they just rehashed a bunch of old material and stuck it in here.

The CARs volume 1 section A was a bit of a beating. I thought it was very realistic to a real verbal section. The second part, part b, was ridiculously easy. Once again, finishing with tons of extra time and a score I wish I could get on the real MCAT CARs.

The section bank (biology, phys/chem, and psych/soc) were WAAAAY harder than the other individual volumes. It was extremely biochemical focused, very passage analysis based, and seemed to include all the things people have reported about the new MCAT (lots of amino acids, very little physics, lab analysis, experiments, etc).

Here's my thoughts. All the individual section volumes (The question packs) are nothing more than rehashed old crap that is ridiculously easy and is most likely nothing like what you will experiences on test day (if it is, awesome. It's super freakn easy). The section bank and possible CARs is the only material so far that seems to actually be new material that they tried to make like the new exam.

What do y'all think?

**Edit: I took the Sample test today (the non-graded one). It was very very similar to the section bank material, except I got better grades ha. The section bank material is a great example of what kind of passages to expect.

 

[Wolfpack93]

Nice humble brag

 

[ambitiousMED]

I think the section banks are incredibly hard too but a friend of mine took the MCAT last September and said it was really easy compared to the Kaplan ones (Kaplan has a pretty good balance of experiment based etc. not like Section Bank at all)

 

[KoalaT]

Nice humble brag

Lol not intended... Did you not think the volumes were that easy? I feel like if you new the concepts, you could get all these correct with little to no interpretation of the passages.

I took out all the percentages and just made my point.

 

[Ryomagoku]

So I have all the AAMC material and have done almost all of it now. Here are my thoughts and I want to hear yours too if you've actually done it.

**I'm yet to take the sample test and practice exam.

The Biology Volume 1, Chemistry, and Physics sections are stupid easy. They are extremely short passages with very few questions and it's almost a joke. I finish with like 30+ extra minutes of time and got 110/120 (92%) correct, which on a real MCAT would be phenomenal. Also, I recognized a ton of these passages from when I studied for the old MCAT in 2014. I'm pretty sure they just rehashed a bunch of old material and stuck it in here.

The CARs volume 1 section A was a bit of a beating (74%). I thought it was very realistic to a real verbal section. The second part, part b, was ridiculously easy. Once again, finishing with tons of extra time and a 90%.

The section bank (biology, phys/chem, and psych/soc) were WAAAAY harder than the other individual volumes. It was extremely biochemical focused, very passage analysis based, and seemed to include all the things people have reported about the new MCAT (lots of amino acids, very little physics, lab analysis, experiments, etc).

Here's my thoughts. All the individual section volumes are nothing more than rehashed old crap that is ridiculously easy and is most likely nothing like what you will experiences on test day (if it is, awesome. It's super freakn easy). The section bank and possible CARs is the only material so far that seems to actually be new material that they tried to make like the new exam.

What do y'all think?

If you lurked through, the general consensus is that section bank is more representative of the real deal. And section bank came out after the qpack.
Cars is known to be hard as eff

 

[Wolfpack93]

Lol not intended... Did you not think the volumes were that easy? I felt like anyone could get 90%+ on those..

Are you taling about the question packs? I haven't taken them yet. I actually haven't taken any AAMC stuff yet but I plan on doing them soon. I might not waste the $75 on those of they're not representative though.

 

[eteshoe]

Lol not intended... Did you not think the volumes were that easy? I felt like anyone could get 90%+ on those..

Even avg joe right off the street?

 

[Astra]

Lol not intended... Did you not think the volumes were that easy? I felt like anyone could get 90%+ on those..

Yea... That is sorta condescending. I got 90% right myself, but don't assume stuff

 

[aldol16]

Don't feed the troll. If he/she is not a troll, then I do feel very sorry for the future medical profession.

If you are doing well on the Section Bank, that's a good sign because that's what the MCAT is angling towards - data-driven passages. Medicine is becoming more and more data-driven and so it makes sense that they will emphasize being able to interpret figures and data on the new MCAT. With regard to this, Khan Academy is a good resource for biological and psych data passages. There have been several pre-meds I have encountered on here who refuse to believe this - they believe that simply memorizing everything will get them a good score on the MCAT. Maybe that got them through Orgo, but the new MCAT is more data-driven and seems to be going towards the Section Bank-style questions rather than QPack questions. So my advice is to, if you haven't already, keep up with the current literature in your field so you get good practice interpreting data, and focus on reasoning rather than memorization.

 

[KoalaT]

Are you taling about the question packs? I haven't taken them yet. I actually haven't taken any AAMC stuff yet but I plan on doing them soon. I might not waste the $75 on those of they're not representative though.

What I mean is the Biology Volume 1, Biology Volume 2, Chemistry, and Physics packs. Which I guess are the question packs? The section banks I thought were great and far more representative of the material. Like Aldol said, it's far more data driven.

The questions packs were just extremely straight forward. It was like 1-2 paragraph passages with no major data analysis or concepts you haven't studied in your prep material. The section banks passages, on the other hand, were complex biochem material that you've never heard of that require you to apply your outside concepts and data analysis.

I mean if you have money to blow it will help you solidify basic formulas and concepts, but what I'm saying is I really don't think it's realistic or what you should expect on the real deal.

 

[aldol16]

The questions packs were just extremely straight forward. It was like 1-2 paragraph passages with no major data analysis or concepts you haven't studied in your prep material. The section banks passages, on the other hand, were complex biochem material that you've never heard of that require you to apply your outside concepts and data analysis.

So the idea behind the QPacks was to choose the topics that are most relevant to the new MCAT. So what that means is that it provides good content review-sort knowledge and it's good for patching up areas you're not good in. On the real MCAT, you're expected to have that knowledge but also to apply it in new situations. That's the crucial step that most pre-meds miss in their classes. Knowing the material won't get you anywhere. It'll get you a few points on the discrete questions but otherwise you're screwed if you can't reason. So the QPacks are actually a good measure of where you're expected to start your reasoning from.

Now, the Section Bank passages are more difficult to students because of the reasoning aspect. You can actually use that to see if you memorized more in undergrad or if you used reasoning more. If you did the latter, it shouldn't be crazy difficult for you. If you did memorize too much as a strategy, that's where you'll see it. So at that point, you should know which areas you need to focus on - content knowledge or reasoning ability.

 

[EverStriving]

Are you taling about the question packs? I haven't taken them yet. I actually haven't taken any AAMC stuff yet but I plan on doing them soon. I might not waste the $75 on those of they're not representative though.

I think the question banks are good to work through first, to solidify concepts and go through the first round of identifying and addressing weaknesses. That being said, they are questions drawn from pre-2015 MCATs, so they are not of the new style and focus, even if AAMC selected them as still being relevant to the new test. Official guide, sample test, practice test, and section bank are much more representative of what to expect, as they were created from scratch specifically for the new test.

All the AAMC materials are useful as long as you know the correct utilization of each, and continue to systematically identify and address weaknesses as you move through the practice material. For example, I would recommend the following progression:

1) Official guide questions - To prime you with an idea of the style of the MCAT questions, and ease you into the timing with a half-length test.
1b) Fully address any weaknesses that are identified from the official guide questions before moving on. Supplementary materials like EK 1001's subject-specific questions can be useful here.
2) Question packs - Split into 2 pseudo tests by taking 60 questions per section for all the sections. You will have 120 bio questions left over; use them as needed. Save volume 2 of CARS to use along with the section bank later.
2b) Fully address any weaknesses after each pseudo test before moving on to the next pseudo test.
3) Sample test - This should give you a good sense of how you're coming along in your preparation. It would also be good to start focusing on timing at this point.
3b) Fully address any weaknesses identified.
4) Section Bank - Split into 2 pseudo tests, using 50 questions from each of the sections for each test. Reduce the allotted time accordingly. Add 60 questions from CARS volume 2 question pack onto each pseudo test.
4b) You know what to do.
5) Scored Practice test - This will serve as the green-light or red-light to taking the real test. If you aren't satisfied with the score you receive here, then move on to company practice tests.

All in all, for $188 you get the equivalent of about 6 top-quality full-length tests from just the AAMC practice materials.