Official Kaplan Aug 2004 Thread

MCAT is Hard? Not with BeMo's 515 Score Guarantee.
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willthatsall

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Just so Kaplan people have a place to discuss their practice tests and progress. How's everyone doing?
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What's up with everybody knocking kaplan verbal tests. They say they are much easier than the real thing and whatever. How much easier can they be. Noone in my kaplan class is scoring above 11-12 range. The cut off is very steep. People really seem to be touting the Examkrackers verbal strategies also. I do not plan on studying verbal intensely for at least another two weeks. I want to have the best plan of attack though. Personally I think verbal is a waste of time. I mean who cares what some author thinks? I guess I'm just narrow minded but if its not information that I can use, I mean if its just some guys opinion about something that doesn't really interest me or matter whatsoever, I have a hard time trying to care about what I'm being told.
That being said which should I use Exam Kracker of AAMC stuff?
 
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comparitively, ek's verbal is a lot harder than kaplan. i've been getting maybe about 2-3 questions wrong here & there on kaplan, but the numbers are WAY higher than that on ek. the questions just seem a lot harder than kaplan & there's a lot more ambiguity.

i know people that have said they scored 2 points less on the real thing than what they scored in kaplan's verbal. i guess that doesn't really say much on which test is more accurate of the real thing -- kaplan's verbal curve could be screwed up, you never know. but what i'm finding is that this ek verbal good seems to be pretty good training b/c it's hard. if someone can master that, then they can do anything.

i hate verbal as well, but it's something i need to tackle b/c i don't want that score to bring me down. anyway, my advice, i'd go w/ek if you -really- want to do well on verbal. i dunno what to say about aamc though...i can be a little encouraging b/c it isn't as hard as ek, but i don't know how it compares with the real thing.
 
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I took Kaplan to prepare for the April test and found the verbal sections to be completely on. I scored 10,10,10, and 11 on my last 4 diagnostics and guess what I got!?! A 10. The funny thing though, is that I felt like the MCAT verbal had really kicked my butt because the passages were much more difficult to get through. That said, I can't have imagined getting through it with a double digit score without having had Kaplan's prep.
 
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The ones that I was speaking of are the ones that you take with your full length practice tests
 
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quick q: I know this has been asked before but I didn't see an answer anywhere....

how can we figure out the score conversion from our kap. tests to the 1-15 score? I just took a full length test and am wondering what my score is...thanks!!!!
 
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Scubadoc said:
quick q: I know this has been asked before but I didn't see an answer anywhere....

how can we figure out the score conversion from our kap. tests to the 1-15 score? I just took a full length test and am wondering what my score is...thanks!!!!
Click to expand...

Which full-length was it?
 
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silkworm said:
Has anyone done those verbal practice tests yet? I am on #8 and I find that the tests suddenly gets really hard from #7 on.
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Oh yes!!! The Kaplan full-length diagnostics are okay. I have done all five (scored 6-10), Examcrackers is harder (scored 6-8), but the extra full-length Kaplan tests that they give you.......well, I didn't take the score seriously (got a 6 on number 7, and a 5 on number 8!). They are haaaaaard. I don't think they are reflective of the real MCAT. :)
 
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Just took the first Kaplan full-length. Still reeling from the Physical Science sections, left 1.5 passages worth of questions unfinished. Still have a long way to go . . . . .
 
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Scubadoc said:
the first one....i know they will grade it next week but i would like to know now (a little impatient) :)
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If you know how many you got right I will tell you the scale. Other than that you just have to wait for the score report because they don't post the scales. Although your score report should be on the internet before you have class again, not sure if they update on weekends though.
 
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Our Kaplan manager grades our full lengths while we are at lunch. We have about 15-20 people in our class. I don't know if thats small or large comparatively but she grades the whole thing at the end and we get our scores immediately afterward. The writing sample took several days however. I can help a little with the raw scores:

Kaplan Full length #1
Physical sciences raw score 47+ scaled score =10+
Biological Sci. raw score 56+ scaled score =10+
Verbal raw score 52+ scaled score =10+ very steep after

One of my instructors said that he took it once and studied all 11 Kaplans because the AAMC practice were too easy and he got a 37 composite. This seems like the best approah from this point forward. Lots and lots of practice testing now!
 
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Thanks you two! I can't get over how steep that verbal drops off after 52...eep! Yeah I am going to just start doing as many tests as I can, going over all the anwers ad nauseum....good luck to you guys!
 
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The scores for Saturday's test should be already posted on your Kaplan personal page.

I don't know to laugh or cry about the verbal section. I finished with 10 minutes left, and I used the time poring over two questions I had doubt about. Eventually I changed the answers, but now I found out I changed the right answers to the wrong ones.

So if I had just took a nap in those last 10 minutes instead of diligently reviewing I would have scored a point higher.
 
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silkworm said:
The scores for Saturday's test should be already posted on your Kaplan personal page.

I don't know to laugh or cry about the verbal section. I finished with 10 minutes left, and I used the time poring over two questions I had doubt about. Eventually I changed the answers, but now I found out I changed the right answers to the wrong ones.

So if I had just took a nap in those last 10 minutes instead of diligently reviewing I would have scored a point higher.
Click to expand...

I just checked for my scores and they're not up yet. I was told within 48 hours by someone at the testing center where we turned our scantrons in at.

I hear you on some of the sections. PS hurt. There's no other way to put it, it just hurt. Didn't finish and wound up doing the 'could the answer be C?' routine for about 10 questions. Verbal - finished early and left it alone. It seemed too easy, so I wonder. BS - was just that. Lots of stuff we didn't cover extensively in class and somethings we were told that we didn't need to know in detail. I finished early but probably a lot due to 'could the answer be C?' type of reasoning.

Did anyone get their writing sample graded? We were told not to turn ours in as it was just 'part of the experience' and wasn't going to be graded. I've had enough 'experiences' in my lifetime, what I needed was someone to look at my writing.
 
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me too. they said we are going to do a "self-evaluation" of our writing sample next week.

i did the same thing with PS and it seems the letter of the day should have been "D" not C according to all the ones I missed. It's funny, I answered somewhere around 25 more correct on BS than PS and the scores only differed by 1. Really seems if we could rock the PS our score would be phenomenal. If only I understood physics/gen chem better. Man!
 
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willthatsall said:
Are you guys talking about Full-length 1 or 2? I just got back from taking 2.
Click to expand...

I'm talking FL#1. Anyway, I just called the center and got my scores. I actually went up two points across the board for a whopping 24. Yep, you can bet I'm waiting on a phone call from the nobel prize people for the medicine division any moment now.... NOT!!!

What do most people do - go up or down on the first full length? and how does it compare to the real thing?
 
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will: i was talking about FL1.

dave: they said at my center that a lot of people go down on the first one because they are using all those handy kaplan tips and may run out of time and so on until they are comfortable doing the tests and the tips quickly.

i went up on the first one also, but not by enough for it to get me into med school if this were the score they went by. i think doing more tests will help...practice practice practice and all that....at least, that is what i am hoping! :luck:
 
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Something interesting I observed.

At the beginning of each section, a lot of people religiously applied the Kaplan strategies. I heard a lot of underlining and furious writing, presumably, of outlines. But after two passages or so, no more sound of pencils dragging across pages, the place became deathly quiet.

When it counts, Kaplan stragtegy go flying out the window! :laugh:
 
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Scubadoc said:
will: i was talking about FL1.

dave: they said at my center that a lot of people go down on the first one because they are using all those handy kaplan tips and may run out of time and so on until they are comfortable doing the tests and the tips quickly.

i went up on the first one also, but not by enough for it to get me into med school if this were the score they went by. i think doing more tests will help...practice practice practice and all that....at least, that is what i am hoping! :luck:
Click to expand...

Yeah, they told us the same thing about scores going down, but I think they just made the first test pretty hard. The PS especially, that was crazy. The 2nd full-length PS was definitely easier, at least you could get through the whole thing this time. Verbal and Bio seemed about the same. Does anyone have the the scoring scale for full-length 2? If so, would you mind telling me the ranges from 10-15?
 
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willthatsall said:
Yeah, they told us the same thing about scores going down, but I think they just made the first test pretty hard. The PS especially, that was crazy. The 2nd full-length PS was definitely easier, at least you could get through the whole thing this time. Verbal and Bio seemed about the same. Does anyone have the the scoring scale for full-length 2? If so, would you mind telling me the ranges from 10-15?
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear you thought the PS was ridiculous. I didn't finish it & that really bothered me. Finished both verbal and bio also. Hopefully I will see an increase in my score on FL 2
 
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Scubadoc said:
I'm glad to hear you thought the PS was ridiculous. I didn't finish it & that really bothered me. Finished both verbal and bio also. Hopefully I will see an increase in my score on FL 2
Click to expand...

I took forever on a couple passages early in the PS on full length 1 (the soil passage comes to mind) and I ended up having to guess on about 15-20 questions from 50-70. I told myself that I was going to give up sooner if I had trouble early on for this test so I would at least be able to finish because on #1 I had to skip so many questions that I could have gotten right it really hurt my score. This time, I ended up pacing myself much better and I only had to skip like 2 questions and go back to finish them and I was able to work through all the passages. Maybe the scoring scale will be a little more strict on this test, but I definitely did MUCH better. The best advice I think is if you haven't figured out an answer within a minute or so, just leave it and come back. As long as you follow that, you will have time to come back to it after you finish working through all the ones you know. Because if you think about it, most of the ones you get right you probably have answered within 30 seconds or so. The ones that take you forever are the ones that you end up missing anyway. Also, I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but the science sections have had 11 passages in them. I thought it was supposed to be only 10?
 
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That soil passage was a killer. It had 7 questions, I missed 6. The one I got right was the result of a blind guess.

I have a question on #49 of physical science section. The explanation says the true rate = k * 0.05 * 49.50, not k * 50. I can understand the 49.5, but why do we need to multiply by 0.05?
 
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Because the limiting reagent, i guess E in this case, reduced by 50%. i.e from 0.1 mole to 0.05 mole. It is alos given that it is a second order reaction, so both reactants were considered for the rate.
So Rate = K [E] [C] = K 0.05*49.05

For Pseudo first order, Rate = K * 50 * [E]. C is kept const at 50. casue it is in excess. And we were supposed to figure out this crazy logic hidden in the passsage....


Best,
Scout
 
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I am trying to find the Organic Chemistry Topical test on the website. It's a test that exist on the master check-list but I can't find it. Can someone tell me which session it's under? Thanks.

I don't like the design of their website, everytime trying to find something is a Easter Egg hunt.
 
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silkworm said:
I am trying to find the Organic Chemistry Topical test on the website. It's a test that exist on the master check-list but I can't find it. Can someone tell me which session it's under? Thanks.

I don't like the design of their website, everytime trying to find something is a Easter Egg hunt.
Click to expand...
It should be under the suggested assignments in bio 3.

And yeah, i don't like the way they designed this stuff either. It's such a pain. There are also a couple misprinted lesson books (like mine, arrrgh) where some of the preview & review assignments didn't match up with what was given online. Needless to say, it was a headache trying to find my actual assignments & trying to figure out what to do prior to some of my classes.

Sometimes Kaplan surprises me...
 
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I hear people bashing Kaplan strategies, well that is analagous to bashing Shak's (Lakers basketball player) three point shooting..... he has none.

Kaplan lecture courses and strategies are uselees IMO unless you are lacking in background in the basic sciences. To give credit to Kaplan they have to fill their 3 hours with something... Anyway, Kaplan is great because of its outrageous high number of practice items, including all the ones offered by the AAMC.

If we did a poll about how people learned and improved their MCAT scores significantly, most people would say by doing a bunch of problems. I am not just saying this from personal experience but from SDNers comments.

No other prep course compares in the amount of practice material

and IMO EK is as useful as Kaplan lectures.
 
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It is Shaq, not Shak. What do you mean Kaplan doesn't have strategies? They do have strategies that they teach in the course and that is why we discuss how useful they are. A lot of people have already said they think the most useful part of the course is the abundance of material. I'm not sure what your point is.
 
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The PS was ridiculous - I didn't get to three whole passages! But I still scored a 9 on it, one point from a 10.

My pchem is pathetic. I can't titrate 100ml of OH- with 100ml of H+. I need to work on P Chem.

I've also heard conflicting things about the Kaplan VR. Some people think it's easier than the MCAT, some think it's harder. I would hope it's slightly harder - not immensely so but more difficult IMO would better prepare me for test day. I want all of these practice tests to be hard. Toughens the skin. :)
 
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i just took full length 1 on saturday....seems no ones answered hte big question yet though of how accuratly these scores reflect the real thing.

and that damn soil passage...i don't think it makes any sense even after reading the explanations a few times. it tripped me up and i ended up doing the last passage and the discretes in all of about 20 seconds.

besides that passage though, is it me or did a lot of the PS passages seem easy. or i shouldn't say easy, but not giving any information really. like the spring passage, the last one, there was no info that you shouldn't already have memorized right? is this how the real mcat passages are? thanks
 
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acepoint said:
i just took full length 1 on saturday....seems no ones answered hte big question yet though of how accuratly these scores reflect the real thing.

and that damn soil passage...i don't think it makes any sense even after reading the explanations a few times. it tripped me up and i ended up doing the last passage and the discretes in all of about 20 seconds.

besides that passage though, is it me or did a lot of the PS passages seem easy. or i shouldn't say easy, but not giving any information really. like the spring passage, the last one, there was no info that you shouldn't already have memorized right? is this how the real mcat passages are? thanks
Click to expand...

Check this thread out. A lot of people took Kaplan and included their scores. Kinda gives you an idea of how the scores relate to the real thing.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=128666&highlight=practice+test+real+mcat
 
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Hi, I'm enrolled in Kaplan this summer but I also have two jobs and am so busy. I was just wondering which parts you guys thought were the most helpful, ie topical tests, subject tests, aamc tests, etc.....please help....
i havent started studying yet and I know I should be
 
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I thought Kaplan's FL1's PS section was ridiculous - but then I got an 11 on it. My BS went from a 10 diagnostic to a 8 on this one, but my VR went from an 8 to a 10. Now if I can get the best from each....
 
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Yeah the PS was tough, but the scale was lenient. FL 2 seems to be the exact opposite. Not hard to get through, but much more strict on the scoring.
 
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Abe said:
i made a 23 on diagnostic, the verbal seemed insanely easy to me, the Ek packages in 101 were raping me, but the kaplan ones seem to be easier. I had 10 minutes left on that verbal diagnostic, which i know wont happen on the real mcat =o.
Click to expand...


whst is Ek?
 
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I've been studying chemistry, physics and o-chem but I've neglected bio and verbal. I'm wondering if there is enough time left before we take the test to learn the important concepts in bio and practice some of the verbal passages or should I start to prioritize and make sacrifices now?
Anybody else in this same predicament?
I mean how will it look if you want to go to med school and your bio knowledge is weak?
 
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anyone have the score conversions for full lengths 6-11? How can I get it?

Thanks
 
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No, but i did take the course before. I never used exams 6-11 is there a way to get the score conversions? I dont need anything else.

Thanks
 
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Have anyone taken Full Length 6? I took it and there are a couple of biology questions I couldn't make sense of even after reading the explanations. I would appreciate it if we can compare notes on it.
 
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Hi,

I see that Kaplan doesn't cover Lympahtic and Immune Systems but EK does. Do the Kaplan instructors address this in class? Its quite a detailed topic...I don't want to spend time on it unless Kaplan recommends that we do. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Scout
 
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raom_dtpi said:
Hi,

I see that Kaplan doesn't cover Lympahtic and Immune Systems but EK does. Do the Kaplan instructors address this in class? Its quite a detailed topic...I don't want to spend time on it unless Kaplan recommends that we do. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Scout
Click to expand...

Kaplan did cover the lymphatic & immune system (ie B-cells, T-cells, antigens & antibodies). There wasn't a whole chapter on it, but it was discussed somewhere in one chapter, I forget which one. It was pretty basic though. There were also workshops & practice passages on it too. So yeah, I guess I would know it...
 
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strangelight said:
Kaplan did cover the lymphatic & immune system (ie B-cells, T-cells, antigens & antibodies). There wasn't a whole chapter on it, but it was discussed somewhere in one chapter, I forget which one. It was pretty basic though. There were also workshops & practice passages on it too. So yeah, I guess I would know it...
Click to expand...

Thanks! I found it in the book!

Scout
 
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I have taken FL 6 and I have score conversion charts if someone needs them. What were those questions on FL 6?
 
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willthatsall said:
I have taken FL 6 and I have score conversion charts if someone needs them. What were those questions on FL 6?
Click to expand...

#206

The answer says for Ob2 there must be a defect in the leptin metabolic pathway because it's response curve is different from the wild-type, therefore answer D. But I thought it was just as possible that a different pathway is responsible for the phenotype of Ob2, since the passage didn't say that leptin pathway is the only one that control obesity and food-intake.
 
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Well, I think the thing they are asking you to notice is this: Both the Ob1 mice and the Ob2 mice are morbidly obese. The second paragraph explains that Ob1 mice synthesize nonfunctional leptin protein. The graphs show that when leptin is administered to the mice, Ob1 become normal but Ob2 show no change. Also, notice in the third paragraph that it explains that "leptin exerts its effects by binding to its receptor in the hypothalamus and activating a series of reactions that..." So, knowing all of those things I think the most reasonable explanation is definitely "D" a defect in the gene coding for the leptin receptor. I agree that it is possible that it is the result of a defect in an unrelated pathway, but given the information in the passage and the fact that the possibility of other pathways is not mentioned, D is pretty obvious.
 
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