Official practice exams are NOTHING like the actual exam thread

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Saturnine

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At least the science sections aren't.

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i agree, it was a waste of time and they made me way too overconfidant. maybe i would have studied harder if i didnt think it was going to be similar to the aamc's
 
i agree, this was like princeton a-d, completely uncalled for, can only hope for a good curve now
 
Hmm. I would say that the practice exams weren't much different in difficulty, but were a lot different in content. Every practice exam had a bunch of fluids questions, whereas mine had 1. Every practice exam had 2 optics questions, I don't think I had any. Every practice exam had like 40% ochem, mine (AG) had like .. ugh .. 20%, if that. And they were ******edly easy ochem questions too (ooh, the dreaded Sn1 mechanism). I was counting on my years of ochem lab work. 😛
 
dilated said:
Hmm. I would say that the practice exams weren't much different in difficulty, but were a lot different in content. Every practice exam had a bunch of fluids questions, whereas mine had 1. Every practice exam had 2 optics questions, I don't think I had any. Every practice exam had like 40% ochem, mine (AG) had like .. ugh .. 20%, if that. And they were ******edly easy ochem questions too (ooh, the dreaded Sn1 mechanism). I was counting on my years of ochem lab work. 😛


I was absolutely thrilled that there were no mirrors/lenses on my test. However, I did have some refraction and Internal reflection problems. But those are doable without memorizing the virtual/upright/real/inverted crap.
 
truth is practice tests are easier...kaplan PS was harder IMO...actually Kaplan practice tests were pretty tough...toughens u up...princeton=easier...AAMC8=slightly easier...dont sweat it..everyone feels ****ed..and if u dont then u probably did fantastic..
 
MoonShiNe said:
Got back-stabbed by PS, and I felt ****ty through out the exam.. 😡

I second that. The PS for any of the AAMC exams is totally unlike the PS we had. Hell...they surpassed TPR A-D and more along the lines of KAPLAN. Praying for a very very generous curve...add 8 points 😡 .
 
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Saturnine said:
At least the science sections aren't.

I hear ya! That was some tough ish 😱

s'all over now, tho, and we can finally get back to resting a bit!! Imagine all that anxiousness we had last night!!! POOF. *elation*

Good job everyone!
 
I used to talk up how great Examkracker tests are. I stand corrected: they are nothing like the real thing.
 
gluon999 said:
haha, I actually think the Kaplan PS for FL 1-5 was easier than the PS on today's MCAT.

yeah seriously

PS = assume the position
 
I got a 12 on PS for AAMC-7 damnit, I thought I was ready...
...and now I'm worried I got 8 or 9 on the real thing... gawd, what a nightmare 🙁
 
PS will screw me over methinks! i really wasnt prepared enough.,...its kinda disappointed because i did practice alot...oh well.......lets see what happens......BS and Verbal were fine... :scared:
 
Well, i just came back from the ER and got the stitches for my ass from unrelenting butt rape PS gave me. Anyone else getting stitches, or better yet, staples in their ass after todays exam from ps?
 
Really, for charging $40 a pop, you would think that AAMC would make their practice MCAT more indicative of the real thing. Not that I really paid for them.. :meanie:

I even feel like they intentionally made the real MCAT tougher, so that students would have to pay them $200 again to retake it.

AAMC knew damn well that their practice tests are nothing like the ones they are using today. Cause they are definitely reusing the same test forms (the ones we had today) over and over for recent years. I mean there is no way that they are making so many different test forms for each MCAT. So they knew that test takers would not get any test like 3R-8R. Despite this fact, they started selling 8R recently only to make us feel like the real MCAT is gonna be like this new practice material they are endorsing.... Their ways of making money really make me feel 😡
 
I feel violated by the PS section. I was thinking about voiding it after the PS section. Nothing that I studied showed up. Thanks aamc for taking my money. I think that the PS section screwed me, and I may be retaking the test in august.
 
Edited: decided to repost this in another thread titled, "What was on your MCAT" or something like that.
 
Kiroro said:
Really, for charging $40 a pop, you would think that AAMC would make their practice MCAT more indicative of the real thing. Not that I really paid for them.. :meanie:

I even feel like they intentionally made the real MCAT tougher, so that students would have to pay them $200 again to retake it.

AAMC knew damn well that their practice tests are nothing like the ones they are using today. Cause they are definitely reusing the same test forms (the ones we had today) over and over for recent years. I mean there is no way that they are making so many different test forms for each MCAT. So they knew that test takers would not get any test like 3R-8R. Despite this fact, they started selling 8R recently only to make us feel like the real MCAT is gonna be like this new practice material they are endorsing.... Their ways of making money really make me feel 😡
I agree with this. I don't mind a hard test, but come AAMC folks...you just released 8 and the PS section I had today was a world (hell) away from anything I have had on a practice test. What a waste of my money.
 
I took this test april 2004, and honestly, the real test was NOT like the practice exams, but.... I got the same OVERALL score on both the real and the practice.
 
I thought that the real test had both more difficult and more easy questions, and fewer that were in the middle.... The easy ones didn't make up for all of the hard ones though! :scared:


samnite said:
I was absolutely thrilled that there were no mirrors/lenses on my test.
I was hoping for a mirrors one. We actually skipped that section when I went through physics (class running behind the syllabus) but I studied it a lot as a result. I reviewed them again on Thurs. & Fri. and felt pretty good about it...
 
SailCrazy said:
I was hoping for a mirrors one. We actually skipped that section when I went through physics (class running behind the syllabus) but I studied it a lot as a result. I reviewed them again on Thurs. & Fri. and felt pretty good about it...
Same here. That was the very last thing I spent time reviewing Friday. Don't know why I found that so important at the last minute. I guess because EK devoted a fair amount if space to the topic. 🙁
 
dilated said:
Hmm. I would say that the practice exams weren't much different in difficulty, but were a lot different in content. Every practice exam had a bunch of fluids questions, whereas mine had 1. Every practice exam had 2 optics questions, I don't think I had any. Every practice exam had like 40% ochem, mine (AG) had like .. ugh .. 20%, if that. And they were ******edly easy ochem questions too (ooh, the dreaded Sn1 mechanism). I was counting on my years of ochem lab work. 😛

omg you're lucky in my book, I had form FM and it was like 75% orgo, and super hard orgo like I never even saw when I was taking the class. I'm great at bio but there wasn't nearly enough to pull my score up to near where I was getting on practice tests
 
Kiroro said:
I even feel like they intentionally made the real MCAT tougher, so that students would have to pay them $200 again to retake it.
This is a very paranoid statement and it makes no sense. It's on a curve. The same percentage of April 2005 test takers will be happy or unhappy with their scores as in every other administration.

I think many people here are exaggerating the difficulty of this in their minds. When you took practice tests you probably didn't feel like your whole life was riding on them, and you probably didn't sit there without looking at the answers, obssessing over eveything you might have gotten wrong for days. Even for questions you weren't sure about, you probably were able to eliminate some of the wrong answers and you probably got a fair number of them right. Try to relax.
 
Yeah, my PS scores were 11-13 and usually I'd finish with like 20 minutes to review. On the real thing I had 5 extra minutes and now I'm hoping for an 8 or 9.

Depressing.
 
I agree. The PS sections on the official aamc tests were nothing like the real thing. I felt very confident on most of the questions when I took the practice exams, but I was lost when I took the real one. I am hoping for 9 now and was originally expecting an 11-12. Verbal was more difficult too. The question stems seemed much longer and I ran out of time. I never ran out of time on the practice tests. BS was pretty close, but the real test also required more in depth thinking on this section. Overall I felt the test was much harder than the practice exams.
 
I looked to see what was posted on the August 2004 MCAT and the April 2004 MCAT and basically I'm seeing the same posts about the AAMC practice tests not being as difficult as the actual exam, actual MCAT tending to concentrate on certain topics, and of course some of those same people are contributing to the 30+ MCAT thread. Most of the 30+ MCAT'ers agree that taking the AAMC exams are the best way to prep for the MCAT and get an indication of where you'll score.

I don't think a lot changed for the April 2005 MCAT so good luck everyone.
 
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