Passages in The Official Guide to the MCAT Exam

[Dyingduck]

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Hi. I was wondering how are the passages and questions in the The Official Guide to the MCAT Exam compare to the actual MCAT and/or the AAMC practice exams??

Thanks.

 

[Salient]

It's published by the same people, so it's going to be the closest you will find. I've personally found the official practice stuff to be much more simple/conceptual and the TPR/EK stuff to be much more formulaic/memorization based.

 

[kehlsh]

It's about the closest thing to the real MCAT you will come to find .

 

[Dyingduck]

Thanks. I understand what you mean but I was wondering within the AAMC, how is the official guide's passages compare to OTHER passages from AAMC (ie the actual exam and/or AAMC FLs)?

Like...the AAMC's practice exams are known to be easier than the actual. Is this the same with the official guide's passages?

 

[Dyingduck]

up. I did some passages. They seem to be much harder than the AAMC practices (but I only did AAMC#3).


Anyone?

 

[korsian]

I would say that the BS is on par, PS and VR are slightly easier but not by much. I really like it because they provide full explanations for each question, which you can use to gain a sense of what the test maker is going for and why the "right" answer is "right."

 

[metukah]

yes, and each passage is rated as "easy, medium, hard"

 

[phonyreal98]

I was thinking of getting this. How many passages does this book have?

 

[kehlsh]

I was thinking of getting this. How many passages does this book have?

I think it has 1 FL worth of stuff with detailed explanations.

I think it's worth it~ I might give away study guide + MSAR combo to some random person because I already have them and FAP gave me a free bundle 😵.

 

[rjns11]

I was thinking of getting this. How many passages does this book have?

There are 5 passages of each subject: physics, gen chem, verbal, o'chem, and bio. I was pretty disappointed when I received it in the mail.

 

[phonyreal98]

There are 5 passages of each subject: physics, gen chem, verbal, o'chem, and bio. I was pretty disappointed when I received it in the mail.

Are there any discretes?

 

[rjns11]

Are there any discretes?

Yes, but only ~5 per subject. Minus verbal, of course.

 

[CoasterForce]

Having taken the MCAT twice I think that this book represents the real test better than anything else, INCLUDING the AAMC online exams. The passages/questions in this book reflect the recent shift toward micro-biology/genetics emphasis on the BS section, as well as to more experiment based passages. That said, I thought the VR passages on the two real MCATs were better than the AAMCs, but still not long enough when compared to the two real MCATs I've taken this year.

Also like others mentioned, their explanations of each question are very clear and helpful.