practice exam scores

[nutterbutter1]

with a little less that 3 weeks to ago. what are some people scoring on their practice exams and how much do you expect to improve from now until the exam. i just took full length 3 with kaplan last weekend and have 2 official full lengths remaining in the course.

and for those who already took the kaplan course in the past, what were you scores on the 5 full lengths and how did they compare with your actual performance on the real thing. responses from those who took the april 03 exam are especially appreciated. thanks for your responses.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[futuredo32]

I took the MCAT last year and for a lot of us, the scores rose from those on our practice tests at KAplan. If you haven't yet taken any of the AMCAS practice exams, I would strongly suggest taking at least one of the later ones because they seemed a lot more representative of the actual MCAT than did those from Kaplan.
Good LUCK!

 

[MeowMix]

There are some good recent posts on here with people's scores on full-lengths, AAMCs, and the real thing. Take a look at those. You will see that people's scores on the real MCAT may be very similar to their practice test scores, higher, or lower. It really varies.

I teach a Kaplan class of 10 students:
- 3 have not yet broken 25 on any full-length.
- 3 have scored over 30 on at least 1 Kaplan full-length, plus at least 1 AAMC full-length
- 4 are getting between 25 and 29 on their full-lengths.
All my students' scores are going up each week.

At this point, I do not tell anyone that they should not write the test in 2 weeks; it's a decision that each person has to make for themselves. I do tell them that it can be very demoralizing to score in the low 20s and have to go back and do it again. I tell them to find out what their top-choice schools will do with multiple MCAT scores (average? best score? most recent score?). I encourage the low-20s people to carefully analyze their wrong answers and figure out whether their target score is a realistic goal for improvement in 2 weeks. In general, these are the students who are used to doing a last-minute push when they study. They haven't done much of the preview reading or the homework.

The people who are consistently scoring over 30, are the ones who are doing a LOT of homework and going over ALL their wrong answers to figure out where they need to focus their attention.

I agree that you must take at least one AAMC; there are differences in all sections in question style and difficulty, and passage style. You can always ask to do this instead of a Kaplan full-length on Saturday. Try VI, the most recent one.

 

[menemotxi]

I am currently enrolled in a Kaplan course, and I've taken full length #1 in class, and #6 and #7 on my own. My scores have been 33, 32, and 33 respectively. I go over the wrong answers as soon as I get the results back. Then I study and do some problems relating to the ones I missed.

Hopefully my next full-lengths will be a little higher, since I have been studying things I missed. I've been studying since early May like it's my job. By the time my Kaplan class started in June, I had read all the books. Then I started doing practice tests like a madman. I've done every topical test, most of the full length verbal passages they offer (there's like 13), and I plan on taking Kaplan tests #8 and #9, as well as one of the AAMC tests.
I've also got two full lengths this weekend and next weekend during class.

From all that I've read, most people seem to go up anywhere from 1-3 points on the real thing. Then again some people do get lower. Some people get nervous and choke, others get a form that has a lot of material that they are weak in. Hopefully you'll get lucky on the real thing and get stuff you know. I just thought I'd share my experiences with you.

Good luck on this horrible test. I gonna get really drunk the night of the 16, or maybe the early evening. Then I'm gonna burn all my Kaplan materials that are all over my car and room and dance around the fire. I'll stop ranting now.

 

[MEDicated]

i dont know what to think of my scores......i've taken 3 kaplan tests.....27, 28, 34. my verbal was stuck at 8 until recently, so maybe the 34 was a fluke. hoping to get a 32 on the real thing.

 

[MeowMix]

If you're consistently scoring over 30 on the Kaplan full-lengths, you are on target for a good MCAT score. But you need to cross-check against an AAMC full-length - do at least one, ASAP.

Menemotxi, you are the dream Kaplan student! I would just recommend that if you are doing more full-lengths, be sure to do one AAMC for every Kaplan. The real MCAT verbal is more like an AAMC than a Kaplan full-length; PS and BS are less different.

Be positive and confident - good scores after studying hard are not a fluke!