Practice MCAT's

[leviathan]

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Are the practice MCAT's that you get from KAPLAN or the AMCAS website an accurate representation of the real thing?

I am only in my first year of university, but honestly, I can already correctly answer about 90% of the Bio. Sciences section. The only parts I don't know are the questions on Organic Chem, which I will be taking in my second year of chem at university anyhow. As for the verbal, this is also a breeze and the questions seem to be quite simple. The physics I cannot do because as I mentioned in my last post, I haven't taken any physics courses whatsoever (even high school!), but even some of those questions I could do by applying my knowledge of other sciences or common sense.

 

[jlee9531]

no clue.

never took kaplan.

never looked at the website.

but good for you if you can answer most of them. however i do believe it will be a bit tougher than what you have seen from whatever it is you are seeing these questions.

if not...more power to you.

 

[leviathan]

Thanks...by the way, I just realized it sounds like I'm just trying to brag...The only reason I said what I did was because the MCAT has such a huge reputation for being so incredibly hard, and a lot of it was just too easy. I'm just worried that this Kaplan test might not represent the MCAT properly, and I'm going to be too overconfident.

 

[jlee9531]

well they never know what will be on there 100%. I remember when i took mcat....i got lucky cause they had some stuff from my advanced ochem class that wasnt covered in normal ochem.....

so ya never know. its not a tremendously hard test...its just that if you combine a hella long test under stressing timed conditions then it can turn out to be pretty difficult.

but if you can handle that along with have an excellent knowledge of science and verbal and writing....you are all set for doing well then.

 

[SoulRFlare]

Originally posted by leviathan
Are the practice MCAT's that you get from KAPLAN or the AMCAS website an accurate representation of the real thing?

Kaplan and Princeton review purposely make their diagnostic exams a good deal harder than the real MCAT. Pretty clever really--take a scared, uncertain premed, give him or her a jacked up test and voila! you have said uncertain pre-med shelling out a few grand for prep classes, materials etc...
The AAMC exams, however, are taken from real MCAT exams, so they are a better indication of what you should expect.

 

[ATPase]

Definitely take the AAMC exams. The Kaplan exams are decent, but they're not a completely accurate representation of the real thing. The AAMC tests are WELL worth the money. Be sure you've done all your prereqs before you plan to take the MCAT, though - the physics will get you!!

 

[rgporter]

The AMCAS online tests nailed my score almost exactly. Actually the phys and bio were right on. On the real MCAT I scored 2 points higher on the verbal, that was the only discrepancy. I also used all the spare time after I finished to recheck my answers on the real MCAT but not the practice. So it is possible that the online tests could have predicted my score even better than they did.
Kaplan diagnostics which I have taken, indicated that my score would be 6 points lower than it really was.
Hope that helps, if it doesn't this should.

Kaplan = $1400

AMCAS tests = $80 + about $100 to buy someones study books used.

One other thing I noticed, Kaplan is big on memorizing factoids, the real test is more reading comprehension. For example the Kaplan books I looked at from when my friends took it had all sorts of equations to memorize for the phys section. The real test used only one (pv=nrt) that I recall.
Good luck.

 

[donnyfire]

AMCAS tests for sure. My score was also an exact match for how I did on them.
And as rgporter says, they are more cost effective.

 

[MeowMix]

You're right, looking at a few easy questions is misleading.

Yes, the questions you see on the AAMC tests are a good mirror of the MCAT: my score on my last AAMC exactly equalled my real MCAT score, and all my AAMC scores were within 4 points of my MCAT. Kaplan is less realistic, but overall score is still a good general predictor (I am not talking about the diagnostic, but about the full-length tests).

OK, so you feel confident about the bio questions. That is great. Now, can you still nail the easy bio questions at the end of a 10-hour day, when you are exhausted and unnerved because the verbal section was so hard? Do the bio questions seem quite so easy when you have just done an hour and a half of bio with more organic than you would have liked? Will you be able to nail the bio in a year or so, when the material is not so fresh in your mind? Can you do an 8-hour test and not make stupid math errors? It is not that the content is so difficult, it is that there is a lot of it, covering a broad range, in a challenging environment.

As to the verbal, yes, the questions seem to be quite simple when you look at them. Try the Confucius/li passage from AAMC III, taken as part of a full-length timed test, and you will experience the true joys that can be had on the verbal section.

 

[Jenuine]

I took Kaplan and consistently scored around 3-5 points higher on the practice tests than I did on the real thing. I've heard that Princeton tests are much much more difficult. I kinda wish I would've had the more difficult test just to make myself study harder....good motivation if you're really sucking it up, ya know?? 🙄