Practice Scores vs Real Thing

[SeminoleFan3]

For those of you who have already taken the actual test, were your practice test scores close to what you actually got? If you could, what were your last few practice scores and what ended up being your actual score? Thanks in advance.

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[NapeSpikes]

Do you really wanna know? It may be discouraging, and really may not be any indication of how you will do.

So yay or nay?

 

[Mr. Tee]

Most people who got a 40+ never scored that highly on a practice test.

 

[MEG@COOL]

Most people who got a 40+ never scored that highly on a practice test.

Thats because cheating on practice tests is pointless. Seriously though can you substantiate this claim at all?

 

[Mr. Tee]

Thats because cheating on practice tests is pointless. Seriously though can you substantiate this claim at all?

Could you counter this claim?

Check the buried threads here via a search. Also the 30+ sticky to get an idea of what people were scoring on practice tests and how they did on the real thing.

 

[OwnageMobile]

I don't know anyone who got a 40+ on the MCAT and actually scored 40+ on a practice test, it that matters here.

As to your question, I think guju did a decent job of explaining it. I would say the actual score will be +/- 2 points sd, with the average being +1. People generally do better on the real thing, but it deffinitly cuts both ways. I know plenty of examples to support both sides. Personally, mine went up by 3-4 points.

 

[ADeadLois]

I think a lot of this speculation is arbitrary. It depends on which practice test you take and when you take it. I got a 25 on Kaplan Full-length #1. A lot of what I got wrong, particularly on the PS, was the result of missing questions whose topic I hadn't thoroughly reviewed yet. Same with some of the Orgo on the BS section. And it's been established that Kaplan verbal sections don't correlate to the real thing. I've also been scoring higher on the EK verbal sections than Kaplan. If you take AAMC 7 the day before the MCAT (don't do this, just an extreme example), you will likely get +1/-1 that score the next day. But otherwise, it's hard to project.

 

[HunterGatherer]

Not so sure about ADeadLois' idea. Took AAMC 7 three days before the MCAT and I scored 2-3 points higher on the real deal.

I think that you can give yourself a nice shot of a score increase on the real deal as long as you continue to work on your weaknesses, learn from your careless mistakes on the MCAT, learn to be a better test taker (timing, improving POE,etc.), and gain a better understanding of the MCAT material when going over mistakes and correct problems on the MCAT. The practice MCATs are learning tools.

 

[SeminoleFan3]

Thanks for all the respones, guys. I appreciate it. I've gotten between a 28-31 on the AAMC tests and a 28 on the Kaplan test. I definitely need to review some more bio. I'm going to continue taking the Kaplan tests on the weekends (as we have to do), and take AAMC 7 the Saturday before the MCAT. Hopefully, that'll help.

 

[PBandJ]

i had between 28-32 on my practice tests before last august (28, 28, 29, 32 in that order on kaplan FL 1, 4, 2, 3), and i ended up with a 25 on the actual thing. so depending on the kind of day you have on actual test day, sometimes practice scores don't mean a thing (that's why i'm taking it again).

Thanks for all the respones, guys. I appreciate it. I've gotten between a 28-31 on the AAMC tests and a 28 on the Kaplan test. I definitely need to review some more bio. I'm going to continue taking the Kaplan tests on the weekends (as we have to do), and take AAMC 7 the Saturday before the MCAT. Hopefully, that'll help.