Practice test discrepancies...should I be worried?

[creativekat]

So I searched though the archives and I don't think this has come up yet.

I know AAMC are the best indicators and all, but I noticed that for Kaplan's FLs, everyone scores at or high above their AAMC average, which tells me Kaplan is just right, or easier than the real thing (curve-wise). Should I be worried since I'm scoring below?

Kaplan FL1-4 average: 31.5
Range: 29-34

AAMC 3,6,7 average: 35 (incl. my "diagnostic" #4, it's 33.5)
Range: 33-36 (28 on diagnostic)

Taking it on Jan 31st. Setting my expectations low and hoping for a 32 (is this possible? Full load next quarter and it starts up again on Monday ugh)

I'm reluctant to take more of Kaplan's since I feel so depressed after taking them (maybe I should just stay away from this board)...the scores aren't that bad, but when I'm seeing myself get 40% of the questions wrong, I get discouraged and just want to quit. But if Kaplan's FLs are as good as everyone seems to say, then I'll keep doing them and add 3 points to my Kaplan score.

Opinions? Thanks everyone

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[wannabadr10]

So I searched though the archives and I don't think this has come up yet.

I know AAMC are the best indicators and all, but I noticed that for Kaplan's FLs, everyone scores at or high above their AAMC average, which tells me Kaplan is just right, or easier than the real thing (curve-wise). Should I be worried since I'm scoring below?

Kaplan FL1-4 average: 31.5
Range: 29-34

AAMC 3,6,7 average: 35 (incl. my "diagnostic" #4, it's 33.5)
Range: 33-36 (28 on diagnostic)

Taking it on Jan 31st. Setting my expectations low and hoping for a 32 (is this possible? Full load next quarter and it starts up again on Monday ugh)

I'm reluctant to take more of Kaplan's since I feel so depressed after taking them (maybe I should just stay away from this board)...the scores aren't that bad, but when I'm seeing myself get 40% of the questions wrong, I get discouraged and just want to quit. But if Kaplan's FLs are as good as everyone seems to say, then I'll keep doing them and add 3 points to my Kaplan score.

Opinions? Thanks everyone

You are doing great! The worse thing at this point would be losing confidence which is one of the most important aspects of the MCAT. Your AAMC scores are great. You have definitely set yourself up for scoring at the 32 range. Just relax and brush up on your weak areas.
By the way, my friend took kaplan and had scores similar to yours and she ended up with a 35... 32 is a very solid score!

Good luck!

 

[jh8cw]

Hey, I feel your pain re: fluctuations. So far, I've taken Kaplan 5,7,8,9 (Avg: 34). And AAMC 5-9 (Avg: 35). Lowest score has been: 32, Highest: 37. However, in the AAMC exam I took today (#7), I ended up with PS (11), V (9), BS (14). The score I got on the verbal section was devastating especially because I wasn't able to finish on time for the first time, and I've scored at least a 10 on all of the previous exams. And, my score on PS was lower than my solid 12 average, despite my intensive PS-only review this week using Kaplan material. Maybe taking the exam at 1:00 AM has something to do with it, but I am starting to feel the plateau.

I've friends who have gotten 40+ on the MCAT, their advice to me has been to treat the practice exams merely as a rough estimate of your progress and especially as study material. Both of them strongly emphasized going over the test to ensure you know everything on them, even the questions you answered correctly, to see whether your thinking process was correct in answering them. They told me, it was painful for them, but very helpful. Also, don't let up on your studying, regardless of what the practice exam scores tell you. Let them reprioritize your schedule only, but you should have a fixed game-plan running in the background.

Verbal is stressing me out. I think I'm going to try to speed up my reading in order to deal with my time troubles.

 

[jh8cw]

I'd also like to point out that AAMC tests are easier for me than the Kaplan exams. Mainly due to calculation errors, and Kaplan tests seem to have more redundant information in their passages, which I consistently waste time reading them when their questions don't seem to address the content. I noticed on AAMC exams, not reading the passages carefully in the science sections is definitely a bad idea.

I'm going to scale back on my studying, and focus more on reviewing from EK, and the notes I've taken while studying through Kaplan material.

 

[creativekat]

I'd also like to point out that AAMC tests are easier for me than the Kaplan exams. Mainly due to calculation errors, and Kaplan tests seem to have more redundant information in their passages, which I consistently waste time reading them when their questions don't seem to address the content. I noticed on AAMC exams, not reading the passages carefully in the science sections is definitely a bad idea.

Really? I skim over the passages almost all the time to get the gist of it, answer the question as best as I can (a lot of them tend to be pseudo-discretes) and then answer the ones I need the passage for...especially experiment-based passages. It's been working well for me. And I end up with 12 min (PS) or 25 min (BS) to spare.

I've gotten ~11 on PS, 11 flat on verbal, ~11 BS on the AAMCs...whoohoo for balanced scores!

Good to hear not everyone aces those darn Kaplan tests. I feel a lot better now.

 

[swamprat]

yeah i got a lot of kaplan exams left and only 3 aamc's with the test in less than a month. i really hate taking kaplan's , the verbal ive heard is nothing like the real thing (it sure as hell isnt like aamc's practice verbal) and the other passages are just annoying and its curved like crazy.

 

[J ROD]

Take a Kaplan and grade it with an AAMC scale.

If you are still near what you want as far as a score goes, then you are fine.

I also replaced Kaplan verbal with an EK verbal.

The Kaplan sciences are more like the real one to me. AAMCs were too easy in terms of content but the feel of the real one was like an AAMC.

 

[creativekat]

Take a Kaplan and grade it with an AAMC scale.

That means I'd be getting like a 21 (7-7-7)

I hate Kaplan. Arghhhhh

 

[jh8cw]

I feel much better. Just took AAMC #4. Received a PS 12, V 13, B 13. This is the jump I was aiming for since plateauing at 35. Perhaps, just dumb luck or test #4 is just easier.

I had 8 minutes remaining after completing the verbal section this time. I took a serious leap of faith this time around by not underlining (except for a few proper nouns, like names, dates and places). This was especially weird for me because I am a careful reader, and I don't want to miss out on any of the details in the passage. I also did not refer back to the passage in the example questions unless I was completely oblvious about the context of the quote. On Biology, I missed 4/5 of my questions on a single Organic Chemistry passage that is definitely not covered by EK.

Plan now is to take 3-4 Kaplan Tests, and finish off with AAMC 7 and 10 before the Jan test.