Princeton full length exam, your opinion?

[kwu]

Hi,

As most of us do before the MCAT is taking practise full-length exams to try to stimulate the exam environment and get comfortable with the questions.

What do you think of Princeton exams? Is it harder, similar, or easier than the real exam?

What suggestions do you have for the best practice exams that are most similar in difficulty to the real MCAT?

Thanks.

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[beOncogene]

Hi,

As most of us do before the MCAT is taking practise full-length exams to try to stimulate the exam environment and get comfortable with the questions.

What do you think of Princeton exams? Is it harder, similar, or easier than the real exam?

What suggestions do you have for the best practice exams that are most similar in difficulty to the real MCAT?

Thanks.

I haven't taken the real exam so I can't really compare. But I have taken the unscored and scored, and the TPR exams are much harder. They are more detailed and do not contain much clues within the passage to work with. Whereas, on the AAMC practice exams, the information is there so it is up to you to deduce it out. Also, I find that the AAMC stuff is more conceptual. A lot of people have been saying that the section banks are very hard and that the real exam will be similar to those. Having taken the section banks (well just finished the bio one), I found it to be not hard at all. It's just that it requires more thinking and analyzing. I think the mcat is trying to head that way. In terms of practice exams, I have taken EK and NS exams and those seem like good practice. I mean, I only use them to work on my timing and to test my understanding of the materials. But nothing really beats AAMC stuff. So I would say if you haven't already, do all the AAMC stuff you can and REVIEW. It is really important that you take time and review all your mistakes.

 

[tiffxp]

Hi,

As most of us do before the MCAT is taking practise full-length exams to try to stimulate the exam environment and get comfortable with the questions.

What do you think of Princeton exams? Is it harder, similar, or easier than the real exam?

What suggestions do you have for the best practice exams that are most similar in difficulty to the real MCAT?

Thanks.

My Princeton FL ranges from 502 to 504. My real score is a 515. I think it is harder than the real thing. Also you can look it up online for a spreadsheet where people post their practice FL score vs the real score.

 

[bisonbison]

I took the PR sample test the other day and got a 504 which was consistent with my last Kaplan FL. From what I've heard, they're both pretty difficult.

 

[aldol16]

TPR exams are simply not representative at all. I'm sure one could do well on the TPR exams if one were to study for taking the TPR exams. But you're studying to take the AAMC exam so TPR is terrible - not because it's inherently hard but because it's not testing on what you need to know.

 

[kwu]

I haven't taken the real exam so I can't really compare. But I have taken the unscored and scored, and the TPR exams are much harder. They are more detailed and do not contain much clues within the passage to work with. Whereas, on the AAMC practice exams, the information is there so it is up to you to deduce it out. Also, I find that the AAMC stuff is more conceptual. A lot of people have been saying that the section banks are very hard and that the real exam will be similar to those. Having taken the section banks (well just finished the bio one), I found it to be not hard at all. It's just that it requires more thinking and analyzing. I think the mcat is trying to head that way. In terms of practice exams, I have taken EK and NS exams and those seem like good practice. I mean, I only use them to work on my timing and to test my understanding of the materials. But nothing really beats AAMC stuff. So I would say if you haven't already, do all the AAMC stuff you can and REVIEW. It is really important that you take time and review all your mistakes.

Thanks a lot. I realised that sometimes they focus on memorization more than reasoning. But they are good to practice.

I took the PR sample test the other day and got a 504 which was consistent with my last Kaplan FL. From what I've heard, they're both pretty difficult.

Yes I heard kaplan is pretty difficult compared to the actual test. Thanks for your reply

TPR exams are simply not representative at all. I'm sure one could do well on the TPR exams if one were to study for taking the TPR exams. But you're studying to take the AAMC exam so TPR is terrible - not because it's inherently hard but because it's not testing on what you need to know.

I agree with you that they are not representative. I wouldn't depend on them as a single source for practice. But it's a good source to get a sense of the questions and the exam setting. Many of the questions especially in CARS section were really helpful in improving my reasoning skills for the whole exam.

 

[aldol16]

I agree with you that they are not representative. I wouldn't depend on them as a single source for practice. But it's a good source to get a sense of the questions and the exam setting. Many of the questions especially in CARS section were really helpful in improving my reasoning skills for the whole exam.

It's not a good source to get a sense of questions. Exam setting? Maybe. But you could administer any tough test in a 7.5 hour time window and say you get practice with timing. The point is, the only thing it's good at is having you take a test in a similar time frame as the MCAT. If you want good practice, do the AAMCs, Section Bank, Khan Academy, and then look on here for opinions on the best company. I don't like any of them but people on here tend to like NS.

 

[Eleithyia]

One of the TPR tests I took had some extensive physics calculations that I knew were not on the content list for the exam. TPR was really hard (for me--physics is not my strong suit), and not as representative as I wanted. I think I got a 502 on a TPR FL the week before I took the scored AAMC FL and got a 512.

I keep hearing that Next Step FLs are pretty similar to the real deal, but I never used them. Now that I'm looking, they have a free half-length diagnostic and a free FL, which I probably should have used. Oops

 

[Eleithyia]

I agree with @aldol16, TPR would still be useful for 'endurance training'--both in terms of making it through the 7.5 hr test without burning out and in fighting off anxiety over not knowing the answer to every question. The TPR tests I took made me feel discouraged when I took them/saw my score, but I think on test day the experience prevented me from letting confusion on some questions affect all the others.

I used some of their FLs because they came with the TPR Psych/Soc book I bought, but if I were going to spend money just on FL exams, I would probably have gone with NS.

Definitely do the AAMC section banks--I would have really been hurting if I hadn't, especially the C/P section bank!

 

[kwu]

It's not a good source to get a sense of questions. Exam setting? Maybe. But you could administer any tough test in a 7.5 hour time window and say you get practice with timing. The point is, the only thing it's good at is having you take a test in a similar time frame as the MCAT. If you want good practice, do the AAMCs, Section Bank, Khan Academy, and then look on here for opinions on the best company. I don't like any of them but people on here tend to like NS.

One of the TPR tests I took had some extensive physics calculations that I knew were not on the content list for the exam. TPR was really hard (for me--physics is not my strong suit), and not as representative as I wanted. I think I got a 502 on a TPR FL the week before I took the scored AAMC FL and got a 512.

I keep hearing that Next Step FLs are pretty similar to the real deal, but I never used them. Now that I'm looking, they have a free half-length diagnostic and a free FL, which I probably should have used. Oops

Thanks a lot. You really changed my mind about the PR FL. I will purchase the AAMC material today and start practising. I am still not sure if I should buy the section back or the question bundle (Which contains 720 questions).

Thanks again for your opinions.
Good luck for all of us.

 

[aldol16]

Thanks a lot. You really changed my mind about the PR FL. I will purchase the AAMC material today and start practising. I am still not sure if I should buy the section back or the question bundle (Which contains 720 questions).

Section Bank is representative of the hardest questions you will encounter on test day. QPacks are not representative of questions you will encounter on the MCAT - they are just old test questions from old practice FLs that cover content that is relevant to the new MCAT.

 

[Eleithyia]

If you need more low-cost resources, Khan Academy has free practice questions in addition to their video lectures and notes, and *most* prep companies that have FL exams offer a free one (I know for sure that Kaplan, TPR, and Next Step have at least one free FL each). I would go with AAMC's Section Bank over the question packs if it came down to a choice, and if at all possible you should take both the AAMC sample test and the AAMC scored practice test 1. If your school has a pre-health office, you could check to see if they have some prep books you can check out--my school did this, but I'm not sure how common it is.

Not quite as useful, but you can also get the Kaplan MCAT flashcards app with 1000 flashcards for free with a Kaplan account. The app store page says its exclusive to people taking Kaplan classes, but I only had an account for the free exam and it unlocked for me, so YMMV. It was easy to flip through and refresh a couple of concepts while I was waiting for classes to start, riding the bus, etc.