Spread b/t AAMC & The real deal?

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amakhosidlo

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After reading the feedback posted regarding recent MCAT administrations I'm starting to get a little worried about my level of preparation.

I took a TPR class over the summer, and sat for roughly 14 practice tests. My AAMC's have been coming back in the 34-37 range fairly consistently, and after every test I've been reviewing the material surrounding questions that I got wrong.

Decent strategy, or so I thought..

Now I'm reading that sections of the real deal are randomly WAY harder than AAMC. My biggest weakness right now is my inability to let a question go (i.e I spend 5 minutes on it and end up playing catch-up).

I'm starting to worry that if I get sacked with a real ball-buster passage early on I'll freeze up and run out of time.

When people say that a passage was "harder" than aamc, what do you mean? Calculations are more involved? Concepts more abstract/nuanced?

Without posting mcat questions, give us an example of how an MCAT PS passage would be "harder" than AAMC...

Also, I've set a poll for late-cycle MCAT takers (July-August) regarding the spread between their AAMC average and their actual score. I realize that many don't have their scores back yet, but if you'd be willing to contribute once you do I'm sure everyone would greatly appreciate it.

Sorry if these questions have been posted in earlier threads, I'm just trying to get an idea of the level of difficulty of the actual MCAT specifically with regards to late-term administrations...
 
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ryserr21 said:
i dont understand how everyone with a 38+ is on SDN. it will always amaze me.
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Approximately 600 people a year get more than 39 or above. Maybe 1000 or so get 38 or above. We probably have a higher proportion but I don't think we have the majority of the people who got that high 😛

People who have low scores are just (understandably) less eager to share them.
 
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Time to contribute...

Practice AAMC's

32
33
33
34
35
35
37

(No specific order)

AAMC Avg: 33.75

Actual: 33T

PS: 11 BS: 12 V:10 (#&$&!!!)

Anybody wanna trade some of their VR prowess for my writing skills?

Those diags are scary accurate, even down to the section breakdown...

Anyway, I don't know whether to be happy or pissed... I got robbed by VR...
 
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Practice avg- PS 11-13
VR 7-10
BS 10-13

Real Test PS 10
VR 5
BS 10

I thought that the all the sections were just as hard as AAMC practice tests. The difficultly is not letting the idea that your taking the real MCAT creep in your mind. On my last verbal test I got 10 but had an overall avg. of 8. Just make sure to pace yourself, and don't spend alot of time on your first verbal passage because that will throw off your timing (I think thats what happened to me)
good luck
 
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Practice Average: 29
PS = 10
VR = 8
BS = 11

Actual: 35
PS = 14
VR = 11
BS = 10


Yeah, pretty much a miracle!😍 I prayed a lot ^^
 
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Bump, for the other Spring testers...

Practice Average: PS 13, VR 11, BS 11 - 35

Real Deal: PS 14, VR 11, BS 15 - 40

Don't lose faith. I hope my birthday testers (March 28) do awesomely awesome!!!
 
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Im bumping this for future test takers.

And maybe ill retake, who knows.

This was and is my favorite thread on SDN.
 
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AAMC Avg: 26, and I didn't make >30 on any.
Real Deal: 30M

I took the *seemingly* impossible 03/28/09 MCAT. After it, I felt completely raped, but I didn't void it and I'm glad that I didn't. Good luck to everyone that still has to take this monster!
 
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bump for people who just took their real mcat

Great thread. Afterall, how useful is a practice AAMC test if we don't know how reliable it truly is as a predictor of our real scores?
 
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AAMC/Score

3/30
4/32
5/30
6/32
7/33
8/33
9/36
10/35

Real Thing: 32

Don't fool yourself: the real one does have harder questions. The curve WILL make up for it supposedly. I just choked. With my 3.55 GPA, I'm stuck on the fence.
 
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3: 39
4: 40
5: 39
6: 39
7: 34
8: 38
9: 38
10: 38

Real: 37 R

Seemed way harder but I still managed to come out within a point of my average if I ignore the outlier. Subsection scores were inverted from my usual but whatev.
 
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AAMC 8: 36
AAMC 9 + 10: 37 and 39 (don't remember which is which)

AVG: 37.3

ACTUAL: 38

darn close
 
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PRACTICE:
AAMC10: B13 P12 V11 = 36
AAMC9: B13 P13 V8 = 34
AAMC8: B11 P10 V9 = 30
AAMC7: B12 P14 V11 = 37
AAMC6: B13 P12 V12 = 37
AAMC5: B14 P12 V10 = 36
AAMC4: B14 P12 V9 = 35
AAMC3: B12 P11 V10 = 33
AVGS: approx. B13 P12 V10 = approx 35

TEST DAY IMPRESSION:
B13 P8 V10 = 31

REAL SCORE:
B11 P10 V10 = 31
 
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For future reference, to watch trends and such:

As of today, July 2 2009, the results are:

My score was...(than my AAMC avg)

Signific. higher : 18 (7.93 %)
Slightly higher : 36 (15.86 %)
Generally in-line : 103 (45.37 %)
Slightly lower : 41 (18.06 %)
Signific. lower : 29 (12.78 %)

Total votes: 227
 
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i guess ill be the first one from 6/18 to write here

took 2 pm exam

pracitce exams avg
VB - 8
PS - 13
BS - 10

actual exam
VB - 11
PS - 12
BS - 11
WS - O

very surprised with verbal as I don't remember breaking 10 in practice exams. When I left the exam I had no idea what happened and had no clue about what i would get...not really sure what else i should write but if you guys have a questions ask away
 
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Kaplan Diagnostic: 25

Since I thought (and righty so) that this score did not accurately reflect what I knew, I took AAMC #3 prior to studying, as my "official" self-diagnostic:

AAMC #3: 31

I then studied for a few months, and started taking AAMC exams one month before my exam date, in this order:

AAMC #4: 33
AAMC #5: 36
AAMC #6: 33
AAMC #7: 34
AAMC #8: 33
AAMC #9: 35
AAMC #10: 33

My last practice exam was 5 days before my exam date.

Real MCAT: 37R

I did not take any of the Kaplan full-lengths because of my bad experience with the diagnostic, and because the AAMC's are straight from the company that creates the MCAT.
 
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Has anyone considered the possibility that score range might be a significant factor? For example, it is possible that the std deviation is higher if you score in the high 30's than if you score in the high 20's, or vice versa.
 
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this thread gives me some hope...i took my MCAT today and felt pretty confident going in, but the PS was harder than i expected, and that was always my best section. felt OK about VR and BS, but really, who knows.

my AAMC averages were around 37 and i got a 40 on the last one, but i swear, today i felt like i was probably in the low 30s.

so, post-MCAT feeling isn't necessarily indicative of score, right? i hope i'm wrong and i did better than i feel right now!!!
 
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ishchayill said:
Has anyone considered the possibility that score range might be a significant factor? For example, it is possible that the std deviation is higher if you score in the high 30's than if you score in the high 20's, or vice versa.
Click to expand...

This could definitely be true.

And to labellefille, you shouldn't worry much. I, and many others here from what I have seen, felt terrible when they walked out of the test center on test day. But, 30 days later when we got our scores, we realized we were freaking out for nothing because the scores were got were basically the same as our AAMC average. I beleive that the curve for the real MCAT is much more lenient than any practice AAMC.
 
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Wow the vote chart looks very proportional...

For reference my AAMC were 36-40, my real score was 38.
 
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July 30th
V-8
P-7
B-7
W-Q

🙁 I have no idea what happened. I thought i would get 27-30 range. I was scoring 28-34 on practice exams. What do I do??? Caribbean?? Its too late to study for 9/12 isnt it? Should I try for January?? ahhhhhh i'm sooo disappointed.
 
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The MCAT was definitely harder then the AAMC practice Tests. During the practice ones, I was confident throughout the test. I finished with at least 10 minutes/section extra time. I knew what I got right and what I was uncertain about. The real deal was just harder. Harder how you ask. I was not confident. The questions and answers were more vague. Biology had passages I knew nothing about, and I studied!

AAMC 10 : BS: 11 PS : 11 V: 10 Total 32
Actual: BS 10 PS 12 V 10 W: R Total 32R

Considering I was a physics major, I am glad my physics score was the highest. I would have been happier if those 10 were 11s. Oh well, at least it is competitive.

Undergrad GPA: 3.5

Nontraditional student: Recent postbac of Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2 and Orgo 1 and 2.
I highly suggest everyone take A and P
 
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Please use the link to view the thread about the spread b/w AAMC practice and actual.
That is the more current poll.
 
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It's interesting to compare this to the poll for the MCAT Estimator spreadsheet accuracy. They're quite similar in distribution (except that the AAMC tests slightly favor predictions HIGHER than the actual MCAT scores; whereas the MCAT Estimator slightly favors predictions LOWER than people's real MCAT scores).
 
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