Studying for MCAT for the second time, retake AAMC's? & VERBAL HELP PLEASE!

[starfish26]

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[ManOnTheMoon115]

Hi guys, I was hoping to get some advice, especially if you've retaken the MCAT yourself or just studied for it twice like me..

In preparation to take the May '09 MCAT, I studied on my own with just EK & did all the AAMC tests. When I sat for the actual exam come May, I ended up voiding. 🙁

..then, I basically didn't touch MCAT stuff again until this past October, when my Kaplan class started. (I'm signed up to take the MCAT 1/30.) Class just ended & I think it helped a little, but I'm having a lot of trouble with verbal..

Couple questions..
1. How much weight should I give the AAMC FL scores when I redo them since I've done them before? (They were all done in April/May, so it's been ~7 months since I last saw them) I just did one the other day, and I remembered seeing a couple psgs from PS, but not the questions & answers directly.. (& yes, I did score better the second time, but how much of that is bc I actually studied more and am more comfortable w/ the material now?)
I have access to all AAMCs, Kaplan's, and Princeton's FL's. What should I practice with? a mix of all 3? Are Princeton's FL's better than Kaplan's?
Which do you think would be the best indicator of my actual score?

2. I NEED HELP WITH VERBAL! There seems to be a consensus on SDN that Kaplan scores are way inflated, but my Kaplan Verbal scores (7-9) are the lowest out of EK 101 and AAMC (8-11). Has anyone else had this experience?
I've already done all the EK 101 back in April too.. so my options left to practice verbal are Kaplan (which I feel is more dense & detail-oriented) and Princeton Review. Which have you guys found more helpful?
By the way, by how much did your Kaplan scores differ from your actual MCAT score (by section)?


Thank you in advance for your input! 🙂

hey im studyin to take it my 2nd time on 1/30 too, and i was kinda wondering the same thing. I took it last september, so its been like a year and a half since i took these full lengths, but i seem to be doing pretty well on them and i'm not sure if its just because i've seen them before. i guess i would suggest just rotating between the three types and not worrying too much about the score you get, and more about the material you're unsure about. i wish i had access to the oprincetn and kaplan tests, because i only have 6 more aamc ones- do you know anywhere to download copies of the FLs?

As for verbal, luckily for me, i seem to do pretty decently on verbal- is time more of a concern for you? or content of the passage? because depending on where your issue lies, you should tailor your practice to improve that.

 

[ronaldo23]

it's not a bad idea to "retake" the AAMCs (the science section, not the verbal), just to make sure you understand things well. But your score on it doesn't mean anything if you've already taken it. Find new materials, like BR practice tests or Gold Standard.