Hi guys,
I'm taking my exam in July. I took the AAMC Sample exam about a month ago and scored 66%/75%/80%/86%
I started doing pretty well on the section bank questions after that.
I just took Next Step's second full length exam and...oh my goodness, it was so incredibly difficult for me. The passages really didn't seem as experimentally based compared to the AAMC sample exam. I am very worried.
Can anybody recommend any other full-length exams? Do you think this was just a difficult one out of the NS bundle or should I look elsewhere? Thanks.
Hi
@bme94 !
Each FL exam you take will be difficult or easy depending on YOUR state of readiness. Some students think the AAMC scored exam is incredibly easy, others find the Sample test easier.
It is too early to say whether NextStep FL 2 is harder than FL 1, as they have only been out a few months and we are still analyzing data on test takers. I can tell you that each exam is designed to be balanced just as the AAMC does. I would say that our exams are designed to be tougher than the real thing, as we want to teach you
and inform you of your current state of MCAT readiness with each exam, the former is something the AAMC is not really interested in. Their primary goal is evaluation, not instruction. This is why their explanations are always lacking.
Like all MCAT exams, each of the NexStep FL exams will test different material in a different way. However, each passage style and Q is designed based on how the AAMC test the material. Most of the science passages are based off published experiments from peer-reviewed journals, because that is what the AAMC does. Just like the AAMC exams, our exams has a certain %-age of each passage type and q type they will include (luckily the AAMC published all of this info so you can get used to it and prepare for it. The AAMC publishes all their stats and formatting of each exam. Pick up the AAMC OG if you have not already, all the relevant data on exam composition is in there and is part of how we designed our exams.
Since the MCAT is standardized (i.e. predictable), you need to focus on
what exactly made Fl 2 so much tougher for you than FL 1? Examine your performance methodically, as we discuss in our How to review a Fl
exam in our 100 days to MCAT success thread. Was there science on FL 2 that was not on FL 1? Have you seen it/studied it yet? What kind of mistakes were you making, content or thinking types? This will be the value of any practice MCAT score your get, good or bad. You must take the time to learn from each.
Hope this helps, good luck!
