TPR vs Actual MCAT

[Jb2728]

---

Members do not see this ad.

For students that have taken both the TPR core tests and the actual MCAT, what were the typical disparities between your scores? (And how much time between scores)

I have my MCAT scheduled for a month from now and I am kinda freaking out because I scored ~500 on each of the first two core TPR exams. I have heard that the TPR exams are harder than the MCAT, but have heard a large disparity on how much harder they are. If somebody could share their results, it would be greatly appreciated!

 

[fursty13]

For students that have taken both the TPR core tests and the actual MCAT, what were the typical disparities between your scores? (And how much time between scores)

I have my MCAT scheduled for a month from now and I am kinda freaking out because I scored ~500 on each of the first two core TPR exams. I have heard that the TPR exams are harder than the MCAT, but have heard a large disparity on how much harder they are. If somebody could share their results, it would be greatly appreciated!

I was in your position about 2 months ago -- freaking out over TPR scores around 1 month away from the exam. TPR are much more content based and not as focused on reading/analyzing the passages, which is I find the MCAT to focus on.

Scores:
MCAT Course Test 1: 501
MCAT Course Test 2: 499, few days after TPR1
MCAT Course Test 4: 506, week after TPR2
MCAT Course Test 5: 506, few days after TPR4
MCAT Complete Test 1: 507, few days after TPR5

After I had gone through these, I figured I'd move on to other practice test designers. NextStep offers a free practice exam that I felt was much more similar to the real deal than TPR.

AAMC Practice Test: 82% correct, 1 week after TPR CT1
NS 1: 511, 1 week after , few days after AAMC Practice Test
AAMC FL Scored: 512, few days after NS1

The Big Kahuna (real score): 515

Edit: There's also a Google Spreadsheet floating around somewhere on SDN that gives a HUGE list of people's practice scores vs. real scores if you can find it.

 

[wutwutwut]

so I scored a 506 on a TPR test two weeks before I took the actual MCAT and then I got a 517 on the real thing so very similar to fursty13

 

[FMDoge2020]

It is more detailed oriented than the actual MCAT. My actual test is 8points higher than the TPR practice tests' average.

Sent from my SM-N920P using SDN mobile

 

[FutureDrOcean]

Here's my progression leading up to the MCAT (Jan 2016)

TPR #1 (8/30/2015): 501
TPR #2 (9/13/2015): 507
TPR #3 (10/11/2015): 502
TPR #4 (12/24/2015): 506
TPR #5 (12/31/2015): 511
TPR #6 (1/3/2016): 511
TPR #7 (1/6/2016): 511
Official AAMC Practice (1/16/2016): 518
MCAT (1/22/2016): 522

As you can see, I took my last TPR within two weeks of my actual MCAT, and the score differential was 11 points. Note that I of course did last minute cramming and review between that time, but clearly that's not responsible for an 11 point swing, thus I would attribute about 6-10 points to TPR difficulty relative to actual MCAT.

If you have a month left, I highly recommending following a strict study schedule like mine. It was approximately a three day cycle. Day 1 of the cycle, full practice test. Day 2, look over practice test, redo all the questions you got wrong, read relevant sections in review book for parts you got wrong. Day 3, do some miscellaneous practice like the AAMC problem sets. Then, repeat. All the way until your MCAT. Worked for me.