What do people think of the Kaplan Section tests?

[bozz]

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I find the Bio to be pretty challenging.. how were you guys doing on them?

 

[tdjn]

Do you mean the section tests online or the ones from the book? I haven't tried out the ones online, but I did all the ones in the book. The ones in the book are pretty straightforward... so I am assuming this isn't what you are talking about. 🙂

 

[bozz]

Nah not those lol

The online ones are actual 52 question, 70 minute tests

 

[tdjn]

lol I figured. I will have to try those out... I do vaguely remember a friend of mine saying that the Kaplan online material was difficult and not representative of the material on the actual MCAT, so I wouldn't get too bogged down about it.

Also, I just realized that you had posted earlier about being a bio major... and the bs being one of your weaker sections. Glad to hear we are on the same boat 🙂 Just out of curiosity, how are you preparing for it? So far, I've read (skimmed) the kap. and ek review book. I am planning on doing the ek 1001's and looking over the TPR review material. I'd like to know your plans as well 🙂

 

[al3ck]

They are difficult but very good practice. For me the problem is not the dificulty, is time!!!!!🙁

 

[J ROD]

I heard the same thing on here about them being harder than the real one, but after taking the real one, I think the sectionals are easier than the real one. But, I think I did have a really, hard real one!

 

[schussboarder]

i think it depends on the sectional you take...there are some that just contain material that you aren't as strong at...as for me, i walked out of the real test thinking i bombed bio, however i did much better on the real test than i had been doing on sectionals....it really sucks that some tests will have material that is your weakness and others will have your strong points

 

[blowmeupjon]

very funny because I just took some section tests online and was asking a friend if they are more difficult. Let me ask this, are the section tests online harder than the sections in the full lengths? I haven't taken any fl's yet so i wouldn't know. I get like 17-20 wrong which is way too many.

 

[ahmedqman]

OMG I took like 4 of the PS ones yesterday... I couldn't finish! I had problems finishing on time for some reason. I get like 65% right, and I know the PS pretty darn well.

Those things just destroyed me.

 

[bozz]

I got exactly 71% correct on 3 section tests... the last BS one I took, I got a 87%

I really think a lot of it is luck.. don't really know 🙁

 

[ahmedqman]

I got an 81 on BS1, and then a 65!!!!!!!!!! on BS2. Ridiculous. I'm reading some of these explanations and they just feel kind of arbitrary and expect us to assume things when really there was no indication in the passage to do so.

 

[bozz]

I got an 81 on BS1, and then a 65!!!!!!!!!! on BS2. Ridiculous. I'm reading some of these explanations and they just feel kind of arbitrary and expect us to assume things when really there was no indication in the passage to do so.

More than the bio though, it's the O Chem that's killer on Kaplan's tests

 

[al3ck]

OMG I took like 4 of the PS ones yesterday... I couldn't finish! I had problems finishing on time for some reason. I get like 65% right, and I know the PS pretty darn well.

Those things just destroyed me.

You took 4 section test😱 in one day!!!! Thats crazy.....

 

[ahmedqman]

I realized that nothing replaces passages in terms of MCAT practice. You can know the material conceptually but still mess up because the MCAT requires you to read carefully as well as integrate concepts successfully.

But Kaplan's stuff is almost ridiculous in the amount of calculation they want you to do in such a short amount of time. They give like 10 long calculation problems that take a minute to a minute and a half each. If there are going to be a lot of calculations on the real deal, I would assume that they'd be short calculations spread over a wide variety of questions, or long calculations spread out over a few questions.

I noticed though that I finish earlier if I do the discretes first. Still getting in the 60-70% range though.

BS is normally my strong point, I had a really good orgo teacher and doing all these sectionals is rejogging my memory about some specifics. I don't think I need to study content specifically, since the test explanations have all the information and I can just be like "Oh yeah!", and then just write the concept down in order to rejog my memory.

I did a review of kaplan chem like 3 months ago, so I'm just gonna document what I got wrong and see where my reasoning was wrong, and just learn from that.

Still, these sectionals are pretty ridiculous. I'm taking the January 25th exam so I've been binging on practice a lot. I just need practice, the knowledge is in my brain, just gotta use it correctly. I still need to take Kaplan FLs 2-5 and AAMCs 8-10.... do you think I could boost my score in that time despite my dismal performance on these sectionals?

 

[johnny pollen]

I loved Kaplan's section tests -- but that's because I had a lot of ground to cover in bio and orgo, and each section test presented me questions on material I'd never seen before.

After a while, though, and closer to The Big Dance, I also found myself "wasting" full-length practice tests just for the BS section -- just so I could see how well I was doing on the section I was most skurrrred of. Worked out well for me.