Would continuously reviewing the official AAMCs practice tests help you do well?

[mrh125]

and prepare you well for the real thing? like if you take all of the official AAMCs exams + aamcs self-assessment and understand how to do all of the problems on them and the logic and continually review them, would you be well-prepared for the mcat? Also, if you combine all of the AAMCs practices tests together would you get a fair representation of most of the stuff or at least exposure to most of the stuff that will be on the real mcat on average and how they format questions, correct answers, logic on answers, etc? Or would you have to deal with a lot of curveballs/things you didnt expect on the real thing if you did this?

What i'm suggesting is similar to what people do in college with practice tests and use them as a way to study for the real deal by redoing them, drilling themselves etc.

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[mrh125]

bump..

 

[Jepstein30]

Exclusively? Not as much as you'd expect. That strategy only really works in classes where there is a finite amount of material and only so many ways to ask the same question (like math).

Even with all the AAMC materials, there's a wealth of information that is test-able and not covered. Enough to make up the contents of your MCAT. Not only that, but the MCAT can ask you about material that isn't included in the outline, any of the AAMC exams or one of your pre-req classes. You're expected to be able to handle such information when provided with enough background by utilizing good critical thinking and analysis skills.

Also not going to help you develop critical thinking skills.. so unless you literally get the exact same question about the exact same concept, you're going to be in trouble.

 

[Espadaleader]

You're spot on with

and prepare you well for the real thing? like if you take all of the official AAMCs exams + aamcs self-assessment and understand how to do all of the problems on them and the logic and continually review them, would you be well-prepared for the mcat? Also, if you combine all of the AAMCs practices tests together would you get a fair representation of most of the stuff or at least exposure to most of the stuff that will be on the real mcat on average and how they format questions, correct answers, logic on answers, etc? Or would you have to deal with a lot of curveballs/things you didnt expect on the real thing if you did this?

What i'm suggesting is similar to what people do in college with practice tests and use them as a way to study for the real deal by redoing them, drilling themselves etc.

This is exactly what I did and it worked well. I took all 8 AAMC exams every two weeks from Jan.-April and reveiwed each one continously afterward. I turned the exams I took into a QBank. It is an great resource to be used in addition to your standard preparation because eventually you will reach a limit of what you can learn content wise.

Exclusively? Not as much as you'd expect. That strategy only really works in classes where there is a finite amount of material and only so many ways to ask the same question (like math).

Even with all the AAMC materials, there's a wealth of information that is test-able and not covered. Enough to make up the contents of your MCAT. Not only that, but the MCAT can ask you about material that isn't included in the outline, any of the AAMC exams or one of your pre-req classes. You're expected to be able to handle such information when provided with enough background by utilizing good critical thinking and analysis skills.

Also not going to help you develop critical thinking skills.. so unless you literally get the exact same question about the exact same concept, you're going to be in trouble.

You're being overly critical here. I agree that exclusively reviewing AAMCs is not a good idea, but it can be a great supplement to Kaplan's QBank etc. and being comfortable with AAMC style questions.

 

[mrh125]

You're spot on with


This is exactly what I did and it worked well. I took all 8 AAMC exams every two weeks from Jan.-April and reveiwed each one continously afterward. I turned the exams I took into a QBank. It is an great resource to be used in addition to your standard preparation because eventually you will reach a limit of what you can learn content wise.




You're being overly critical here. I agree that exclusively reviewing AAMCs is not a good idea, but it can be a great supplement to Kaplan's QBank etc. and being comfortable with AAMC style questions.

How much did working with AAMC exams and reviewing them help you for the real thing? Were than any similar patterns and were questions asked similarly? I do a lot of other practice material, and review, but i feel knowing how to get the questions right on practice AAMCS and going back to try and understand things i didnt understand before helps me a lot.

 

[Jepstein30]

You're spot on with


This is exactly what I did and it worked well. I took all 8 AAMC exams every two weeks from Jan.-April and reveiwed each one continously afterward. I turned the exams I took into a QBank. It is an great resource to be used in addition to your standard preparation because eventually you will reach a limit of what you can learn content wise.




You're being overly critical here. I agree that exclusively reviewing AAMCs is not a good idea, but it can be a great supplement to Kaplan's QBank etc. and being comfortable with AAMC style questions.

The OP is specifically asking about it being his exclusive method of study, at least how I read it and what I prefaced my post with.

If you want to talk about a supplement, that's obviously different and easily one of the most valuable.

 

[Espadaleader]

The OP is specifically asking about it being his exclusive method of study, at least how I read it and what I prefaced my post with.

If you want to talk about a supplement, that's obviously different and easily one of the most valuable.

Agreed.

 

[Espadaleader]

How much did working with AAMC exams and reviewing them help you for the real thing? Were than any similar patterns and were questions asked similarly? I do a lot of other practice material, and review, but i feel knowing how to get the questions right on practice AAMCS and going back to try and understand things i didnt understand before helps me a lot.

Certain things tend to be tested on the AAMC exams in an AAMC fashion. Especially in regards to calculations etc. and certain lower yield concepts like optics. you will see a lot of repetition. There are only so many ways they can "trick" you on certain topics. It is also good to review what concepts are tested on the MCAT per the official guide to the MCAT.