wow...i suck

[Dr.Acula]

So took my first Kaplan full length today, and I didn't improve! I got a 22 on the diagnostic and thought I was going to go up 4-6 points, but wow. I feel like i just got punched in the gut. I'm really down about this, anyone got any words of advice?

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[turquoise_water]

hey i understand your frustration, and i am in the same boat.

Its freaking me out too because i have less than a month left, i am registered for April 7

my PS score hasnt improved at all from disgnostic and its stuck at 8, my Verbal score goes up and down (Depending on how many philosophy passages i get on the test) with different test.

And i am really scared, frustrated, stressing out and turning into insomaniac.

I havent started practicing physics and chem from EK 1001 books yet, which should bring my PS score up, hopefully. I am reviewing Bio and O Chem right now.

Good Luck !! i know my post wasnt helpful, as i am freaking out myself. Hopefully some angel will come and lead us.

 

[Vanguard23]

I got a 19 on the Diagnostic after being up for like 16 hours and after getting off of work. Under ideal conditions, I think I could manage about a 28 on a Full Length. However, I've made two 26's, but it's with people coming in and *distracting* me on parts.

 

[Dr.Acula]

hey i understand your frustration, and i am in the same boat.

Its freaking me out too because i have less than a month left, i am registered for April 7

my PS score hasnt improved at all from disgnostic and its stuck at 8, my Verbal score goes up and down (Depending on how many philosophy passages i get on the test) with different test.

And i am really scared, frustrated, stressing out and turning into insomaniac.

I havent started practicing physics and chem from EK 1001 books yet, which should bring my PS score up, hopefully. I am reviewing Bio and O Chem right now.

Good Luck !! i know my post wasnt helpful, as i am freaking out myself. Hopefully some angel will come and lead us.

Okay so we are in IDENTICAL situations, except my PS is a little lower. I think i'll be okay on the BS with some extra attention to ochem. And i'm taking a Kaplan course, and that mapping crap is waste of time. I started doing it for the first two passages on my full length, realized i spent almost 20 minutes on it, so i abandoned it. Then i got flustered and made a six
If i can't get around a 28 on the next two full lenghts im gonna move the test date back, if I can find a seat!

 

[DiverDoc]

Kaplan tests are hard guys. Some of their PS and BS passages are excessivly wordy and long compared to AAMC exams. I take kaplan FL's for stamina and treat it like a 4 hr study session. Take an AAMC exam and see where your scores are.

 

[killinsound]

Okay so we are in IDENTICAL situations, except my PS is a little lower. I think i'll be okay on the BS with some extra attention to ochem. And i'm taking a Kaplan course, and that mapping crap is waste of time. I started doing it for the first two passages on my full length, realized i spent almost 20 minutes on it, so i abandoned it. Then i got flustered and made a six
If i can't get around a 28 on the next two full lenghts im gonna move the test date back, if I can find a seat!

don't worry TOO much (a little worry will keep you motivated), my room mate was scoring high 20's then he jumped 7-8 points only 2-3 weeks before his.

 

[indo]

If I was Kaplan, I would make the diagnostic tests harder than hell to scare you all into purchasing books and courses from me.

 

[sexyman]

I feel your frustration guys.

Everytime I take a full length whether it be AAMC or Kaplan I get a 22. The strange thing is each of my sections will vary by 3 points up or down but it always evens out to a damn 22! If only we coud take our best scores from each section...

Im registered for the April 16th MCat and I am starting to feel the heat too. I even found myself looking at the St. Georges website last week


Joe

 

[MedChic]

So took my first Kaplan full length today, and I didn't improve! I got a 22 on the diagnostic and thought I was going to go up 4-6 points, but wow. I feel like i just got punched in the gut. I'm really down about this, anyone got any words of advice?

Hey, I know the feeling...I'm going down in my scores and I don't know why
I scored in the low 20's on my diag with a 7 in Phys sciences, then shot up in the section to a 10 and 11 on 2 full-lengths and just yesterday I scored a 7 again. It's so depressing and so much of it is luck...I guess just follow your study schedule and try not to focus too much on scores but on what you know.

As for Kaplan I just want to say that their scoring of the PS section is extremely distorted....I know they inflate the score b/c supposedly their passages are supposed to be tougher, but quite honestly the Physical Sciences sections are all equal to me. According to Kaplan I "improved" as I tend to score 11's on their material now, but I took the AAMC 7 test and scored a 7. Meanwhile I scored a 9 on Kaplan Verbal and a 12 on the AAMC. What the heck?

 

[DiverDoc]

Hey, I know the feeling...I'm going down in my scores and I don't know why
I scored in the low 20's on my diag with a 7 in Phys sciences, then shot up in the section to a 10 and 11 on 2 full-lengths and just yesterday I scored a 7 again. It's so depressing and so much of it is luck...I guess just follow your study schedule and try not to focus too much on scores but on what you know.

As for Kaplan I just want to say that their scoring of the PS section is extremely distorted....I know they inflate the score b/c supposedly their passages are supposed to be tougher, but quite honestly the Physical Sciences sections are all equal to me. According to Kaplan I "improved" as I tend to score 11's on their material now, but I took the AAMC 7 test and scored a 7. Meanwhile I scored a 9 on Kaplan Verbal and a 12 on the AAMC. What the heck?

It is comforting to know that your not the only one not making super score leaps though. I agree with you that alot is luck, but hey April is coming fast and itll all be over quick and hopefully painless

 

[MSTPbound]

My diagnostic was 25, with an 8 in VR. I've been killing myself doing VR passages for the past 2 months, and all I've got to show for it is a 1 point improvment.

on Kaplan FL 1 I got a 25 (again)... then I took FL2 on Wednesday at got 29. Took AAMC 7 today and got a 28 (also got 28 on AAMC 4).

Here's how I see this thing... every practice is exam is a review in test format, endurance, etc; it's probably not worth looking for realistic scores until about 2 weeks out from the exam (which is about 3 weeks from now) so my plan is threefold:

1) Finish the Kaplan syllabus. Hey... at the end of the day, they probably know a thing or two about how this exam works, so I'm sure the program is designed so that students tend to peak right around exam time. Consider this to be a transition from the end of "preseason" to the beginning of "competitve season".

2) Take as many FLs as possible for the next month. This is one theme I keep seeing recurring in these forums, so there's GOT to be something to this. I personally think that alternating back and forth between Kaplan and AAMC tests is probably a good way to wash any "test-writer" effects.

3) Probably the most important thing, in conjunction with 2, is to carefully review, and study EVERY SINGLE QUESTION missed on EVERY SINGLE practice . There's something very practical about this last strategy that just seems like it's got to work. I am actually keeping a notebook to record the explanations for every question I've missed.

I don't know... after doing this for about a dozen exams, doesn't it seem like one just HAS to improve significantly on one's baseline?

Anyway, if you find this useful, so much the better. Otherwise I'll just join the rest of you praying that this all comes together on April 7th!

 

[bullishMD]

My diagnostic was 25, with an 8 in VR. I've been killing myself doing VR passages for the past 2 months, and all I've got to show for it is a 1 point improvment.

on Kaplan FL 1 I got a 25 (again)... then I took FL2 on Wednesday at got 29. Took AAMC 7 today and got a 28 (also got 28 on AAMC 4).

Here's how I see this thing... every practice is exam is a review in test format, endurance, etc; it's probably not worth looking for realistic scores until about 2 weeks out from the exam (which is about 3 weeks from now) so my plan is threefold:

1) Finish the Kaplan syllabus. Hey... at the end of the day, they probably know a thing or two about how this exam works, so I'm sure the program is designed so that students tend to peak right around exam time. Consider this to be a transition from the end of "preseason" to the beginning of "competitve season".

2) Take as many FLs as possible for the next month. This is one theme I keep seeing recurring in these forums, so there's GOT to be something to this. I personally think that alternating back and forth between Kaplan and AAMC tests is probably a good way to wash any "test-writer" effects.

3) Probably the most important thing, in conjunction with 2, is to carefully review, and study EVERY SINGLE QUESTION missed on EVERY SINGLE practice . There's something very practical about this last strategy that just seems like it's got to work. I am actually keeping a notebook to record the explanations for every question I've missed.

I don't know... after doing this for about a dozen exams, doesn't it seem like one just HAS to improve significantly on one's baseline?

Anyway, if you find this useful, so much the better. Otherwise I'll just join the rest of you praying that this all comes together on April 7th!

The kaplan syllabus gets really brutal at the end... it has so much stuff to do towards the last few weeks.

Anyhways i definitely think the best way to take practice tests is take it and then not worry about your overall score. try to minimize the number of questions you missed. I know its really hard to do especially cause now tests are on the computer and it just grades it for you but try youre hardest not to worry about your score and just drill the areas where you missed a lot of questions.

 

[turquoise_water]

ok so after being depressed all day and studying like crazy , i decided to take Kaplan Full Length 6 ....

There was some server problem and it kicked me out of Physical Science section when i was almost halfway thru the section i logged back in again, and started the full length, and it jumped from PS to Verbal. I finished verbal almost on time. Also skipped prompts and jumped into BS

So my score on Verbal at the end of the test was 9 with 57 % correct and when i took Kaplan Full Length 1 couple of weeks ago, i had 75 % right and still a 9 WTF

Same goes for BS, the score plateaus at 9 when there is 5-8 percent increase overall

Stupid Kaplan .... their passages are way too wordy and long compared to AAMCs.

Screw you Kaplan, am no more taking your full lengths

my plan is to keep drilling thru EK books, and practice from 1001 books, do 101 Verbal passages and take AAMC tests ....

 

[Mark84]

Kaplan tests are definitely hard and a lot of my classmates are in the same boat as you, they didn't improve and some even went down. My instructor said he dropped by like 4 points from his diagnostic to his first full length score I wouldn't worry about it too much. Basically just take the time to internalize all the correct answers and try to identify the reason you missed each problem. Practice tests were meant to be bombed thats why they are practice. If you got 40s on all of them you wouldn't be learning anything.

 

[puzzlefanatic]

I got a beautiful 23 on my first Kaplan diagnostic... and promptly freaked out afterwards and mad studying ensued. 4 months later, I got a 34 on the real thing in April and eventually a 37 when I took it in August. I know I'm crazy, but I thought that I wasn't a particulary good applicant so I wanted to have a good score before applying.

Anyways, the Kaplan tests are hard and confusing, and I think that although they are good for practice, they aren't particularly good at predicting how you'll do on the MCATs. I always found that the EK tests were closer to my actual scores and much more reassuring...

 

[docolive]

Don't worry so much about your practice scores. What counts is the practice itself, not the fixation on one's numbers. Everything changes on test day---and what will show is how much you practiced your tail off.

Also, you'll see that the Kaplan tests are indeed more difficult than the actual MCAT, and you will feel comfortable the day of the AAMC exam.
Much and take those numbers with a grain of salt.

 

[simbalimba]

dont stress it too much guys. I took my first TPR diagnostic and got a 20. A month later, and a lot of studying later, I took my 2nd one and again received a 20. I was down and out about it for a few days but I quickly got over it, took another one the following week and received a 25. So dont give up hope guys, trust me if I can do it all of you can. Now my scores are getting better and I am getting more and more confident.

 

[freelove]

Well... I think the stress did me good actually. I scored a 23 on my Kaplan diagnostic, and a 21 on my FL1. Of course, I freaked out... then studied reeeealllllly hard for about 2-3 weeks, and got a 27 on FL2.

Just took a AAMC 4R today and got a 30.


But anyways... the moral of the story is... look over your wrong answers... UNDERSTAND WHY YOU GOT THEM WRONG. Was it a dumb mistake... carelessness... unfamiliarity with material, and then work on it.

 

[HelpingHand]

Dr. Acula,

I would suggest taking the practice exams section by section. Study the physical sciences super hard and take a section exam. Then do the same for the biological sciences and verbal reasoning. This should bring your score up at least a little per section.

When you feel comfortable, try to tackle the whole thing all at once. What you may be lacking is endurance.

Good luck!