kaplan vs. real mcat

[Guest QuestionMan23213]

Hello everyone,

I was thinking of posting this in the MCAT section but I thought this board would have more people that have completed the mcat already. I am wondering, for those of you that took kaplan prep, did you go up or down on your real mcat? If you went up or down, how many points was it by? What were your scores like on the kaplan tests and the real one?

 

Just curious...

Thanks.

[Guest Phantasme]

I didn't do extremely well on the MCAT. I received pretty much the average 10,10,10R. However, I came from a fairly weak science background (I was in the second year of a Psych Specialist). All I know is that if I didn't take Kaplan, I would have been pretty screwed. I needed the structure and the review of old material from high school. My first diagnostic was pretty much 7s and a 6 and probably some abysmal mark on verbal. With access to the practice tests, I found it very useful to get accustomed to the timing of the test. Later tests had me hovering between 8-9, and eventually 9-11, and even a 12. It's hard to say how I truly did compared to others, because for the take-home tests, I'm pretty sure some people (including me:o ) were still looking through their books for a question or two.

Hope this helps.

[Guest Pthalo]

I only wrote the MCAT once, so I can't compare my pre-kaplan score to an after kaplan score, but I definitely found the course useful. In my diagnostic test I got something like 7/10/9 (PS/VR/BS) and worked my way up from there...I think my highest scores on the kaplan practice tests were 11 for PS, 12 for VR and 11 for BS and my actual MCAT was 10/11/13/Q. I found the PS section on the actual MCAT much easier than kaplan and the VR and BS definitely harder, which worked in my favour for BS since I have a strong biology background. Hope that helps.

-Monica

[Guest mosquitoba]

i found the same as pthalo did - got 7/10/9 (PS/VR/BS) on my diagnostic, and most of my practice tests were 10/11/12, with my real mcat being 11/10/13/Q. i found the verbal reasoning on the real mcat much more difficult, but the physical and biological sciences were very comparable to the kaplan practice exams. my advice is to do all the kaplan practice exams, and then do the section tests that kaplan gives you for extra practice. i also did some practice AAMC exams (got them from a friend). the more you practice, the better!

mosquitoba

[Guest QuestionMan23213]

Thanks for the replies,

It's actually my second time taking kaplan and the mcat. I did it 2 years back with very little science background and didnt do very well on either. This time Im scoring low 30s so I was just wondering if this actually means anything. Even though I didnt score as high last time in kaplan, my marks were still 28-29s and I ended up going down on the real one. Most people Ive asked have said their marks have gone down from kaplan's predicted scores but I guess you all have proven otherwise.

 

Feel free anyone else, to share your experience.

Thanks!

[Guest Jag]

My real MCAT score ended up being identical to the average of my last few Kaplan practice exams.

[Guest PerfectMoment]

question about kaplan's calculation heavy PS section...

 

when you took the real thing, did you find there to be anywhere near as many calculation questions? i took one of the practice tests from the kaplan practice test book and was just blown away by how many calculation questions there were, and moreover, by how hard they were. some of those questions have just the most obscure values, and even with rounding, the numbers were really quite difficult to handle. i've taken 3r-5r and the PS sections on those exams had nowhere near as many calculations. what can i expect on the real thing?

 

as well, when people say that kaplan's PS most resembles the real mcat's in terms of difficulty, do they mean in term of conceptual type questions, or by the fact that they have to slog their way through kaplan's calculations, thus being pressed for time for the rest of the section?

[Guest DoNair]

I remember the Kaplan PS sections being quite long and difficult to complete in the allotted time. This forced me to work more efficiently and get better at calculations.

 

When I wrote the Aug 2003 MCAT I worked at the same pace as I did with Kaplan exams and finished with 45 minutes remaining! All of the AAMC questions were essentially hidden discretes, that being they didn't depend much on the passage and all calculations were very simple. Even the theory questions were much more simple than with Kaplan. I ended up getting an 11 on that PS section which was in the 92nd percentile (I think).

 

Bottom line, if you can get through a Kaplan PS section test and escape with a mark of at least 10, you will ROCK the PS portion of the real MCAT.

[Guest noncestvrai]

I had 2 pts overall less on the actual thing compared to my practice exams at the end. These were in the VR section, I did very similar in the sciences, and written I did even better.

 

I got screwed at some school by a single pt, i.e. at Western.

 

This seems pretty trivial now:p

 

noncestvrai