i feel the need to ***** about kaplan/barrons

[medisforme]

ok, i am a little worried all of a sudden (writing mcat friday the 13th). for the first two thirds of my mcat studying i used kaplan materials (and to a lesser extent barrons which wasn't as good). my VR scores on kaplan and barrons ranged from a low of 10 to a high of 13 with me never rushing to finish the section on time. now for the last week i have been writing the aamc practice tests with the f*&^ing VR sections being at least twice as hard if not moreso than the VR from these reputable companies. so far my best score is a nine (having written 3 practice tests) and i tend to have to watch the clock a lot more due to the increased difficulty of both the reading material and the actual questions. has anyone else had a similar experience or am I alone here?

[rogerroger]

My experience writing the MCAT twice is that Kaplan VR is deceiving. I also say this as a former Kaplan instructor.

 

Kaplan tests specific details and has less focus on the overall general idea. In the AAMC tests the VR answer is less obvious. Actually in AAMC what appears as the obvious answer is usually wrong if you evaluate it more carefully. Thus, the AAMC tests are tricky this way...

 

For those practicing for this years MCAT I strongly recommend Exam Krackers 101 MCAT passages for your VR practice. These tests are much closer to the real deal.

 

Actually all sections of the Kaplan practice tests are wonky in style compared to the real deal. I could discuss this in detail... But to keep a long story short I recommend sticking with AAMC tests if you are looking for a good gauge of your performance.

[roycer]

I have studied for and written the MCAT 3 times and have never found Kaplan VR useful. VR has never been my strong MCAT section and have tried many techniques to try to improve my score. Examkrackers 101 is a good book to practice from, but it was better suited for the paper MCAT than the computer-based MCAT. The best practice material for VR is by far the VR sections in the AAMC practice tests. If you could, I would highly suggest ordering all of the CBT-AAMC practice tests and doing them in order.

[KristenD]

I used Kaplan, and I agree, when I got to write the actual MCAT, the verbal section was very different! I found the actual MCAT questions more difficult and that they involved more reading, I actually ran out of time which I never did practicing, but overall they were just different. Some people might find them easier than the Kaplan style questions, it depends on your relative strengths I guess! Good luck, try to relax and not to stress too much, I'm sure you'll do fine!

[cling]

Try supplementing your Kaplan VR practice with practice from other tests such as the LSAT. LSAT texts are far more tricky to read than the MCAT texts and the questions on the LSAT are far more tricky than the ones on the MCAT verbal section. Also, there are 5 choices to the LSAT, so the effect of luck will not be as pronounced. LSAT texts are shorter and there are usually less questions per passage, so the strategy to LSATs is to read questions prior to readin the text, while this is not advised on the MCAT due to larger number of questions.

 

Out of curiosity, on the real shebang, how long would you say the readings were? 600 words? or more? I can't seem to remember.