VR

[Guest kel]

Does anyone have any suggestion on what to do with one month to go until the MCAT??? Specifically the VR section. I can't seem to improve in this area.

 

Another question for those who have taken Kaplan. Do you think that the practice full length MCAT results represent a "true" MCAT score.

 

Good luck studying...

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi kel,

 

First of all, it's pretty tough, if not impossible, to compare performance on any one MCAT test to another--even among real MCATs. This is due to the presence of so many variables: braininess of the population that takes the test along with you; preparedness of students in the April versus August administrations; the composition of your test and if it's tailored to your strengths (e.g., your BS marks may soar compared to your co-writers if you're a pro in orgo and happen to receive one of the BS sections that are 65% orgo, 35% non-orgo), etc.

 

However, regarding the Kaplan practice exams and the August 2000 administration of the MCAT, it seemed that many people who did very well on the Kaplan practice exams' VR sections did a little worse on the real thing. Of course, this is a generalization, as I know that some folk maintained their VR score on the real exam--perhaps given that a large majority of the population of test writers found the August 2000 VR section difficult. In my own experience, I scored 9 on my first Kaplan mock exam, and then rose from there, and sustained 11s or 12s for the following administrations. Sadly, my score from the real test emerged as a 9. Overall, the consensus was that the Kaplan VR sections were easier. As to the science sections, at that time, Kaplan's mock exam preparation seemed adequate for the experience of the real MCAT.

 

Again, the above is a generalization, and applies to Kaplan/MCAT experiences in 2000 only. The MCAT obviously can change from year to year, and Kaplan may have altered their materials since then to reflect the evolution of the MCAT.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Joe]

My two cents...

 

The VR is sort of difficult to get a handle around, and most of the info around it is contradictory.

If you order the practice exams from the MCAT office, you'll notice that the difficulty levels

change from year to year along with the scoring. For example, making 8 mistakes might have

totally killed you in 1991, but 15 mistakes may scale to an 11 if 1998 or some crazy thing.

 

I'm personally not sure what to make of this. I remember reading somewhere that the

MCAT office itself made the questions harder around 1995 or so that there was a better

distribution (i.e. 50% of writers would make more than 5 mistakes). This is I think reflected

in these more recent MCATs.

 

Some MCAT books though, still use the old system of "six wrong and you're screwed".

I don't know if they just haven't really updated or if my views on it are wrong.

 

The stratagy I'm taking with verbal is to go with the old MCAT exams and just practice as

much as possible and try to use the most recent scoring keys available from the

MCAT office. I'd love to hear more opinions on this myself though.