MCAT Gold Standard Practice MCAT CBTs - Raffle & Product Info

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Gold Standard Practice MCAT Tests

Package Contents

  • 100% online with instant access.
  • 10 full length practice MCAT tests including verbal sections: GS-1 to GS-10; the best, clear explanations and instant scores for all multiple choice sections.
  • Follow your progress and compare yourself to thousands of other students in your personal History Section.
  • 3 hours of free MCAT teaching videos to help you understand test question explanations
  • Be part of a community in the MCAT Prep Forum monitored by Dr. Ferdinand.
  • One payment with access for up to 1 year.
    Note: if you do not want access to all 10 practice tests but rather you would like to to have access to fewer, click here: Practice MCATs
System Requirements

A regular PC computer (minimum of Pentium 200 MHz) or Apple computer (minimum of Mac OS X - Panther).

Gold Standard MCAT will give away access to 10 MCAT practice tests for three months to one lucky member and access to 3 MCAT practice tests for three months to another lucky member. Winners for each raffle will be drawn from among the members who post questions about the product or otherwise meaningfully contribute to the discussion.

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In these Practice MCAT CBT's, are the questions derived from old MCATs, or are they created to mimic the style of the MCAT wording/content?
 
Has GS Verbal changed recently? There have been complaints about it (and even the sciences) in the past. What has been done to remedy this issue?
 
How do the scores on your practice tests correlate with pre-meds who have taken the actual MCAT? Are your CBTs reliable predictors of performance on the real deal?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Are the tests updated to remove topics that the AAMC does not cover on the MCAT anymore?
 
For the pc requirements, is there a browser that works best? Is any other software like flash needed?
 
Does the Gold Standard Textbook include practice passages and stand-alone questions for students to utilize while preparing for the MCAT?

Thank you :)
 
Are the goldstandard tests on par with the difficulty of the real MCAT?
 
How do the Gold Standard CBTs compare to AAMC practice tests? Do they offer similar detailed content analysis to help pinpoint weak areas for review? How does the difficulty level of the verbal reasoning passages compare to the real MCAT?
 
Do the gold standard CBTs have explanations for all the wrong choices too?
 
I am not sure if there is a Gold Standard Mod on this forum or not, but I would also like to hear some of the details regarding how GS practice exams stack up to those of Kaplan, TBR, TPR, and the AAMC exams.

Additionally, does this raffle include all 10 or so GS exams at no cost with full access? How long is the online access valid for? Why would anybody want access to fewer exams as mentioned above, is there an advantage to this in regards to how long you have access to each individual test etc.?
 
In these Practice MCAT CBT's, are the questions derived from old MCATs, or are they created to mimic the style of the MCAT wording/content?

The questions are intended to mimic the style and content of the more recent MCATs.
 
Has GS Verbal changed recently? There have been complaints about it (and even the sciences) in the past. What has been done to remedy this issue?

The remedy has been 18 months of research with the redesigned exams being released, as we currently project, at the end of April. Having said that, the great majority of students who have used our exams have said that the science sections have been a helpful tool for their MCAT preparation.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
How do the scores on your practice tests correlate with pre-meds who have taken the actual MCAT? Are your CBTs reliable predictors of performance on the real deal?

Currently, in general, reported scores on the real MCAT tend to be around 2 points per section higher than on our practice tests.
 
Are the tests updated to remove topics that the AAMC does not cover on the MCAT anymore?

The 10 exams contain about 1400 questions. Less than 1% may include benzene, ether, alkene chemistry which would be the only topics not completely weeded out.
 
For the pc requirements, is there a browser that works best? Is any other software like flash needed?

Firefox provides a stable environment for the exams (as opposed to IE8 or Vista). The teaching videos use .flv technology (the same flash that YouTube uses).
 
Does the Gold Standard Textbook include practice passages and stand-alone questions for students to utilize while preparing for the MCAT?

The textbook provides both and with explanations. These chapter review questions are available online for free for textbook owners.
 
How do the Gold Standard CBTs compare to AAMC practice tests? Do they offer similar detailed content analysis to help pinpoint weak areas for review? How does the difficulty level of the verbal reasoning passages compare to the real MCAT?

Comparisons: www.mcat-prep.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1203

The exams come with a complete Diagnostic section (no extra charge! ) which gives you a clear indication of where you need more work. But even better, each question has an explanation that is directly connected to a forum thread so that you can discuss the question further and, for the science sections, to an online video for background information.

The difficulty of the verbal passages has been a subject of controversy on SDN for some time now. We have decided to come out with a revised verbal section at the end of April.
 
Do the gold standard CBTs have explanations for all the wrong choices too?

Often, but not always. For example, if the question is based on an equation, once the work is shown, it is not helpful to discuss why the other answers are not correct. Also, keep in mind that all of our 1400 questions (or so) come with an individual forum thread so if you don't understand the explanation you can start a discussion about that particular question.
 
I am not sure if there is a Gold Standard Mod on this forum or not, but I would also like to hear some of the details regarding how GS practice exams stack up to those of Kaplan, TBR, TPR, and the AAMC exams.
Our only interest is to provide the best alternative to the AAMC exams for practice. Currently, we have been on SDN's recommended list for practice tests but we have had some criticism regarding our verbal exams and so we are coming to the end of an 18 month odyssey to correct that. For AAMC comparisons: www.mcat-prep.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1203

Additionally, does this raffle include all 10 or so GS exams at no cost with full access? How long is the online access valid for?
Yes, all 10 exams are included with no cost and full access for 6 months. You can do the practice exams as often as you want during your access period and each attempt is saved in your personal History section.

Why would anybody want access to fewer exams as mentioned above, is there an advantage to this in regards to how long you have access to each individual test etc.?
No, there would be no such advantage.
 
Do the three hours of video offer answers to each individual questions?
 
Do the three hours of video offer answers to each individual questions?

Not really, the purpose of the videos is to provide instant background information on a subject to supplement the explanations. For example, if you are looking at the explanation for a circuit problem but you are stuck because you don't remember how to approach such problem; well, you click and a video starts explaining Kirchoff's Laws and then the explanation becomes straightforward to understand.
 
It seems you guys are very much focused on improving your verbal sections. Does the science material also get examined and updated?
 
Are stand alone verbal exams available?
 
How similar are students scores to the real MCATs from these exams?
 
Are these test instantly scored and do you receive feedback/constructive criticism?
 
It seems you guys are very much focused on improving your verbal sections. Does the science material also get examined and updated?
Despite the fact that students are usually happy with the quality of our science sections, explanations and teaching, we also regularly refresh the questions to be sure they reflect the latest trends in the MCAT.
 
Yes to everything you asked. We have 2 sections which perform these duties: Diagnosis and Prescription.


Could you explain diagnoisis and prescription some more? What does it entail?
 
I read that you are updating the verbal portion of the test and that you'll be releasing the updated version toward end of April. Is there a specific date I can buy it at? How will I know that it's the updated version when I'm buying it?
 
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