[Poll] Those with High Prelim Scores, How Many Total Passage Questions Answered

[Rishikish]

Hey guys, just wanted to see how many total questions you answered from various resources if you had an average overall score 75%+. Thanks!

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[mcatjelly]

I don't understand polls like this. How will knowing the exact number of practice passages help you when you already know that the more practice passages you do, the better? Someone who is naturally a good test-taker won't need to do as many as someone who doesn't test well. Someone might have done 4,000+ questions and had all of their weaknesses tested, and someone who did 400 questions might have gotten lucky with their exam content.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Hey guys, just wanted to see how many total questions you answered from various resources if you had an average overall score 75%+. Thanks!

I don't understand polls like this. How will knowing the exact number of practice passages help you when you already know that the more practice passages you do, the better? Someone who is naturally a good test-taker won't need to do as many as someone who doesn't test well. Someone might have done 4,000+ questions and had all of their weaknesses tested, and someone who did 400 questions might have gotten lucky with their exam content.

I think OP is interested in just seeing how much you need to do until you start seeing results. I think with people reviewing their passages thoroughly it would make sense that there must be some sort of tipping point like you see in business, marketing, etc. It would be interesting to see what people vote on because this kind of reminds me of the 10,000 hour rule of Gladwell

Maybe we should have a "10,000" option

 

[basophilic]

go with the assumption that you are the stupidest of the test-takers on your date and adjust your practice accordingly
some suggestions: pull together a list of how many passages you have/can afford from each company for each subject, divide by number of days you have - 10, and do that many per day...and yes, even if it ends up being 30-40 per day WITH thorough review;

 

[Rishikish]

go with the assumption that you are the stupidest of the test-takers on your date and adjust your practice accordingly
some suggestions: pull together a list of how many passages you have/can afford from each company for each subject, divide by number of days you have - 10, and do that many per day...and yes, even if it ends up being 30-40 per day WITH thorough review;

I'm doing 6000 questions, so I hope it's not overkill. 50 days, 120 questions a day, 10 hours a day.

 

[StudyLater]

I don't understand polls like this. How will knowing the exact number of practice passages help you when you already know that the more practice passages you do, the better? Someone who is naturally a good test-taker won't need to do as many as someone who doesn't test well. Someone might have done 4,000+ questions and had all of their weaknesses tested, and someone who did 400 questions might have gotten lucky with their exam content.

We don't know this, for sure. Might be a good rule for the general public, but at the end of the day all of this is hearsay. I've been seeing a lot of people, including yourself, with fluctuating practice scores maintained around a pretty consistent mean range (see 30+ CBT thread). I'm not arguing for not practicing a sh*tload; if you've got the time, why not? I'm just saying we don't really know for sure just how much an extra 1000+ questions is benefiting us. I don't doubt the power of getting as comfortable as possible with the test style, though.

@Rishikish If you actually end up doing that, you seriously deserve a 528 for effort, despite whatever score you actually receive.

 

[mcatjelly]

We don't know this, for sure. Might be a good rule for the general public, though, but at the end of the day all of this is hearsay. I've been seeing a lot of people, including yourself, with fluctuating practice scores maintained around a pretty consistent mean number. I'm not arguing for not practicing a sh*tload; if you've got the time, why not? I'm just saying we don't really know for sure just how much an extra 1000+ questions is benefiting us. I don't doubt the power of getting as comfortable as possible with the test style, though.

Oh, I definitely agree with you there; sorry for not articulating myself well. I was just trying to touch on the fact that shooting to complete a specific large number of questions based on the votes of a few past test-takers is largely pointless compared to just doing as many practice passages as it takes to get to your target/peak score. Who cares how many other people do?

 

[FutureSurgical]

I don't understand polls like this. How will knowing the exact number of practice passages help you when you already know that the more practice passages you do, the better? Someone who is naturally a good test-taker won't need to do as many as someone who doesn't test well. Someone might have done 4,000+ questions and had all of their weaknesses tested, and someone who did 400 questions might have gotten lucky with their exam content.

Thanks to EK and Kaplan, I already came up with problems with a study like this lol. Thanks for the schedule mcatjelly

 

[StudyLater]

shooting to complete a specific large number of questions based on the votes of a few past test-takers is largely pointless compared to just doing as many practice passages as it takes to get to your target/peak score.

"Things just ain't the same." Wish we actually had more genuinely helpful PQ's for this in the first place. It could be that after the official stuff and a couple EK's/khan passages (ref:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Mcat/wiki/mcat2015exam/ek#wiki_full_lengths &
; http://www.reddit.com/r/Mcat/wiki/mcat2015exam/ka#wiki_passages), there could be a drop off in practice yield (ref: http://www.reddit.com/r/Mcat/wiki/mcat2015exam/kaplan#wiki_full-lengths & http://www.reddit.com/r/Mcat/wiki/mcat2015exam/tpr#wiki_full_lengths)

I do think it should be just enough, though.

 

[Rishikish]

These are where I am getting my questions from if anyone was curious:

4 Next Step Books (920 questions)
3 Kaplan FLs ( 690 questions)
5 TPR FLs (1150 questions)
6 AAMC Question Packs (720 questions)
Khan Academy (2000 questions)
1 AAMC FL (230 questions)
1 AAMC Official Guide (120 Questions)

 

[justadream]

It's not as much about the quantity as it is the quality of questions.

 

[basophilic]

These are where I am getting my questions from if anyone was curious:

4 Next Step Books (920 questions)
3 Kaplan FLs ( 690 questions)
5 TPR FLs (1150 questions)
6 AAMC Question Packs (720 questions)
Khan Academy (2000 questions)
1 AAMC FL (230 questions)
1 AAMC Official Guide (120 Questions)

You could also consider EK1001 books and TBR (at least the Orgo II and Bio I and II)

 

[Rishikish]

You could also consider EK1001 books and TBR (at least the Orgo II and Bio I and II)

I was thinking about using them, since I got them online for free. However 9000+ questions might be harder to squeeze in 50 days.

 

[whirlpool159]

I think what's more important to focus on than answering an exact # of questions is the analysis of your missed questions and using the best sources. I'm currently on my 8th day of content review and I've done ~400 questions (mostly from TBR but also EK and TPR). Also, this is without starting my FLs. Different prep companies have different ways of wording questions/formatting passages. Yes, Khan Academy has 2000 questions. But from what I've read on here their passage based questions do not give you the best feel for the test...so I'd substitute them for something else. Maybe the EK FL's.

 

[Rishikish]

I think what's more important to focus on than answering an exact # of questions is the analysis of your missed questions and using the best sources. I'm currently on my 8th day of content review and I've done ~400 questions (mostly from TBR but also EK and TPR). Also, this is without starting my FLs. Different prep companies have different ways of wording questions/formatting passages. Yes, Khan Academy has 2000 questions. But from what I've read on here their passage based questions do not give you the best feel for the test...so I'd substitute them for something else. Maybe the EK FL's.

I plan to use the KA questions, NS books, AAMC question packs, and the AAMC Official Guide questions to test my understanding of the content and topics. I plan to use the Kaplan, TPR, and AAMC FLs to get MCAT style passage based practice. Besides, $50 for a single EK FL is a bit more than I can pay when I can get 5 FL from TPR for $60. I might squeeze in the EK 1001 packs to asses content understanding, but obviously not for preparing for current MCAT passage questions. Besides, the concepts are still the same, it's simply the way they are asked that has changed.

 

[whirlpool159]

I plan to use the KA questions, NS books, AAMC question packs, and the AAMC Official Guide questions to test my understanding of the content and topics. I plan to use the Kaplan, TPR, and AAMC FLs to get MCAT style passage based practice. Besides, $50 for a single EK FL is a bit more than I can pay when I can get 5 FL from TPR for $60. I might squeeze in the EK 1001 packs to asses content understanding, but obviously not for preparing for current MCAT passage questions. Besides, the concepts are still the same, it's simply the way they are asked that has changed.

Yeah but I feel like the best way to prep (in terms of answering questions) is to simulate testing conditions as much as possible. So more exposure to FLs would be ideal. However, if you can't afford them, I think 9 FLs are good.

 

[Rishikish]

Yeah but I feel like the best way to prep (in terms of answering questions) is to simulate testing conditions as much as possible. So more exposure to FLs would be ideal. However, if you can't afford them, I think 9 FLs are good.

Just wondering, how many FLs did you do until you reached your target score?

 

[whirlpool159]

Just wondering, how many FLs did you do until you reached your target score?

I just started studying about a week ago. I'm taking the test in August, but I plan on taking a similar amount of FLs as you, primarily closer to my test date.

 

[Rishikish]

I just started studying about a week ago. I'm taking the test in August, but I plan on taking a similar amount of FLs as you, primarily closer to my test date.

Same here. I actually had an extra TPR FL online, meaning I actually have 10 FLs. I plan to start doing them 5 weeks before my test, doing two per week ,and spending the gap days to reviewing what I did wrong/going over content I am weak in.

 

[basophilic]

I was thinking about using them, since I got them online for free. However 9000+ questions might be harder to squeeze in 50 days.

The EK questions are surprisingly easy to get through if you know your content; I'd still recommend at least the Bio workbook, and physics/genchem if you have time (for physics and gen chem, these questions are awesome to do while doing content review to reinforce the concepts); also, TBR Bio I and II and Orgo II are highly recommended for passages