MCAT Test Prep Week Giveaway: 2 MCAT Practice Tests by Gold Standard MCAT (worth $70)

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Two online full-length MCAT practice tests by Gold Standard MCAT (GS-1 and GS-2) can be yours for free for 3 months! Simply participate in this thread during SDN Test Prep Week on September 19-23, 2016 by answering the following questions:

(1) What do you want to know about Gold Standard MCAT?

(2) Which topic do you wish was NOT on the MCAT and explain why?

We will choose 3 winners of our MCAT practice tests!


Features of the Gold Standard MCAT Practice Tests:
  • Mimics the interface of the new exam (one question at a time). We also closely follow the AAMC standard outline for all of our full-length practice tests.

  • Can be taken as many times as you wish within your access period. After taking each exam, you will immediately see your raw score, estimated scale score and estimated score range in your account's History section.

  • Comes with helpful explanations, statistics as to how others have performed on that particular question, and comment fields to discuss that question with other students and our test writers.

  • Free bonus: 3-hour online access to our science teaching videos to help students understand the most tested science concepts of the MCAT.

Test drive our free MCAT practice test to check the features we described and get 1-hour access to our online science video library.

Members don't see this ad.
 
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What is the success rate for Gold Standard MCAT? What is the most improvement in test score that you all have seen?

I wish that verbal reasoning wasn't on the MCAT. The passages can be a bit long and cumbersome. This causes me to have to read each sentence twice, which takes away from my time to answer the questions.
 
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1. What's the success rate of gold prep learners in getting accepted to allopathic schools?

2. I wish the cars section wasn't on there because reading comprehension is a weakness of mine
 
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1) Aside from the features, which is really important, what other aspect of the practice exams is better than other companies practice exam.
2) I wish CARS section would not be part of the exam, as it takes a great amount of effort to improve little bit. This takes time out from the schedule which can be used to improve other sections.
 
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Ahh, the dreaded CARS!! It seems to be an issue for lots of students, actually. Here are a few tips:

The Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills section of the MCAT not only tests your comprehension and reasoning abilities, it also tests how fast you can read. Most candidates will have little or no time to go back and check their answers; and many will not even be able to finish all the passages.

If your reading rate is less than 300 words a minute you may have difficulty completing the section. You can compute your reading rate by reading for a minute and counting the number of words read (approximate average line length x number of lines). If you are a slow reader you should try to improve your reading speed. There are various books and courses that teach how to read faster.

Your task during the MCAT exam is to correctly answer the questions - not to perfectly understand the passages. The purpose of the techniques described below is to enable you to answer the questions with the minimum amount of time.

You may want to select one of these techniques or develop one of your own. You are encouraged to try different techniques under real test conditions (i.e. practice Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills CBTs) to determine which technique you prefer, then you should practice using it. Also be sure to check the MCAT Forum in the General Questions and MCAT Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills sections for additional advice, suggestions and answers to your questions.
  • Technique 1: Read the entire passage → answer the questions. This requires the most ability to understand complex relationships and retain details while you are reading at a fast rate.
  • Technique 2: Read the first two paragraphs → read all the questions and answer those you can → read the remainder of the passage, answering the questions as you go along.
  • Technique 3: Read the first sentence of each paragraph → read the question stems → read the entire passage, answering the questions as you go along.
  • Technique 4: Read the question stems → read the entire passage, answering the questions as you go along.
We have a CARS program that you might be interested in: MCAT CARS

Good luck!
 
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1) Aside from the features, which is really important, what other aspect of the practice exams is better than other companies practice exam.
2) I wish CARS section would not be part of the exam, as it takes a great amount of effort to improve little bit. This takes time out from the schedule which can be used to improve other sections.

1) As far as we are aware no other MCAT prep company offers the following feature: Once you review your practice test results, you will notice that each question has a chat window where you can join a discussion about that particular problem. Its aim is to encourage students to share their experiences and our staff checks the discussions daily for any questions. This is truly a unique feature that no other MCAT prep company is offering to their students!

2) This section seems to bother most students, please see above for a few CARS tips.
 
1. What's the success rate of gold prep learners in getting accepted to allopathic schools?

2. I wish the cars section wasn't on there because reading comprehension is a weakness of mine

1. We have no data for the new exam which just changed last year. For the previous version of the MCAT, we followed students who took our Platinum Package and 2/3rds were accepted to medical school within 3 years of completing the program.

2. Please, see our separate reply on CARS tips.
1. What's the success rate of gold prep learners in getting accepted to allopathic schools?
 
What is the success rate for Gold Standard MCAT? What is the most improvement in test score that you all have seen?

I wish that verbal reasoning wasn't on the MCAT. The passages can be a bit long and cumbersome. This causes me to have to read each sentence twice, which takes away from my time to answer the questions.

1. 1. We have no data for the new exam which just changed last year. For the previous version of the MCAT, we followed students who took our Platinum Package and 2/3rds were accepted to medical school within 3 years of completing the program.

There is no limit. We have seen students how have "failed" (meaning below the 50th percentile) end up with MCAT scores good enough for Ivy League medical schools (usually 80-90th percentile). Having the proper prep is only part of the issue: The main part of progress is your dedication of time and energy.

2. Please, see a separate reply for MCAT CARS tips.
 
(1) I would like to know if the Gold Standard MCAT incorporates research-heavy, experimental passages in its practice exams because based off my recent attempt at the MCAT there seems to be a shift towards experiments in the B/B section? Also, does the Psych/Soc session incorporate lengthy passages b/c again based off my last attempt it seems that this section is in some ways another CARS section except of course with psych/soc content?

(2) I wish Physics wasn't on the MCAT because I have a hard time applying the correct formulas AND I lose a lot of time on calculations!
 
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1) I would like to know if Gold Standard provides answers and explanations for the AAMC materials offered to date.

2) Psychology and sociology. I believe there should be better ways to integrate this content in undergraduate and medical curriculums.
 
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(1) I would like to know if the Gold Standard MCAT incorporates research-heavy, experimental passages in its practice exams because based off my recent attempt at the MCAT there seems to be a shift towards experiments in the B/B section? Also, does the Psych/Soc session incorporate lengthy passages b/c again based off my last attempt it seems that this section is in some ways another CARS section except of course with psych/soc content?

(2) I wish Physics wasn't on the MCAT because I have a hard time applying the correct formulas AND I lose a lot of time on calculations!

(1) Yes, we ensure that B/B is 'research heavy'. For Psych/Soc, we use the same average number of words per passage as the AAMC.
 
1) I would like to know if Gold Standard provides answers and explanations for the AAMC materials offered to date.

2) Psychology and sociology. I believe there should be better ways to integrate this content in undergraduate and medical curriculums.

Hi there! We don't actually provide answers and explanations for the AAMC materials.
 
(1) I would like to know if the Gold Standard MCAT incorporates research-heavy, experimental passages in its practice exams because based off my recent attempt at the MCAT there seems to be a shift towards experiments in the B/B section? Also, does the Psych/Soc session incorporate lengthy passages b/c again based off my last attempt it seems that this section is in some ways another CARS section except of course with psych/soc content?

(2) I wish Physics wasn't on the MCAT because I have a hard time applying the correct formulas AND I lose a lot of time on calculations!

This Physics cheat sheet might help: MCAT Physics Equations Sheet :)
 
(1) Why should I choose Gold Standard MCAT instead of all the other MCAT material out there such as BR and Kaplan? Many others have used those in the past and have demonstrated that they work.

(2) I wish Physics wasn't on the MCAT because it's my biggest weakness out of all the sciences; even when I feel like I understand the concept, I almost always get stuck on the questions and then I resort to process of elimination/guessing!
 
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1) As far as we are aware no other MCAT prep company offers the following feature: Once you review your practice test results, you will notice that each question has a chat window where you can join a discussion about that particular problem. Its aim is to encourage students to share their experiences and our staff checks the discussions daily for any questions. This is truly a unique feature that no other MCAT prep company is offering to their students!

2) This section seems to bother most students, please see above for a few CARS tips.

Thanks for the CARS tips. I liked the idea of discussion for each question. This will help to further understand the material and the approach to answer questions from different perspective.
 
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(1) Why should I choose Gold Standard MCAT instead of all the other MCAT material out there such as BR and Kaplan? Many others have used those in the past and have demonstrated that they work.

(2) I wish Physics wasn't on the MCAT because it's my biggest weakness out of all the sciences; even when I feel like I understand the concept, I almost always get stuck on the questions and then I resort to process of elimination/guessing!

We are definitely not saying don't use prep materials from other companies. In fact, more practice tests you take, better prepared you will be. We also believe that our practice tests work - we have been developing them for over 20 years and we do know the MCAT inside out! You can test drive us for free here: Free MCAT Practice Test

This cheat sheet will help your Physics prep: MCAT Physics Equations Sheet
 
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