Hi everyone, how accurate are the Barron’s Bio Sample Tests at the end? I never took a formal bio class and just have been studying off of Barron’s since last week. I took one practice test today and did horribly. I got a 680. I was going to sign up for January’s test date, but now I’m having second thoughts. What should I do? Can anyone who used Barron’s, took the prep book’s practice test and the actual test give me some feedback?
I’d really appreciate it if you could get back to me ASAP because the deadline to sign up for the January test date is in 2 days!
There were two exact questions that were on the actual test when I took it. I think it’s a little harder; I was scoring around 730 and got a 770 on the actual one. The Barrons really puts emphasis on the specific phylums and classes and orders and all that but on the actual test it wasn’t that big of a deal. Definitely prepared me; still sad I didn’t score an 800. And by the way, my last Biology class was in freshman year, and I took it as a senior.
Some say that Barrons is harder than the real thing. This is true to an extent (Do not think you can add 200+ points to your Barrons score and expect to get that score on the exam). I averaged about 700 on Barrons and got a 790 on the real thing (this includes very stupid mistakes on the real exam and skipping over hardy Weinberg stuff lol big mistake.) I do recommend Barrons over Princeton Review anyday and go through previous forums because two of the answers I remember reading about on a previous forum discussing the subject test in 2009. My friends that used Princeton Review said that they didnt feel well prepared but that could vary with every test
You’ve probably resolved this issue, but for anyone else considering this in the future:
In my experience, the Barron’s practice tests are slightly harder than the real thing. Three of my friends and I all used Barron’s to study for the November/December bio SAT, and to the best of my knowledge, we all scored about 30-40 points higher on the real thing than our best Barron’s practice test scores. We each took different tests - Nov. M, Nov. E, Dec. M, and Dec. E - and it was true for all of us.
In terms of PR vs. Barrons: I used Barron’s but took a PR practice test. There were a few questions in it (AND ON MY REAL TEST) that were on topics not covered in Barron’s. Even so, I think that Barron’s explains the material better and is overall more useful despite the fact that it covers fewer topics.