<p>mcat2,
When is your S taking mcat? My D. will take it in spring.
She does not need to go to interview either if she stays in her program, but interview was her strongest thing when she was going thru a bunch of them for combined programs (some of them being half a day event with lunch). She said that she actually enjoyed them. She was all smiles when she would get out of them. She got into all programs that she was interviewed for, of course there were few rejctions before interviews unfortuantely.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, He will take it in spring. I think he knows it is important to have the MCAT scores before he selects the list of schools to apply to.</p>
<p>Well, knowing it does not always mean that he would actually do it by then though. One of his friends who has a sister in medical school knows what has to be done by what time extremely well. He ends up taking MCAT in June. Maybe because he did not know what his target schools are, he had no choice but apply to many many schools. Hopefully, the same will not happen to my S.</p>
<p>I’m glad that my daughter took it a year early and so is she. One less thing to deal with at that stressful time.</p>
<p>Congratulation to your D for completing one of the most important things!</p>
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<p>I personally strongly disagree with the above statement. The Kaplan tests are more difficult and specific than the material tested on AAMC, and therefore Kaplan’s grading curves are more generous in order to give you a fair reflection of where you stand “compared to everyone else”. I found AAMCs exams too easy and passages shorter. I also scored a 15 in FL 7, BS section in Kaplan, but got 3 wrong. </p>
<p>The actual MCAT was more complex than all the AAMCs I took and if had not been because of Kaplan, I would have walked into the test with a false sense of security.</p>
<p>I also agree that Kaplan tests aren’t worthless but one must recognize that they are not as like the actual MCAT as AAMC provided test. I think they are good practice at difficult problems - you can LEARN the material you get wrong (because you will get stuff wrong that you straight up didnt know) - where AAMC you are most likely to get things wrong because your critical thinking skills were off. </p>
<p>I recommend doing all the Kaplan tests you have first and then the 2 weeks up to the MCAT do all of your AAMCs. This way you will get the timing down (because the timing on a Kaplan is different from an AAMC). </p>
<p>It worked for me - I got a 40. </p>
<p>Recap: Kaplan good for learning material you didn’t know, AAMC for getting a feel for the length/difficulty of the actual MCAT.</p>
<p>Congratulations NNuki, You are the MCAT topper in August 14th test on CC! Way to go!</p>
<p>Thanks, but I was August 21st actually.</p>
<p>Wow, NNuikibw. Terrific!</p>