WAIT! Before you burn our headquarters down we can explain.
Full length exams are incredibly useful tools but are being used improperly by the majority of test takers we work with.
So let’s talk about how we can do better.
Myth #1
FL tests will give you an accurate prediction of your potential MCAT score.
Truth: This is largely true if you are close to your test day, have finished prepping with content/passage practice (hopefully with a good study plan) and if the practice exam is from the AAMC.
The vast majority of practice Full Length exams available are from third party companies and are not accurate in predicting scores at all because they aren’t statistically benchmarked.
So it can be a big let down for students to get their real test score back and have it look nothing like the practices. Make sure you aren’t doing multiple exams just to keep checking that you are “maintaining” your scoring level because it won’t be accurate. In addition, if you lack content, strategy, or question answering skills because you are still early in your training period your performance on the FL won’t be an accurate assessment of your capabilities either.
Myth #2
You can get better at Full Length tests by just doing more of them
Truth: This is partially correct. While it is necessary to do multiple Full Length tests to accrue experience, the vast majority of a student's scoring potential and increases in performance occur outside of full length tests. Reviewing your performance is important, especially in CARS.
If you have content issues it takes a while for you to shore up weak content areas. Similarly if you have strategy issues and pick up new tricks( like all of our cool high level timing strategies) you will have trouble applying them during test day until you have practiced on smaller groups of passages first.
FL tests are a showcase of skills in order to gauge your performance. They aren’t the place where skills are typically built so make sure you keep that distinction in mind. Many students can improve their strategy and timing by just doing 3-4 days of small volume passage based practice vs 1-2 entire Full Lengths.
Myth #3
You can learn lots of content from FL tests
Truth: 80% of a students potential score in C/P, B/B and P/S is based directly on their content knowledge.(this is why some students claim to go from a 508 to a 521 in a few weeks).
BUT there are only 177 science based questions on each FL. Every student at a 500 scoring level will get more than 60% of them correct. That leaves you with a little under 90 random questions you got wrong to learn from. There are thousands of facts for the MCAT so trying to learn content from doing FL tests is like trying to find needles in a haystack.
FL tests are fantastic for seeing how you use your content in a fast paced situation but a poor place to learn the material. It’s not advisable to use them to check your knowledge in specific content areas.
If you are having trouble applying your current knowledge to questions try learning how to identify AAMC’s fundamental question (it’s one of our students favorite parts of the general strategy course)
Summary:
So as you can see FL tests are a waste of time IF used improperly. When students approach Full Length tests as a chance to test their skills, build stamina, and build their testing experience they can have lots of benefits. But when used to check scores, learn content, or simply done because a student feels they “have” to do a large number of them they can be counterproductive and incredibly stressful.
Full lengths for most students often work best if they are:
Primarily AAMC based
Scheduled towards the last 6 weeks of a students study block
Followed by a full day of review
Followed by a week of content review/passage practice to build weak skills/knowledge before next test
At minimum one week apart
And students progress is evaluated by looking at trends in scoring and not just single instances of good/bad performance
At MCATSavior we always want to help students achieve their full potential and we hope that you use all the free courses we have created to help you succeed on this exam!
