MCAT Section Bank vs Question Pack

Q: When should I do the AAMC section bank?

Its best to use the AAMC section bank no later than a month out from your test date. Mix it into your study routine and complete the entire bank before attempting any practice exams. If you start early, the best way to use the section bank is to complete it twice.

Q: Are the AAMC question packs representative?

In short, theyre extremely representative. The AAMC offers two CARS Question Packs—called Volume 1 and Volume 2—and between the two of them you get a total of 43 passages. Its worth doing every single one of them. But theres a few other things you should know about them before you start.

Question banks are old MCAT materials that are not entirely representative anymore of the real things from what I have been told (I have taken the old MCAT not the new one yet). Good for verbal mainly and some content review. Not so great with the new style.

Table of Contents Show

Are the MCAT Section banks hard?
What is a section bank MCAT?
When should I do the AAMC section bank?
Are the AAMC question packs representative?

The section bank is more integrative with different sections and contain passages that are similar to the passages you'll see on the real thing. From what I understand the difficulty of the section bank is greater than the real thing (most passages are on the hard to extremely hard difficulty end) however, you'll likely see a few passages of similar difficulty on the real test. Definitely do both, although if you have to choose one do the section bank. Do not get down if you're not fairing well right off the bat, take it as a learning experience and just practice getting good at interpreting the experimental style passages provided.

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OVERVIEW AND BENEFITS

The Section Bank provides a total of 300 practice questions, which includes 100 practice questions from each of the following sections:

Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems
Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior

Note that the Section Bank does NOT include practice questions from the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) section of the MCAT exam.

The MCAT Section Bank allows you to:

View the answers and the test developers’ solutions right away or later.
Highlight content from the passages and questions, and review your highlighted content later using the built-in highlight tool.
Review a breakdown of your performance in each Foundational Concept, Content Category, and Skill category.
Add and review flags and notes to your answered questions.
Compare your performance on every attempt of the Section Bank questions by comparing all your previous score reports. Each MCAT preparation product allows an unlimited number of attempts.
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More Information

Edition: 1st Edition

Are the MCAT Section banks hard?

The Section Bank is easily the best MCAT material available apart from the full length tests. You should study it carefully and maybe even do it multiple times. But, you should also know that the Section Bank is hard. The passages and questions in here are above average difficulty.

What is a section bank MCAT?

The MCAT Section Bank allows you to: View the answers and the test developers' solutions right away or later. Highlight content from the passages and questions, and review your highlighted content later using the built-in highlight tool.

When should I do the AAMC section bank?

It's best to use the AAMC section bank no later than a month out from your test date. Mix it into your study routine and complete the entire bank before attempting any practice exams. If you start early, the best way to use the section bank is to complete it twice.

Are the AAMC question packs representative?

In short, they're extremely representative. The AAMC offers two CARS Question Packs—called Volume 1 and Volume 2—and between the two of them you get a total of 43 passages. It's worth doing every single one of them. But there's a few other things you should know about them before you start.