100% Free Test Prep MCAT Practice Test Questions

Question 1

For the last two decades many earth scientists have supported the notion that the Mediterranean was once a

huge, dry desert, lying 3,000 meters below sea level. This “death valley” was thought to have existed at the end

of Miocene time, about 6 to 5.5 million years ago…

…From a geological point of view, the Mediterranean is a tectonically mobile land-enclosed depression – small

(about 3,000,000 square kilometers) in comparison to the major world oceans…Immediately obvious on all

charts is the highly variable topography and relief of both the seafloor and adjacent borderland. The coastline is

highly irregular and continental shelves, though generally narrow, are well developed off the major river deltas

(Nile, Rhone, Po, and Ebro). Moreover, the deep-sea basins and trenches have distinctive relief, with basin

plains ranging in depth from less than 1,000 meters to more than 4,000…Observation that rocks dredged

offshore are similar to those on land raised a fundamental concept – the key to understanding Mediterranean

history lies in the adjacent emerged land masses, and vice-versa…

…Early paleographic reconstructions showed that the once-open communication with the Atlantic deteriorated

during the upper Miocene. Water-mass exchange continued for a while in the Rif Strait, but then ceased

completely prior to the beginning of the Pliocene…

…High relief near what is now the Strait of Gibraltar served as a barrier to the exchange of waters with the

Atlantic. Exposed to a hot and dry climate, water evaporated and the then-dry basin elicited comparison with a

gigantic Death Valley…Microfossil studies suggested that the depth of the Mediterranean basin at these times

had been “deep.” Estimates suggested a dry seafloor as far as 2,000 meters below ocean level… As a

response to suddenly lowered sea level, rivers feeding the Mediterranean and canyons on the now-dry seafloor

began a geologically dramatic phase of erosion. Deep, Grand Canyon-like gorges of the Nile and Rhone rivers,

presently buried on land, were apparently cut during a great drawdown of water – when the Mediterranean floor

lay exposed 1,000 meters or more below its present level…The sudden flooding through a gigantic waterfall at

Gibraltar drowned the exposed basin floor. These falls would have been 1,000 times bigger than Niagara

Falls…This flooding event is recorded by the Miocene Pliocene boundary, a time when open marine faunal

assemblages were suddenly reintroduced from the Atlantic…

…Geological theories usually fall at a glacial pace into a sea of controversy, and this one is no exception. Today

– charging that proof for the theory is lacking – many scientists believe that the Med always contained saltwater,

with only the depth of the seafloor and the water being in question… Some of the tenets on which the theory

was formulated are, if not defective, very seriously in question. To interpret their findings, a respectable number

of geologists studying the surrounding emerged borderland as well as subsea sections indicate that alternative,

more comprehensive concepts must be envisioned…

…It is not realistic to envision the Mediterranean seafloor of about 5 million years ago as a desert at 3,000

meters below present ocean level. Several years ago…the Mediterranean [was compared] to a complex

picture-puzzle that comprises numerous intricate pieces, many of which are already in place. A general image

is emerging, although gaps in some areas of the picture remain fuzzy and indistinct.

All of the following are features of the “desert theory” EXCEPT:

A : Around 5.5 to 6 million years ago, the earth’s climate was similar to that of modern day Earth.

B : The arid region compared to a “Death Valley” existed below sea level.

C : The start of the Pliocene period saw a waterfall at the Strait of Gibraltar that rivaled Niagara in its intensity.

D : During the Miocene, the Rif Strait served as a channel for the Atlantic waters to mix with the Mediterranean.

Answer: A

Question 2

The magnetic field is produced by:

A : moving protons.

B : stationary protons.

C : stationary electrons.

D : moving electrons.

Answer: D

Question 3

In the course of gathering data in an experiment, a researcher develops the following correlation matrix:

Table 1 Correlation Matrix

Which of the following pairs of variables are most strongly correlated?

Section: Psychology and Sociology

A : A, C

B : A, D

C : B, D

D : C, D

Answer: B

Question 4

Although nihilism is commonly defined as a form of extremist political thought, the term has a broader meaning.

Nihilism is in fact a complex intellectual stance with venerable roots in the history of ideas, which forms the

theoretical basis for many positive assertions of modern thought. Its essence is the systematic negation of all

perceptual orders and assumptions. A complete view must account for the influence of two historical

crosscurrents: philosophical skepticism about the ultimacy of any truth, and the mystical quest for that same

pure truth. These are united by their categorical rejection of the “known”.

The outstanding representative of the former current, David Hume (1711-1776), maintained that external reality

is unknowable, since sense impressions are actually part of the contents of the mind. Their presumed

correspondence to external “things” cannot be verified, since it can be checked only by other sense

impressions. Hume further asserts that all abstract conceptions turn out, on examination, to be generalizations

from sense impressions. He concludes that even such an apparently objective phenomenon as a cause-andeffect relationship between events may be no more than a subjective fabrication of the observer. Stanley Rosen

notes: “Hume terminates in skepticism because he finds nothing within the subject but individual impressions

and ideas.”

For mystics of every faith, the “experience of nothingness” is the goal of spiritual practice. Buddhist meditation

techniques involve the systematic negation of all spiritual and intellectual constructs to make way for the

apprehension of pure truth. St. John of the Cross similarly rejected every physical and mental symbolization of

God as illusory. St. John’s spiritual legacy is, as Michael Novak puts it, “the constant return to inner solitude, an

unbroken awareness of the emptiness at the heart of consciousness. It is a harsh refusal to allow idols to be

placed in the sanctuary. It requires also a scorching gaze upon all the bureaucracies, institutions, manipulators,

and hucksters who employ technology and its supposed realities to bewitch and bedazzle the psyche.”

Novak’s interpretation points to the way these philosophical and mystical traditions prepared the ground for the

political nihilism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The rejection of existing social institutions and their

claims to authority is in the most basic sense made possible by Humean skepticism. The political nihilism of the

Russian intelligentsia combined this radical skepticism with a near mystical faith in the power of a new

beginning. Hence, their desire to destroy becomes a revolutionary affirmation; in the words of Stanley Rosen,

“Nihilism is an attempt to overcome or repudiate the past on behalf of an unknown and unknowable, yet hopedfor, future.” This fusion of skepticism and mystical re-creation can be traced in contemporary thought, for

example as an element in the counterculture of the 1960s.

The passage implies that the two strands of nihilist thought

Section: Verbal Reasoning

A : are combined in nineteenth and twentieth century political nihilism.

B : remained essentially separate after the eighteenth century.

C : are necessary prerequisites for any positive modern social thought.

D : are derived from distinct Eastern and Western philosophical traditions.

Answer: A

Question 5

The Russia which emerged from the terrible civil war after the 1917 Revolution was far from the Bolsheviks’

original ideal of a non-exploitative society governed by workers and peasants. By 1921, the regime was

weakened by widespread famine, persistent peasant revolts, a collapse of industrial production stemming from

the civil war, and the consequent dispersal of the industrial working class – the Bolsheviks’ original base of

support. To buy time for recovery, the government in 1921 introduced the New Economic Policy, which allowed

private trade in farm products (previously banned) and relied on a fixed grain tax instead of forced requisitions

to provide food for the cities. The value of the ruble was stabilized. Trade unions were again allowed to seek

higher wages and benefits, and even to strike. However, the Bolsheviks maintained a strict monopoly of power

by refusing to legalize other parties.

After the death of the Revolution’s undisputed leader, Lenin, in January 1924, disputes over the long-range

direction of policy led to an open struggle among the main Bolshevik leaders. Since open debate was still

possible within the Bolshevik Party in this period, several groups with differing programs emerged in the course

of this struggle.

The program supported by Nikolai Bukharin – a major ideological leader of the Bolsheviks with no power base

of his own – called for developing agriculture through good relations with wealthy peasants, or “kulaks.”

Bukharin favored gradual industrial development, or “advancing towards Socialism at a snail’s pace.” In foreign

affairs, Bukharin’s policy was to ally with non-Socialist regimes and movements that were favorable to Russia.

A faction led by Leon Trotsky, head of the Red Army and the most respected revolutionary leader after Lenin,

called for rapid industrialization and greater central planning of the economy, financed by a heavy tax on the

kulaks. Trotsky rejected the idea that a prosperous, human Socialist society could be built in Russia alone

(Stalin’s slogan of “Socialism in One Country”), and therefore called for continued efforts to promote workingclass revolutions abroad. As time went on, he became bitterly critical of the new privileged elite emerging within

both the Bolshevik Party and the Russian state.

Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party, was initially considered a “center,” conciliating figure,

not clearly part of a faction. Stalin’s eventual supremacy was ensured by three successive struggles within the

party, and only during the last did his own program become clear.

First, in 1924-25, Stalin isolated Trotsky, allying for this purpose with Grigori Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev,

Bolshevik leaders better known than Stalin himself, whom Trotsky mistakenly considered his main rivals. Stalin

maneuvered Trotsky out of leadership of the Red Army, his main potential power base. Next, Stalin turned on

Zinoviev and Kamenev, using his powers as head of the Party organization to remove them from party

leadership in Leningrad and Moscow, their respective power bases. Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev then

belatedly formed the “Joint Opposition” (1926-27). With Bukharin’s help, Stalin easily outmaneuvered the

Opposition: Bukharin polemicized against Trotsky, while Stalin prevented the newspapers from printing

Trotsky’s replies, organized gangs of toughs to beat up his followers, and transferred his supporters to

administrative posts in remote regions. At the end of 1927, Stalin expelled Trotsky from the Bolshevik Party and

exiled him. (Later, in 1940, he had him murdered.) Zinoviev and Kamenev, meanwhile, recanted their views in

order to remain within the Party.

The final act now began. A move by kulaks to gain higher prices by holding grain off the market touched off a

campaign against them by Stalin. Bukharin protested, but with the tradition of Party democracy now all but

dead, Stalin had little trouble silencing Bukharin. Meanwhile, he began a campaign to force all peasants – not

just kulaks – onto state-controlled “collective farms,” and initiated a crash industrialization program during which

he deprived the trade unions of all rights and cut real wages by 50%. Out of the factional struggle in which he

emerged by 1933 as sole dictator of Russia, Stalin’s political program of building up heavy industry on the

backs of both worker and peasant emerged with full clarity.

The passage supports the idea that struggles within the Bolshevik Party were primarily:

Section: Verbal Reasoning

A : reflections of struggles among important groups in the general population.

B : the result of differences over economic policy.

C : the result of misdirected loyalty on the part of the Red Army.

D : caused by Russian social elites outside the Party.

Answer: B

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