More MCAT Prep Material

Spikedsoymilk said:

Hi All.

I'm taking TPR's MCAT hyperlearning course soon. For those of you who took it, did you supplement TPR's materials with something like examkrackers? If so, what did you supplement the course with and why?

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

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not to be rude, but there is a search function. this question gets asked like every three days. In short, EK series are stripped down with the basics you need to know. Get EK bio, it is by far the best for bio, all the responses on SDN say this. Know this book cold. If you don't believe me, type in EK bio in the search function. Personally, you learn the best from passages, If you have time and the cash I highly suggest purchasing Berkeley Review Gen Chem and Ochem. There physics is good too, but with PR it may be redundant. YOu will thank me later. YOu'll probably want EK biology review and EK 101 biology passages and EK verbal 101. PR is good, however, if you want to kill the MCAT you have to be able to integrate material. That's what BR does better than anyone else. Like, be able to answer questions if you see the circulatory system wired in parallel series.

bio - 1. EK bio and 101 bio passages 2. Kaplan 3. PR/BR however, these don't suck, they're just detailed which turns off many people.

Physics 1. BR/Nova 2. PR 3. Kaplan I really think BR but they're are a lot of people who swear by nova on this site

Verbal 1. Ek verbal and 101 passages 2. PR 3. BR 4. Kaplan (read stay from)

GEn Chem 1. BR by far 2. PR 3. Kaplan/EK

O Chem 1. BR by far 2. toss up between Kaplan/PR/Ek

That is a general list of what i have read on SDN for the past 4 years, i came here and lurked throughout highschool. Good luck and hopefully this will help. EK is for people who KNOW the material and want review. If you are weak in something BR is the best since it's the most detailed and PR is detailed too, Kaplan is in the Middle, and EK is the least detailed but that doesn't mean it's bad. Just depends on the person. If you can I would buy the BR Chemistry books and Physics book. If you complete the PR science workbook along with BR passages and EK bio, you will kill the sciences. Ek Verbal should help you out with verbal. I would read your PR books and just do the passages from BR, no need to read them as PR is already descriptive enough. For BR, here is their site http://www.berkeleyreview.com/

TheBoondocks said:

not to be rude, but there is a search function. this question gets asked like every three days. In short, EK series are stripped down with the basics you need to know. Get EK bio, it is by far the best for bio, all the responses on SDN say this. Know this book cold. If you don't believe me, type in EK bio in the search function. Personally, you learn the best from passages, If you have time and the cash I highly suggest purchasing Berkeley Review Gen Chem and Ochem. There physics is good too, but with PR it may be redundant. YOu will thank me later. YOu'll probably want EK biology review and EK 101 biology passages and EK verbal 101. PR is good, however, if you want to kill the MCAT you have to be able to integrate material. That's what BR does better than anyone else. Like, be able to answer questions if you see the circulatory system wired in parallel series.

bio - 1. EK bio and 101 bio passages 2. Kaplan/PR/BR

Physics 1. BR/Nova 2. PR 3. Kaplan I really think BR but they're are a lot of people who swear by nova on this site

Verbal 1. Ek verbal and 101 passages 2. PR 3. BR 4. Kaplan (read stay from)

GEn Chem 1. BR by far 2. PR 3. Kaplan/EK

O Chem 1. BR by far 2. toss up between Kaplan/PR/Ek

That is a general list of what i have read on SDN for the past 4 years, i came here and lurked throughout highschool. Good luck and hopefully this will help. EK is for people who KNOW the material and want review. If you are weak in something BR is the best since it's the most detailed and PR is detailed too, Kaplan is in the Middle, and EK is the least detailed but that doesn't mean it's bad. Just depends on the person.

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sorry, i just saw this was your first post. My bad, you probably don't know about the search function. Well let me tell it's a gold mine. I've learned everything from when to apply, mcat, to how to submit lors (letters of recommendation). I would have never found out about Interfolio. but beware cuz this site is addicting. Good luck.

Spikedsoymilk said:

Thanks for the reply Boondocks! I'll def. look into those books.

I am familiar with the search function but when I tried, I didn't come up with anything useful...

I have found the 30+ section pretty awesome though. Why isn't that stickied?

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i have no idea, it should be. that is probably the best thing on SDN, i've read it 20 times which is where i was able to come to my conclusions about which test prep was the best. when searching, something that helps is to click which sub-forum you want to look into. like when searching mcat, make sure to click the mcat subforum otherwise you'll get results from all of SDN. Good luck, don't be scared. a lot of people freak out. Work tons of passages which will tell you where your weak and once you've done that take practice tests. Goodluck man.

i take MCATs in about a year and wanted to know what you guys have done for studying...

what has helped...what has NOT helped/was a waste of time...

also, did anyone use the MCAT study packages available through the MCAT store links on this site?

i think this one (Platinum Package) looks good:

http://www.mcatbookstore.com/complete-mcat-courses.html#2

but it's really expensive, so i would want to know it's not a total waste of money before i bought it!

also, how long do you think is adequate time to prep? i realize everyone is different, but my situation is a little less traditional so i was really just planning on taking studying as a full-time job from the time i get out of school next spring (2nd week of may) until i take MCATs, which i planned on taking in july or august. do you think that would be ok?

any advice/help is appreciated. thanks!

you should check out the MCAT prep section of the boards.

moving this thread there so you can get some help..

With this question continually popping up, it seems like this thread is a good one to bump, so...



BUMP

Hey Guys,

My brother took the MCAT around 2003 or so. He left behind a bunch of PR books dated around the same time. I also bought the EK CSP recently, but I was just wondering if these older books would be of any use. Are they too outdated?

Thanks

I searched SDN and couldn't find anything comprehensive though I remember some threads but they are old and I couldn't find them.
So my question is what material do you recommend for ppl who have plenty of time(about 9months)till taking MCAT,also more detail orinted which also helps studying for the course itself,can you give in a few words the characteristics of TPR,TBR,EK,Kaplan......

Check this thread out:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=280445

Also, check out the stickied threads at the top of the MCAT forum. There is LOTS of good stuff in there.

Happy studying.

Hey guys, I am taking my mcat in july and I am having a lot of trouble with physics. I was wondering if you guys could tell me what you think are great review books for physics. Another thing, I took the verbal practice tests from kaplan and totally destroyed them. Then I took the practice 3R from aamc and got a 13 on it. I was curious to know if these tests are representative of the actual Mcat verbal. Thanks a ton for the help.

NOVA physics,

AAMC verbal is tough in my opinion...
I've scored 9-12 on the aamcs...
scored 10, 1 mark from 11 on 3.... but it has a few tricky passages.

anavistas said:

I searched SDN and couldn't find anything comprehensive though I remember some threads but they are old and I couldn't find them.
So my question is what material do you recommend for ppl who have plenty of time(about 9months)till taking MCAT,also more detail orinted which also helps studying for the course itself,can you give in a few words the characteristics of TPR,TBR,EK,Kaplan......

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The Berkeley Review. Also Get EK bio and Ek 101 passages. You'll thank me later.

Greoric said:

Hey Guys,

My brother took the MCAT around 2003 or so. He left behind a bunch of PR books dated around the same time. I also bought the EK CSP recently, but I was just wondering if these older books would be of any use. Are they too outdated?

Thanks

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NO they're fine. I'd definitely use PR for ps they're pretty good. Know EK bio cold and you'll be good.

Is there any other source we can grab since the Verbal 101 from EK is nonexistant right now? On Ebay, it's selling for an arm and a leg and amazon is out of them...

I didn't know the EK 101 verbal was sold out until I read someone's post yesterday (I purchased mine about a year ago). On the EK website, it says the new edition will have 14 exams (old edition only has 11)?

lastcall said:

I didn't know the EK 101 verbal was sold out until I read someone's post yesterday (I purchased mine about a year ago). On the EK website, it says the new edition will have 14 exams (old edition only has 11)?

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They are probably just restructuring the 11 exams that exist into more for the shorter CBT format.

So I have read alot of the threads about prep companies but I need a specific answer. I was wondering what do you guys recommend I should do about attaining new material. I recently completed the Kaplan courses and all the material they offer online. I renewed the high score guarantee so I have all the material again, however, I am afraid since I have done all of it in the past that it will be familiar to me. So I am looking for new online material which I can continue to study with, do you guys have any recommendations of another prep company, like EK that offers alot of online material with full lengths that is computer based. I am specifically looking for answers from people who have used other companies material online which they found to be beneficial. I would really appreciate your opinion. thank you