Best Practice Books...

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. 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 great too. 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 or 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 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 science passages and EK bio, you will kill the sciences. Ek Verbal should help you out with verbal.

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SN2ed said:

Biology: 1. EK Bio + EK 1001 Bio, non-detail oriented 1. BR/TPR Hyperlearning, detail oriented 3. Kaplan

Physics: 1. BR 2. Nova 3. TPR Hyperlearning 4. Kaplan

Verbal: 1. EK Verbal + EK 101 Verbal 2. TPR Hyperlearning 3. BR 4. Kaplan (Avoid if possible)

Organic Chemistry: 1. BR, by far 2. TPR Hyperlearning 3. EK/Kaplan

General Chemistry: 1. BR, by far 2. TPR Hyperlearning 3. EK/Kaplan

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BennieBlanco said:

I unfortunately have bought almost everything, except Kaplan (although I have the premier book).

My 2 cents.

TBR is the best in PS. They have in depth review and it is conceptually strong. I DON'T like EK much at all, but I will use all of their practice questions (I have all 1001 and the whole set of content books).

TBR is no good for verbal.

After spending a fortune, here is what I use:

TPR Bio
TBR - Physics/Chem/Orgo

TPR/Kaplan - single books with quick topics. These are great to read real quick almost like summaries. The sections are around 100 pages and could be finished in 1 day easily. So you could read all BS in one day. Great review.

1001 - practice makes perfect
TPR science review - same
FL - get as many as you can

TBR is great. Lots of Qs in every content book which is why they are great.

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JDUB said:

Here's the "least" material version I can give:

Bio - EK (PR, Kaplan, or BR for more detailed)

Ochem - BR

Physics - BR (NOVA for explanations)

Gchem - BR

Verbal - EK verbal 101, AAMCs, (PR or BR for extra practice)

Practice tests - AAMCs, Kaplan FL (1-6, 9), BR CBTs


Here's my "new" recommendation for those needing a review plus extras if you need it. I tried to get it down to a book for each subject.

Get a good base but don’t forget to practice. I suggest getting in 10-15 practice tests. Study why you get questions right and wrong and start to learn the MCAT style.

Both content and practice are equally important. Start 2-3 months out too so burnout will not happen. Maybe 20-30hrs/wk...depending on what you need.

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erskine777 said:

BR for Gchem, Physics, and Ochem. EK and EK 1001 for Bio. EK 101 for verbal.

Practice passages definitely help to develop your test-taking skills like the ability to think under stress, time management, not being freaked out by weird questions, and wise guessing. Background knowledge is only part of getting a good score. I highly recommend BR- their passages really helped me. BR science questions are probably a good estimate of what the actual mcat will have (maybe BR is a little harder) and EK 101 verbal passages are about the same difficulty (maybe EK is a little harder) but the actual MCAT will have longer verbal passages (EACH passage 1-2 paragraphs longer).

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LegitBoss4Life said:

EK is good if you just need a slight refresher because you are "the 3.9 GPA kid who sets the curve in all of your classes" and doesn't need that much practice aside from a few AAMC tests. I'm a beast in Orgo and I still bought BR Orgo and I can tell you it just helps soldify everything, and their practice is amazing. It takes a while to get the books but they'll be worth every penny in comparison to the others. Also, use EK only if you are short on time, but their Bio and VR are the best, bar none. BR is good for practice in Bio though.

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LostInStudy said:

Okay, so I can't technically say what you need or don't need because everybody has their own unique background but I can tell you guys what I used and what I thought. Also be mindful that content and practice are different. Some books have good practice but bad content or vice versa, I've bolded it just in case.

Physics: TPR Hyperlearning and TBR Physics for content (reading and learning it). I read both of them which doesn't take that long because once you read TPR you can basically skim TBR for tips/shortcuts, all in all though I thought that after the first chapter TBR content sucked especially for electricity and circuits. For practice I did EK 1001 Physics, TPR Science Workbook, and TBR passages

G. Chem: TBR G. Chem is a wonderful book. Yes, it is a bit long but the extra time is worth it to solidify the concepts. TBR has everything content-wise you could need. If you ever have a question as to whether to memorize something or not check out the AAMC outlines. For practice I used EK 1001 Chem (especially great), TPR Science Workbook, and TBR Passages

Organic: TBR O. Chem for content. This is the best book they have and in my opinion one of the best MCAT books on the market period. Yes, they get into a bit of detail but don't memorize anything unless they specifically tell you to or if you're getting questions wrong in passages. For practice I used EK 1001 Organic (pretty good actually and I went through it very quickly), TPR Science Workbook, TBR passages.

Bio: I used a combination here of TPR Hyperlearning Biology and EK Biology for content. It worked great for me and was what I needed. TPR explains things to you like you know nothing and they don't really give you extraneous info like TBR LOVES to for bio. For practice I did TBR Bio passages, EK 1001 Bio, and TPR Science Workbook.

The order I give of the practice goes from my rankings of overall quality in increasing order, for example in physics it goes TBR>TPR>EK.

-LIS

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BerkReviewTeach said:

Your question is a common one at SDN, and there have been plenty of people who have offered up a detailed opinion of the wide range of materials they used over the years.

Here are the quotes from the people most referenced in the time I've been posting at SDN. I hope it sheds some light, although it might just make the choice cloudier.

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