Berkeley Review

[mdage]

I took TPR to prepare for the April MCAT, it was really good. But I don't think I did as well as I expected last saturday, so I might have to retake it in August. Since I have finished all the practice from TPR, I am looking for additional practice books. Recently I heard some good thing about Berkeley Review. Did anyone use their material to prepare for the MCAT? I would love to hear some opinion on it. Thank you!

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[2DEG]

Hi mdage:

I didn't take TPR course (stupid me), but I am also gonna start preparing for August MCAT. I had my TBR (Berkeley Review) books but I didn't use them at all. I heard real good things about TBR.

This is my personal observation: Before I took MCAT, I kind of thought that TBR practice passages are much harder than typical MCAT passages. But after I took last Saturday's MCAT, I opened those practice passages again..and I felt like those are very similar to actual MCAT in terms of the difficulty/length of the passages.

That was one of many factors in my decision to mainly use TBR for the August MCAT.
Let me know what you decide to do..perhaps email or PM me..we can keep in touch.

Regards,
shahab
[email protected]

I took TPR to prepare for the April MCAT, it was really good. But I don't think I did as well as I expected last saturday, so I might have to retake it in August. Since I have finished all the practice from TPR, I am looking for additional practice books. Recently I heard some good thing about Berkeley Review. Did anyone use their material to prepare for the MCAT? I would love to hear some opinion on it. Thank you!

 

[calbear15]

I took TPR to prepare for the April MCAT, it was really good. But I don't think I did as well as I expected last saturday, so I might have to retake it in August. Since I have finished all the practice from TPR, I am looking for additional practice books. Recently I heard some good thing about Berkeley Review. Did anyone use their material to prepare for the MCAT? I would love to hear some opinion on it. Thank you!

Berkeley Review all the way. I took the course and I vouch for it. Their practice passages are comparable to the real thing, if not harder.

Any sensible person would tell you that if you can, try to do as many passages from as many companies, Kaplan, Princeton, Berkeley Review, Examcrackers...

But we all know that time is limited and if you have to pick just one, pick Berkeley Review. (hopefully you WILL have enough time to do more)

 

[mdage]

Thank you for the good advice. My weakest subjects are the verbal and biology (I am currently taking my first physiology class), so I think I will get the berkeley review for these two sections first.

 

[bioteacher]

I took TBR. I graduated from UCSB in 1996 and took the 2003 MCAT. I studied my ass off. I got a 32. 10PS 11BS 11Verbal and an "S" on the essay. I don't know how I got the verbal. Lucky I think.

I spent almost all my time studying for the PS. The Berkeley Review does have excellent books. They have lots of mini practice tests and full length MCATs. I scored almost the same on their tests as I did on the MCAT. Their passages are often longer and more involved than the actual MCAT. They were supposed to make new books for the upcoming year. I would plunk down the money and buy the newest versions. They had included some material that is not necessary to know when they made up the first versions because the MCAT was changing slightly and they didn't know what to focus directly on so they included everything. I signed up for the class but if you are a good book learner you can get it all out of the books.

Do practice test after practice test after practice test. These are the best way of preparing for the test. Go back through the ones you missed and then read the book to fill in your gaps.

Funny thing is I applied to 47 medical schools and only got one interview (waitlisted at Albany). I applied to one osteopathic school and got in. I am probably going to a post bac next year. Low GPA is the cause 3.04.