The BR series, while they're great books, I feel are not conducive for the typical MCAT test taker who is attempting to prepare for this exam in 3 months and needs sufficient time to practice passages and questions. For many of us, we need to learn the content as soon as possible to begin learning the style of testing as well as improve our test taking skills. Unfortunately, for so many people, the amount of material TBR is daunting and slows many people down. When I first prepared for my MCAT in 2011, I rescheduled 3 times just to keep up with the pace of studying and still did not perform as well as I wanted. Unfortunately, many people fall into the same trap. There are additional negative consequences as well. If you draw your studying out too long, you begin forgetting essential concepts you learned initially. This for me, was my biggest obstacle. I spent way too much time emphasizing perfection in terms of content and less time practicing.
As many people have said here, you can know very little information content wise and still score the national average or higher simply because the test is not focused on content. This might intimidate some people, but it's true. The test often presents information and expect the test taker to extrapolate information from the passage and draw conclusions. In that sense, no amount of content preparation will help you unless you spend time practicing. With the way the books are structured, BR emphasizes content preparation over practice, which is why there are some individuals like myself who have not performed on par with some other test takers on here. It has nothing to do with your capacity or intellectual ability. I believe everyone on here is fully capable of scoring well into the 30s, but it all depends on your approach to studying.
In terms of their passages, while they are challenging and stimulate you to think, I don't think they are representative of the MCAT based on my own personal experience. TPRH science workbook is more representative and what I have chose to focus on using. However, because I do have TBR books, I do intend on using their passages for additional practice if time permits. Others, like Jepstein30 have been succesful with a similar approach to this.
I believe if TBR simplified their books while maintaining the same tips and strategies they generally include in their books as an alternative study tool, only then would I really encourage everyone to use it.
