EK 1001s instead of passages for now? Need help!

[txlonghorn2314]

Man...I'm torn as to what to do right now. I've been doing passages for a month and a half, and have consistently been scoring 60-65% on my TBR passages, with the questions I'm missing being ones that just require pure content knowledge/understanding (I do well on questions that require you to reason or extract the answer from the passage).

I have a PRETTY GOOD understanding of the entire AAMC content outline, but have multiple gaps in knowledge in every single topic I feel. About 10 days ago I took Kaplan FL1 and scored 24(9,8,7), with the majority of questions missed also being content based questions.

My exam is in 8 weeks (May 22nd). Would it be wise to just dedicate one week (next Mo-Sat) strictly to EK 1001 Gchem, Physics, and Orgo? I would do half of one each day (odd numbers, 250 questions/day) And then maybe still end the day with a relevant passage or two to keep up with the passage-application skills.

Doing that would push my schedule back and wouldn't give me time to do Kaplan FL2 before going into my AAMCS, but I'm feeling like doing this would be more beneficial than doing an extra Fl but leaving these gaps.

Would this be wise? Any help would be appreciated!!!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mke520]

to be completely honest i hated the EK 1001 for gen chem and physics. from the time i started studying for the MCAT til my test date was only 6 weeks and i only studied EK material. i began to do the 1001 questions for gen chem and physics but gave up on them because i didn't think they correlated very well with the AAMC type questions. understanding gen chem and physics conceptually is much more important than calculations since the calculations are usually very basic as long as you understand conceptually what's going on. so i studied the EK books, did the AAMC exams, and also took the AAMC MCAT self-assessment tests for each subject, which i found to be very useful, and scored in the 90th percentile on the MCAT. i'd say don't waste too much of your time doing tons of questions from the EK 1001 gen chem and physics since they usually don't replicate the AAMC style of questions very well. Again, AAMC exams and the MCAT self-assessment will be the closest thing you'll get to mimicking the style of questions you'll get asked on the real thing. but study, study, study the material so conceptually you understand what's going on, the calculation problems are simple.

 

[txlonghorn2314]

to be completely honest i hated the EK 1001 for gen chem and physics. from the time i started studying for the MCAT til my test date was only 6 weeks and i only studied EK material. i began to do the 1001 questions for gen chem and physics but gave up on them because i didn't think they correlated very well with the AAMC type questions. understanding gen chem and physics conceptually is much more important than calculations since the calculations are usually very basic as long as you understand conceptually what's going on. so i studied the EK books, did the AAMC exams, and also took the AAMC MCAT self-assessment tests for each subject, which i found to be very useful, and scored in the 90th percentile on the MCAT. i'd say don't waste too much of your time doing tons of questions from the EK 1001 gen chem and physics since they usually don't replicate the AAMC style of questions very well. Again, AAMC exams and the MCAT self-assessment will be the closest thing you'll get to mimicking the style of questions you'll get asked on the real thing. but study, study, study the material so conceptually you understand what's going on, the calculation problems are simple.[/


What about orgo? So if I do them it's not even gonna really help? I was hoping maybe doing 1500 questions in a week wouldn't exactly prepare me for AAMC style questions but at least restrengthen my knowledge foundation so I can apply them to the AAMC questions. I just notice that sometimes I miss basic basic stuff like a simple kinematics problem. I planned on doing the self assessments the week after that

 

[txlonghorn2314]

^idk what happened there lol

 

[mke520]

if i could do it all over again, i would have used EK for bio and orgo because they do a great job at telling you what you need to know and hits all the subject matter without too much detail. i would have used PR for gen chem and physics because EK doesn't go into enough detail for these two subjects, for me at least. the 1001 for bio and orgo are good because they're in passage form and are challenging while the 1001 gen chem and physics aren't in passage form and a lot of the questions require too much detailed knowledge and too much math for MCAT purposes. plus if you don't know how to do a problem the EK answers are piss poor and you still won't understand how to do the problem. if you have some free time to do the 1001 gen chem and physics and you think it'll help then do them but just be warned that the problems are either too easy or too hard. i'd rather spend time going over PR gen chem and physics and doing their problems. but i'd def do 1001 for bio and orgo. also for verbal do PR verbal and 101 EK verbal. i know it's a lot of studying material but trust me it pays off in the end but just remember not to get too caught up in study material questions too much as it could waste a lot of time, focus on AAMC style questions and make sure you know everything conceptually. just make sure to take all the AAMC tests and MCAT self assessment as those will help you probably the most before taking the real MCAT.

 

[AticusHolmes]

I have heard that EK bio was pretty bad...interesting mke520 liked it....the general criticisms I had heard were that the book did not reflect the MCAT's transition to more critical thinking and reasoning on the BS. I have the book, so maybe I'll crack it open and see how they go tomorrow.

 

[mke520]

EK bio and orgo got me a 14 in the biological section on the MCAT. the EK gen chem and physics only got me an 11 though since i was missing some small details that EK never covered that well which of course the MCAT tested over