Examkrackers 9th edition?

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clocks123

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Has anyone purchased these books? If not, what review books would be the best to purchase for the new MCAT?
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I have the complete set. What questions do you have?

No one knows what material will be best. I chose EK because my major is biochemistry and I'm fresh from many of the Pre reqs so I don't think I need that much depth. Plus with the khan Academy videos you should never be at a loss to find extra content review.
 
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^ That's the truth. I'd go out on a limb and recommend to a degree most major test prep company content books (EK, Kaplan - though TPR 2015 is supposedly not what is was for the old test) because you can, and should, supplement the material with Khan Academy content.

I've given the Kaplan books a thorough review and I like what I see overall. They are direct and seemingly (and favorably) skimp on extraneous details (think TBR bio). However, they are weak on practice questions. Very weak. But again, this is where Khan and even old MCAT practice sets can come in handy.
 
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I have not, but I'm going to email EK and ask if they can allow a preview on Amazon's website. A preview is like showing a potential buyer a few pages or the table of contents so we can get an idea of what the book is like.
 
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Gauss44 said:
I have not, but I'm going to email EK and ask if they can allow a preview on Amazon's website. A preview is like showing a potential buyer a few pages or the table of contents so we can get an idea of what the book is like.
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That will be awesome. I am thinking of buying it, but I will take a Kaplan class as well. So I really want to see the content page before I purchase it.
 
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iBro said:
I have the complete set. What questions do you have?

No one knows what material will be best. I chose EK because my major is biochemistry and I'm fresh from many of the Pre reqs so I don't think I need that much depth. Plus with the khan Academy videos you should never be at a loss to find extra content review.
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Is it any different than the 8th edition? Or did they just add new books for the new subjects?
 
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clocks123 said:
Is it any different than the 8th edition? Or did they just add new books for the new subjects?
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There's an in-depth review on amazon which convinced me to buy them. I'll be getting them by Tuesday so I can let you know if they're as good as they sound (supposedly way different from 8th edition)
 
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vincy0320 said:
That will be awesome. I am thinking of buying it, but I will take a Kaplan class as well. So I really want to see the content page before I purchase it.
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I will be taking the Kaplan class also, and I want to use EK as a supplement. I just want to know if it is worth it!
 
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I have them. They're par for the course for EK. Meaning they're good, but frankly I can't recommend them.

Here's the problem with buying EK books - you're spending the same amt of money you would on the Kap or TPR books but you're not getting nearly so many practice passages.

The TPR set has 2 passages at the end of every chapter and more chapters (EK has 3 passages but fewer chapters) but more importantly, TPR set comes with online access to three full practice tests.

The KTP set has NO passages but it does come with access to an online syllabus that includes 3 full tests and a number of other resources. I'll give the KTP online syllabus another look in January to decide whether the KTP online syllabus out-shines the add'l passages you get from TPR.

Really what I'm seeing here (unless EK is going to add more practice somehow) is that EK is following the same philosophy they did with the old MCAT, but they're not reacting to the fact that the landscape has fundamentally changed.

It used to be that with 8 AAMC tests and 5 AAMC SAP's you could buy a set like EK without that much practice and you'd be okay b/c there were so many AAMC tests. But now, there's only 1 AAMC test (and "Official Questions" coming at some point) so you've got to evaluate your prep books much more on the basis of how much practice material you're going to get.

For Next Step's content books, we went the route of focusing solely on content review - so there's some passages, but more importantly there's 1000+ content review questions (like short discretes) to focus solely on content. We then have Strategy and Practice books that are separate for folks looking just for timed practice sets. (The content review books are intended primarily for our in-house tutoring students, but are good for self-studiers with a bigger budget).

At this point, what I'm recommending is something like this: (0. Buy all AAMC's. Goes w/o saying) 1. Buy the KTP full set for the online syllabus. 2. Buy the TPR Pysch/Soc book b/c you get access to 3 full tests for only buying 1 book. 3. Buy Next Step's Strategy and Practice books for add'l practice if you need it. 4. Buy Next Step full online tests for additional full test simulation.

I'm going to revisit my materials and study plan thread over the holidays and give them all updates so there's a good summary all in one thread.
 
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gadgor said:
Did you receive the books yet? What is your opinion of them?
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Yes. This is what I have so far:

20141224_163913.jpg







I'll give a review tonight.
 
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Next Step Tutor said:
I have them. They're par for the course for EK. Meaning they're good, but frankly I can't recommend them.

Here's the problem with buying EK books - you're spending the same amt of money you would on the Kap or TPR books but you're not getting nearly so many practice passages.

The TPR set has 2 passages at the end of every chapter and more chapters (EK has 3 passages but fewer chapters) but more importantly, TPR set comes with online access to three full practice tests.

The KTP set has NO passages but it does come with access to an online syllabus that includes 3 full tests and a number of other resources. I'll give the KTP online syllabus another look in January to decide whether the KTP online syllabus out-shines the add'l passages you get from TPR.

Really what I'm seeing here (unless EK is going to add more practice somehow) is that EK is following the same philosophy they did with the old MCAT, but they're not reacting to the fact that the landscape has fundamentally changed.

It used to be that with 8 AAMC tests and 5 AAMC SAP's you could buy a set like EK without that much practice and you'd be okay b/c there were so many AAMC tests. But now, there's only 1 AAMC test (and "Official Questions" coming at some point) so you've got to evaluate your prep books much more on the basis of how much practice material you're going to get.

For Next Step's content books, we went the route of focusing solely on content review - so there's some passages, but more importantly there's 1000+ content review questions (like short discretes) to focus solely on content. We then have Strategy and Practice books that are separate for folks looking just for timed practice sets. (The content review books are intended primarily for our in-house tutoring students, but are good for self-studiers with a bigger budget).

At this point, what I'm recommending is something like this: (0. Buy all AAMC's. Goes w/o saying) 1. Buy the KTP full set for the online syllabus. 2. Buy the TPR Pysch/Soc book b/c you get access to 3 full tests for only buying 1 book. 3. Buy Next Step's Strategy and Practice books for add'l practice if you need it. 4. Buy Next Step full online tests for additional full test simulation.

I'm going to revisit my materials and study plan thread over the holidays and give them all updates so there's a good summary all in one thread.
Click to expand...
Are your full length practice exams out yet for purchase?
 
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gadgor said:
Great thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

vincy0320 said:
haha do you like the book tho
Click to expand...

Here's a little review. I still need to finish a chapter before bed.

I never used EK before. I started my MCAT prep with the 2013 TPR books as you can see in the pic I posted above. TPR is good imo, especially for the old MCAT. However, like it's been said before, their 2015 MCAT stuff is nearly identical to their 2013 books, which is bad. They include topics that were taken out for MCAT 2015 like momentum and fungi for example.

I also had kaplan 2015 books, and was originally gonna prep with those, but was dissuaded not to. They supposedly did change their material and it's pretty good. But no passages in book and online material only has like 15 passages total out of the 50+ chapters that they have.... I have tried reading them before and they do seem good. And they do seem to have taken out topics that were removed, which is good. Their physics book is 400+ pages though! With physics only being 6% of the exam, I don't see why they'd do that. (examkrackers 9th edition physics book is ~150 pages).

(btw the only reason some EK books look as thick as kaplan books is b/c they use very thick hard paper, compared to kaplan's toilet paper like/thin paper quality.

What I really like about EK is they definitely reformatted their books.. The amazon review on them is spot on. Also, very colorful pictures, much much better than TPR's bland illustrations. I for one appreciate the color/Salty the cracker doing his thing/keeping it real. I have EK old editions, and even when I found parts with the same picture, a lot of the content was very different. So they seemed to have really changed everything around. Plus they listened to the outline from AAMC and got rid of untested content which is great. They are pretty concise which I like. Maybe too concise though :oops:... I won't know till the exam.

So yeah, they really condensed stuff for the new mcat, and combined many chapters together. Physics only has 5 chapters. I really like that they have 3 passages per chapter, and ~20 FSQ per chapter.
there are some typos in their books but I guess that's to be expected since they reformatted it all.

I'll be using EK 9th edition as my main source of reading material. Then I'll glance at TPR/kaplan corresponding chapters for further understanding/tips/etc... I'll also be using chad's videos, and TPR's online homework as well as TPRH workbooks and TBR passages.. well just look at the pic I posted.. I'll be using it all lol. plus eventually like 10 2015 FL's

In sum, EK 9th edition is the hero we deserve, and the one we need right now.
 
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Next Step Tutor said:
Any particular reason you'd pay for those over the free AAMC Khan Academy videos?
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I tried one video on torque and it didn't help me at all. And was from 2008. I may still supplement with them as well but I think chad is still better at explaining and making info simpler. I just don't quite trust khan academy's videos as much, even if they worked with the aamc. Chads vids have a ton of prasie here too. Ill probably use khans practice passages though.
 
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Anybody know a good place to buy the 9th edition EK set? It was going for $150 on amazon a couple days ago but it seems to be sold out now..
 
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Walia14 said:
Anybody know a good place to buy the 9th edition EK set? It was going for $150 on amazon a couple days ago but it seems to be sold out now..
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Yes, buy each book individually on Amazon or barnes n noble website.
 
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Levrone said:
lol someone is selling them on amazon for > $2000
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Yeah that's not a person. Amazon and many of the sellers who use Amazon have bots that decide their pricing for them, using a variety of different factors.

One of the things that wildly distorts the price is whether the book is listed as "out of print" or "unavailable" because the bot doesn't know whether the book is really some long-lost tome that's forever out of print, or if it's just down for a day or a week or so. So that bot thinks that that item is some exceptionally hard-to-buy thing.

It scrapes the other seller data and sees: (1) Nobody else is selling this book; and (2) It is out of print. To the bot algorithm, that means "Jack the price up at least 10x". The bot will (probably) then slowly lower the price until it sells. When the book goes back "in print" within a matter of hours the bot will correct the price back down to normal.
 
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Next Step Tutor said:
Yeah that's not a person. Amazon and many of the sellers who use Amazon have bots that decide their pricing for them, using a variety of different factors.

One of the things that wildly distorts the price is whether the book is listed as "out of print" or "unavailable" because the bot doesn't know whether the book is really some long-lost tome that's forever out of print, or if it's just down for a day or a week or so. So that bot thinks that that item is some exceptionally hard-to-buy thing.

It scrapes the other seller data and sees: (1) Nobody else is selling this book; and (2) It is out of print. To the bot algorithm, that means "Jack the price up at least 10x". The bot will (probably) then slowly lower the price until it sells. When the book goes back "in print" within a matter of hours the bot will correct the price back down to normal.
Click to expand...



Hello! Did your 9th edition exam cracker come with a "simulated exam" like the 8th edition exam cracker? Thanks :)
 
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You posted that second message one minute after the first one. The internet doesn't work that fast, man.

To answer your question: Mine didn't. I got the box set from amazon.
 
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Next Step Tutor said:
I have them. They're par for the course for EK. Meaning they're good, but frankly I can't recommend them.

Here's the problem with buying EK books - you're spending the same amt of money you would on the Kap or TPR books but you're not getting nearly so many practice passages.

The TPR set has 2 passages at the end of every chapter and more chapters (EK has 3 passages but fewer chapters) but more importantly, TPR set comes with online access to three full practice tests.

The KTP set has NO passages but it does come with access to an online syllabus that includes 3 full tests and a number of other resources. I'll give the KTP online syllabus another look in January to decide whether the KTP online syllabus out-shines the add'l passages you get from TPR.

Really what I'm seeing here (unless EK is going to add more practice somehow) is that EK is following the same philosophy they did with the old MCAT, but they're not reacting to the fact that the landscape has fundamentally changed.

It used to be that with 8 AAMC tests and 5 AAMC SAP's you could buy a set like EK without that much practice and you'd be okay b/c there were so many AAMC tests. But now, there's only 1 AAMC test (and "Official Questions" coming at some point) so you've got to evaluate your prep books much more on the basis of how much practice material you're going to get.

For Next Step's content books, we went the route of focusing solely on content review - so there's some passages, but more importantly there's 1000+ content review questions (like short discretes) to focus solely on content. We then have Strategy and Practice books that are separate for folks looking just for timed practice sets. (The content review books are intended primarily for our in-house tutoring students, but are good for self-studiers with a bigger budget).

At this point, what I'm recommending is something like this: (0. Buy all AAMC's. Goes w/o saying) 1. Buy the KTP full set for the online syllabus. 2. Buy the TPR Pysch/Soc book b/c you get access to 3 full tests for only buying 1 book. 3. Buy Next Step's Strategy and Practice books for add'l practice if you need it. 4. Buy Next Step full online tests for additional full test simulation.

I'm going to revisit my materials and study plan thread over the holidays and give them all updates so there's a good summary all in one thread.
Click to expand...

Did you ever get around making that thread? I'm interested :)
 
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