Gold Standard FLs

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TheBoneDoctah

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I was thinking about purchasing some of the GS FLs since it would take probably 10 days to get access to the BR FLs. Has anyone had any experience with the GS tests? Are they good?

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There are 2 parts answer:

1) GS is B- (We used 1, 5,9,) Our experience was it is too deep and unnecessary 3 to 4 layers of asking in BS and PS. I just don't see the real thing will get into that much in depth in passages. PS has quite a lot of calculation.
In my opinion, I only do GS as fill in at the beginning of 3 months study cycle. They are good practice for that time frame......not the last 3/4 weeks.
GS7 is a killer. If, I say if, you really "want" to get it, take 4, 6, 8, 10.
VR in my opinion is so so......as I would not mind to train my mind to focus AT THE BEGINNING.

2) As I said, (1) above is probably not necessary if what you want is to fill in waiting BR.
BR license is 45 days max disregard whether it is package 1, 2 or 3. I can't see you have time to do all 7 BR.
Since you are only 1 month away, technically speaking, BR should let you have it as soon as they can confirm your payment.
If I were you, (assuming you have not sent in by money order yet), I will send in the form using credit card payment. The top right corner of the form is your test day.

ALERT THEM [I don't recall if the form has a comment field or not. If not, write your comment at the top right corner] asking to send you the email response (give them the most convenient one you used) ASAP. The email has your login information.
Since you are in California, it should ONLY take 2 to 3 days max. Today is Wednesday. If you mail your letter tonight, mail will go out tomorrow early morning. BR should get it Friday or Saturday. Send them an email on Friday night asking the login email for Saturday, Sunday or Monday night. It is a 50% chance those hard working BR folks, especially the system admin works through weekend.
If not, send another email on Monday morning.
At the meantime, implement plan B, send a private message to BerkReviewTeach to contact BR on your behalf. I am pretty sure he will not mind. :)

Well, does it help?
 
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There are 2 parts answer:

1) GS is B- (We used 1, 5,9,) Our experience was it is too deep and unnecessary 3 to 4 layers of asking in BS and PS. I just don't see the real thing will get into that much in depth in passages. PS has quite a lot of calculation.
In my opinion, I only do GS as fill in at the beginning of 3 months study cycle. They are good practice for that time frame......not the last 3/4 weeks.
GS7 is a killer. If, I say if, you really "want" to get it, take 4, 6, 8, 10.
VR in my opinion is so so......as I would not mind to train my mind to focus AT THE BEGINNING.

2) As I said, (1) above is probably not necessary if what you want is to fill in waiting BR.
BR license is 45 days max disregard whether it is package 1, 2 or 3. I can't see you have time to do all 7 BR.
Since you are only 1 month away, technically speaking, BR should let you have it as soon as they can confirm your payment.
If I were you, (assuming you have not sent in by money order yet), I will send in the form using credit card payment. The top right corner of the form is your test day.

ALERT THEM [I don't recall if the form has a comment field or not. If not, write your comment at the top right corner] asking to send you the email response (give them the most convenient one you used) ASAP. The email has your login information.
Since you are in California, it should ONLY take 2 to 3 days max. Today is Wednesday. If you mail your letter tonight, mail will go out tomorrow early morning. BR should get it Friday or Saturday. Send them an email on Friday night asking the login email for Saturday, Sunday or Monday night. It is a 50% chance those hard working BR folks, especially the system admin works through weekend.
If not, send another email on Monday morning.
At the meantime, implement plan B, send a private message to BerkReviewTeach to contact BR on your behalf. I am pretty sure he will not mind. :)

Well, does it help?

So MedOldAge -
Are you saying you recommend BR exams over GS? Have you tried each?
Sorry for hijacking this thread a bit but I'm in a dilemma myself - I learn by practicing , and so Im trying to get my hand on as many company FL's other than AAMC so that I can do as much practice possible and getting myself accustomed to format and setting. However, money doesn't grow on trees, so I have to make a decision. I already have access to many TPR FL's part of my course - but I dont want to trust only 1 company in my prep. I want to do half of TPR, half of another company that would be beneficial in my learning process. I dont care so much about the mark that shows on those exams - just something relevant and builds in the right direction. Are all 7 exams needed or less is fine too? I don't think Ill have time to do all 7.
 
I saw you sign up for the last test in May...so you have 8 1/2 weeks.
Yes, we have done GS 1, 5,9 and all 7 BR.
Please stay with the ICC, and the Science and Verbal workbook and do the rest of 5 to 11 of AAMC. You are OVER diversified given the time frame you are facing. If it is late Dec 2013 or early Jan 2014, my answer will be yes.
We like BR. Whether it is "very comparable" to the real thing is missing the point, it is a very good set of tests to challenge you. I am pretty sure there are thousands of SDNers on this campus who have different opinion.

I have post quite a few times a "unique post" originally from BerkReviewTeach dated 3/2/11 stating the depth of difficulty of each BR test as following:

BR1 - PS (difficult), VR (easy), BS (medium)
BR2 - PS (medium), VR (hard), BS (medium)
BR3 - PS (difficult), VR (difficult), BS (difficult)
BR4 - PS (medium), VR (medium), BS (hard)
BR5 - PS (hard), VR (medium), BS (hard)
BR6 - PS (semi-easy), VR (medium), BS (medium)
BR7 - PS (hard), VR (medium), BS (hard)
 
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I saw you sign up for the last test in May...so you have 8 1/2 weeks.
Yes, we have done GS 1, 5,9 and all 7 BR.
Please stay with the ICC, and the Science and Verbal workbook and do the rest of 5 to 11 of AAMC. You are OVER diversified given the time frame you are facing. If it is late Dec 2013 or early Jan 2014, my answer will be yes.
We like BR. Whether it is "very comparable" to the real thing is missing the point, it is a very good set of tests to challenge you. I am pretty sure there are thousands of SDNers on this campus who have different opinion.

I have post quite a few times a "unique post" originally from BerkReviewTeach dated 3/2/11 stating the depth of difficulty of each BR test as following:

BR1 - PS (difficult), VR (easy), BS (medium)
BR2 - PS (medium), VR (hard), BS (medium)
BR3 - PS (difficult), VR (difficult), BS (difficult)
BR4 - PS (medium), VR (medium), BS (hard)
BR5 - PS (hard), VR (medium), BS (hard)
BR6 - PS (semi-easy), VR (medium), BS (medium)
BR7 - PS (hard), VR (medium), BS (hard)

Yes, I have! Well, I have been studying for a long time, so I have done good amounts of passages using ICC, SWB, and TPRH verbal - Still have a good chunk left, which I will devote my time wholly to now, and also review the ones I did in the past again/re-do the tough ones. At the moment, I just feel I need this extra time to put everything together in perspective by consistent daily work. I have 8.5 weeks of pure practice to improve my critical thinking skills, time management, and solidify missing gaps in content that will come only through practice. I feel that I will still have time to visit SOME FL's in between AAMC's and practice passages which I feel will help my confidence too. Have you done TPR ones at all? I think I may go with TBR 1-3 for some extra practice along with AAMC's and other passages...
 
Yes, I have! Well, I have been studying for a long time, so I have done good amounts of passages using ICC, SWB, and TPRH verbal - Still have a good chunk left, which I will devote my time wholly to now, and also review the ones I did in the past again/re-do the tough ones. At the moment, I just feel I need this extra time to put everything together in perspective by consistent daily work. I have 8.5 weeks of pure practice to improve my critical thinking skills, time management, and solidify missing gaps in content that will come only through practice. I feel that I will still have time to visit SOME FL's in between AAMC's and practice passages which I feel will help my confidence too. Have you done TPR ones at all? I think I may go with TBR 1-3 for some extra practice along with AAMC's and other passages...

Got hold of friend's PR account after his completion and still have a couple of weeks left squeeze in some ICC. They are pretty good in my opinion. We also have our own Science and Verbal workbook. Besides that we did 4 PR FL using the cracking book from local library.
 
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Got hold of friend's PR account after his completion and still have a couple of weeks left squeeze in some ICC. They are pretty good in my opinion. We also have our own Science and Verbal workbook. Besides that we did 4 PR FL using the cracking book from local library.

So TPR FL's and TBR FL's you recommend, correct?
I will definitely be using my ICC and all the science/verbal workbooks it comes with etc.
thanks a lot!
 
So TPR FL's and TBR FL's you recommend, correct?
I will definitely be using my ICC and all the science/verbal workbooks it comes with etc.
thanks a lot!

My experience of PR only based on 4 FL from cracking book, ICC. They are good particularly ICC.
The 7 BR FL are good too. We mixed them up with AAMC and that really challenge the mind.

The truth is each company including Kaplan has different style and it fits people who have various background and strength.
 
My experience of PR only based on 4 FL from cracking book, ICC. They are good particularly ICC.
The 7 BR FL are good too. We mixed them up with AAMC and that really challenge the mind.

The truth is each company including Kaplan has different style and it fits people who have various background and strength.

I feel like we're talking about different things aha.
ICC = In Class Compendium book. It has tons of passages for BS, PS, and VR which are covered in the class. They are good sources.
There are FL's from PR called "Cracking the Mcat" and I see 3 of those on my account. There are also 5 "TPR Practice tests"
aha, so not sure exactly which you are referring too! :S
 
I feel like we're talking about different things aha.
ICC = In Class Compendium book. It has tons of passages for BS, PS, and VR which are covered in the class. They are good sources.
There are FL's from PR called "Cracking the Mcat" and I see 3 of those on my account. There are also 5 "TPR Practice tests"
aha, so not sure exactly which you are referring too! :S

Yes, we are on the same page.
ICC I talked about are the ICC you just said.
The Cracking book selling commercially has 4 FL all online from PR sites. As it turns out the 1st one is a free one for everybody anyway. Whether the other 3 are the same as those 3 Cracking for those taking the class or not, I don't know since I didn't take the class. I strongly suspect they are.
I didn't have access to the other 5 TPR practice tests.
 
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I've heard a lot of negative things about GS, but MedOldAge's posts are making me think it might be worth my time.
 
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Everyone on this post has said to try BR, not GS.
I happened to log on.

I didn't say do not try GS. I did say given the time you have, it is better to try BR.
As I said, I myself tried GS, but that was served as fill in at the beginning of the study cycle.
 
I happened to log on.

I didn't say do not try GS. I did say given the time you have, it is better to try BR.
As I said, I myself tried GS, but that was served as fill in at the beginning of the study cycle.
Gotcha. I ended up purchasing 5 of the BR exams. Hopefully they activate soon.
 
Sorry...I wasn't clear in what I wrote...what I meant is that based off of what I had heard, I would never have tried the GS, but now based of MedOldAge is saying, if I have the time, I might try them out if I have the time.
 
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