Please HELP!!

[ericado]

Hi All,

I took the MCAT in August 2005. I practiced using all of the Kaplan materials, but I would like to use some other prep materials in addition to Kaplan. Can you suggest some good prep materials?

Thanks

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[mj1878]

Hey---

I studied with Kaplan my first time and didn't do that hot either. I found that they include a lot of extraneous material that is completely unnecessary for the test, and you end up stressing out a lot more than is necessary.
BS 8
VR 8
PS 8
WS T

My second time, I used Examkrackers, which is available pretty cheap on Walmart.com or Amazon, and I also used Audio Osmosis to break up the monotony. The nice thing about EK is that it sort of feels like there's a coach in the room with you, saying "You will ABSOLUTELY need to know this", and "Don't bother studying this". It was nice.

BS 8
VR 11
PS 11
WS P

In my opinion, chuck the Kaplan, and go EK!

 

[medhacker]

Hi All,

I took the MCAT in August 2005, and didn't too well. I practiced using all of the Kaplan materials, but I would like to use some other prep materials in addition to Kaplan. Can you suggest some good prep materials? (especially for verbal...I scored a 5 on verbal. On the practice exams, my verbal scores were ~7, so this is my weakest area). My PS score was 7 and BS was 8, but I think I can improve on the physical and biological sciences with more studying.

Thanks

Hi

have you identified the reason to your weakness?

 

[thegymbum]

Something that might really help you improve your science scores: AP science study guides. I'm totally serious. It's a lot of the same material, with really good in depth explanations, formulas, practice tests with questions similar to mcat science questions.. I'd say that it might really boost your scores to check those out. I dug up a book from taking the ap physics exam in high school.. err, that I never really used then, heh, oops.. and was amazed at how helpful it was in preparing for the physics section of the mcat Good luck!

 

[anon-y-mouse]

Kaplan verbal is far too easy. I got 14-15's on many of their tests with time to spare. Grab EK 101 verbal passages. If you aren't steadily improving, practicing verbal is futile. Get the EK verbal book too, so you can brush up on their techniques. Also, you should be doing AAMC 3R-8 since they're all available!

Kaplan physical will prepare you well, as the difficulty level is approximately the same. I feel physical is Kaplan's strength somehow.

Hmm, maybe I should hold out on selling all my old materials till MCAT peak season when every store is sold out...

 

[ND2005]

Kaplan verbal is far too easy. I got 14-15's on many of their tests with time to spare. Grab EK 101 verbal passages. If you aren't steadily improving, practicing verbal is futile. Get the EK verbal book too, so you can brush up on their techniques. Also, you should be doing AAMC 3R-8 since they're all available!

Kaplan physical will prepare you well, as the difficulty level is approximately the same. I feel physical is Kaplan's strength somehow.

Hmm, maybe I should hold out on selling all my old materials till MCAT peak season when every store is sold out...

I thought the Kaplan verbal was pretty accurate. On my diagnostics I scored between a 13 and a 15. But when you look at the breakdown for verbal, that score range is almost a crapshoot -- at the high verbal scores, the difference between a 13 and a 15 is often just 2 questions.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

I thought the Kaplan verbal was pretty accurate.

Really? I mean I scored higher than what I got on the Kaplan verbals but I have to say, every AAMC test and even the actual MCAT was much harder in the verbal section than Kaplan stuff... if you're on the high end anyway, it pretty much doesn't matter, but if you're not scoring as well, getting a 10 in Kaplan *might* be misleading.

ps - I checked out your mdapplicants, congrats on the fab score!! You're bound to get in so many places with your stats... You beat me in PS by a point, and I really think that could be partly b/c of your taking Kaplan practice tests... I stopped doing Kaplan tests b/c their physical was really hard for me. (i'm not an E&M person)