Public Service Announcement: The Berkeley Review is the best resource, period.

[ZPakEffect]

If your goal is to get the highest MCAT score that you are capable of, you must utilize the Berkeley Review. Period. Can you get a decent score on the MCAT without TBR? Yes. Can you get into medical school without TBR? Yes. However, if you want to get the highest possible MCAT score so that you can get into your dream school or receive scholarships from medical schools, then you owe it to yourself to use TBR.

It frustrates me to see so many posts and threads on this forum talking about Kaplan and TPR when those companies are so inferior to TBR in every aspect. If someone reads this forum long enough, they eventually realize that TBR is by far the most recommended resource. I felt that someone should just come out and state what is true: TBR is the consensus best third-party material for MCAT preparation among those available on the market.

Why is TBR the best? Well, it is probably due to the fact that TBR only writes material for the MCAT and nothing else. Meanwhile, Kaplan and TPR are huge companies that publish material for every test under the sun. If you wanted the absolute best knife, for example, would you go to a shop that specializes in quality knives or would you go to Wal-Mart?

TBR's books have more practice passages and questions than any other material in existence. This is important because practicing answering actual passages and questions is the primary means by which one improves his or her MCAT score. TBR's content review material also emphasizes conceptual understanding and rapid application of that understanding to answering MCAT questions.

I have no connection to TBR other than that using TBR books helped me to score a 39 on the old MCAT and every single person to whom I have recommended TBR and who listened to me has done extremely well on the new MCAT.

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[CloverBale]

So I've been mainly using the TBR for content review and Kaplan/TPR for the psych/soc cuss I never bought their new book. Anyway, I did my content review and saved all the questions in the back of the section for later to do, and I'm doing the questions in the Kaplan/EK sets (i have both sets of books..I know I have a lot of books lol). and from what I've learned from TBR and Kaplan/EK don't compare. It's weird. I get questions wrong on Kaplan/EK that don't seem like they were covered in the TBR books. Like WHY? I feel like I'm going to do poorly because I can't answer those questions.

 

[theonlytycrane]

@ZPakEffect Same feelings toward the TBR full-lengths?

 

[ZPakEffect]

@ZPakEffect Same feelings toward the TBR full-lengths?

I never used them. I have not heard very positive reviews of them yet.

 

[ZPakEffect]

So I've been mainly using the TBR for content review and Kaplan/TPR for the psych/soc cuss I never bought their new book. Anyway, I did my content review and saved all the questions in the back of the section for later to do, and I'm doing the questions in the Kaplan/EK sets (i have both sets of books..I know I have a lot of books lol). and from what I've learned from TBR and Kaplan/EK don't compare. It's weird. I get questions wrong on Kaplan/EK that don't seem like they were covered in the TBR books. Like WHY? I feel like I'm going to do poorly because I can't answer those questions.

I think your plan is odd and probably ineffective. I think that you should do TBR's practice passages immediately after reading each chapter. You can't just read through the chapters and expect the concepts to stick. You need to reinforce those concepts immediately by doing the practice passages.

 

[tjo422]

So I've been mainly using the TBR for content review and Kaplan/TPR for the psych/soc cuss I never bought their new book. Anyway, I did my content review and saved all the questions in the back of the section for later to do, and I'm doing the questions in the Kaplan/EK sets (i have both sets of books..I know I have a lot of books lol). and from what I've learned from TBR and Kaplan/EK don't compare. It's weird. I get questions wrong on Kaplan/EK that don't seem like they were covered in the TBR books. Like WHY? I feel like I'm going to do poorly because I can't answer those questions.

I haven't used TBR, but I know Kaplan/EK don't cover Behavioral well enough (IMO) in the content review. I used Kaplan/EK for everything else content wise, and watched all of the behavioral videos on Khan, and was much better off.

 

[ZPakEffect]

I haven't used TBR, but I know Kaplan/EK don't cover Behavioral well enough (IMO) in the content review. I used Kaplan/EK for everything else content wise, and watched all of the behavioral videos on Khan, and was much better off.

You should remedy that immediately.

 

[tjo422]

You should remedy that immediately.

Well considering I scored a 526, I'll have to disagree. *shrug*


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[ZPakEffect]

Well considering I scored a 526, I'll have to disagree. *shrug*


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Probably could have scored a 528 with TBR.

 

[tjo422]

Probably could have scored a 528 with TBR.

Nah, not for science anyway. 132/132 on all 3. Damn CARS


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[ZPakEffect]

Nah, not for science anyway. 132/132 on all 3. Damn CARS


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CARS is pretty resistant to preparation. You should probably work on those critical reasoning skills.

 

[tjo422]

CARS is pretty resistant to preparation. You should probably work on those critical reasoning skills.

Cute. lol

But yeah, my point still stands. Khan is a great resource for behavioral I hadn't taken Psych or Soc in college, and it was sufficient for self-study

 

[ZPakEffect]

Cute. lol

But yeah, my point still stands. Khan is a great resource for behavioral I hadn't taken Psych or Soc in college, and it was sufficient for self-study

Anyway, just because you scored a 526 and used Kaplan/TPR does not mean those are good resources. You are just one person. I have experience advising and tutoring dozens of pre-meds and every single person that used TBR well and put in the effort saw their score improve significantly. And the collective wisdom of SDN is in agreement that TBR is the best resource.

 

[CloverBale]

I think your plan is odd and probably ineffective. I think that you should do TBR's practice passages immediately after reading each chapter. You can't just read through the chapters and expect the concepts to stick. You need to reinforce those concepts immediately by doing the practice passages.

Yeah I know that's why I'm going to go through them this week, because I know once I take those practice passages I'll just forget everything I learned.

 

[tjo422]

Anyway, just because you scored a 526 and used Kaplan/TPR does not mean those are good resources. You are just one person. I have experience advising and tutoring dozens of pre-meds and every single person that used TBR well and put in the effort saw their score improve significantly. And the collective wisdom of SDN is in agreement that TBR is the best resource.

I didn't use TPR. The point of my post was to say to the poster above me that Kaplan/EK was insufficient in one section, and that Khan was a good *free* resource that helped me immensely. I wasn't arguing whether TBR is better or not.

 

[CloverBale]

I just don't know why I did all the content review on TBR and wasn't able to do well on the practice problems on TPR/EK. Like if TBR is supposed to go above and beyond you'd think I'd do better on those practice questions...

 

[ZPakEffect]

I just don't know why I did all the content review on TBR and wasn't able to do well on the practice problems on TPR/EK. Like if TBR is supposed to go above and beyond you'd think I'd do better on those practice questions...

Because content review by itself does nothing to improve your test-taking ability.

 

[tjo422]

I just don't know why I did all the content review on TBR and wasn't able to do well on the practice problems on TPR/EK. Like if TBR is supposed to go above and beyond you'd think I'd do better on those practice questions...

So even if TBR goes above and beyond (which apparently they do, I wouldn't know), you still need to go above and beyond using that material. Once you've mastered the content, which goes beyond memorization, you'll be more successful answering questions from different companies/authors. In addition, half of the battle is learning how to understand and answer MCAT style questions. Some students find it helpful to do content review from two or more sources so that gaps are covered. This is what I was alluding to on Kaplan/EK in their content and their questions for behavioral. At the end of the day, if the source you are using helps you answer questions in the AAMC materials, that's a good sign. If not, work on mastery of content and/or question skills.

 

[CloverBale]

OHHH gotcha thank you so much that makes me feel better. I have a month left for test-taking so I should be good!

So even if TBR goes above and beyond (which apparently they do, I wouldn't know), you still need to go above and beyond using that material. Once you've mastered the content, which goes beyond memorization, you'll be more successful answering questions from different companies/authors. In addition, half of the battle is learning how to understand and answer MCAT style questions. Some students find it helpful to do content review from two or more sources so that gaps are covered. This is what I was alluding to on Kaplan/EK in their content and their questions for behavioral. At the end of the day, if the source you are using helps you answer questions in the AAMC materials, that's a good sign. If not, work on mastery of content and/or question skills.

 

[lexswift]

So for TBR did you just read the content and then attempt the practice passages in one sitting after you read the respective chapters? Did you ever re-do passages? I might consider adding TBR to my prep.

 

[Roayer]

So it was supposedly the best resource for the old MCAT but I haven't heard much about them for the new MCAT and the test definitely changed. What makes you think they are so great for this new monster of a test? I used their O-chem book just to see if they were any good and I thought it was well written and a good resource (though definitely overkill)

 

[Chromium Surfer]

Well it will still be a while before I take the MCAT but I am using TBR for content review and doing their practice passages.

Some users talked about how they used the old TBR books and it still really helped them in all the science sections.

At least for me what I have noticed is that they focus a lot on understanding and implementing test taking strategies that allow you to find the correct answer quickly through POE and useful heuristics.

 

[ZPakEffect]

So for TBR did you just read the content and then attempt the practice passages in one sitting after you read the respective chapters? Did you ever re-do passages? I might consider adding TBR to my prep.

When I prepped for the MCAT, I would read through the chapter and immediately afterwards I would do all the practice passages timed. Some schedules like the SN2ed schedule split up the practice passages, but I only had 4 weeks so I did it all in one sitting. I did about 2 TBR chapters per day. You don't have to do all the passages right away but you definitely need to do at least a third to a half of them to immediately reinforce the concepts you just learned.

 

[ZPakEffect]

So it was supposedly the best resource for the old MCAT but I haven't heard much about them for the new MCAT and the test definitely changed. What makes you think they are so great for this new monster of a test? I used their O-chem book just to see if they were any good and I thought it was well written and a good resource (though definitely overkill)

Because TBR is still a company that focuses solely on the MCAT and therefore their materials will still be the best.