Studying EK 1001 for MCAT 2015 for Bio?

[aurevoir0711]

I plan to apply for class of 2018 and would like to take MCAT next year, probably in August or September. I am a non-trad applicant and I have not studied any biology since high school freshman year.

I bought subject book package from Kaplan and started reading the book. I got through the biology book, but I can retain maybe 10% of the content as lots of information is involved. The problem is, I was an engineering student back in college and I learned a lot of concepts by solving problems rather than memorizing every details in the textbook. I am sure I can memorize majority of the contents covered in the book by repetitive learning, but I started questioning if that is the most efficient way to spend my time. Even though I got some time until the actual exam, I want to maximize the knowledge I gain every day.

I read a post saying that many people have this issue when it comes to studying biology and solving problems in the book helps greatly with memory retention. Would it be wise to solve problems in EK 1001 or any other books (maybe TBR?) for an old MCAT serve me better than reading a Kaplan subject book several times? I am just not quite sure if all details covered in the subject book is necessary for type of questions I will be dealing on MCAT. I am planning to do this just for biology section, as o-chem is not emphasized as heavily in the new MCAT. I would sincerely appreciate your input.

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[GCSDOC]

Trust me on this one, do it. Its strange how similar your situation is to mine, but I also was 7+ years removed from Biology. I read EK, used AO, but at the end of the day, literally nothing was staying in my head, I couldn't retain anything. So after I voided the old exam and decided on the new one, I took a step back to decide how I was going to learn Biology and make it stick. EK Biology 1001 is doing just that. So far I have done 650/1001 questions, and everything is sticking. I am retaining all of the information at a much faster pace than passive reading does. I too have a technical background and have always learned from active learning through solving problems. Your situation sounds so similar to mine that I strongly suggest you get EK Biology 1001 and do every problem.

 

[DesitnationMD]

Repetition will breed familiarity, keep up the hard work!