Does anyone find TPR books to be pretty comprehensive in terms of content? I've noticed that not many people recommend these books, but I'm finding them pretty easy to follow with many example questions in each chapter.
TPR books
- Thread starter frodo25
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Do you recommend it over Kaplan 2015? I wanted to get TPR 2015 to supplement with EK2015 because I think it's more thorough than Kaplan (except for Biochem), but people said the books haven't been updated to 2015 content for MCAT :/
I took the old MCAT so can only speak about my experience with that, but I highly recommend TPR. Kaplan and I never quite understood each other--I just never felt like I was getting much out of them. They felt like a watered-down EK to me. Everyone's different, though, and I know Kaplan works for some people.
For reference, I had completed most of the pre-reqs quite a few years ago so really needed to self-teach a lot. I was able to do that very well out of TPR books. I felt that they were really comprehensive, and if you went through them and learned the material there really wouldn't be a question you couldn't tackle. They got me to a 38 AAMC practice average, although I'll find out my score on the real deal on Tuesday.
One caveat: There was an Orgo passage on our MCAT that required knowledge that wasn't even mentioned in the TPR Orgo book. If I were doing this again (and perhaps I will be!), I would use Klein's Orgo as a Second Language books to make sure I had a solid Orgo base. That said, I was hitting every single Orgo question on the practice tests so I think TPR Orgo in general was very good preparation. We just had a particularly difficult passage on our exam, which can happen, but I do feel a bit let down by TPR on that front.
For reference, I had completed most of the pre-reqs quite a few years ago so really needed to self-teach a lot. I was able to do that very well out of TPR books. I felt that they were really comprehensive, and if you went through them and learned the material there really wouldn't be a question you couldn't tackle. They got me to a 38 AAMC practice average, although I'll find out my score on the real deal on Tuesday.
One caveat: There was an Orgo passage on our MCAT that required knowledge that wasn't even mentioned in the TPR Orgo book. If I were doing this again (and perhaps I will be!), I would use Klein's Orgo as a Second Language books to make sure I had a solid Orgo base. That said, I was hitting every single Orgo question on the practice tests so I think TPR Orgo in general was very good preparation. We just had a particularly difficult passage on our exam, which can happen, but I do feel a bit let down by TPR on that front.
Yeah, I can't help you there, sorry! I did a bit of poking into the 2015 world after feeling bummed about that Orgo passage on the BS section, and it actually seems quite similar. If I end up taking the 2015 exam, I'm going to use the books I have and just buy Biochem and Psych/Soc books. I certainly wouldn't use Kaplan. TBR is good but they're not doing any updating either. EK is also good, but I wanted/needed a bit more hand-holding than they gave. I haven't seen their newest edition though.
I found a list somewhere about what AAMC is removing on the new exam, and I think it would be pretty easy to just give that a quick glance so you know what you're looking for, keep it handy to refer to, and just skip over the sections they took out.
I found a list somewhere about what AAMC is removing on the new exam, and I think it would be pretty easy to just give that a quick glance so you know what you're looking for, keep it handy to refer to, and just skip over the sections they took out.
True, it shouldn't be hard to figure out what is skipped. But I've heard that Kaplan 2015 is significantly better than the 2014 version from many reviewers, and I"m looking for something just for content review. I'm leaning towards TPR 2015 though, just because it's gotten good reviews before, and if nothing changed from 2014 to 2015, then it should still be good right
I can't comment on Kaplan's books since I don't own them, but TPR, I believe, is very sufficient for content review especially if you are weak in some areas. I have EK and I've noticed that they don't explain concepts as well and assume you know the material. For subjects in which I am stronger, I review EK and that is all. But other times, I read EK and then use TPR to supplement my weak areas.
I also don't know how much their books have changed for the new MCAT, but realize that the majority of the material is the same, so I don't think it should be a problem. Just look at the AAMC content outline and see which sections you don't need to study any longer.
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TPR has only 1 chapter of biochem. Kaplan has a whole book. imo Kaplan is better for biochem supplemented with TBR and TBR passages.
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