Which book does a great job with the Organic Chem section?

[faith hopelove]

Which book does a great job with the Organic Chem section?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Person0715]

I personally used TBR orgo as prep. It goes into some pretty small detail, but it doesn't leave any stuff out.

 

[gig123]

The first TBR book is solid, but the second book goes a bit overboard. I would suggest getting Chad's videos for the chapters that appear in the second book!

 

[Roxas]

I thought TBR was the best, especially for practice. However TPR wasn't bad either

 

[PinknGreenMD]

Tpr

 

[Gauss44]

I only used EK for organic chemistry first time around and got a 10 on the biological sciences section. If you are good at organic chemistry and just need a through review, EK might suffice. It did for me. (Note: When I say I used EK OC, I really did. I made sure that I understood the answer to every last question in that book.)

The wild card here is whether or not the biological science section is changing before 2015. I've heard reports that it's already getting to be more complex. IMO, this might be due to experimental passages because that would make sense. The only people could confirm this (that the weird BS passages are in fact experimental and not counted toward your score which is what I suspect) work at AAMC and probably wouldn't.

 

[RC4L]

I thought TPR was unbeatable for orgo. TBR is great but it gets a little too detailed for MCAT purposes. EK's orgo book was rather crappy.

 

[ARKR]

IMO the best thing for the organic chem portion of the MCAT is doing well in organic chemistry(by doing well I mean really devoting yourself to learning the material). I'm obviously unaware if you have taken the course at this point or not, but if you haven't, I really would wait until you have. They tend to test broader type reactions and principles rather than very specific details (albeit you will hear about the occasional named reaction), and for this reason you really need to understand it on as deep a level as possible(i.e. not really much memorizing of specific rxns).

I think, for this reason, I would go with EK 1001 just to refresh your memory if you have taken the course. It covers most of what you can see, and then I'd just use my orgo text for any questions that you get wrong in order to understand why you got them wrong. It worked out very well for me.

 

[TriagePreMed]

TRPH is the best book. TBR is too much detail for what the MCAT tests, which is time wasted considering your memory is limited.

 

[mbaumann1123]

If you need something for content thats more in depth than a prep course but less extensive than a textbook, I highly recommend the "organic chemistry as a second language" books. They are small but thorough and present everything in such a clear manor. I dropped organic II after breaking my neck and had to self study for the mcat, and those books helped tremendously. They have excellent reviews and you can find them pretty cheap on amazon!

 

[ciestar]

TRPH is the best book. TBR is too much detail for what the MCAT tests, which is time wasted considering your memory is limited.

Okay so I didn't end up buying the organic books from TBR set I bought.
Which TPRH book would I need for that?

Organic material is pretty much all I'm missing at this point, minus a few EK 1001 books I want to purchase.

 

[mbaumann1123]

Okay so I didn't end up buying the organic books from TBR set I bought.
Which TPRH book would I need for that?

Organic material is pretty much all I'm missing at this point, minus a few EK 1001 books I want to purchase.

MCAT Organic Chemistry Review
http://amzn.com/0375427937

 

[mbaumann1123]

Or

Organic Chemistry As a Second Language, 3e: First Semester Topics
http://amzn.com/111801040X

Or

Berkeley Review Series MCAT - Organic Chemistry I & II
http://amzn.com/B00BJNAGXS

 

[humhumhum]

Another vote for Orgo as 2nd Language.

For something super concise, Exam Krackers is great. But remember to skip everything about E1 and E2 reactions as well the benzene specific topics. They are not required core knowledge for MCAT. If you get questions on them, they would explained in the passages.

 

[PocketJacks]

TPR seems to be the best - EK is too short and TBR way too detailed especially since I barely had any Orgo on the real thing

Edit: Oh actually, for practice TBR passages are the best so get TBR for content + practice if you want to get one book. If not I suggest TPR for content and TBR for practice.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Passages in TBR are golden. On par with TPRH ones. I'm using TBR for orgo because I bought the whole set. I only bought TPRH Bio.

 

[ciestar]

Another vote for Orgo as 2nd Language.

For something super concise, Exam Krackers is great. But remember to skip everything about E1 and E2 reactions as well the benzene specific topics. They are not required core knowledge for MCAT. If you get questions on them, they would explained in the passages.

hahaha, the benzene stuff is easy!!
Now I kind of wish I would have bought those books as my teacher recommended them. I literally just finished my organic series in August. I thought I had a decent understanding so I don't feel like I need something too in-depth.

 

[ciestar]

So would TPR organic book be sufficient?
Or should I really invest in TBR?

 

[SN2ed]

So would TPR organic book be sufficient?
Or should I really invest in TBR?

For content, the TPR book would definitely work. The only problem is the lack of practice passages. If you have the TPR Science Workbook, just stick with TPR. However, if you don't, you may want to pick up BR's book for the passages. EK 1001 O-Chem doesn't come close to cutting it as one's primary source of practice problems.