The Berkeley Review books are very intimidating, especially the Biology books. You better be ready to study your a55 off for at least five hours a day, everyday. Their practice material is great but they're tricky. Don't buy into the hype too much, there are plenty of people who scored 40 on the MCAT on EK and Kaplan alone, just read the 30+ study habbits thread. TBR hasnt been put to the test like EK and Kaplan, but I believe they're good investments personally.
btw, I REALLY doubt you'll be able to make even $150 from selling the Kaplan and EK sets, so dont have your hope set up on that and always have a backup plan.
This is where we disagree. The vast majority of people on this forum are excellent students. Kaplan and TPR are the most commonly used items in the 30+ forum due to their large market share. You guys only see the top scorers.
At my school, I know of 15 people who used Kaplan, the top 4 scored greater than 39. However, a bunch of kids only scored in the 20's or low 30s. The average BR students scores a 30, however, a lot of these kids are smart as they attend Cal, UCLA, etc. Overall TBR is the best because of the passages. Their Bio book is bad, but who cares, Bio is the one subject most premeds are strong in.
Finally, the advantage of all these prep courses is the practice they offer. For those who can't afford a course, TBR gives one massive amounts of practice at a reasonable price. I love EK, however, it's only good if you have the requisite background.
I graduated hs in 2004 and have lurked since then. I have all the materials. As far as materials are concerned:
Physics TPR is money for physics. TBR is too, they offer tricks, however I like the mathematical emphasis of TPR. For weaker students, TBR is probably better. The 30+ backs me up on this. Look at the most recent posts and how many praise TPR. Nova is good too if you're weak. However, their passages are too easy.
For bio, I think kaplan is the best and EK a close second. You'll see countless people who utilized both; this is backed up in the 30+ section.
For O-chem, Kaplan covers every thing and EK gives a good conceptual review. I would used both. The BR is good as well.
For chemistry, nothing should be mentioned in the same sentence as TBR. TPR is a distant second.
The following are for content. The most important thing about the MCAT is practice. Here's how I would rate them:
Bio 1. Kaplan Passages from Exams 2. TPR Science workbook passages 3. EK Bio 101 passages.
I love the Kaplan as they contain lots of experimental and force you to extrapolate the most.
O-chem 1. BR Passages 2. Kaplan from Exams 3. TPR Science passages
Physics 1. TBR passages 2. TPR passages 3. EK 1001
Chemistry 1. TBR passages 2. TPR Science WB 3. who cares
OP. I would buy TBR gen chem, physics, and O-chem. Study from physics and chem for content. Just do the passages for O-chem books. I'd get Kaplan Bio and use EK 101 bio passages.
Finally, also consider the passages approach. By this I mean, just do as many passages and questions as possible. You will learn more than enough content with this method. It has been done by a few people in the past. Don't waste too much time on content.
