Anyone use Examkrackers and do Poorly?

[Sartre79]

I hear mostly positive things about examkrackers...I just wondered if anyone had any experience on the other side of the coin.

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[DD214_DOC]

Nope, I actually read the VR book and went up a point. One point is pretty good after you hit double digits in a subsection.

I don't think the gen chem and physics books are that great, but I always luck out and get the forms with stuff I didn't have time to study.

 

[gemilli]

I hear mostly positive things about examkrackers...I just wondered if anyone had any experience on the other side of the coin.

Hi sartre79,
I first used the examkracker and it didn't work out for me..i needed something with more elaboration...after being given a tip i went to ebay and searched for the tpr books...books you would get if you attended their prep course. the tpr books were excellent and gave me the review i needed.
well, good luck and by the way i'm currently selling mine on ebay. if you are interested pm me.
good luck.

 

[deistobmore05]

I studied hard with those.. they were easy to understand and they simplified the study process very well. However, I didn't do very well on the AAMC practice tests and ended up with a 23 on the actual test.

 

[NYSnitch]

Same here, knew the EK books like the back of my hand, visited every class. Never gotten anything lower than a 29 on my EK practice exams. When I got my real grade...ouch!!! Doing TPR for April MCAT now.
As it has been said here before, don't let the prep courses give you a false sense of security, do whatever you have to do for the course and then read your textbook to get a deeper understanding.
The real test is getting harder, and those courses stay on the same level. Be careful!

 

[Ebete]

Hi sartre79,
I first used the examkracker and it didn't work out for me..i needed something with more elaboration...after being given a tip i went to ebay and searched for the tpr books...books you would get if you attended their prep course. the tpr books were excellent and gave me the review i needed.
well, good luck and by the way i'm currently selling mine on ebay. if you are interested pm me.
good luck.

I also used the EK for the Aug. test, but... still here. My problem is I needed to take more practice tests and 1001 questions. I also think I could use more detailed material, since I am non-trad. and took most of my pre-req. a long time ago. I am still not sure if I should buy the TPR hyperlearning set or not. I have EK complete set AO and all 1001 books, a Kaplan book (never even opened yet) and a ton of Kaplan diagnostics. What do you think? Wasit worth it; did you do well?

Thanks,E

 

[SensesFail]

Personally, they didn't work with me because I found them a bit TOO simplified. EK101 Verbal I was getting 9-10s, got an 8 on the real thing. EK1001 Physics and Gen Chem started off too easy, but then got too hard! Didn't bother finishing them.

Overall I did good so I'm not going to complain, but from my experience I found the Kaplan/TPR books better for me. I think EK would be great if you already had a good background in the pre-requisite classes and just needed a quick review. But I liked Kaplan's review books for a more thorough, in-depth review.

 

[ImmunoNut]

I am a hardcore EK believer. I only studied for 2 weeks, took the test a couple of days after being released from the hospital for pneumonia, and still pulled a 29. I think that's pretty damn good considering the extraneous factors. I thank EK for that. Plus it's a lot cheaper to buy the books and study alone than to pay over 1k for kaplan or tpr.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

I thank EK verbal for doubling my verbal score to almost perfect double digits you MUST try it. there's an exercise which says "don't brazenly flip to the answers, actually DO this exercise and think about it"... I think chap 2 or 3 -- DO IT. and stick to EK for great success!

 

[PRamos]

My first time I half-heartedly did stuff from my prep course, and instead put most of my efforts into EK. I loved that the text was simplified and easy to work through. I actually enjoyed it in fact. I didn't really like their passages and often felt short changed with their answer explanations. But I worked through all of their books and thought I was ready. I fell short of my 30 goal by a good amount.

I think my mistake the first time was seeing EK as a source of exactly what you need to know for the MCAT. They present themselves as that. I was a bit shocked on my first MCAT when it had a few things that EK books ignored because they were beyond the scope of the MCAT. I wanted the easy version of the MCAT that I was expecting because that is what I was prepared for.

The second time I focused more, buckled down, and decided not to look for short cuts. I loved that BR classes integrated test taking strategies into the material. Their apporach was better for me in that it emphasized how to think your way through problems.

I think if I had a better attitude my first time, then I would have seen the EK books as a good review of the basics. If you couple those books with more detailed books, you'll have a great combination.

 

[dave613]

I used the EK set for the august test and did not do well. I blame it on not having enough practice in terms of test taking, even though i was consistently scoring 32+?

For april, i'll be using kaplan, hope it helps. Good luck to everyone

 

[priyanka]

I took the TPR course and thought its science review was soooooooooooooo awesome. But there were a few things that they didn't go into which EK went into. And there were a few things EK didn't explain well that TPR did. So I think a combo of EK with Kaplan or TPR is a good tool.

If you want more details, then use EK with TPR rather then with Kaplan.

Or you can use Ek with TBR if you want details.

Again, TBR = Berkley review.

I think I wouldn't be able to learn from using them solely, but they are a good for supplemental material. Their 16 Mini MCATs book is good as well as their 101 verbal, verbal strategy book, and 1001 bio book.

Their 1001 gchem and physics are more to reinforce concepts but don't have a lot of passages like TPR's science workbook and in class compendium.

BTW, just for the record: A lot of the TPR practice test books in the bookstore are based off of various passages in the In class Compendium and science workbook. I know this for a fact because I noticed many of the same passages from my course books being used in the over the counter books when I was flipping through them at B&N

GujuDoc,
So you say that TPR is more detailed than Kaplan? I thought that it was the other way around.. No?
I was thinking of selecting kaplan for the sole reason that they also teach strategies in addition to the material. I really need strategies. I dont know if I should change my mind and take princeton instead of kaplan...I still have an option...
thanks.

 

[tank you]

In order of most detailed to least detailed.......

Berkley Review > Princeton Review > Kaplan > Exam Krackers

technically that may be true, but more detailed does not necessarily mean better review, some prep books have so much information that is redundant and not needed for mcat studying.

the thing about EK that i loved was that it only reviewed stuff that was MOST LIKELY going to be on the mcat, not just every single fact on a particular topic. just look at the size of their orgo book, thats all u really need to know. same for other subjects.

i highly recommend ek, i studied by myself using it, and it helped me reach my goal, especially in verbal! (in the 101 ek verbal book, i did all the tests, avging ~8-9, but i got a 10 on the real mcat. so dont be discouraged by the low scores on it)

 

[Labslave]

Plain and simple:

TPR:
1) Way too much detail (emphasis isn't placed on the most important things either).
2) Boring text books (no color graphics; reads like a watered down text book).
3) Very little emphasis on test taking strategy.

Kaplan:

1) Lots of emphasis on strategy.
2) Adequate science review. Teachers are hit or miss though...

EK:
1) Awesome texts with colored graphics, awesome diagrams, etc. (I used ONLY EK texts for the MCAT - PM me if you want my score, etc.)
2) Not too much science, not too much strategy (except for the verbal). This was a nice balance.
3) No super-detailed explanations of concepts (this might hurt you if you really need to LEARN material rather than review it).

If you're going to use EK materials exclusively and you need to actually learn stuff instead of just review, I really would recommend getting Audio Osmosis.

 

[sweetstuff25]

i just got my EK books (6th editions) from amazon.ca. damn EK #$%@ers, i thot the 6th editions were supposed to FIX the errors from 5th edition. There are still some of the same errors in bio 6th as the 5th. I really hope they truely did fix some probs, no time to look through all friggen errors. THESE BOOKS BETTER BE WORTH IT, i'm bored sick of reading tpr's boring texts.

 

[closertofine]

I used EK almost exclusively (the books and also Audio Osmosis, which I loved even though I'm not usually much of an auditory learner) for both review and some learning...I think I did refer to a Kaplan book occasionally for topics I wasn't really familiar with. And it worked well for me...I was happy with my final score.

 

[Will Ferrell]

i think if u have a weak orgo background, you should supplement their orgo book.

 

[DrBowtie]

When referring to Kaplan or TPR are you talking about the books from the course or the OTC books? Is there a big difference in content?

 

[PRamos]

In order of most detailed to least detailed.......

Berkley Review > Princeton Review > Kaplan > Exam Krackers

I would have to agree with this assessment. I might add that details in the right place are really great. I appreciated having:

• detailed ANSWER EXPLANATIONS with strategy tips incorporated and detailed genetics

Many times I found that the answer explanations were worthless in most of the materials. I did most of my learning and improving by grading my passages and going over the answers, so that's why I think the BR materials are better than the other ones I used.

Every book has it merits. But for me, I found that text (entertaining or not) was not as important as the passages and the answer explanations. I think many of us make the mistake of considering the text as the important part of the materials.

 

[sweetstuff25]

Do you know what the mistakes are???????? I'm not sure I know where the mistakes are in their books. I just got their books from my school's bookstore (Its a B&N owned college bookstore so they sell EK products). Anyhow, I'm not real familiar with what all the mistakes are within the books. I've heard of their being some mistakes but couldn't find where it showed that on the website.

didn't have time to go thru all mistakes but there are prolly a few...go here:
http://www.examkrackersforum.com/viewforum.php?f=11

 

[dave613]

As I explained earlier, I think EK is good as a supplemental material, but I don't know that I'd be able to study solely from it.

I'm going to use it to supplement my TPR material, because of the few topics TPR doesn't cover well and because it is additional practice material. But I'll be sticking to most of TPR techniques cuz they served me well, with the exception of Verbal, for which I'll turn to EK.

To Dave,

Are you taking the Kaplan course??? Just curious cuz you mentioned Kaplan.

yeah, i'm taking the kaplan course.

 

[dave613]

Oh ok. The Kaplan course is good because it provides many practice tests and topical/subject tests. If you do all of those and the EK 101 Verbal book and 1001 bio book, I think you'll be ok.

thanks guju. we're in this together. what's so special about the ek 1001 bio book? should i get that one?

 

[PRamos]

Bumping an old thread, because I got sidetracked looking for a poster I used to enjoy reading and found this thread. After reading current threads and then this one it struck me how things pretty much never change around SDN no matter how many new generations of premeds come in. It's even true in the med forums. Good to see that there are some universal truths.

 

[IndianVercetti]

Bumping an old thread, because I got sidetracked looking for a poster I used to enjoy reading and found this thread. After reading current threads and then this one it struck me how things pretty much never change around SDN no matter how many new generations of premeds come in. It's even true in the med forums. Good to see that there are some universal truths.

So you bumped an old thread just to prove a point of how things never change? Haha, that's pretty funny