ARCO or TBR for verbal?

[m25]

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I have already done verbal for AAMC, AAMC diagostics, Kaplan, Princeton, and EK.
I haven't done TBR's verbal because I heard that it's terrible and haven't done any sections from ARCO because I heard it is just so bad. But I do hear ARCO's verbal is slightly better than its other sections.
So my question is, which would be a better practice for verbal, TBR or ARCO?

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

TBR's book gets a bad rap because they fall into the trap of hitting you over the head really hard with their one strategy and lots of kids don't like it. But if you're just looking for practice passages, the TBR book has a lot of them, so it can be a worthwhile investment. I'd also humbly suggest that Next Step's CARS book for the new MCAT is actually phenomenal practice for the old MCAT verbal.

I'm not familiar with Arco and can't find any good reviews for it, so I'd say to stay away. In general you should avoid buying MCAT books from companies that don't actually work with live students. So basically you should stick to Kaplan, Next Step, Princeton, EK, and Berkeley - the five big book publishers that actually work with MCAT students. These other companies (Barrons, Petersons, etc) that publish MCAT books but don't work with students are almost always a bad choice.

 

[Gauss44]

Honestly, I'm not a fan of either ARCO or TBR. Another option is Gold Standard, and I guess the one mentioned above.

While preparing for MCAT, I also used up my best VR resources. Here's what I did: Every day I would primarily do ARCO, Gold Standard, or Columbia Review, and at the end of the day, I would do either re-do a few AAMC or a few TPR to keep myself familiar with the types of questions and passages that would actually be on the test.

I tried using TBR, but it drove me crazy with it's unrealistically hard passages. It caused me test anxiety that went away after I started using realistic material. Some people like TBR. But just be aware of this potential side effect. I haven't tried NST's VR book so I cannot comment on that.

What really helped me the most with VR was my tutor. I personally hired my tutor off of Wyzant and love that company. I am sure there are good tutors elsewhere as well. But tutoring, in my experience, can work wonders with VR.

Good luck!