Are current MCAT books useless for the 2015 MCAT?

[delawarepremed]

I originally intended to take the current version of the MCAT. So, I bought all the prep books for the current MCAT. However, I realized that I need more time to study which means I would have to take the 2015 MCAT. So, are my old MCAT books useless now? Should I order books that are specifically designed for the 2015 MCAT? Or should I use the current MCAT books and just order books that pertain to Biochemistry, Psychology and Sociology? Is the 2015 MCAT pretty much the same as the current MCAT with just Biochemistry, Psychology and Sociology added?

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[HCHopeful]

Depends on your budget. If you're on a tight one, the current MCAT prep books will do just fine. You still need to know all of the stuff on the current one for the new one (maybe just not as in depth for Physics and Orgo). In the end, what you really need is practice passages. I have no idea what the new format will have in terms of passages, but it would not hurt to use TBR or TPRH SW. Best of luck with MCAT2015.

 

[k000n]

Won't the new one just add Biochemistry, Sociology, and Psychology? You might as well just keep the books, and just buy ones that focus on the subjects I mentioned. From the "data" I've seen, it just seems like the new test will be the "same" with the sciences and verbal, except that Physics, Organic Chemistry, and General Chemistry will have less questions. So while those books you have for those sciences may not be "as" significant as before, you should definitely still keep them.

 

[Jack Westin]

No. Current MCAT material overlaps new MCAT in many ways. However, new MCAT has more content to review. What I would do if I were you is look at the topic list provided by the AAMC for the new MCAT. Use that to study info from the old books. For example, if the photoelectric effect is in the new topic outline, find that section in the old EK physics book for instance and study it.

From what I've read, the new MCAT tests less depth in each topic but there are definitely more topics.

Jack

 

[John Buster]

Current books + a few books in the new topics should be dope

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

Unless you want to study for months and months, I would say no (though there may not be an easy way to get around this issue).
The new MCAT will not simply "add on" these additional 3 topics to the current test. It's not as if the new test will have 52 questions that mimic the science sections now and the added questions will be distinguishable and separate. The new topics will be integrated. That means that one question or passage could draw knowledge from, say, biology and biochemistry. That means that the best practice is going to provide content and questions that draw parallels between all the topics.

In the end, can you study by reviewing each individual topic separately (i.e. with current MCAT books supplemented with college books)? Sure, but you'll have to be diligent. You'll have to draw you're own parallels - which can actually be far more beneficial to you, but naturally more time consuming.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

TJ is 100% right. In the single AAMC Official MCAT Practice test, one of the main things we see in their passages is how "cross-disciplinary" things are. In a single passage they may have questions that draw from "Content Category" 3A, then 1B, then 2C, etc.

So the stuff that you can absolutely 100% still use - Verbal books and Biology books. Those, by far, are the most "highly conserved regions of DNA" for the new MCAT. Orgo/Chem/Phys are getting tweaked, but not in a really huge way. Using old MCAT books would probably be easier than trying to study from textbooks, for example. I'll type up a bigger post that's a "using Old MCAT materials for the NEW MCAT guide" right now. Should only take a few minutes.

 

[nolookpass]

I'm hoping I can sell my books. Hopefully people are willing to buy them off craigslist . What would I even do with all these books if they won't sell?

 

[baxt1412]

a protein (biochem) is orbiting (physics) an undiscovered planet. if there are a large number of residues being reduced by LiAlH4 (organic/chem), what would a specific population of Koreans (sociology) think about it?



lol /troll

 

[Swagster]

I went through the topic list for the current MCAT and compared it to the new MCAT, and it doesn't seem that different in many ways.

Physical sciences is basically the same topics with passages covering more biology related material. Like now, I suspect many questions can be answered without the passages, so studying current Physics, Organic, and Chem books will be fine. Supplement your biology with a little biochemistry and you'll be fine there.

Companies will want to sell you all of this new stuff, but you can bet it's the old stuff repackaged.