Are EK books from 2013 too old?

[Bluestepel]

So I've spent the first week of my winter break kind of flipping through my EK books from 2013...are they too old to use for the new MCAT? I also have a set of Kaplan books published in 2015...?

Also, I am completely overwhelmed and don't know where to begin studying. I really want to take the MCAT end of May to still be early-ish in applying to DO school but I have to take 16 more credits I just figured out with an A-average in my DIY post-bac to get my science GPA up where I want it (<3.0). Am I doing too much to start studying for the MCAT now?

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[freedoctor17]

Use the Kaplan books for content. I don't know how the EK 2013 books are but I used the Kaplan 2015 books for content and they were great. They literally designed the books in the order of the AAMC topics list. Only book I didn't like was the CARS one. Their strategy was stupid imo but might work for others. You'll need to find something for practice though.

Check out mcatjelly's plan thread and maybe use TBR books. I used the 2009 TBR books (you can probably find them super cheap or online) for practice while the Kaplan ones for content.

Make sure to do a bunch of practice exams as well. I did 10 total I think and a couple half lengths. I recommend at least 7 of them. (AAMC will give you 4 and they're the most important so make sure to get those).

Whether you can handle it while worrying about your GPA is up to you though. I studied over the summer so it was my main priority.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

The question of what is too old comes up often. Let's start with a survey of one from just this thread. The most important part of your preparation, by far, is going over passages and questions and learning to be a better test taker. The person here used old BR passages and I assume did quite well (from their signature.) While the content and emphasis on the MCAT may have changed in terms of the subject material, the questions are still four-answer multiple-chocie questions. Mastering the art of test taking can be achieved with any book that has plenty of passage-based questions, even if it's from 2014 or earlier. So focus more on the number of passage-based questions and answers in the books rather than the number on the cover associated with the year. Your question of book utility should boil down to whether the answer explanations will help you become a better test taker.

Taking the survey beyond this thread, you will find plenty of people who used books from before 2015 and did well. Because, let's face it, most of the material supposedly for the 2015 exam was written and released in 2014, long before anyone knew what was on the actual exam. Our company went from being number one in the book market in 2014 to no longer being number one in 2015, because we waited until 2016 to update our books. In that period from late 2014 until early 2016, our students did quite well using our book, which emphasized the same shortcuts and tricks that made us popular before the test change. So while I think books from 2017 are the best (they have updated passages and have omitted untested material that you will get in older books), you can do well using older books if you omit the untested material and make sure you do plenty of passages. Passages are key!

 

[freedoctor17]

The question of what is too old comes up often. Let's start with a survey of one from just this thread. The most important part of your preparation, by far, is going over passages and questions and learning to be a better test taker. The person here used old BR passages and I assume did quite well (from their signature.) While the content and emphasis on the MCAT may have changed in terms of the subject material, the questions are still four-answer multiple-chocie questions. Mastering the art of last taking can be achieved with any book that has plenty of passage-based questions, even if it's from 2014 or earlier. So focus more on the number of passage-based questions and answers in the books rather than the number on the cover associated with the year. Your question of book utility should boil down to whether the answer explanations will help you become a better test taker.

Taking the survey beyond this thread, you will find plenty of people who used books from before 2015 and did well. Because, let's face it, most of the material supposedly for the 2015 exam was written and released in 2014, long before anyone knew what was on the actual exam. Our company went from being number one in the book market in 2014 to no longer being number one in 2015, because we waited until 2016 to update our books. In that period from late 2014 until early 2016, our students did quite well using our book, which emphasized the same shortcuts and tricks that made us popular before the test change. So while I think books from 2017 are the best (they have updated passages and have omitted untested material that you will get in older books), you can do well using older books if you omit the untested material and make sure you do plenty of passages. Passages are key!

Yeah I found that using your companies 2009 bookset, although it was more content heavy in the questions than the new mcat, still gave me lots of practice reading passages and it also drove home the content I was studying from other books. My main practice came from online practice exams but that would've been so much harder if I hadn't spent my initial time doing passage after passage along with my content review from your books. I haven't seen your newer books but if they have as much practice as the older ones but with updated content then even better.