Balancing Kaplan and TBR Content Review

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infiniteheart

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Hello Everyone,

I was originally going to have taken the MCAT by now but in December something really tragic happened. At first I tried powering through and studying, but then I realized that what would help me more would be to get therapy and focus on the college classes I was taking. I ended up finishing the semester well and am mentally doing much better and ready to start really studying for the MCAT. I plan to sit for it in January.

This all being said, the resources I have to study with are the 7-set Kaplan Book, TBR, AAMC Online Materials, 300pg KA document, and UWorld. I'm trying to get through my Kaplan books by the end of August and TBR content and phase I questions by the start of October, and I'm going to start UWorld at the end of July. For P/S while I have the Kaplan and TBR books I am thinking I might just focus my energy on the 300pg document.

This being said, I was wondering if anybody could share advice for managing both sets of content books. I found that outlining as I read takes lots of time, and I half wonder if that is my best option since I have multiple resources I am going through to cover the content. I also realize that writing is helpful and helps with memory retention. A balance I am trying now is to read a chapter of content, do the end of chapter (Kaplan)/phase I questions (TBR), and then go back to the sections I struggled on and take detailed notes. So far it has helped me save time, but I am worried I am missing out if I do not take notes on everything. I have heard the phrase "less is more" and part of me wondering if I am trying to do too much. Since I am testing in January, I feel like I have the time, and want to try doing everything I can to get the score I want the first time.

Do any of you have advice? It could be related to this question or anything else you think could help me. I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!

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TBR is much more in-depth than Kaplan and provides high quality passage based practice at the end of each section. I highly recommend using TBR for in-depth review in physics, chemistry, and orgo, and using their end of chapter phase practice passages as directed. Personally, I found TBR too dense for bio and biochemistry so I used Kaplan to do content review and then did the TBR practice passages. I would then review TBR to fill in specific gaps. For PS I used Kaplan and the

In terms of time, it would usually take me about 1.5-2 hours to go through a chapter of TBR. Some sections that I had a stronger foundation in would be less than an hour. When I did my initial content review, I would go through two TBR chapters per day.
 
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TBR is much more in-depth than Kaplan and provides high quality passage based practice at the end of each section. I highly recommend using TBR for in-depth review in physics, chemistry, and orgo, and using their end of chapter phase practice passages as directed. Personally, I found TBR too dense for bio and biochemistry so I used Kaplan to do content review and then did the TBR practice passages. I would then review TBR to fill in specific gaps. For PS I used Kaplan and the

In terms of time, it would usually take me about 1.5-2 hours to go through a chapter of TBR. Some sections that I had a stronger foundation in would be less than an hour. When I did my initial content review, I would go through two TBR chapters per day.
Thanks for sharing your perspective and experience! It really helps!
 
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