Berkeley / Columbia MCAT Review

[angelstar0614]

I'm just curious as to the quality of the Berkeley and Columbia review courses for the MCAT. I'm considering purchasing the books for these courses (since I can't take the classes - don't live in CA) and wanted to know anyone's opinions on whether it's worth it. I haven't actually taken any of the prep courses and don't really want to shell out the $1500+ to do that. I have Kaplan materials and purchased the set of EK books as well to study for the first time I took the MCAT. Now I'm trying to raise VR and keep up my BS and PS scores. Any thoughts?

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[happy2Bdoc]

i took the berkeley review course, and i think it's major advantage over the other courses (kaplan and tpr) is the lectures. our teachers were really great, and i learned a lot! the books themselves, however, are reallly reallly detailed. at some points, they were way too dense and contained too much info that won't be tested on the mcat. if you are planning on self-studying, the kaplan and examcrackers books (as well as the aamc practice exams) are all you need. the berkeley books alone aren't worth it. todd (the founder of berkeley review) even said that the books aren't really worth it without the lectures. hope i helped

 

[alwaysaangel]

Yeah keep in mind that the Berkeley review course has no association with the university. So if thats why you were gonna take it then forget it.

 

[gotmeds?]

I thought Berkeley Review was great. If you can take the course somewhere where Todd teaches (I took it in Westwood), you should do it. I don't think you could find a better MCAT instructor out there (he wrote some of the books).

 

[angelstar0614]

Well I found the books for really cheap, so I figured I might invest in them, since I've got some time to go through them. How are the practice tests though? I've taken practice full-lengths from Kaplan and they seem close enough for me to the real thing.