Berkeley Review Bio - a question for everyone used/using BR

[darshan22030]

Praises for BR Phys, Chem, Orgo passages are countless. Are the passages in the BR Bio also very good? Are there a lot of practice passages in the BR BIo book?

I have gone over the EK Review book and I plan to finish the EK 1001 bio. WOuld you recommend the BR Bio book for MORE practice if one has already gone over the EK books once and feels pretty confident about EK?

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P.S. I have read most of the threads on SDN about the BR Bio. Many have said that BR Bio is too detailed and that EK is better. But, what if one has already gone over EK and has time before the exam?

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[SN2ed]

BR isn't really worse than EK, it's more of a preference thing. Most people prefer the less-detailed approach of EK, so they favor it. BR's bio passages would be fine for more practice. Plus, there are TONS of passages in it similar to their other books. Furthermore, you could use the BR bio book for some extra content review depth on your weak areas.

 

[229141]

Praises for BR Phys, Chem, Orgo passages are countless. Are the passages in the BR Bio also very good? Are there a lot of practice passages in the BR BIo book?

I have gone over the EK Review book and I plan to finish the EK 1001 bio. WOuld you recommend the BR Bio book for MORE practice if one has already gone over the EK books once and feels pretty confiendet about EK?

-------

P.S. I have read most of the threads on SDN about the BR Bio. Many have said that BR Bio is too detailed and that EK is better. But, what if one has already gone over EK and has time before the exam?

BR bio is just too detailed. They talk about the TRP operon for Godsake...great detail but WAY too much. I would use their PASSAGES and also their genetics and developmental section, as these are 2 sections which I feel EK could be more thorough with. As for the rest of the stuff, your fine

Honestly...the bio on the MCAT is a lot and my major way of studying is just being a bio major and working hard in general bio and physiology..its NOT something you want to try and learn all in 2 weeks.

 

[Nasrudin]

I've been a fan of BR books so I was kind of wondering what was the reason I didn't use their bio book.

I think the reason has to do with the production of the EK book. It's got better graphics. I've always studied Bio by drawing out the graphics and diagrams from my textbooks. Writing in notes as well.

BR uses a lower budget production scheme so they suffer in this one regard only. For the subjects that communicate better with deductive and socratic methodology this is not an issue and in these instances BR excels beyond compare. But when a picture speaks a 1000 words not so much.

In other words I don't feel it's the authorship of the Biology book that's their problem is just too text heavy and not stripped down and slick enough in its production.

 

[OrangeOrangutan]

how is their lecture reivew for bio? Were they useful? Or just simply an overload of information like their books?

 

[darshan22030]

Thanks everyone for your replys... For the people who have used the BR books, what do think about their passages? Do they have lot of the discretes that require detailed knowledge? How are the passage based questions?

Of course, I am referring to the BR Bio books

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

how is their lecture reivew for bio? Were they useful? Or just simply an overload of information like their books?

Great question. This is what was sort of odd when I took the class (many years back). The biology lectures and worksheets were not detailed at all. We did a lot of questions in class and then went over them. It was like reviewing backwards, and I really liked doing it that way. It was focused on looking at information in context and doing a bunch of applications.

I think the teachers they hire are chosen so that they can balance out the overload of the books. Dale, the author of the biology books, does some of the teaching too. He explains things methodically and limits the detailed information to the high yield topics.