Berkeley Review Practice questions

[CHOPSTIX]

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For those of you using the Berkeley Review Books to study, are you doing all the questions after each section and how much time are you giving yourself? I'm finding its taking way too long to get through all these questions.

 

[J ROD]

For those of you using the Berkeley Review Books to study, are you doing all the questions after each section and how much time are you giving yourself? I'm finding its taking way too long to get through all these questions.

I actually did all the PS passages. I would read the chapter and then do the practice passages.

I did one section a day for a month. M-F. It took about 4-6 hrs depending a day. Counting reviewing the explanations.

It takes alot of time and commitment.

 

[BNZN32]

I used Berkeley Review for G-Chem. I did similar to J-Dub, about 1 ch/day all problems, maybe not 5 ch/ week but you get the picture. I only worried about timing when doing the middle problem set. Keep working hard, your scores will improve because of it!

👍

 

[nothing123]

Wow, does it really take that long? Do you think it's possible to get all the passages done for GChem and Physics within two weeks (no work, just studying)? Also, I don't plan on reading the Physics chapters but quite possibly the GChem ones.

 

[korsibor]

I purchased BR physic and G chem books published in 2001. I'm being told it's "outdated". Has anybody here used old BR books or compared the older ones to the recent ones? How different is the material. Did i just waste money?

 

[annihilatorpro]

I purchased BR physic and G chem books published in 2001. I'm being told it's "outdated". Has anybody here used old BR books or compared the older ones to the recent ones? How different is the material. Did i just waste money?

It gets updated every couple of years, both the didactic portion as well as the problem sets, but I doubt that what you have is useless to you. I think it's been said that the 2002 update was the most drastic, though.

 

[Malayna]

For those of you using the Berkeley Review Books to study, are you doing all the questions after each section and how much time are you giving yourself? I'm finding its taking way too long to get through all these questions.

For each section, I'm trying to do all of the questions in reading section and then five passages from the end of the chapter on one day and then the remaining passages plus the extra ones they give in class on the next day. This has me doing three sections per week. I figure that I have twelve weeks of review and there are 38 chapters between all of the science books. After that, I have a little over a month to go over practice exams. I also try to go to office hours twice a week to go over any questions I need a little extra help with, so you should add that to your time too. It works out to be about six hours per day for six days a week.

 

[Marjan Islam]

My plan for TBR is essentially just focusing on the Physical Sciences. I'm doing 1 section every 2 days (total 20 sections between Gen. Chem. and Physics - 40 days), while doing EK bio 1001 questions (101 passages) and EK Verbal 101 Passages scattered in these 40 days.

I made a calender for myself, and it really helps! Makes the whole thing a thousand times more manageable. I plan on finishing all of this by Jan. 20th, then do some Kaplan PS and BS sections, and Feb. and March hardcore practice exams.

Calenders help immensely!

 

[FutureScaresMe]

I'm almost done with the BR Gchem and Physics books. The physics chapters are pretty easy to get through. Most chapters have a fairly short content review and 70 questions at the end. It takes maybe 4 hours to do a chapter thoroughly.

GChem on the other hand is a total pain sometimes, but worth it. The length of the review along with the 100 questions after each section takes me about 6-7 hours to complete. Although I take good notes as I'm going through it for my second pass.

Someone was asking if they could get through both the GC and physics books in 2 weeks. I really doubt it, unless you only do half the questions, which would be a complete disservice to the books. The questions at the end is what makes TBR so damn good. Half the learning is in the review, the other half in doing the questions and reading the explainations. I guess it's possible, but I doubt you'd retain much by going so quick. I would take atleast 3 weeks to get through both physics and gchem properly. 1 chapter a day, 10 chapters per subject. It's harder than it sounds, really.

 

[J ROD]

I agree. It really is hard to get through all the material.

 

[rocketbooster]

I agree. It really is hard to get through all the material.

Yeah, man, the BR questions after each chapter are hard to get through. The chem actually breaks down the ~10 passages into 3 parts you should work them in. The physics books do not break down the 10 passages into parts. It says 90 minutes, 70 questions, go! I split that in half with a break in between. 70 questions on ONE topic all at once was killing my head. The real MCAT is 40 questions in 60 minutes on 7-10 of the possible 20 topics that may show up. 70 questions in 90 minutes on ONE topic is hell. At least on the real test each passage is on a different topic so you don't go crazy. I'm so sick of kinematics...haha

I can see how doing this will make you unstoppable on the PS, though. Definitely tires you out during practice.

 

[justdoit31]

Usually I did read the section then I did 1/2 of the passages (the odds)... After I went through all the sections I started again and started doing the second half of problems but I didn't get through it all and I hadn't had Physics 2 so I got really bogged down then