BERKELEY REVIEW scores/discussion

[capn jazz]

Just like the EK Verbal 101 thread, this is a thread to talk about how you're doing with the TBR passages. I don't know how people are generally going through these, but I'm doing Phase I and II after reading the chapter, and saving Phase III for after I finish all content review.

I'm currently working on Gen Chem.

Chapter 1:
Phase I: 27/41 = 66% = 10
Phase II: 10/20 = 50% = 8 (ouch!)

Chapter 2:
Phase I: 29/37 = 78% = 11
Phase II: 28/33 = 85% = 13

So far I LOVE the book. I hated Gen Chem and I'm enjoying reading this and I really feel like it's helping me grasp the topics. Hopefully future chapters will continue this trend...

Now it's up to you guys! Keep this thread alive!

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[mcattaker]

I plan to get TBR review books for all the science subjects. The only one I'm not sure about is the Verbal section. What experiences have you guys had with the TBR Verbal books?

 

[G1SG2]

I just took my first set of practice passages for chem and physics. For the first chem section (stoichiometry), I scored in the 7-9 range, and for the first physics section (translational motion)-scored in the 10-11 range (made it by the skin of my teeth lol). Is this bad???

 

[jscarpachio]

Anyone selling their TBR G Chem 1 and 2? Please PM me.

 

[juligol10]

IN my BR physics I don't see any phase I,II, or III. If there are 10 passages per section.. which ones will be phase 1. In my BR chem they tell you how the phases are divided.. but not in my physics book.

 

[capn jazz]

IN my BR physics I don't see any phase I,II, or III. If there are 10 passages per section.. which ones will be phase 1. In my BR chem they tell you how the phases are divided.. but not in my physics book.

Here is the schedule someone else posted from the company.

 

[capn jazz]

Physics

Chapter 1:
Phase I: 8
Phase II: 7

Chapter 2:
Phase I: 9

Phase II: 9

Chapter 3:
Phase I: 11!

 

[dr seuss]

Physics
Section I: 43/49; Made some stupid mistakes
Section II: 40/49; I missed 3 on passage II (satellite orbit)
Section III: 43/49; I missed 3 on passage X (gravitational potential energy)

Section IV: 42/49
Section V: 37/49; This one sucked, we didn't do much of this in my physics class

Gen Chem
Section 1
Phase I: 38/41; It was mostly math so it will probably be my best section

 

[G1SG2]

Anyone else feel that the curve for the chem and physics section tests are TOO generous????

 

[MBHockey]

Don't worry too much about the scoring. The important part is to make sure you completely understand why you've gotten every one wrong that you have. Then you can't possibly get a similar question wrong in the future

I was just doing the Waves and Sounds sections of Physics -- wow it's been a long time since Physics I!

 

[MD2B in 2010]

I just finished BR Gen Chem 1-6 and am starting BR Physics 6 tomorrow in preparation for my June exam and I am hoping that these passages are above and beyond what we will see on the real exam, my god. Am I learning a lot, yeah, but damn, some of these passages are insane. I should have all TBR and content review done for that matter by June 1st and start my practice exams for the last two weeks so I will inform you all how they helped me in relation to my AAMC scores (Physical Sciences) and give some of you later testers a gauge as to how they rank with the practice tests I take.

 

[capn jazz]

Physics

Chapter 1:
Phase I: 8
Phase II: 7

Chapter 2:
Phase I: 9
Phase II: 9

Chapter 3:
Phase I: 11!

Phase II: 7 (ouch)

Chapter 4:
Phase I: 9

 

[phEight]

Physics:

Chapter 1:
Phase I: 10

This curve does seem extra generous. I got 13/20 correct, which is right around a 65% and according to the scale for 70 questions that falls right around a 10. Doing first day of gchem today!

 

[dr seuss]

Physics
Section I: 43/49
Section II: 40/49
Section III: 43/49
Section IV: 42/49
Section V: 37/49

Gen Chem
Section 1
Phase I: 38/41

Section 2
Phase I: 32/37

Section 3
Phase I: 33/41

Section 4
Phase I: 28/35

 

[capn jazz]

Physics

Chapter 1:
Phase I: 8
Phase II: 7

Chapter 2:
Phase I: 9
Phase II: 9

Chapter 3:
Phase I: 11!
Phase II: 7 (ouch)

Chapter 4:
Phase I: 9

Chapter 5:
Phase I: 11

 

[Craigslist]

Hey CJ, thanks for posting that pdf.

Have any of you followed the advice on the blue/red ink correction tactic? Seems solid..

 

[capn jazz]

I don't. I take the passages in pencil and then grade in ink (by grade I mean X or check, and if it's X, I circle the correct answer). I think I'll modify this from now on to checking off ones I got right and just putting an X next to ones I get wrong, without indicating the correct answer, so that I can try the question again and see if I get it.

But no, I grade and then read EVERY answer explanation, and write out how to do the ones I got wrong or the ones I guessed on but got right.

 

[Malayna]

Anyone else feel that the curve for the chem and physics section tests are TOO generous????

I thought so too, but after getting my real score back today, I think their curves are pretty solid. If you're doing well on their passages, you'll do well on the real MCAT.

 

[capn jazz]

I thought so too, but after getting my real score back today, I think their curves are pretty solid. If you're doing well on their passages, you'll do well on the real MCAT.

Define "doing well".

 

[Malayna]

Define "doing well".

I averaged 11s on the physics sections of the books, 12s on the general chemistry sections of the books, got 11-13+ on the PS sections of BR exam, and thanks to the MCAT gods got a 15 on the real test.

The books and other passages from BR for PS are just plain amazing.

 

[GangGreen]

Malayna - could you please post your physics BR scores if you have them? Thanks!

 

[G1SG2]

Gen. Chem. 3: 9 -is it just me or does anyone else think that the equilibrium section was a beast?!?! I got stomped (63/100) but still ended up with a 9 somehow (generous curve) lol

 

[starbaduk]

it can get very frustrating. that's fine, though. it doesn't matter how many you miss in practice. you do it to learn. you actually learn better when you miss questions because then you really analyze why you missed it.

you'll straight up own the AAMC PS and ochem ?s on the BS if you do read through and do all of the BR physics, chem, and ochem books. for bio itself, I heard BR isn't good. the SDN recommendation is EK bio with EK 101 passages or TPR science workbook.

I'll admit I've slacked a lil bit on the bio passages. I read through all of EK bio, worked the inclass passages but have only done like 20 TPR passages. That + passages in actual FL CBTs are my only bio practice. Bio is so much reading comprehension so it's harder to study for.

I also do not recommend TBR Bio. I actually like TBR bio lectures a lot, but their problems are too difficult and many of them border "not relevant" for MCAT. Many of the passages are about obscure topics and much too detail oriented, which might be good for reading comprehension practice, but when you are trying to pick up new relvant information for MCAT, I feel the time can be better spent.

 

[MBHockey]

Agreed. The BR books go into way too much detail. I am still using it for Bio, but I picked up EK Bio to make sure I'm not going overboard on detail -- because there is way too much of it in BR Bio.

I like how EK goes out of their way to tell you what you need to know (bold face) and what is not directly tested (italics). This distinction really helps put into perspective what to focus on.

I also think a lot of the BR Bio passages have questions that are too in depth for mcat bio knowledge. There's usually 3 or 4 per passage which start out the answer explanation with "although not in the passage" and requires outside knowledge, but this knowledge seems to be way too specific according to EK bio.

So i end up doing the BR Bio because i think it's the hardest, and I think it's sharpening my skills on working with passages that I have no idea what their talking about. But I don't get too crazy when those "outside knowledge" come around and I miss them, because most of the time that level of detail isn't required for the mcat.

The AAMC tests bio passages seem much more about the extraction and application of information from the passage, and less on using your outside knowledge to directly answer questions.

 

[phEight]

Physics:

Chapter 1:
Phase I: 10
Chapter 2:
Phase I: 10

General Chemistry:

Chapter 1:
Phase I: ?
Chapter 2:
Phase I: 11

 

[38mwmd]

Are the phases for biology also available?

 

[zebra]

Here is the schedule someone else posted from the company.

Oh, thanks a million for the PDF! It was really hard following this thread since I'm not in Berkeley and cannot take the course. I only have the books. I did notice in this PDF that there are no phases for the TBR Biology or Verbal sections. Does anyone else have pointers to this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[phEight]

Physics:

Chapter 1:
Phase I: 10
Chapter 2:
Phase I: 10
Chapter 3:
Phase I: 8 scared: need to work on this section a bit more.. seems I have forgotten much of this)

 

[phEight]

Started physics... talk about a blow to my ego. I can't remember any of the formulas for kinematics which really screwed me over.

Chapter 1:
Phase I: 8
Phase II: 7

me too haha, I got an 8 on phase II and that's with a little cheating on the kinematics formulas. Really need to get these down. I haven't looked at it really since 7-8 days ago and I seriously forgot a lot of this stuff. Time for some post game

 

[ACE28]

how are you guys calculating scores for individual phases? are you just converting the % correct to the scale TBR has for all the questions?

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Are most of you doing the questions under timed conditions? If you only do some under timed conditions, how much does your score vary between timed and untimed sittings?

 

[capn jazz]

Regardless of whether I do them timed or untimed, I tend to spend less than 10 mins per passage anyway.... we'll see how phase III goes. They don't seem harder than phases I/II yet.

 

[unDRdog]

Regardless of whether I do them timed or untimed, I tend to spend less than 10 mins per passage anyway.... we'll see how phase III goes. They don't seem harder than phases I/II yet.

I echo this bc imo if you are spending longer then 10 min per passage you have know idea wtf your doing and if you get it right its most likely by mere chance. These questions aren't really math-centric therefore the variable of how "fast" you are with long math problems is out the window...I could spend longer in these passages checking and rechecking and trying to find out what i'm missing etc etc but its counter productive and unnecessary...Get in, get out...If you know the material timing shouldn't be an issue. Hey Berkley Review Teach would you please offer any insight you may have on this thread I wrote a couple of weeks ago...thanks http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=637068

 

[DOC209]

would the 2003 TBR books be to out of date???

 

[drosefan]

So are the BR scores a good indicator of our aamc scores?

 

[unDRdog]

So are the BR scores a good indicator of our aamc scores?

From what i've read your AAMC practice scores are the best indicators...your BR scores IMO relate to applied concepts

 

[mcattaker]

I just reviewed the first section of BR physics and did four of the ten random passages about the first section. I did pretty well (24/28) but is this because the passages are easier (in material at least) than the rest of the physics sections? It would seem to me like the passages in the first section would be easier than in later sections because the material is easier.

 

[mcattaker]

Are most of you doing the questions under timed conditions? If you only do some under timed conditions, how much does your score vary between timed and untimed sittings?

I tend to spend around 9 minutes on each passage. I believe it says you should spend 1.25 minutes/question, so I assume I'm doing it at the right pace. To me, I don't think it matters how long I spend on the questions because a lot of them are conceptual. You either know it or you don't ( my view at least).

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

would the 2003 TBR books be to out of date???

Yes! There's an entire thread dedicated to what versions of each book are the bare minimum in terms of utility and updates. 2004 was about the oldest for biology and 2007 or 2009 was the oldest for the rest (I think).

I tend to spend around 9 minutes on each passage. I believe it says you should spend 1.25 minutes/question, so I assume I'm doing it at the right pace. To me, I don't think it matters how long I spend on the questions because a lot of them are conceptual. You either know it or you don't ( my view at least).

Thanks for the feedback. I think you are right about the timing, in that going over time is an indication of trouble as much as a low score is.

 

[loveoforganic]

Are most of you doing the questions under timed conditions? If you only do some under timed conditions, how much does your score vary between timed and untimed sittings?

I follow the guide they post in the books. Organic passages I tend to finish in <5 min, and untimed/timed scores tend to be pretty consistent. G. Chem passages I tend to finish at pretty much exactly 6 minutes, error level is also pretty consistent untimed/timed. Physics passages take very variable time for me, anywhere from 3.5 min to 8 min, depending on how well I understand what's going on. My scores do tend to suffer a bit in physics under timed conditions.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

I follow the guide they post in the books. Organic passages I tend to finish in <5 min, and untimed/timed scores tend to be pretty consistent. G. Chem passages I tend to finish at pretty much exactly 6 minutes, error level is also pretty consistent untimed/timed. Physics passages take very variable time for me, anywhere from 3.5 min to 8 min, depending on how well I understand what's going on. My scores do tend to suffer a bit in physics under timed conditions.

Your speed is actually a better indicator of how great you're doing than your scores. That's really quick. You are going to kick the crap out of the MCAT. It's really inspirational to read how well you are doing. Thanks for the feedback. It shows that fast = doing well for most people using the BR passages.

 

[loveoforganic]

So say, 1.5 wrong/passage on average would be good enough to still get that confidence boost from you? Because I'd certainly like it! Haha

 

[oakie]

Do you guys like TBR verbal passages?
How close are they to AAMC stuff?

 

[crazymedgirl]

I was glad to see this thread as I have been using the BR books for the past few months and have a few things I'm wondering.

First of all, what is the recommended number of minutes to be finishing a passage in? I have heard anywhere from 6-9.
Right now some passages may take me only 7 or 8 minutes but difficult physics and gen chem ones can sometimes take me 10-12. It is hard to make myself guess and move on. Do you guys stick rigidly to a time limit or work until you can get the question?

Also, do ALL of the equations that BR includes in their lectures need to be memorized? Obviously many are familiar from having taken the courses before, but it seems like an insanely large number to have to memorize (between physics and gen chem.) Is there a better resource that anyone knows of that consolidates which equations are absolutely necessary?

How do most of you handle memorizing the equations? Do you just memorize after reading the chapter before doing the passages? Or are you using flashcards consistently throughout studying? I am worried that I am not really internalizing them as I go and I will be left trying to memorize everything two weeks before the test.

Finally, I am wondering if anyone knows the approximate number of questions you can get wrong per passage to be in an 11-12 range. No more than one? Two?

Sorry this got so long. I've been meaning to post some of these issues for a while and this thread seemed like a good place to start. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts!

 

[mcattaker]

I was glad to see this thread as I have been using the BR books for the past few months and have a few things I'm wondering.

First of all, what is the recommended number of minutes to be finishing a passage in? I have heard anywhere from 6-9.
Right now some passages may take me only 7 or 8 minutes but difficult physics and gen chem ones can sometimes take me 10-12. It is hard to make myself guess and move on. Do you guys stick rigidly to a time limit or work until you can get the question?

Also, do ALL of the equations that BR includes in their lectures need to be memorized? Obviously many are familiar from having taken the courses before, but it seems like an insanely large number to have to memorize (between physics and gen chem.) Is there a better resource that anyone knows of that consolidates which equations are absolutely necessary?

How do most of you handle memorizing the equations? Do you just memorize after reading the chapter before doing the passages? Or are you using flashcards consistently throughout studying? I am worried that I am not really internalizing them as I go and I will be left trying to memorize everything two weeks before the test.

Finally, I am wondering if anyone knows the approximate number of questions you can get wrong per passage to be in an 11-12 range. No more than one? Two?

Sorry this got so long. I've been meaning to post some of these issues for a while and this thread seemed like a good place to start. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts!

Passages should take you 6-9 minutes. 9 max. You should always work through the passages with a time limit. After that time is up, and you assess how you did, go back and work through the problems you didn't understand carefully. For the first time through, however, I think you should take the passages seriously. I've also been meaning to ask how people take notes/remember equations. Note cards? A note book?

Also, do you find the BR bio book too detailed? It seems like it would be nearly impossible to memorize all the info in there.

 

[capn jazz]

I really just learn the equations by doing the problems. They stick with you after a while. This was a terrible technique for the kinematics passages - I should have memorized those equations first...

 

[iwant2doctor]

What's the name of the Berkeley Verbal Workbook? Guide to Verbal Reasoning? I cant seem to find it in bookstores.

 

[capn jazz]

The TBR books are ONLY sold on their website or via secondhand websites like craigslist, ebay, or SDN

 

[crazymedgirl]

Thanks for those who replied....
Still wondering if anyone has any tips/ideas on the best way to go about memorizing equations (as you go, a one time shot a few weeks before the test, etc.) and if anyone knows if the BR books cover more equations than are necessary to know...?

Thanks!

 

[0Complications]

Thanks for those who replied....
Still wondering if anyone has any tips/ideas on the best way to go about memorizing equations (as you go, a one time shot a few weeks before the test, etc.) and if anyone knows if the BR books cover more equations than are necessary to know...?

Thanks!

I was wrestling over this one too. I think as you do your phase I, II, and III questions you'll see formulas that are pretty important. I would focus on those.

I still think they give you a lot of formulas and when I first started reviewing their physic II-VIII about a week ago I was freaking out. I thought there is no way I would be able to learn all these formulas in time (PS is my weakest section). But as it turns out, now that I'm closing down chapter 9 in PS tonight I find that I don't need many of the formulas anymore. If you are really paying attention to the conceptual methods they teach you along the way then you only need a few formulas.

For these formulas, I decided there would be no better place to look than AAMC. I went through the official topic guide and highlighted all of the formulas they list. I'm thinking they give you the ones they want you to have memorized then the other concepts they want you to have a thorough understanding of. At least that's my take.

At any rate, I would learn a couple extras that you like, for me it's frequency of sound/light, etc. (Although, I'm not even messing with the dB formula, because I can't even use it... But they teach you how to answer questions quickly without it) then master the ones AAMC has listed. If you can do that you should be fine formula wise.

As far as the conceptual stuff, I can't tell you how amazing the BR books are for teaching those topics in a clear conceptual manner. I can get a fairly nasty formula now and conceptualize it, all thanks to BR books and a week of solid study time. I know that if I can get some of these concepts in physics down with BR anyone can.

Oh, and I just finished chapter 4 on Acids/Bases... OMG, that was amazing. They teach you how to calculate logs in seconds... I'm still shocked when I do it...

 

[capn jazz]

If you know how to calculate logs, the dB formula is a piece of cake!

dB = 10 log (I/Io) where Io = 10^-12!

You can do it!