Berkeley Review updated?
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How about you learn to search around the forum when this topic was addressed extremely recently? 👎thumbdown
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Yes, the Physics books were given a huge upgrade in October last year. If you're doing alright with the current books, then don't worry, but I personally gained a lot from getting the new books. As for the other subjects, I don't think so. Definitely not for general chemistry because they are working on a big upgrade to it that will supposedly be done by the end of this year. Good luck!
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Okay, I have a question. I have the 2008 TBR edition for Physics, Organic, and Gen. Chem. How significant do you think the changes are? Where most of the changes made to content / passages or both? How extensive were the changes?
I'm kinda bummed out they did all these big changes just after I ordered my books. Before they were praised so much and now it seems like everyone keeps suggesting the newer ones and the older ones don't seem to get as much praise as the newer ones do now.
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This made me laugh. 😀
I work for them, and for several years I haven't got a straight answer either when it comes to the books. I trusted them when they said the physics book would be out late 2009 or early 2010, and I shot off my mouth about it. Well after beta test after beta test it was finally out in November 2010. So that's the last time I'll say anything.
To be fair, much of that has to do with one particular flaky editor missing his deadlines.
The general chemistry book got edits done in 2008 (minor changes and typo corrections) and in 2010 (upgrade of the electrochem section and some new questions inserted to replace a few older questions). If their track record is any indication, the big change due at the end of this summer will likely happen in 2012. Just my opinion.
I've never gotten a straight answer about the biology books. IMHO, and it's just an opinion because I haven't analyzed it page-by-page, the biology books have undergone about twenty ultraminor edits over the last six years where maybe one or two pages were changed each time. It's basically the same book, with upgrades and some typos removed.
O chem gets cosmetic changes with each printing (typos corrected), but it's been fairly static since 2006 or so. That's the one I've been asked to look at, so although I don't have any idea when the change will come, that book is going to look like the physics books soon. I think they plan to cut out some pages of organic review and incorporate more biology-related examples.
I don't touch verbal. Used it for studying years ago and haven't touched it since. It underwent a huge change right about the time they switched to the CBT exam.
Physics has been evolving the last year and a half, and the version that came out this past November is just flat out the best MCAT physics book anywhere by a long shot. They seriously got an MCAT review book right.
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I only know about changes in Physics and here is what I think:
Content - Mostly the same content besides Electricity and Magnetism getting an upgrade. The big seller, in my opinion, is the new page the put before every section. It's basically a page of mnemonics and tricks to being more efficient in MCAT physics. It was a huge help to me and clarified a lot. Also, the layout is more appealing, which is huge for me.
Passages - They have reorganized the passage presentation. They group 3 passages and some discretes together as their Phase I. That is followed by 7 passages and some discretes to be taken as a full test and is considered to be their Phase III. Their Phase II is actually given out as 5 passages to those who signed up for their classroom course. They did add about 4 or 5 new passages per section and cut out some questions from the old passages. For what reason, I'm not sure. Either way, buying the new books would give you new practice passages in addition to some old ones so I used both set's passages.
I just finished going through the new book for the second time after understanding everything pretty well and I learn something new every time. The Berkeley Review books are detailed, which I think helps most after you have mastered the basic content, in my experience. I was bummed too, but to be honest, it's about you, not the book. The only thing out there that I found to be comparable to TBR physics was the Wikipremed videos, but that is worth taking a look at either way. I think it would hurt you more to stress about not having the updates from the new book than just studying the old books and trusting that you'll get solid content review out of it.
GOOD LUCK!
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To add, the thing I like is that they now include many of the math tricks and conceptual tricks discussed in class. For instance, the translational motion section has some great math tips. The fluids and solids section I think has the most strategies of any section.
For me, it just reads better. And I'm not sure what will become of the passages they pulled from the older book, but since I've been around they've been known to throw passages away. I think phase III is going to be include passages developed over this year, but don't quote me on it.
For me, it just reads better. And I'm not sure what will become of the passages they pulled from the older book, but since I've been around they've been known to throw passages away. I think phase III is going to be include passages developed over this year, but don't quote me on it.
