Best book for CARS?

[chemdoctor]

Hey everyone. What are the best practice materials for CARS? I’ve been doing the Princeton review and they’re hard but I’m realizing my mistakes.

I heard ExamKrackers 101 passages is good? Please let me know. Thank you.

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[MyOdyssey]

I found this thread's recommendations re CARS materials and strategies to be useful:

https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/testing-solutions-30-day-guide-to-mcat-cars-success.1131850/

 

[chemdoctor]

I found this thread's recommendations re CARS materials and strategies to be useful:

https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/testing-solutions-30-day-guide-to-mcat-cars-success.1131850/

I’ve seen you around here for awhile. Encouraging me! Thanks man. I really appreciate your words of encouragement. And thank you!!

 

[MyOdyssey]

I’ve seen you around here for awhile. Encouraging me! Thanks man. I really appreciate your words of encouragement. And thank you!!

You are a valued member of this community. Soon you'll be posting on the medical students' subforum!

 

[MyOdyssey]

I’ve seen you around here for awhile. Encouraging me! Thanks man. I really appreciate your words of encouragement. And thank you!!

It's important to avoid bad CARS passages and strategies because they deploy and "teach" bad logic and reasoning. I've tried Testing Solutions' online passages and other recommended material and they've been helpful. I've signed up for one of their bootcamps in July.

 

[MyOdyssey]

You are a valued member of this community. Soon you'll be posting on the medical students' subforum!

The Berkeley Review's B/B and P/S books are truly the gold standard for the natural sciences. These include 2 volumes each of gen chem, orgo, physics and biology. I'm using the 300 page P/S Khan Academy outline. You can search PlsLetMeIn21's posts for more details on why but basically Berkeley provides excellent questions and explanations after each chapter in their books. The 300 pager summarizes all the Khan videos.

 

[chemdoctor]

The Berkeley Review's B/B and P/S books are truly the gold standard for the natural sciences. These include 2 volumes each of gen chem, orgo, physics and biology. I'm using the 300 page P/S Khan Academy outline. You can search PlsLetMeIn21's posts for more details on why but basically Berkeley provides excellent questions and explanations after each chapter in their books. The 300 pager summarizes all the Khan videos.

So memorizing that 300 page document should be good? Psych/Sociology is a hard section too.

 

[chemdoctor]

@MyOdyssey I’ve just been using The Princeton Review. I heard it’s harder but I could be wrong

 

[MyOdyssey]

@MyOdyssey I’ve just been using The Princeton Review. I heard it’s harder but I could be wrong

The Berkeley Review's questions and explanations, strategies and shortcuts on its science sections are what set it apart. PlsLetmeIn21 says s/he got 132's on B/B and C/P because of Berkeley. PlsLetMeIn21 got a 130 on the P/S using the 300 page outline + Princeton Review P/S. PlsLetMeIn21 also took many, many practice exams - Altius, Berkeley, Exam Krackers and AAMC. So I'm trying to follow that lead because I'm studying well in advance. If you have less time, that might not work as well.

 

[chemdoctor]

The Berkeley Review's questions and explanations, strategies and shortcuts on its science sections are what set it apart. PlsLetmeIn21 says s/he got 132's on B/B and C/P because of Berkeley. PlsLetMeIn21 got a 130 on the P/S using the 300 page outline + Princeton Review P/S. PlsLetMeIn21 also took many, many practice exams - Altius, Berkeley, Exam Krackers and AAMC. So I'm trying to follow that lead because I'm studying well in advance. If you have less time, that might not work as well.

I’m studying well in advance too. Not taking it until next March ahha

 

[atm14834]

NextStep has a 108 CARS practice book that is good in my opinion.

 

[slp2356]

I only used NextStep and Kahn Academy practice passages for CARS and increased my score from a 122 --> 127. Also, just doing practice questions for all sections will help you with CARS because you will improve your reading speed/ability to find key points.

Also, I tried one exam crackers passage, did really poorly, then did some research and found that it is most definitely not the best prep book!

 

[Cornfed101]

For CARS, use passages from whatever sources you want, but try to avoid doing too many questions from 3rd party sources. Only the AAMC CARS questions are close to the MCAT. Nothing else is close. As your score increases in CARS you will start to notice the disparity more and more. I spent too much time doing NS, Jack Westin, and Testing Solutions questions and I regret it. I did the AAMC CARS QPack 2 times through (1 time at the beginning and once more towards the end of my studying) and that is what I recommend.