best way to prepare

[lipu2005]

Hello,

I am preparing for MCAT for august. My reviewing is basically a book that I thought from pertersons. I did 6 exames using peterson's book (getting around 32-35), then, I bought a Kaplan book and did a FL, it seems the style of the question is a little different, and I did much worse (25). I was wondering which book is the best way to go about MCAT. Since taking a class is not my option, books will be me ultimate guidance. Thanks much!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[manfood.com]

peterson's is garbage, don't use it. stick with kaplan, examkrackers, the berkeley review, or the princeton review.

stay away from petersons, and arco, wait.. I think they are the same thing, lol. stay away from barron's too, lol.

 

[jintonic5]

personally, i love examkrackers and kaplan's Q-bank. they were completely worth my time. arco and TPR, not so much, but practice is practice.

my advice: get your hands on the examkrackers 1001 series. the questions are not passage based, but they're really excellent in terms of pinpointing your weaknesses. and the AAMC exams are a must as well. in the end, you'll find what works best for you but above all- repetition is the mother of retention. g'luck in august!

 

[lipu2005]

THanks much for the pointers, much obliged.

I have another question. In these books, their converting chart is quite different, in one book's chart, you score a 12 with < 5 wrong in PS, however, in another book, you could go 15 wrong to get a 12 in PS, i was wondering how these book get their scaling, to me it seems a little too much too unreasonable, have you seen such differerence at all?

 

[lipu2005]

is kaplan's Q-bank for online only?
or there is a corresponding book too?

 

[BaylorGuy]

The scoring charts are never going to be the same for each of the tests...they are used as a general curve for the actual test. Some exams may have a really hard physical sciences section, and perhaps you can miss 7 and get a 12. other times, on an easy section, you may miss 7 and get a 10. It all depends on the individual test.

Personally, I think Arcos, petersons, barrons are a waste of time and money...i didnt realize that until after i bought them and wasted my time on them. The best are Kaplan, Examkrackers, and The Princeton Review....as well as weekly AAMC tests.

 

[jintonic5]

i don't really know what to tell you about the scaling of the exams... just keep in mind that it's easier to make a jump from 8 to a 11, but considerably more difficult to jump from an 11 to a 14-- after you start getting above a certain range the difference between scores can boil down to a very small number of questions. don't worry too much about that at this point... for the time being really work on mastering concepts and memorizing important factoids.

as for the Q-bank, i have no idea how you would get access to that. when i took kaplan a while ago the system was considerably different.

have you thought about enrolling in a course? it's a ton of money, but it's something to consider.

 

[gujuDoc]

I would use any of the following:

Exam Krackers review books and questions books as well as their practice exams you cn buy online.

Kaplan course material or their big thick book you can get from most bookstores.

AAMC practice exams. All of them especially 4r, 6r, 7 and 8.

TPR course materials, not so much their over the counter materials. However, if you get hands on their course materials I like them. However, it depends on how much detailed info you need to review. If you just want the simplest overview, EK or Kaplan is the way to go. If you need to relearn material TPR is the way to go (but only if it is course material and not over the counter stuff).

The Berkley Review.

TPR and Kaplan also have practice exams which are really good. If you can get someone to lend you some, try to take them.

Ok, that's all for now.

By the way, I agree with the others, don't rely on Petersons, REA MCAT, or Barrons. These all make the test seem easier then it really is. They are way off base and nothing like the real test which is by far no piece of cake. The prep courses however make the test harder as to force you to put more effort and not take it lightly and to test your knowledge of the concepts, while AAMC tests your ability to do well on the actual MCAT by giving you samples of things on previous exams.

 

[gujuDoc]

One more thing Exam Krackers also has a 16 mini MCATs book out which has 1 hour mini exams. That's also good material. I believe it is 44 dollars and it has 2 passages and a few freelance questions per section which you time at 20 minutes.

AAMC scales are online on e-mcat.com

when you purchase the tests or get it from someone with an account you'll see their scale.

 

[lipu2005]

great! thanks for all the info
Gujudoc, I have no where to borrow the notes as you suggested, I am out of school for a few years, and not in the loop of the undergraduate world.

It would be great if I can get hold of them, only i wish

I am not taking a course. Buget is one thing, and time is another, I have a full time job that I need.