BR.. Throw your VR book in garbage

[SaCkO]

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I agree that with anyone that says to use BR passages as practice to read longer passages, but guess what guys i can read passages over the internet which are longer and don't need to buy a book from BR,
And guess what guys if you haven't known yet, if you want to see what you did wrong answering the questions in the diagnostic exams of BR you will have to read an explanation that is 2 passages long. So the practice you are getting is actually reading the explanation for why you got the Answers wrong.
I respect BR science books and passages, but seriously this Verbal book is ****.
Iam very angry now, because i don't have any good resources to use for verbal after i have used TPR and EK on my first MCAT trial.
and no iam not planning to check why iam getting 20 questions out of 40 wrong in this book because i don't have the energy nor the time to read to two page explanation for each answer.
Be practical BR and remake a book to keep up with your good reputation in sciences!!

 

[gettheleadout]

Yeah... Well the TBR Verbal book isn't very highly recommended on here, but I remember being surprised when I saw it was more than twice as thick as a single gen chem/organic book...

 

[Freeinfinity]

I dunno about the workbook, but I can agree with you on some of the verbal passages from the TBR CBTs. There was one question on CBT 4 that involved a long-winded explanation about Mercury's orbit around the sun with respect to rotation around its axis. After 3 paragraphs and an elaborate diagram with a timetable of the various phases in the cycle, I still don't get it. It's almost like a physics passage involving periodic motion. Seriously, I'm supposed to answer this question in 30 seconds?!!!

 

[cfive22]

I agree that with anyone that says to use BR passages as practice to read longer passages, but guess what guys i can read passages over the internet which are longer and don't need to buy a book from BR,
And guess what guys if you haven't known yet, if you want to see what you did wrong answering the questions in the diagnostic exams of BR you will have to read an explanation that is 2 passages long. So the practice you are getting is actually reading the explanation for why you got the Answers wrong.
I respect BR science books and passages, but seriously this Verbal book is ****.
Iam very angry now, because i don't have any good resources to use for verbal after i have used TPR and EK on my first MCAT trial.
and no iam not planning to check why iam getting 20 questions out of 40 wrong in this book because i don't have the energy nor the time to read to two page explanation for each answer.
Be practical BR and remake a book to keep up with your good reputation in sciences!!

The TBR Verbal is a sack of garbage (to say the least). I didn't find the TBR CBT Verbals to be as terrible. However, I got a bit pissed when I saw the exact same passage on AAMC 9 as one from the TBR CBTs.

 

[Tots]

I completely disagree. I used the Berkeley Review verbal, EK and TPR and I thought TBR prepared me very well. Both the verbal book and the verbal CBT passages. There were a few passages here or there that were frustrating but not even close to as annoying as EK. I wanted to burn my EK book at points. TBR was most reflective of my real score behind the AAMC verbal passages.

 

[SaCkO]

I completely disagree. I used the Berkeley Review verbal, EK and TPR and I thought TBR prepared me very well. Both the verbal book and the verbal CBT passages. There were a few passages here or there that were frustrating but not even close to as annoying as EK. I wanted to burn my EK book at points. TBR was most reflective of my real score behind the AAMC verbal passages.

Well that is your opinion and i respect it, however i found EK to be more reasonable plus I will not read a two page explanation for every question i get wrong. I don't know what was wrong with these editors and how they think people would have the time and energy to read a two page explanation for wrong answer.

 

[Tots]

Well that is your opinion and i respect it, however i found EK to be more reasonable plus I will not read a two page explanation for every question i get wrong. I don't know what was wrong with these editors and how they think people would have the time and energy to read a two page explanation for wrong answer.

I only remember a small fraction of the passages having the couple page answer descriptions and from what I remember those were generally the not so great passages. I don't have the book anymore so not sure how accurate my memory of this is though....

 

[misseskwee]

Well that is your opinion and i respect it, however i found EK to be more reasonable plus I will not read a two page explanation for every question i get wrong. I don't know what was wrong with these editors and how they think people would have the time and energy to read a two page explanation for wrong answer.

I didn't like EK101 so much. ~shrug i always averaged 23/40 but for 3 AAMC's I averaged 29/40 (still not good enough, I know).. but my TBR scores seemed closer to my aamc scores. I think in general I didn't agree with the EK101's reasoning (finished the whole book). TBR I have no problem with, although I've only finished 1/2 the TBR book..

 

[SaCkO]

I only remember a small fraction of the passages having the couple page answer descriptions and from what I remember those were generally the not so great passages. I don't have the book anymore so not sure how accurate my memory of this is though....

Well thats what i thought when i read the reviews before getting BR. In the prediagnostic passages there are some passages that had long explanations and i skipped those then because they were not recommended. However, In the diagnostic exams which is makes about 70% of the book more than half of the passages have really long explanations.

 

[SaCkO]

I didn't like EK101 so much. ~shrug i always averaged 23/40 but for 3 AAMC's I averaged 29/40 (still not good enough, I know).. but my TBR scores seemed closer to my aamc scores. I think in general I didn't agree with the EK101's reasoning (finished the whole book). TBR I have no problem with, although I've only finished 1/2 the TBR book..

Well iam opposit to you, Iam getting 22/40 right on BR now
While studying with EK last year i was getting 28-30 right towards the end of my studying and i got a 9 on the real thing which reflect those scores

 

[misseskwee]

Well iam opposit to you, Iam getting 22/40 right on BR now
While studying with EK last year i was getting 28-30 right towards the end of my studying and i got a 9 on the real thing which reflect those scores

I see. Well I guess everyone's different, and different strategies and books do work differently for others~ But the main thing I guess is really just practicing, having many passages and questions available to you that are in the proper mcat format. I guess you can try to just find another book with A LOT of verbal passages if you really dislike TBR~ Goodluck, may we conquer verbal reasoning by the time our mcat day comes!

 

[SaCkO]

Yes Verbal seems tricky and hard to grasp for alot of people including me. However from what i leaned during my first MCAT studying that self confidence while attacking these questions increases your accuracy a lot . I have no other option but do some of these passages to keep my reading pace fast and my mind rolling but i didn't want to kill my self confidence.

 

[Tots]

Well thats what i thought when i read the reviews before getting BR. In the prediagnostic passages there are some passages that had long explanations and i skipped those then because they were not recommended. However, In the diagnostic exams which is makes about 70% of the book more than half of the passages have really long explanations.

Out of curiosity what edition of the book do you have because I am pretty sure the 2011 edition I used did not have that many long answer descriptions.....but maybe I am wrong, I tried to purge all MCAT knowledge from my head after I took the exam.

 

[linuxzhen]

I decide to use the aamc's pracitce tests(3R to 11R) for my preparation and discard the EK101 and TBR verbal.

 

[SaCkO]

Out of curiosity what edition of the book do you have because I am pretty sure the 2011 edition I used did not have that many long answer descriptions.....but maybe I am wrong, I tried to purge all MCAT knowledge from my head after I took the exam.

it is actually the 2012 edition .. i ordered late december so iam sure i have the newest edition

 

[chemhead123]

I have always heard that there were three authors, 1 Great, 1 Average, and 1 very poor. Is that true? I am on the market for some more verbal practice, as I am burning through the EK and TPRH too quickly.

 

[SaCkO]

I have always heard that there were three authors, 1 Great, 1 Average, and 1 very poor. Is that true? I am on the market for some more verbal practice, as I am burning through the EK and TPRH too quickly.

Yes that is true, try to not burn those resources quick and learn from your mistakes to improve your style and if you can keep some just incase you don't do that good and you need a repeat. Well iam in this situation right now where iam repeating but don't have good resources to be done