BR too light on magnetism?

[crazymedgirl]

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did people who used BR find it to be sufficient enough on the topic of magnetism? my test is in two days and I'm feeling really, really weak in that area--like I hardly did any questions on that at all. don't have my BR book with me now so can't check, but as I recall they discussed it very minimally--like at the end of the electrostatics chapter, w/o even referencing basic stuff like the right hand rules.

is it just not covered much on the mcat?

 

[Segovia]

did people who used BR find it to be sufficient enough on the topic of magnetism? my test is in two days and I'm feeling really, really weak in that area--like I hardly did any questions on that at all. don't have my BR book with me now so can't check, but as I recall they discussed it very minimally--like at the end of the electrostatics chapter, w/o even referencing basic stuff like the right hand rules.

is it just not covered much on the mcat?

It depends on your test. I studied my butt off on optics, magnetism, and circuits....none of it showed up. Instead I got bond angles and a bunch of other wacky stuff. To answer your question, TBR was more than sufficient to tackle the concepts of magnetism. If you get E&M on your test and you have diligently worked on the TBR passages you should do great.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

did people who used BR find it to be sufficient enough on the topic of magnetism? my test is in two days and I'm feeling really, really weak in that area--like I hardly did any questions on that at all. don't have my BR book with me now so can't check, but as I recall they discussed it very minimally--like at the end of the electrostatics chapter, w/o even referencing basic stuff like the right hand rules.

is it just not covered much on the mcat?

Talk about eery timing, or maybe you're psychic. I just got an email from my old boss this morning about a small job doing one last "clean up editting" of the new physics chapters. Amongst a few specifics in his email, he mentioned that they added several new pages of electromagnetism and removed some electrostatics and wanted a particularly close view of that chapter. So apparently your perspective was his perspective too. I'm suppose to finish it by the end of this month, so I'm guessing the books are going to be used in the classes that start next month.

For anyone who plans to PM me about the timeline for the new physics books, I am removed from that completely and have no idea. But, I feel pretty safe in saying that to get the newest physics books, you probably should try to buy them used from a student in the class, at least for the next few months. I got confirmation from him that the beta version of the new Physics 1 was used in classes this past summer and that it was pretty much done.

 

[Baboo Bhaiya]

Professor Walter Lewin at MIT

This is a GREAT set of videos. I know that they have 90% more stuff than what you need to know for the MCAT and Professor Lewin uses Calculus, which you do not need for the MCAT BUT the remaining 10% where he explains concepts like Electric Force, Electric Field, Electric Potential Energy, and Voltage are really worth the watch.

One more thing - in most of the lectures, he explains a concept first and the remaining of the lecture is examples of the application of those concepts, and the MCAT often has those application passages. For example, Prof Lewin explains the mass spectrometer in LEcture 13, and guess what, there was a passage on Mass spec on the Sept. 10th MCAT.

Also, Princeton Review chapter on Electromagnetism to be way better than the BR chapter.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

This is a GREAT set of videos. I know that they have 90% more stuff than what you need to know for the MCAT and Professor Lewin uses Calculus, which you do not need for the MCAT BUT the remaining 10% where he explains concepts like Electric Force, Electric Field, Electric Potential Energy, and Voltage are really worth the watch.

Good resource Baboo, thanks for posting it! I watched a good amount of one of the lectures and found his style to be great for developing a conceptual perspective.

 

[Longshanks]

I thought TBR was very light on magnetism compared to other test preps but then I maybe had two magnetism questions out of the three (yeah I know, hey.. some of us have to take more than one shot) MCATs I've sat for... so take that for what its worth. Just know F=qvBsinTheta and F=ILB... maybe you can go through the equations for Ef around a wire or in the center of a loop wire but 99.999% of the time that'll be given to you in the passage/question stem anyway.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

The problem as I see it is that in this particular chapter they count on people doing all of the passages and questions at the end of the chapter. The EM text is all of two pages, but the passages cover all of the topics that the MCAT covers. The right-hand rule isn't discussed in the chapter, but it's in several questions. They don't talk about velocity selectors in the text, but have questions on it. They should expland their text and keep the questions as is.

And having just been through the new version, that's what they did. Iit's now eight pages with several examples and applications. It covers solenoids, CRTs, mass spec machines, torque, and particle deflection. Assuming they keep it as is, I think it's a big improvement.

 

[PunkmedGirl]

The problem as I see it is that in this particular chapter they count on people doing all of the passages and questions at the end of the chapter. The EM text is all of two pages, but the passages cover all of the topics that the MCAT covers. The right-hand rule isn't discussed in the chapter, but it's in several questions. They don't talk about velocity selectors in the text, but have questions on it. They should expland their text and keep the questions as is.

And having just been through the new version, that's what they did. Iit's now eight pages with several examples and applications. It covers solenoids, CRTs, mass spec machines, torque, and particle deflection. Assuming they keep it as is, I think it's a big improvement.

Is the new verison out?

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Is the new verison out?

Sort of. It's going to be used in the classroom course this Fall. I have no idea when they plan to do a full printing of the physics books and have it available for everyone, but my guess is that it will probably be this Fall too.

 

[PunkmedGirl]

Sort of. It's going to be used in the classroom course this Fall. I have no idea when they plan to do a full printing of the physics books and have it available for everyone, but my guess is that it will probably be this Fall too.

Ok. I will probably just go with the current version then, because I'm starting prep in a few weeks.