BS section content review help

[pencap]

I've been seeing a whole range of things regarding the BS section, so I just want on thread where a few of my questions can be answered.

It's agreed upon that for Physics and Gen Chem one should use TBR.

Also I believe it's agreed upon that for Orgo one should use TBR as well, correct me if I'm wrong here.

What is the best combo of books/whatever else for the bio portion. I hear Berkeley Review is a waste for bio.

I'm specifically looking for help in the BS section (Orgo and Bio)
Thanks

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[pencap]

Any suggestions?

 

[HesitantManatee]

I'm specifically looking for help in the BS section (Orgo and Bio)
Thanks

For the Bio I used EK Bio for content and TBR Bio for passages. I don't think EK covers the reproductive system well so I used TBR Bio for that. For orgo I used TBR for both content and passages. I also used Chad's orgo videos to review named reactions because it wasn't covered well in TBR. Doing this is got a 14BS on the MCAT.

 

[Jimsy]

I found TBR bio to be overkill. As a replacement, I used EK and Kaplan.

 

[dcamkl1]

I found EK Bio to be too bare, especially for genetics and reproduction. Additionally, I thought TBR were overkill.

TPR was the perfect balance between the two, and I also got a hold of the science workbook. Both have helped a lot, though I do sometimes use EK as a "summary" of sorts.

 

[CaffeineZombie]

TPRH was a little detailed but great for Biology review and though I understood the material pretty well (read it 3x), it didn't help alleviate the bizarre Biology passages in my exam. The BS section in today's MCAT incorporates much more analytic thinking than most people realize so truthfully, understanding basic biology should be enough to start diving into practice questions. With that said, EK Biology is probably the best choice.

tl;dr - EK Biology is the best option.


EDIT: Oh yeah, dcamkl1 reminded me. For genetics and reproduction, or anything else that is otherwise lacking from EK, just supplement it with your college textbook, or just read about those topics online. Otherwise, EK explains things really well.

 

[pencap]

Dang, so many differing views. The common thing is not to use TBR except for a select few topics. What topics should I read TBR for?

Hesistant you recommend doing all the passages in TBR for biology? I have EK, TPR and TBR, so it's tough knowing what to do.

For practice what should I use as well? On person suggests TBR.

 

[dcamkl1]

Dang, so many differing views. The common thing is not to use TBR except for a select few topics. What topics should I read TBR for?

Hesistant you recommend doing all the passages in TBR for biology? I have EK, TPR and TBR, so it's tough knowing what to do.

For practice what should I use as well? On person suggests TBR.

Have you thought about reading a chapter over the same topic in each book and going with whatever feels "right" for you?

 

[HesitantManatee]

Hesistant you recommend doing all the passages in TBR for biology? I have EK, TPR and TBR, so it's tough knowing what to do.

You should use TBR Bio for it passages. Like CaffeineZombie said the BS section required more analytic thinking nowadays. You need to be able to work with graphs and figures. TBR Bio passages are good practice for this. If you are going to use EK Bio for content, Sn2ed's guide has a list that correlates EK Bio chapters with TBR Bio passages.

 

[Dr.Forssmann]

You should use TBR Bio for it passages. Like CaffeineZombie said the BS section required more analytic thinking nowadays. You need to be able to work with graphs and figures. TBR Bio passages are good practice for this. If you are going to use EK Bio for content, Sn2ed's guide has a list that correlates EK Bio chapters with TBR Bio passages.

The only thing is some of the passages in TBR aren't covered well by EK.Thus it becomes really tough to answer the questions in TBR. When i do TBR after doing just EK bio get rediculously butchered as a resulted fustrated.

so i started doing TBR and going over the EK chapters that correlate. then doing TBR passages. Much more demanding but after doing TBR EK is breezy quick read.

what do you think?

 

[gettheleadout]

I'm going to add a slightly different view on this.

I think EK Bio sucks. I've found more than a few errors that are not listed on their online errata. TBR Bio is interesting, because I think a lot of their sections just aren't written in a way that makes them very accessible for studying / learning. That's unfortunate, IMO, but the passages can still be useful. However, a lot of the passages suck, either because they ask things that require prior knowledge that is irrelevant to the MCAT, or because they're written poorly, or because they require you to do things to solve the questions that aren't reasonable for the MCAT. You'll have to just see for yourself what I mean.

I haven't looked at TPR's Bio book, but I've heard good things. I will look at it soon and make a determination.

After about halfway through EK Bio, I started using it as a rough guide, not really reading too closely, and instead actually reading the relevant chapters in a reputable physiology textbook I have. Yes, I'm actually reading a physiology textbook. I can pretty easily distinguish, with the aid of the BS content outline, what's useful and what's superfluous, and I'm finding much deeper understanding and much clearer explanation of concepts in the textbook than in either EK or TBR Bio.

I also prefer the TPRH SW Bio passages to those of TBR. Interesting note on that though, at least one passage appears in both the TPRH SW and in TBR Bio almost verbatim, down to the questions. I have to wonder how that happened...

 

[pencap]

I'm going to add a slightly different view on this.

I think EK Bio sucks. I've found more than a few errors that are not listed on their online errata. TBR Bio is interesting, because I think a lot of their sections just aren't written in a way that makes them very accessible for studying / learning. That's unfortunate, IMO, but the passages can still be useful. However, a lot of the passages suck, either because they ask things that require prior knowledge that is irrelevant to the MCAT, or because they're written poorly, or because they require you to do things to solve the questions that aren't reasonable for the MCAT. You'll have to just see for yourself what I mean.

I haven't looked at TPR's Bio book, but I've heard good things. I will look at it soon and make a determination.

After about halfway through EK Bio, I started using it as a rough guide, not really reading too closely, and instead actually reading the relevant chapters in a reputable physiology textbook I have. Yes, I'm actually reading a physiology textbook. I can pretty easily distinguish, with the aid of the BS content outline, what's useful and what's superfluous, and I'm finding much deeper understanding and much clearer explanation of concepts in the textbook than in either EK or TBR Bio.

I also prefer the TPRH SW Bio passages to those of TBR. Interesting note on that though, at least one passage appears in both the TPRH SW and in TBR Bio almost verbatim, down to the questions. I have to wonder how that happened...

I hate Bio content review. So many differing options. And I understand try all the differing materials you have, but I feel as if that's just wasting my time. I guess I will have to use TPR book. That book is 400 pages for biology alone, so it's also very long.

Also another thing. How do you do TPR SW passages. The book I have simply has passages, so I'm assuming topics are simply mixed. Did you first do all your content and then go onto the passages?

 

[gettheleadout]

I hate Bio content review. So many differing options. And I understand try all the differing materials you have, but I feel as if that's just wasting my time. I guess I will have to use TPR book. That book is 400 pages for biology alone, so it's also very long.

Oh I understand! I've just tried what I have because that's where my dissatisfaction has led me. I wish I could just tell you what's best to use, but I don't know. Like I said as well, I can't personally recommend TPR Bio as I haven't seen it.

I will say that if TPR Bio sucks then there isn't a good bio review book out there. I have the Kaplan Bio Review Notes book as well and it sucks, many errors just like EK.

 

[pencap]

Oh I understand! I've just tried what I have because that's where my dissatisfaction has led me. I wish I could just tell you what's best to use, but I don't know. Like I said as well, I can't personally recommend TPR Bio as I haven't seen it.

I will say that if TPR Bio sucks then there isn't a good bio review book out there. I have the Kaplan Bio Review Notes book as well and it sucks, many errors just like EK.

No worries. I appreciate the insight a lot.

Could you let me know how you tackle TPR SW passages? They aren't split into topics or chapters, so I assume they are a mixed patch of topics. Did you first do all the content and then go into passages?

 

[gettheleadout]

No worries. I appreciate the insight a lot.

Could you let me know how you tackle TPR SW passages? They aren't split into topics or chapters, so I assume they are a mixed patch of topics. Did you first do all the content and then go into passages?

Nah, there's a table of contents for them posted somewhere on SDN. Google it, I can't link as I'm on my phone.

 

[Kurosaki Ichigo]

I was a non-science major who took bio electives in college, and used a combination of EK and Kaplan books for bio. This combination made bio my best section consistently on practice exams and on the real thing. EK covers all the really high-yield stuff and is actually really good but probably not good by itself. Kaplan IMO tends to cover too much stuff, but it does a good job filling the gaps that EK leaves behind. If you feel good about both books, you should be fine.

 

[pencap]

I was a non-science major who took bio electives in college, and used a combination of EK and Kaplan books for bio. This combination made bio my best section consistently on practice exams and on the real thing. EK covers all the really high-yield stuff and is actually really good but probably not good by itself. Kaplan IMO tends to cover too much stuff, but it does a good job filling the gaps that EK leaves behind. If you feel good about both books, you should be fine.

Do you remember what topics/chapters from EK that should not be relied upon solely. The issue is, I want to finish bio content ASAP, and reading two chapters from different books on the same topic feels like a waste of time to me. I'd rather know what chapters from EK I need to add upon.

From what I hear so far, Genetics, and Reproduction are lacking in EK.

 

[balla121]

For everyone complaining, you guys should just pull out a copy of Campbell's Biology; its written 1000x better than any mcat prep book. If you follow aamc's outline and only read the relevant sections, the number of pages you will end up reading will be approximately the same as tpr or tbr. Just throwing in my suggestions...

 

[gettheleadout]

For everyone complaining, you guys should just pull out a copy of Campbell's Biology; its written 1000x better than any mcat prep book. If you follow aamc's outline and only read the relevant sections, the number of pages you will end up reading will be approximately the same as tpr or tbr. Just throwing in my suggestions...

Not everyone has that specific book or took AP Bio or an intro bio course that required it.

 

[balla121]

Not everyone has that specific book or took AP Bio or an intro bio course that required it.

You're right. I appologize if I came off as ignorant, I was just pointing out that textbooks are much more beneficial to refer to.

 

[Kurosaki Ichigo]

Do you remember what topics/chapters from EK that should not be relied upon solely. The issue is, I want to finish bio content ASAP, and reading two chapters from different books on the same topic feels like a waste of time to me. I'd rather know what chapters from EK I need to add upon.

From what I hear so far, Genetics, and Reproduction are lacking in EK.

I can't remember off the top of my head and I don't have my books with me. I wanna say I supplemented EK with Kaplan in Microbiology, Genetics, Embryology were the big ones. If you have time, I'd go thru and basically memorize EK, get those other 3 sections I mentioned down, then take special note of the extra stuff you run into on practice tests that the previously mentioned sources didn't cover. The practice tests can help you identify your weaknesses to a large extent.