Can EK act as a standalone study set?

[TheShaker]

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I bought EK for all of the subjects but now I'm second guessing my decision. Has anyone had experience using EK as their sole study resource? Does anyone have any reason for why my decision may be right or wrong? Thank you in advance.

 

[Classof2013PreM]

Yes- I only used EK and practice AAMC tests and did well on the MCAT.

However, what worked for me may not work for other people. The best way to tell if EK is working for you is to take a practice test after studying and see how you do. If you do poorly, then you might need to supplement your studying with materials besides EK.

 

[Godric]

I bought EK for all of the subjects but now I'm second guessing my decision. Has anyone had experience using EK as their sole study resource? Does anyone have any reason for why my decision may be right or wrong? Thank you in advance.

In my opinion it entirely depends on your background on subjects, if you have a strong background then probably yes. However when I used EK Bio, I felt as if it lacked major detail.

 

[SN2ed]

As Godric posted, EK's content review books are best suited to people with a strong background in the topics covered on the MCAT. While EK may be okay for content review, you'll still need more practice passages and definitely a good number of practice FLs.

 

[thlaxer]

Agreed with the above. If you have any doubts though, I would find another set of review books to use in addition to EK (I used the TPRH set and found the books to be helpful). Now is not the time to try to save a couple hundred dollars. 😛

 

[vin5cent0]

I used EK + AAMC tests as my sole study and it sucked. I got a 30 on the real thing, but I owe that more to AAMC tests than EK for sure.

EK is so friggen skimpy on info that it's ridiculous. Maybe it works for some people, but I don't think it's good for the majority. Keep in mind I aced gen chem, physics, my bio classes, etc, and I felt very unprepared. When you haven't taken a gen chem class in 2-3 years, it's hard to remember how to do the simpler things, and EK just breezes through them.

 

[eptp]

Probably repeating what others have said but yeah - it depends on your background and how good of a foundation you have. I used the EK set, AAMC and Kaplan practice tests and got a competitive score on the real thing. I'd say go through an EK book and if you find yourself needing to look up certain things regularly, invest in additional prep materials. It is better to be safe than sorry!

 

[MT Headed]

As an EK veteran myself, I will say that the complete EK series does put the 'review' in review books. They work best for those who simply need to be reminded of what they already knew.

I took all of the MCAT prereqs in the 13 months prior to the MCAT, and I worked as a science tutor for 10 of those months. So I was pretty strong going in. One thing I was thankful for was the generous break days. I was somewhat time constrained, and the EK 10 week study plan gave me about 2 weeks (total) off to use TBR to focus on my weakest subject, biology.

Using EK to learn (i.e. not review) is likely a recipe for disaster.

 

[notbobtrustme]

EK is best for people who can learn efficiently in an independent manner or already have a strong background. EK goes over every concept on the MCAT, but also requires you to understand the topics at a decent level beforehand. You won't get many (if any) example problems and the content tests throw you into the fire right away.

If you need remedial training on topics, EK is probably not the choice for you.

That said, I loved the EK series and used only them for my MCAT preparation purposes.