Do the EK 1001 books have good explanations to all their problems?

[grindtime1]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Before I buy the books I'd like to know if they give detailed solutions to all questions (1001 seems like a lot). I know some books have a lot of questions but their explanations aren't all that good.

What about EK 1001?

 

[LostInStudy]

Not at all. Most of them are 1 line at most and not nearly enough. However, for the most part the questions aren't so hard that it's impossible to figure out on your own. I would also stay away from EK 1001 Physics. It just wasn't a great book at testing you knowledge of content or test taking skills. I thought that EK Bio 1001 was great at testing knowledge but wasn't that passage based. EK Chemistry was good practice of the content as well.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[BME11]

the explanation is pretty bad. maybe one sentence for a physics problem but like Lost said it's easy to figure out why you missed it. I find it helpful in that it reinforces the materials you learned.

 

[Petypet]

The answers are sufficient if you are half way fluent with the material. A few of the answers, mostly in physics are a tad vague but if you spend the time to figure them out using the provided answers you should have a good grasp on the concepts. Also most of the problems in the 1001 books are beyond what you will use for the MCAT, its just good practice in understanding concepts and application of formulas.

 

[LostInStudy]

I would just stay far away from the physics. The questions are just bad and don't test content in an effective way like the other books do. Honestly, you would be wasting your time by doing the physics, it's that bad.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[SN2ed]

I didn't think EK physics 1001 was that bad, but there are plenty of better physics resources (Nova Physics, BR Physics, TPRH Science Workbook). Strangely, physics probably has the most quality passages.

 

[LostInStudy]

I disagree, aside from the first chapter, it was downright terrible. The mechanics problems were just like they were out of a physics textbook which the MCAT is NOT like. Doing physics like you would in a textbook makes you think about the problems in a non-intuitive way which is actually harmful for the MCAT.

I do agree that there are a lot better available and physics probably does have the most quality passages out of all the sections but I think EK 1001 is the worst book by a mile out of all the ones I used.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[Petypet]

I only used the EK series for my prep, so obviously I can't comment on the other sources, but it adequately prepared me for the mcat physics section (EK 1001 physics). I hadn't had physics in about 7 years and I felt comfortable with any of the physics problems on my mcat and on the practice amcas exams. The idea of the problems is repetition to understand how to use the formulas in order to solve the problems. In that regard the 1001 series is very good, it just happens that physics is the most dry and poorly written of the books. It is however a useful source of practice problems, many of which are sufficiently harder than the mcat therefore if you can handle these you can handle the real deal.

The other books are excellent in their goal to refresh and prep you with all the important stuff needed for the mcat. If you had the material previously in a course, these books highly get my recommendation Further for the price of a used set on the internet for the full EK series, it beats a prep course and some of the other available sources for breadth of content.

 

[GRod18]

EK 1001 physics is really hard, explanation is bad, but if you have the time, you could ask questions on this forum.

 

[LostInStudy]

I suppose that's where I disagree with you guys. I agree that the other EK 1001 books are good for content review but not the EK Physics 1001 book and I guess that shows the fact that different things work for different people. To me there is a way to make problems hard in a conceptual way like TBR does it and there is a way to make problems hard by making them long calculation plug and chug types. EK, through their physics books, trains you to look for the answer through calculations rather than logic and reasoning. Sure you could do it that way but good luck trying to finish the PS in time.

Just an opinion,

-LIS

 

[apc]

I suppose that's where I disagree with you guys. I agree that the other EK 1001 books are good for content review but not the EK Physics 1001 book and I guess that shows the fact that different things work for different people. To me there is a way to make problems hard in a conceptual way like TBR does it and there is a way to make problems hard by making them long calculation plug and chug types. EK, through their physics books, trains you to look for the answer through calculations rather than logic and reasoning. Sure you could do it that way but good luck trying to finish the PS in time.

Just an opinion

-LIS

Good to see you here again
But from what I remember you still did all of the Phys. 1001 problems, right?
I've gone through some of the chapters and might switch back to Nova (for problems). Their (EK's) methods seem diff. than BR and PR

 

[LostInStudy]

No not all, I did all of the first chapter or 2 which I thought were okay but I didn't do much at all (<50%) of the rest of it. I can promise you guys this, you're not missing anything if you decide to skip it and go for TBR or TPR Science Workbook. TBR is the best practice out there so get that if you can. If you can do TPR for content then do it, I think it is by and far the best physics content book out there. Definitely do the TBR for practice though because they have the best practice passages.

Hope this helps,

-LIS