Does The Berkeley Review update or change material?

[El Sol]

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I'm looking to buy a used copy of the Berkeley Review prep materials, but they are from 2006. Does this company update their material, especially after the switch to the computer based MCAT?

 

[drizzt3117]

What they have on their website seems to be the same ones I had in 2005/2006, but I'll of course defer to the TBR staff on here. The books are more focused on teaching the material and are great, especially the PS/BS sections. If you're getting them at a significant discount compared to what TBR offers them for on their site, then I would go for it.

 

[dobbysamosa]

Hey El Sol,

I bought the books back in Nov, and I don't recall seeing any particular year printed on the cover. I really doubt they update their review books much (if at all) from year to year, especially since the material hardly changes. Even with switching to CBT exams, I doubt they've changed their books yet (if they even plan to) since their a smaller company with a handful of people.

If I were you, I'd definitely get their books. They're very well written, especially the bio, chem and physics books. For verbal/writing, I'd recommend getting a book from a different prep company, since it's pretty apparent BR spent less time writing their verbal books than their science books. Other than that, they're a great set of books and helped me get a very satisfactory score 🙂

dobbysamosa

 

[El Sol]

Thank you both for your advice. 🙂

 

[thechairman]

does the Berkeley review give have good practice questions and/or tests?

 

[drizzt3117]

Yes, their practice tests are great IMO. I had a passage on the real MCAT (a heart one) that was almost identical to one on a TBR practice test.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Thank you both for your advice. 🙂

My BR books have a copyright from 2007 (also 2006, 2005, 2002, 2000, 1995, etc.) I would bet that for the most part they are almost completely the same. Some of the writing is repetitive and in one science section they said, "the current mechanism is unknown"- but i definitely learned it in a class last semsester 😛 Overall though I am very, very happy with TBR, especially Gen. Chem and O. Chem.

I'll use this as a platform for a TBR review... Bio 1 is excellent if you haven't taken physiology yet, and Bio II is way, way too in-depth, but gives a very good prep for metabolic pathways and genetic stuff. They basically compressed a semester of Mo Bio, Genetics and Biochem into one fat book. So if you have the time, go for it. The verbal book is basically useless unless you want to scare the crap out of yourself. There aren't any strategies provided although it does offer an in-depth breakdown of all 30-something types of verbal questions..."This is an implied-idea question, this is an inferred idea question..blah blah blah" The questions are even more knit-picky and intentionally tricky than the AAMC ones, and provide about zero diagnostic value. For sciences, though, I don't think you could beat TBR in terms of review materials.

 

[drizzt3117]

The best thing about TBR verbal (not the books, but the review course) is the emphasis on reading speed and the calculation of your reading speed in wpm. I'm not sure if other review courses do this, but it was very useful IMO.

 

[d33ds]

i would say it wouldn't really matter if the material is updated because the information you have to learn is the same and the berkeley review books are really good... they're definitely worth buying.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

The best thing about TBR verbal (not the books, but the review course) is the emphasis on reading speed and the calculation of your reading speed in wpm. I'm not sure if other review courses do this, but it was very useful IMO.

That's pretty cool. What type of wpm speed are you supposed to shoot for?

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

d33ds, dobbysamosa, drizz, and zoom-zoom:

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your kind words.

I try to check threads on an every-other day basis, but because of the large number of August exams, I just didn't have any time. So I did a search to see what I missed. I found this after a little reading.

I can't even begin to say thank you for what your kind words mean to me. When someone you don't know on a personal level has such kind words, it means so much. I so deeply hope that every one of you makes it into the greatest possible medical school.

I know one of you and can say that your patients will be some of the luckiest people around. I have to believe it will be true for all of you. Best of luck in your pathway to being a doctor.

And by the way, the changes from printing to printing for the books are usually due to changes in the passages and answer explanations. We rotate passages and/or questions from in-class practice, to books, to out-of-circulation. The text doesn't change that much from print to print, often being cosmetic at best.