Doing All 3 TBR Phases For Each Section Together?

[capnamerica]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Is it a good or bad idea?

 

[rjns11]

Seems like a bad idea. I'm sure it's better to do them in phases, as they recommend. You need some practice passages to come back to when you're struggling with a topic.

 

[capnamerica]

Seems like a bad idea. I'm sure it's better to do them in phases, as they recommend. You need some practice passages to come back to when you're struggling with a topic.

Okay. But where do they recommend this? I've looked through the start of all the books and the start of the passages for each section, but they never say you should do the 3 phases separately. Is it part of their course or something?

 

[ru4real1666]

Here you go! Hope it helps!

 

[capnamerica]

Here you go! Hope it helps!

O.Emm.Gee. Thank you soooo much for this!! It all makes sense noww!!

 

[rjns11]

That definitely beats what I was going to post. Thanks for the upload.

 

[ru4real1666]

haha no problem! I do all the phases together though even though it's recommended otherwise. and i do them all timed. but that's just what works for me. for 99% of the people, the phases strategy that BR has outlines seems to be the best.

 

[SN2ed]

You shouldn't complete them all at once unless you have other sources with plenty of practice passages. Taking them all and not having other practice passages to use will hurt you in the long run. You must continually take practice passages throughout your study. Additionally, you'll miss out on being able to revisit the topics later because you'd have finished the all of the passages.

 

[Silverfalcon]

You shouldn't complete them all at once unless you have other sources with plenty of practice passages. Taking them all and not having other practice passages to use will hurt you in the long run. You must continually take practice passages throughout your study. Additionally, you'll miss out on being able to revisit the topics later because you'd have finished the all of the passages.

There's one thing I disagree about that though (a part of reason why I stopped following your plan early on). When it's near the end of your prep, you are busy enough taking FLs and reviewing them. You do not have time to take a lot of phase III passages (or the last "1/3" of passages you say in your schedule) and review them. Because when I look at 3-month study habits, it says that you should take 2-3 times longer when you do review.

So, juxtapose that with the amount of time it takes to normally take and review FLs. Day 1 - take Full Length (and you don't recommend reviewing them until the day after); Day 2 - review Full Length (which should take 2-3 times longer ---> then this should technically take more than 4-5 hours). And do the passages and review them on top of them? Hmm... Not sure if it'll really work (unless you are used to study that many hours per day... but even then, you will likely be able to do only one chapter - or two if you are really motivated - after reviewing such lengthy FLs in the time you said)

 

[SN2ed]

When I originally made the schedule, I thought a complete 1/3 would have been around 12 passages at ~3 passages per science subject + 3 verbal passages. So, 15 passages for 6 minutes each is 90 minutes. Then, times that by 2 would be 180 minutes or 3 hours.

Next, for FL, that's 200 minutes or 3 hours and 20 minutes. I'm not counting the WS because you can't really check it. So then, double that time will get you 6 hours and 20 minutes.

FL Day: ~5 hours
Review FL + 1/3 Chapter: 4 hours FL review + 90 minutes for 1/3 Chapter = 5 hours and 30 minutes
Review FL + 1/3 Chapter: 2 hours and 20 minutes FL review + 180 = 5 hours and 20 minutes

However, including BR Bio does hurt this timing because the distribution isn't even when using it in conjunction with EK Bio.

Now let's say you had 30 passages to work through, or double the above:

FL Day: ~5 hours
Review FL + 1/3 Chapter: 5 hours hours FL review + 180 minutes for 1/3 Chapter = 8 hours
Review FL + 1/3 Chapter: 1 hours and 20 minutes FL review + 360 minutes = 7 hours and 20 minutes

So in both cases, I think it's manageable.

Edit: I think I might include this in the FAQ since this does look like a ton of work at first glance.

 

[Silverfalcon]

When I originally made the schedule, I thought a complete 1/3 would have been around 12 passages at ~3 passages per science subject + 3 verbal passages. So, 15 passages for 6 minutes each is 90 minutes. Then, times that by 2 would be 180 minutes or 3 hours.

Next, for FL, that's 200 minutes or 3 hours and 20 minutes. I'm not counting the WS because you can't really check it. So then, double that time will get you 6 hours and 20 minutes.

FL Day: ~5 hours
Review FL + 1/3 Chapter: 4 hours FL review + 90 minutes for 1/3 Chapter = 5 hours and 30 minutes
Review FL + 1/3 Chapter: 2 hours and 20 minutes FL review + 180 = 5 hours and 20 minutes

However, including BR Bio does hurt this timing because the distribution isn't even when using it in conjunction with EK Bio.

Now let's say you had 30 passages to work through, or double the above:

FL Day: ~5 hours
Review FL + 1/3 Chapter: 5 hours hours FL review + 180 minutes for 1/3 Chapter = 8 hours
Review FL + 1/3 Chapter: 1 hours and 20 minutes FL review + 360 minutes = 7 hours and 20 minutes

So in both cases, I think it's manageable.

Edit: I think I might include this in the FAQ since this does look like a ton of work at first glance.

That makes a lot more sense, thank you SN2ed.

I still feel that there is a small factor that I think is important for this timing. Shouldn't there be "breaks" within those sessions? Like, this will depend on individual to individual, but we are not robots. Especially in bio, I find myself needing to take breaks because the info is overwhelming, and even when we are at school (or job), there are temporary breaks like coffee breaks beyond the lunch and supper.

One other thing that I personally struggle is that some concepts take a long time to review, and while this is supposed to be "balanced" with concepts that take less to review, this doesn't always happen, and people easily fall behind the schedule.

 

[ilovemcat]

I'm going to end up doing this because it's taking me abnormally long to learnnnnn all the material! And by the time I actually finish, there'll be like 2 weeks until my exam.

 

[capnamerica]

I'm going to end up doing this because it's taking me abnormally long to learnnnnn all the material! And by the time I actually finish, there'll be like 2 weeks until my exam.

When is your test date?

 

[ilovemcat]

When is your test date?

July 30th. I don't know if anyone else has a super memory but I'm having a huge problem retaining all the details. I've tried my best to relate and conceptually understand all the material but I find that after several weeks of learning NEW material, I forget other things. For instance, I'm finishing the General Chemistry section and I have finished reviewing both Physics and Biology sections, but because I've approached each section one at a time, I'm slowly forgetting the details for both. I have to constantly re-read to remember things I read 2-3 weeks ago. And I have yet to review organic (I did so bad in that class). I'm hoping I can understand it enough to answer most MCAT related organic questions but because Organic is such a minute portion of the mcat, I don't want to dwell too much time on it even though truthfully I should (but it's not a priority, especially since I'm extremely limited on time).

 

[capnamerica]

Although I haven't gone through the entire MCATing process, at this point in your studying, with the exam date a month away, I would suggest sharpening your test-taking skills. Don't worry about how much you remember. Worry about the scores you are getting on FLs. Just my 2 cents.

 

[ru4real1666]

To be fair SN2ed,

I've been using my own modified plan and I HAVE thought of the fact that I will run out of practice material. BUT, as you wondered, I DO have the EK1001 books for extra practice, along with Kaplan FLs (even if they aren't that good, they can still be used to review topics), Kaplan subject tests/topical tests, and TPR science workbook. Due to this, I have plenty of practice material and it's better for me to just do all the phases at the same time. Furthermore, I've learned that doing all the phases together also helps me retain the information better and helps me with time management.

 

[Silverfalcon]

July 30th. I don't know if anyone else has a super memory but I'm having a huge problem retaining all the details. I've tried my best to relate and conceptually understand all the material but I find that after several weeks of learning NEW material, I forget other things. For instance, I'm finishing the General Chemistry section and I have finished reviewing both Physics and Biology sections, but because I've approached each section one at a time, I'm slowly forgetting the details for both. I have to constantly re-read to remember things I read 2-3 weeks ago. And I have yet to review organic (I did so bad in that class). I'm hoping I can understand it enough to answer most MCAT related organic questions but because Organic is such a minute portion of the mcat, I don't want to dwell too much time on it even though truthfully I should (but it's not a priority, especially since I'm extremely limited on time).

You really should stop reading and trying to understand everything...