EK 1001 Biology, what do you think?

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mmckuin

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I know SN2ed has said that the EK 1001 biology is not worth it because it doesn't resemble the new type of biology passages on the real MCATs. But I a friend gave me his copy and I was wondering if the discrete questions in the sections would be worth my time?

Want to hear what others like about this book and if it helped or not.

Thanks!

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In my opinion, the whole book is worth it, not just discretes. It's tricky like the MCAT, where you may feel that a question is super easy, only to realize there was a subtle trick behind it. I thought it was good practice (obviously with aamc's). Got me a 12 on real thing. Be meticulous and take notes about facts you forgot, and stupid mental errors you made. Don't just blow off a question bc you got it wrong and thought it was written poorly, can't do that on the real one!
 
I never understood all the hate against the EK 1001 Bio. It's passage based, just like the MCAT.

Maybe you will learn something from the passage.
Maybe you will learn something from the question stems / answer choices.
Maybe you will learn something from the answer explanations.

EK 1001 bio worked for me. (Plus EK bio, TBR bio, EK audio osmosis bio, EK mini mcat bio)
 
I'd say that it's probably good practice, but there's better out there.

I'm going to use it early in my practice schedule while I want to keep practicing but don't want to (re)use AAMC's. I'll do them during lulls while I'm doing other stuff. I'm planning on studying from TBR for a large majority of stuff this time around, so I'll use EK1001 before that for Bio.

I'm already done studying from the EK book. Not sure if I'm going to study from TBR (super dense and time consuming), but I might just read/highlight the chapters in TBR and take notes from EK to dial it in.
 
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I never understood all the hate against the EK 1001 Bio. It's passage based, just like the MCAT.

Maybe you will learn something from the passage.
Maybe you will learn something from the question stems / answer choices.
Maybe you will learn something from the answer explanations.

EK 1001 bio worked for me. (Plus EK bio, TBR bio, EK audio osmosis bio, EK mini mcat bio)

I think MTHeaded hit it on the end. Though, the mcat is passage based, the errors that people make are not strictly passage related. By using, the EK1001 bio book (I will be using other resources to supplement), I have been able to diagnose a number of non-passage related errors, such as: 1. incorrectly interpreting question stem. 2. missing critical question stem qualifier (AND, NOT, EXCEPT) 3. missing detail in answer stem. 4. incorrect application of concept. etc. Interestingly, EK 1001 Bio has allowed me to learn how critical the question stem itself is. Often when I am struggling between two answers, another reference to the question stem usually provides some additional detail or something else that makes the correct answer between the two more obvious.
 
It can't hurt to do the problems out of the book. As others have said in this thread, you will learn some new facts or at the least review content. However, there are definitely better sources of passages out there that will help you with passage interpretation and straight up test your understanding of content. For me, TPR's science workbook was the best combination for this. If you're looking for practice that will prepare you for really tough passages then I'd do BR or Kaplan's q bank passages. Or if you're as neurotic as I am, you'll do a mix of all them :)

EK 1001 bio had some questions that REALLY annoyed me. Most of the questions on your actual MCAT won't go overboard in trying to trick you. If you're pressed for time I would go with the other sources. To be real, the most important part of studying for BS will be the last part of your schedule when you are done with content review and you are taking a ton of full length exams. On my MCAT, good test taking skills (eliminating answer choices, timing, etc) I had developed helped me more than anything else.
 
Just because it has passages doesn't mean they're the same as the MCAT's. They aren't. They're way more basic, and imo, very little interpretation/application is needed. They didn't put much time into them - they're basically read and pick out the final details.
 
I did everything in the book except for one whole chapter and I felt that it helped me a ton.

Ended up scoring a 14 on the BS section.
 
I did everything in the book except for one whole chapter and I felt that it helped me a ton.

Ended up scoring a 14 on the BS section.

This guy got a 37T. Obviously, it wasn't just 100% because of EK that he got his score. He must have known his material BEFORE studying for the MCAT.

Great job on the score tho... But I think it's a little bit misleading to say he got a 14 due to EK's wonderful amazing books. He even said it himself... "I skipped a whole chapter" and still got a 14. LOL. :D

Anyways, it's great practice for CONTENT (like everyone has said already) and if you are not hitting above 10 on full-length exams, it's probably a necessity to do all the problems in the book.

But don't think that the MCAT passages are going to be like the stuff in the EK 1001 book tho. So I recommend you to supplement it with other books if you need the practice.

Good Luck!
 
This book isn't gonna be a super amazing resource, but it can definitely help. Its pretty cheap to buy and pretty good for reviewing/practicing specific areas you are weak in. There were times where I did all the passages in the EK review book, TBR bio book, and TPR review book in a specific topic and was glad that I had this book to crack down some topics I was shaky on. Or I would randomly remember that I wasn't 100% sure about some topic and would find relavent passages in the ek 1001 book and do them. I think this helped me more than rereading/redoing the book/passages I already went over since I had a tendency to just be like "oh yea, duh". The book is less than 20$ and I think its worth buying. Since you are getting it for free, I don't see why you wouldn't use it.
 
This guy got a 37T. Obviously, it wasn't just 100% because of EK that he got his score. He must have known his material BEFORE studying for the MCAT.

Great job on the score tho... But I think it's a little bit misleading to say he got a 14 due to EK's wonderful amazing books. He even said it himself... "I skipped a whole chapter" and still got a 14. LOL. :D

Anyways, it's great practice for CONTENT (like everyone has said already) and if you are not hitting above 10 on full-length exams, it's probably a necessity to do all the problems in the book.

But don't think that the MCAT passages are going to be like the stuff in the EK 1001 book tho. So I recommend you to supplement it with other books if you need the practice.

Good Luck!

There's actually a chapter in EK that specifically says it's background info. So, you could skip it and still do quite well.
 
Also, just as a caveat, make sure you use the EK's mcat forum while using the book. There are a couple of errors in the book, such as the answer choice in the question stem and the answer justified in the book not matching up (There have been times when an answer that I marked incorrect based on the answer in the back of the book, was determined to be correct by the moderator of the forum). You'll probably notice there's something wrong when going over the answer, but it helps to consult the forum, just to make sure that you've caught a mistake.
 
There's actually a chapter in EK that specifically says it's background info. So, you could skip it and still do quite well.

Which lecture is that? Population?

Anyways... my main point is that just because you do 1001 problems in the book, you are not guaranteed a 14 or 15 on Biological Section. So again... I am just saying it's misleading to post something like that. People reading this forum should be realistic. (Also remember that there's at least going to be 20-40% Organic Chemistry so he must have known his O-chem very well too)

I still stick with my opinion that it's great for practice and making sure you know your Bio content really well. It's very useful.

Look elsewhere if you want more problems that reflect the current trend in the Biological Section. Also note...its 2006 edition. That's when paper tests were still given out.
 
There's a lot of hype around certain books and some are hated on, but frankly it shouldn't matter what books you you're using. One set of books isn't going to boost your score by 12 points while another boosts your score by 3 points. If you study hard enough, the books you use are a minor detail.

That said, if you have enough time why not use both? Why do you have to limit yourself to only one resource? If it works for you, then it works for you. If it doesn't, then don't use it anymore. It's really that simple.
 
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