For the MCAT kidz

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Elysium

Elysium

Not Really An Old Beaver
7+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
20+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2001
Messages
2,014
Reaction score
6
I just wanted to put a post to all my fellow deranged pre-MCAT people. I'm taking TPR right now, and have basically discarded their verbal "strategies". I bought the Examkrakers Verbal workbook for $12 online at half.com and read the entire thing in an hour. I subsequently used their strategies on TPR diag 483 last Saturday and went up from a 6 (using TPR crap) to an 11 (using Examkrakers) - and there's still a few weeks left to practice! If any of ya'll are struggling with the verbal, I would give this product a shot. (And no, I'm not being paid by them or anything else. I just wanted to let you know there were other options out there...that work!)

:wink:
Members don't see this ad.
 
OMFG! That's niiiiiice!

I also read the verbal book by examkrackers... I mean I agree a lot with what they're saying, but I don't feel that I'm incorporating what I've learned into the passages I'm working on. Especially the part about just getting the idea with the question prompts... I didn't do very well in the practice problems in the book when doing that exercise.

How do you keep all those things in mind? Is there a good way to practice their techniques? The only thing that I really changed was to stop mapping and only circle a few (very few) things.

I just took the AAMC I this past weekend and I did really well, but that one is supposed to be weak sauce. I'll see how I do on the harder ones.
 
hey TEDillard, what is the most useful technique you learned from Examkrakers? I'm just curious.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Has anyone tried out any of the other Examkracker material like the physics or chemistry?

Fred
 
Yup , I have the whole study package and the audio osmosis. I think they all are pretty damn good. I dont use the organic chemistry book , so I dont know anything about that .
 
Thanks for the tip. I am freakin sick of that ******ed TPR Verbal stratergy. I did what they said I should do and I went from a 6 on my diag on the verbal to a 4 on the TPR 482. I have had others say that exam crackers book for verbal is working so I guess I will have to check it out. Thanks again.
 
ExamKrackers is the BOMB. Everything they have is top quality. I personally have Berkley, Kaplan, Princton, Krackers, REA (I think this is a collective hobby) and the Krackers practice material is the REAL DEAL.

The two founders know what they are doing as they were higher-ups at one of the main test prep companies. They say that the Big Companies try and improve your verbal to the National Average and that is it using their methods. I have been using the Kracker technique and I have increase 3 points (on AAMC and Kracker exams).

I would highly recommend all their material (especially the 1001 Physics and the AudioOsmosis).
 
Glad some of you feel the same way about Exankrakers. The basic concept is this:

1) Their first exercise is to answer the questions WITHOUT READING THE PASSAGE AT ALL. By just reading the questions you start to discern what the passage is about. Try that on some practice passages (from TPR or wherever) and see how you do. I thought it was pretty interesting.
2) When you read the passage, focus totally on what you're reading. Don't map it and make a bunch of marks or any of that crap. Read it like you do your favorite reading material (novels, newspaper, journals, Cosmo, whatever). Just completely focus on it. If you find your mind wandering or you're not understanding it, just keep going until it gets better.
3) Answer the questions and try to refer to the passage as little as possible. If you're reading really well, you won't need to look back as much.
4) If a question is really stupid and you're stuck, just keep going. Don't get tied up it in. Move on.
5) After reading the passage, think about the author. Imagine what kind of person he/she is. Are they conservative, liberal, have a sense of humor, young, old, educated, etc? Create a picture of them in your mind and answer the questions as them. I know it sounds weird, but I think people get f-ed up when they try to justify answers as themselves. Think like the author. Be the author. Then answer the questions like them.
6) Do the passages in order, don't skip around and try to guess which ones are easy or hard or whatever. Just make it your effort to get done with all the passages, if possible.

Hmmm. I think that's it. See how it works for ya'll and let me know. We're all still learning, so I'd love to hear feedback on what's working for everyone.

Next purchase: Their Physics book.

:rolleyes:
 
TEDillard03,

Can you write up some tips for the Physical science section form ExamKrakers. I would appreciate it if you could do so. thanx
 
I'm getting a bit suspicious about Examcrakers; I hear much bellyaching about Kap and PR, but no one says anything bad about Examcrackers, which makes me think that maybe the vendors of these books are trying to stir a good word for their products themselves. Most likely I'm being paranoid, but still, it crossed my mind.
 
heh if there were anything bad to say about Examkrackers someone would have bitched by now. I bought the verbal and organic book and liked them soo much I bought the rest of the books.
 
All these people are praising Examcrackers but the question I have is how can you be sure that when your scores go up based on Examcrackers test that the scales or the difficulty of the passages is not skewed. For example for some of these companies like hyperlearning, the tests are made really difficult and your scores are artificially lowered. I know more than my share of people that did horrible on verbal tests produced by Kaplan, TPR< etc, that kicked some serious ass on the real deal for the MCAT. So I wouldn't buy too much into all this examcrackers is the best crap unless you get real results from people that have gotten high scores using this material.
 
I checked out ExamKrakers's web site: <a href="http://www.examkrackers.com" target="_blank">www.examkrackers.com</a> and found a lot of fallacies in their statements. Basically, they are saying that everybody is bad and they are the best. I also disagree with the statements on their web site about other prep materials: "Do not be fooled by titled authors. Anyone can aquire a PhD these days. Be aware that many PhDs that work on MCAT materials have never seen a real MCAT. They have little or no concept of what the MCAT tests and what it doesn't. An 'M.D.' is a particularly meaningless title when it comes to understanding science. I personally edited one of the best selling MCAT preparation books in the country, authored by two MDs and published by one of the largest test preparation companies in the country. I found more than 1000 errors in less than 1000 pages in this book, which had already been on the market for over a year."
Judging on the previous posts, their recommendations are similar to what you would hear in Kaplan's class. He does not also says what kind of errors are these. It might have just been spelling or some other insignificant stuff. (notice his own spelling error of word ?acquire?). Plus I think a person with an MD or PhD has something to share with other people.
:rolleyes:
 
I swear I'm not being paid by Examkracker's. I just wanted to let other people who were having verbal problems know that there are other options that Kraplan and TPR. I didn't know about E-Krackers until I saw it on this site! I've order the G-Chen stuff, but haven't gotten it yet. I don't know how I'm going to do on the real thing (I've only taken 4 practice tests) but I just wanted to let people know it was out there.

Peace.
 
Personally for me, the examkracker vr works for me b/c it cuts down on the fillers and works on what's important: the Main Idea. On the Princeton 481, I got a 4 on it. After 8 weeks of using their tech, I got no higher than a 11 on Kaplan #3 FL test. I don't care whether agree or disagree with what's going on. All I care is that it's working for me by getting me a higher score on the verbal. BTW, if you look up the authors on the Barron's MCAT, they are a bunch of Ph.Ds, and anyone who has gone through it (I tossed it out after going through it halfway) will find that these guys with Ph.Ds haven't taken the MCAT. Ask anybody during the 1970's of how the MCAT was like, and they'll point you to the Barrons book b/c that's how the exam was like then.
 
One other thing, I like to think that Jon orsay of Examkrackers knows his **** b/c if you look into any of the Princeton Review books you'll find that one of the contributors, both in the silver and flowers book and the books given in the princeton review course. And helped correct some the biology in some of the 480 series exams. But then again, everyone entitled to his/her opinion
 
Hi-

I'd like to put in my thoughts as well (and I am also not paid by examkrackers). I really believe in them. I took Kaplan a few years ago and stopped going becuz, well it sucked. A few years later I decided to go with examkrackers. Jon is incredible. He makes himself VERY available during the course and will meet with you outside of class. He holds alot of extra sessions (for verbal) as well. He will answer all your questions. Their books are very well written - i dont see how anyone could disagree with that. Especially Physics, which was my weak area. If you are in the NYC area, I really ask that you consider it. Call him and ask him why his course is better. That's what I did when I was decided which take course to take this time. I've never regretted it. For thos skeptics out there, it sounds too good to be true, but it really is. I'd be happy to talk to anyone who has more questions about it but you should call him yourself.
 
Hi-
This worked for me, so maybe you'll like it. I read the first sentence of each paragraph first, then I answer the questions as best I can, then I go back and re-read the passage kinda like Examcracker style as TEDillard said. It kinda helps to read the first sentences of paragraphs cuz you don't get too caught up in the details, and you get a general gist of where the author is going with the passage. Good luck!
 
I am taking the MCATs next spring. I have ordered the Verbal and the Biology Examkrackers. I hope to have these by the end of the week.

Question: I am taking Physics this fall and I wanted to know if I can go ahead and get the Physics book now and study for it before going into class (or would I need knowledge of Physics before getting the book)? :)
 
I think its time to change the subject heading to "Review for examkracker books". :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

P
Any Big 10 school kidz?
Replies
33
Views
3K
MossPoh
MossPoh
Top