Frustrated & panicking. NEED ADVICE!

[bipolarbear]

hey all,

after reading numerous posts on SDN about which books are the best for self-studying, I opted to order EK Bio + EK1001 Bio questions and EK 101 Verbal passages from an online bookstore (cheapest). they said shipping would take 3-5 days. i ordered it 7 days ago, and received an email today indicating that the estimated date of arrival would be august 10th (5 days from now). i am registered to write the MCAT sept 3rd. those of you who have used EK to prepare, is 22 days sufficient to successfully complete these 3 books?

i've been studying for the MCAT for ~2 months now, and have been using a comprehensive kaplan & TPR book. i feel sufficiently prepared for gen chem & physics (used EK1001 chem, & nova physics), but have not even started preparing for biology, aside from the small subset of problems in the kaplan & TPR books. i've been performing satisfactory in verbal (between 9-10 on the practice tests), but have not exceeded a 7 in the B.S. section (and thats with getting 90% of the o-chem questions correct). i was really banking on using this last month to go through bio and solidify my verbal but am now panicking due to the 10 day book delievery delay....

i honestly do not remember a lot of the stuff from general bio b/c i essentially crammed for every exam. in addition, i do not want to use my notes for content review because i have a tendency to waste time studying too much detail.... am i screwed? or will i have more than enough time to prepare for the bio section? advice, please....

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[musafirah]

i don't know about how much time going through 1001 questions will take, but if you figure out your weaker areas and just work on those questions, you'll be fine. the regular Ek books can be read through in one or two days. those books tell you only what you need to know without too much extra information, and they have lots of sidenotes about tricks and whats really important. i wouldn't spend more than a week reviewing the info (wont take long at all with the EK book) and then just PRACTICE for the rest of your time. dont worry.

so yeah 22 days is enough. i read the EK gen chem book in one day and did all the little lecture quizzes, and read the Bio book in two days. i'm a physics major so bio and chem were my weak areas. i had wayyy less than 22 days of real studying because of working full time and other activities/family stuff.. but i felt EK gives all the info needed and its just about absorbing it and its more important to do all the practice you can.

 

[musafirah]

oh, but in the mean time while youre waiting for the books to come, just study bio through wikipedia- look at the AAMC outline of topics and just google them. thats how i supplemented my EK because i didnt feel like going through any other books.

 

[bipolarbear]

oh, but in the mean time while youre waiting for the books to come, just study bio through wikipedia- look at the AAMC outline of topics and just google them. thats how i supplemented my EK because i didnt feel like going through any other books.

thanks for the input. that's very relieving to know.... i'm a chem major so bio is definitely my weakest area (probably not the smartest idea to save it for last...) as well. hopefully the EK books will be enough preparation. thanks again!!

 

[LostInStudy]

If you have some glaring weaknesses in G. Chem, O. Chem or Physics then I would take the 4-5 days really ironing those out so you can hit those EK books hard and maybe knock them out in 9 days or so. Verbal just do a little bit as you go along and try to finish about a half week to a week before your exam

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[bipolarbear]

If you have some glaring weaknesses in G. Chem, O. Chem or Physics then I would take the 4-5 days really ironing those out so you can hit those EK books hard and maybe knock them out in 9 days or so. Verbal just do a little bit as you go along and try to finish about a half week to a week before your exam

Hope this helps,

-LIS

thanks lostinstudy. one quick question for you guys.... how many times do you recommend that i do the practice problems in the study books? i've read somewhere on this site that some people go through the EK1001 books multiple times.... i found this difficult to do because i have a tendency to remember the problems i missed and their correct answers (which doesn't necessarily mean i understand why it's correct and why the other choices are incorrect, or the problem as a whole).