How old can study materials be?

[Imrizzle]

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Hey all

I was just wondering how old is too old for MCAT study material. I had gotten hands on some old materials which range from 2003 to 2007. Just wondering if the ones under 2007 are too old? Is 2007 too old? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also if anyone could suggest what are some books that give you a lot of good practice questions that would be most similar to the actual MCAT. I don't want to do the actual AAMC practice tests yet as I have done a few a while back but I don't want to do more of them till I know I'm prepared to score well on them by doing practice questions else where.

I greatly appreciate any help on this.

Thanks!

 

[KindofBlue]

2007 should be fine. SN2ed says if it's not older than 5 years, it's usually ok.
But getting something newer with a much lowered price tag isn't really difficult if you're looking with some effort on the classifieds here on SDN.
So try that out first.
And what books are they?
I think most people think EK, Princeton and Berkeley are the best review material, but I prefer Berkeley because they have good content review and a lot of practice passages with thorough explanations.

 

[ucsdhopeful]

Didn't they change physics a while ago?

 

[macsta]

You can use ANY books that you find. Just check AAMC and study the topics that are on there. It is EASIER to use recent MCAT books because there is no thinking involved (just study the books).

PS- Most the subjects on the MCAT haven't changed that much in the last couple centuries.

 

[Melomare17]

You can use ANY books that you find. Just check AAMC and study the topics that are on there. It is EASIER to use recent MCAT books because there is no thinking involved (just study the books).

PS- Most the subjects on the MCAT haven't changed that much in the last couple centuries.

very true. i think any book made after the mcat was changed to the CBT version instead of paper exam will be fine to use.

 

[movax]

Pre-CBT tests will have more questions and in the case of BS, test topics that AAMC no longer cares about (benzene, alkenes/alkynes). It's still a good idea to learn those though, because they seem to like to have passages that involve alkene reactions, and having the background info will give you a leg up.

For reference, a paper older test will have 77/60/77 questions instead of 52/45/52. A lot of the "older" CBTs are these tests with some passages chopped out. 10 and 11 are more modern and more representative of what you will see on test day IMHO.