In need of help(MCAT Inquiry)

[Alikhan9]

Hey Fellow SDNers,

I am in need of help, I am torn between choosing from Berkley Review Content books or Kaplan Review Books 2018-2019. The whole idea of having books(TBR) that are extremely more difficult I feel is very intriguing for me because it can prepare you for anything come test day. However, it is pricy but I was wondering what would be the best option for me? I was planing on getting the whole Kaplan bundle and in the future getting the berkley review mcat practice exams. Is there any other exams that is recommended in buying I heard NextPrep is there anything else?

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[ellia]

I'm a fan of the Kaplan books. Consider trying Examkrackers, Next Step, Kaplan and of course the AAMC exams. I've never heard of NextPrep.

 

[workaholic181]

You could get a ton of different answers to this question. I personally used Princeton Review and really appreciated them, but others have used Kaplan with success, and the general notion on SDN is that TBR is great. I never used them so I can’t speak to that, but in general the money you’re spending on MCAT study materials is an investment. I tried to cut corners and save at first too and IMO it’s better to just spend the cash on materials you feel you will be successful with upfront.

AAMC section banks and full lengths are great, definitely get those! Good luck studying.

 

[Medical Muse]

The greatest value investment you can make is to buy the AAMC practice material. This is as close as you will get to the real thing, which makes sense since they write the test. Especially when it comes to CARS, the score you achieve on the practice tests is a good indicator of your actual MCAT score.

For prep books, the ones that helped me the most were the TBR General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Physics books. Not coincidentally, these were my weak areas. I think they are considered harder because they require you to manipulate concepts instead of just recite formulas and plug in numbers. I still consider chemistry and physics to be my weaker areas, but for one glorious MCAT day, they were on par with my molecular bio and physio scores. =)

There are a lot of good threads on SDN with book recommendations. Check them out and pick the combination of books and practice items that makes the most sense for you.

Good luck!