Is it me or is EK's Chapter 3 for both chemistry and Physics just friggin' confusing

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Is it me or is EK's Chapter 3 for both chemistry and Physics just friggin' confusing? I tried to do their 1001 questions for those 2 chapters and I was lost. For instance, the equation for work of a non-conservative force is odd...i have never seen that before. Why don't they just leave out the internal energy portion, it seem sto make it more confusing.

 

[fun8stuff]

I found a textbook refreshed my memory more then they did. After I read the corresponding sections in a textbook, I read over EK again and it made more sense.

I think the key is with most of EK stuff is that you have to have a general understanding to begin with to understand how they are summarizing it.

 

[ssman]

I was just doing chem ch3 this weekend, and your right, infact I got so pissed off I posted a long diatribe on their website (the title of which, I am surprised is still on their bulletin board- see "EK books poorly written" on their forum under mcat discussion section)
I think what makes it most confusing isn't the content of what he's trying to say, but the attitude and approach... he always comes off as trying to say this... "in reality this isn't what really happens, but the basic idea is this... but the real deal is sort of like this...but the mcat is wrong and doesn't test the real deal it tests the basic.. and by the way have i said the basic is wrong... and also I'm one of the few people that under stand the real science behind this concept... oh you don't need to know the real concept (wink wink because your not smart enough)"
Anyway from reading a lot of their book that is the feeling I get... and I went on a search to see if i should get the berkeley books too, and I found this huge argument between JOrsay and Mudd and this jorsay comes off as surprisingly cocky and paranoid, and pathetic (oh i'm not going to be able to live my lifestyle if Mudd has his way!! and he's going to ruin my kids chances in life!! AAAHH!)
So I'm planning on getting at least the TBR general chemistry for starters.

 

[jiy76]

jon is very arrogant at times but I have to admit he is very good at what he does. In fact his books are by far the best. The TBR books while very good cause it gives you a bunch of tough passages to work on , has a ton of extremely useless stuff that will never in a million years appear on the mcat. If you need more practice see if you can somehow get the tbr chem book for cheap somewhere. Its not worth buying off the website

 

[IndyZX]

the way they explain work and energy in EK is probably more confusing that it should be.

 

[lyragrl]

Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. I know I'm a heretic on SDN for saying this but I thought the ExamKracker books were largely a disaster. Esp. some of the physics!!

 

[AlternateSome1]

Originally posted by lyragrl
Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. I know I'm a heretic on SDN for saying this but I thought the ExamKracker books were largely a disaster. Esp. some of the physics!!

I think they seem like they are missing a lot, but they really do present everything you need for the MCAT. It's just hard to get over not having to memorize a lot of facts for a test after some of the premed courses.

~AS1~

 

[Freakingzooming]

Im not going to brag about anything but I did decent on my physics portion and I think I owe some of it to EK.

Do the 1001 questions, I only did about 1/55th of them but surprisingly I found 2 questions on my PS section on the real MCAT that had the same questions.

The thing with EK is like Kaplan, they overdo the preparation cuz they go more into depth about the topic than you really need to know. But if you want to get higher than 10, you need to think and be able to approach those difficult physics problems with confidence. Doing EK and learning from the solutions will help to get those hard problems.

Overall, I think if you have time do EK but its not really a loss if you have an already comprehensive review of physics. The only beef I have with EK is why don't they have any practice passages with questions? I thought that would have been doobly helpful.