I've never heard of "The Berkeley Review" , fill me in?

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I spoke with about a dozen medical school students at BU and none of them had ever heard of the BR. However, people on this site seem to swear by it, is it new?

Also, when I go on the site there is no option to buy the books online, you have to fill out an order form and send it in via snail mail... that seems rather strange since in this day and age everyone has an online site.

Their website made me kind of suspicious and I just wanted to see if someone could give me some background on the whole thing...
 
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They're a very small company which is why not many people know about it. They also want to remain a small company, so don't expect any ads from them in the future. Yes, their website is horrendously out of date and frankly unprofessional looking. When people go to the site and genuinely think it's a scam site, there's a problem. Nevertheless, it is a legit site and yes, you do have to do things by snail mail. If you order from them, do it well in advance. I suggest ordering about a month ahead of time. If you live in CA, you might be able to buy them from a BR center.
 
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It does take a very long time for them to ship you your books. It takes 10 days to process if you mail in a check. I know I sent in my order from on 12/21 and I just GOT a tracking number.
 
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When I first went to their site I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to add their books to my cart and check out, lol.
 
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efredman said:
I spoke with about a dozen medical school students at BU and none of them had ever heard of the BR. However, people on this site seem to swear by it, is it new?

Also, when I go on the site there is no option to buy the books online, you have to fill out an order form and send it in via snail mail... that seems rather strange since in this day and age everyone has an online site.

Their website made me kind of suspicious and I just wanted to see if someone could give me some background on the whole thing...
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It's legit and their books are great imo. I used EK the first time I took the mcat, and although I really liked EK, TBR is much more detailed and has way more passages. TBR is also written in boring black and white just like the MCAT. I know it probably doesn't matter, but I feel like studying in a similar format will help on the real test.

Definitely send your order form in asap, and consider emailing them beforehand and expressing that you really need your books asap.

sillyome said:
It does take a very long time for them to ship you your books. It takes 10 days to process if you mail in a check. I know I sent in my order from on 12/21 and I just GOT a tracking number.
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I sent them my credit card info and I had my books 5 business days after the day I mailed my form. And I don't live very close to them or their warehouse, I live in a Big 12 (SEC now) state.
 
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NuttyEngDude said:
Same, I paid for the 3 day shipping though and it arrived in 2 days 🙂
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Nice. After I mailed in my order form I regretted not getting the 3 day shipping since it was only a few dollars more.. but I got my books in time to start studying so it worked out 🙂
 
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By FAAAR the best prep company! you can't go wrong with investing in their materials (books and FLs)... take my word for it!
 
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I bought the complete package and used all books except the verbal book. I didn't have enough time to do the big verbal book.

They also have good resale value. I think I resold mine on SDN forums for about 60-70% of what I paid. If you plan to sell the books, don't write in the practice passages. Do them on a separate paper.
 
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I LOVE the Berkely Review. Purchased my books a few weeks back, and received them in under seven days. I did, however, pay the Postal Service $5 to send my order form to them in two days, and gave TBR my credit card info to cut the processing time down. It's only been a week, and I can feel my scores on the Physical Sciences section going up. I am working on the Gen Chem and Physics Books now.
 
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MedPR said:
I don't know how long they've been using that cover, but that's what mine looks like and I ordered it 3 weeks ago from TBR. You could just look inside and see the publication date?
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I found this one online it didn't have the publication page...thank you though!
 
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BerkReviewTeach said:
It's hard to tell. That cover was used for a long time. Then in 2009 they switched to a tan cardboard cover during the revision cycle. But the newest book used the original cover starting in late 2010. You're going to have to ask the seller.
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Best to buy new or from trusted seller.
 
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BR is legit. I scored 14 on PS because of their books. Yea I know the website is ghetto but they do their jobs correctly. I am not surprised they are not known anywhere else though. I was interviewed at a school in the East and my interviewer pronounced Irvine Er-vin. Staying in CA for too long makes me think everybody knows how to say Irvine. Yes I was ignorant.
 
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FattySlug said:
BR is legit. I scored 14 on PS because of their books. Yea I know the website is ghetto but they do their jobs correctly. I am not surprised they are not known anywhere else though. I was interviewed at a school in the East and my interviewer pronounced Irvine Er-vin. Staying in CA for too long makes me think everybody knows how to say Irvine. Yes I was ignorant.
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I got a 14 on physical sciences using Princeton review. I used BR books for additional practice but questions seemed overly difficult and complicated. Guess different companies work for different people.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using SDN Mobile
 
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