Kaplan or Exam Crackers?

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Auron

Cruisin' the Cosmos
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Which are better to home study for the mcat:

The Kaplan books from the course, or the EK books?

It looks like a lot of people here use EK..

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i got the exam krackers complete study thing recently and i have been using that. they are really clear on things you must know for the mcat, things that will help you out, and things that are just backround info. i feel like i'm going to be prepared for the exam when i take it. but i havent used kaplan so....
 
hey cuadrado,

which edition did you get? Did you get the 1001 books?

I think I'm gonna get all the EK books. Just want to be sure before I shell out the money.
 
any other opinions?

what about berkely review books - how do they compare to EK and Kaplan.
 
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Depends, for me those books are just a piece of ****. I will go for KAPLAN 100%. Im sure that they pay people to say " I score a 39 with examkrackers" bahhh!...
 
How familiar are you with all of the material? If approximately 90% of the stuff on the MCAT list of selected topics is pretty fresh, then EK should work.

To me, the EK books were only good for sections I was already pretty familiar with. They assume you know a lot of things already, evidenced by their lack of detailed explanation and brevity. For instance, their coverage of organic chemistry is approximately 100 or so pages. Kaplan covers organic chemistry (though includes a lot of seemingly unnecessary stuff) in about 400 pages. It's quite drastic.

I found myself, especially for biology, constantly referring to either Kaplan or Campbell's biology book. EK simply doesn't explain a lot of things and the books aren't organized that well (Kaplan has outline format).

One thing I liked about EK were their 30 min lecture exams - I thought these contained some very cool questions.

Personally, I use EK as a supplement and not as a sole source of study material.
 
sorry auron....i took a short leave of absence....the books in the set are 7th edition. as far as i know the best deal around is 117 at amazon for new books. maybe theres something cheaper on ebay
 
use both

in my opinion, either one alone isn't enough...
 
It's difficult to decide who to believe, some say EK is the best, others say Kaplan is the best. My plan is to buy one set of review books and then all the AAMC exams to test myself.
 
I think both are invaluable. I took a Kaplan course and the online materials they offer are incredible. Lots of tests (including all of the AAMCs) and a whole variety of workshops and diagnostic techniques. However, their study books are very dry. ExamKrackers books are great, they get right to the point and have big colorful pictures which makes it easier. I also listened to Audio Osmosis whenever I was driving around. Hopefully it pays off on the 26th.
 
i dont know about the Kaplan books.

but, im using Examkrackers right now and am 3 weeks into their 10 week home study schedule and it looks pretty good. As said, its limited to the bare-bone essentials...which so far has been fine for me. The 2 or 3 times i didnt really understand something, i looked them up in my gen bio and gen physics books that i kept from last year...and then i went right back to studying with my EK books smoothly.
 
i had been using the Kaplan books, though i thought that some things weren't covered enough in them. for instance, a lot of the questions i came across in the EK gen chem 1001 questions weren't explained at all in the kaplan book- so i found myself looking things up in my Zumdahl chemistry text from my gen chem course. i've now ordered the EK review books and plan on using them with the 10 week plan in preparation for the april 5 test
 
I took the MCAT last year using the exam krackers audio cd's and their books. I got a 12 on the MCAT. I then used kaplans review and got a 36 on the mcat. Exam krackers was garbage. The only reason people like it is because of the color and the pictures. The mcat doesnt test u on that stuff! The audio cd is for lazy people and the books dont go into any detail. The teachers didnt give a rats *** about their students either. The kaplan books were EXCELENT and there online stuff was AMAZING. The teachers were also extremely knowledgable and cared about their students.



KAPLAN ALL THE WAY
 
I took the MCAT last year using the exam krackers audio cd's and their books. I got a 12 on the MCAT. I then used kaplans review and got a 36 on the mcat. Exam krackers was garbage. The only reason people like it is because of the color and the pictures. The mcat doesnt test u on that stuff! The audio cd is for lazy people and the books dont go into any detail. The teachers didnt give a rats *** about their students either. The kaplan books were EXCELENT and there online stuff was AMAZING. The teachers were also extremely knowledgable and cared about their students.



KAPLAN ALL THE WAY

Lol okay Mr. ThisIsMyFirstPost. A 12 to a 36? Please. :laugh:
 
Examkrackers is good for biology, organic chemistry, and verbal only IMO. If you really want to learn physics well, order the Nova Physics book. I used my old general chemistry material from past classes and understood it well. Also, make sure you purchase the examkrackers 101 verbal book and the 101 Biology book.
 
I took the MCAT last year using the exam krackers audio cd's and their books. I got a 12 on the MCAT. I then used kaplans review and got a 36 on the mcat. Exam krackers was garbage. The only reason people like it is because of the color and the pictures. The mcat doesnt test u on that stuff! The audio cd is for lazy people and the books dont go into any detail. The teachers didnt give a rats *** about their students either. The kaplan books were EXCELENT and there online stuff was AMAZING. The teachers were also extremely knowledgable and cared about their students.



KAPLAN ALL THE WAY

ahahahahahaha. Nice spam post from some kaplan rep. ahahahaha. 12 to a freakin 36, you must of fell asleep through 2/3 the test the first time around. lol
 
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