MCAT Books vs text books

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Dr. OK

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Hi!

I am currently making a study plan to study for the mcat.

Here is my situation now. I graduated as a bio major last May. I have not taken psych in college because I took AP psych in highschool. I did one semester of soc in my sophmore year but don't remember much of it because it because the class was very strange and disorganized as a class. So in other words I REALLY don't remember much about them. I am actually somewhat strong in biochem. I am good at orgo. Gen Chem was about 4 and a half years ago so I don't know if i still remember much of it. The second half of physics would be my weakest spot in terms of old MCAT material.

I have the text books for all of my requisite classes. I also have the 7 book set from Kaplan for the new MCAT.

Here is my dilemma. Everyone says that the MCAT prep books are mostly review, so you need to know the material well before you use it. So I thought maybe i should just use my text books then for the subjects i am weak in (physics, chem ,psych, soc). But this may take too much time and i might not need all of the material.

One thing I thought is that I could use the MCAT prep books table of contents to see the specific topics I should cover, but then use my textbooks review those topics.

Overall, I'm unsure what I should do in terms of material. I would really appreciate some help.

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I suggest to not use your textbooks. The MCAT tests you on basic topics/knowledge of your science classes and psych/soc. Your textbooks will go super in depth on stuff you won't need to know for the MCAT.

I have not taken a physics class in years and I was able to learn enough from content review books. Plus, the review books will have pretty much all of the bases covered from the AAMC outline. Just make sure you also do plenty of passages in addition to reading the books you have.
 
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