MCAT Materials to Avoid

[TomWestmanRules]

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Only posting this as a service to any others who may be buying up some study aids for future MCATs. Sorted through all my old study books from the April MCAT when I found this again: Barron's MCAT Prep. Used it back in March. Avoid buying this book or even wasting your time looking through this book at all costs. It was relatively inexpensive and caught my eye with its "Four full length practice exams" and "Reviews in biology, chemistry, and physics".

I never supported book-burning until I bought this piece of crap. The review materials were a joke. The practice exams were so poorly written with many blatant errors / inconsistencies that I still didn't crack a 30, despite the tests being the easiest pieces of garbage ever. If an "All of the above" answer choice was offered on the Verbal section, that was often the real answer. Often 4 or 5 of them in a row. So dissatisfied that I left 3 of the 8-hour practice exams untouched. Wasn't worth my time.

DO NOT BUY BARRON'S MCAT TEST PREP! 👎

 

[Nikki2002]

yeah--i was actually just looking at that tonight at the bookstore--it is horrible!

 

[QofQuimica]

OP, if you don't mind, would you go to the sticky at the top of this page that says "MCAT Prep Method Ratings" and click on the link that says "Other Self-Study Methods" and copy your post there so that future students will be able to find it? If any of the rest of you want to also leave comments, feel free. You guys can go ahead and vote in the poll too.

 

[Caboose]

Pretty passionate about that one, hey? 😉

Indeed, it was one of mine as well. The $50 Ivy league "book" is the one that P.O.ed me. Good times. Good times.

Caboose.

 

[QofQuimica]

Thanks, Tom. I've been working on compiling together ratings of test prep methods in one place so that we don't have a zillion threads like this:

So, did anyone here ever use Barron's? What did you think of it? It's sooooooo cheap and it comes with four practice tests! Should I use it as my main form of prep???

 

[maple_us]

I got this book from my ex-room mate once she changed her career plans. I've never gone through it and after reading this post I dont think I ever will. But an older family friend has been pushing me to buy barron's guide to getting into med school. according to him, it is the roadmap to med school. Thanks for the information.

 

[ADeadLois]

Haha, I bought the Barron's book without doing much research about MCAT material (I had used their books for AP tests and liked them). Needless to say, the book was terrible. I ended up posting it on Amazon hoping on a prayer that I could some of my money back, and someone bought it! I felt sort of guilty, but I was more glad to get rid of the thing.

 

[choklad]

I nearly bought it myself but luckily I went to Amazon to check out some of the reviews there. apparently it's unanimously considered junk!

 

[LifetimeDoc]

Yeah, anything from Barron's is pretty much crap, which includes all of their prep materials and guides on getting into medical school. The material is generally very old and out of date, or is just poorly written.

Also, avoid the Princeton MCAT comprehensive-type MCAT review book. It's not easy to read and understand. The Kaplan comprehensive book is much better as are the Exam Krakers books and audio.