MCAT Prep book suggestion

[ismile2]

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Hi,
I have just decided to take the exam in early sept (6-7) 2012. I have old books of mine from 2002-2003 (when MCAT was paper based), I have princeton and Kaplan course books and the gold standard. I have started studying from the gold standard and felt a little disappointed in the content of the book (protein synthesis was one page!). I was wondering 1) if I can use the older books (from paper based MCAT time) for the preparation, or should i invest in new editions? 2) How much details should we know (should I refer to the prereq course books? 3) Following which books for which section is going to best prepare me 4) Are there any free online practice passages for the verbal reasoning, where I can practise 1-2 passages at my leisure?
Thanks

 

[QofQuimica]

Hi,
I have just decided to take the exam in early sept (6-7) 2012. I have old books of mine from 2002-2003 (when MCAT was paper based), I have princeton and Kaplan course books and the gold standard. I have started studying from the gold standard and felt a little disappointed in the content of the book (protein synthesis was one page!). I was wondering 1) if I can use the older books (from paper based MCAT time) for the preparation, or should i invest in new editions? 2) How much details should we know (should I refer to the prereq course books? 3) Following which books for which section is going to best prepare me 4) Are there any free online practice passages for the verbal reasoning, where I can practise 1-2 passages at my leisure?
Thanks

There are some things you can skimp on, but proper test prep materials shouldn't be one of them. In the whole scheme of how much medical school is going to cost you, $50 or $100 worth of MCAT prep materials is a drop in the ocean. So go ahead and spring for the new materials. The MCAT has changed a lot over the past decade, and as you noticed, our science knowledge has advanced quite a bit as well. 😉

No need to use your science prereq course text books. Those are definitely more detailed than necessary. In general, what you need are good quality, up to date prep books, and good quality practice tests.

Concerning the rest of your questions, well, I took the MCAT in 2004, so I'll let others who are more up to date answer those for you. Best of luck. 🙂

 

[ismile2]

There are some things you can skimp on, but proper test prep materials shouldn't be one of them. In the whole scheme of how much medical school is going to cost you, $50 or $100 worth of MCAT prep materials is a drop in the ocean. So go ahead and spring for the new materials. The MCAT has changed a lot over the past decade, and as you noticed, our science knowledge has advanced quite a bit as well. 😉

No need to use your science prereq course text books. Those are definitely more detailed than necessary. In general, what you need are good quality, up to date prep books, and good quality practice tests.

Concerning the rest of your questions, well, I took the MCAT in 2004, so I'll let others who are more up to date answer those for you. Best of luck. 🙂

thanks a lot for your reply!
I read quite a bit on the forum to see which books are considered good for each section and understood TBR is one of the most liked ones (however to my disappointment I can't buy it in a bookstore and don't want to waste time in waiting for it to arrive in mail, EK VR is admired quite a bit (it is one of my weakest sections and I bought both: EK passage and EK VR and math review). I looked through princeton and it seemed to me that it was too detailed, and I liked the format of kaplan so bought (This year's edition 🙂 as per your advise)! Please let me know if I should invest into other books or my strategy seems okay.
Thanks

 

[MedPR]

thanks a lot for your reply!
I read quite a bit on the forum to see which books are considered good for each section and understood TBR is one of the most liked ones (however to my disappointment I can't buy it in a bookstore and don't want to waste time in waiting for it to arrive in mail, EK VR is admired quite a bit (it is one of my weakest sections and I bought both: EK passage and EK VR and math review). I looked through princeton and it seemed to me that it was too detailed, and I liked the format of kaplan so bought (This year's edition 🙂 as per your advise)! Please let me know if I should invest into other books or my strategy seems okay.
Thanks

The EK math review is a waste. Return that if you can.

I don't recommend using old books, but I do know from first hand experience that the 2006 princeton books are the same as the 2011.. so maybe thats true for most of the other companies as well.

Depending on how soon your MCAT is, your time might be better spent waiting for books to come in the mail rather than starting to study from outdated or sub-par prep materials. EK is great if you already have a pretty solid background in the pre-reqs, but it doesn't do much in terms of teaching you from scratch like TBR.

If you get in touch with BR Teach on SDN and stay in email contact with the TBR people, you might be able to get your books in 7-10 days like I did (5 days for me actually). The other good thing about TBR books is that you can sell them to someone on SDN for almost full price.

 

[ismile2]

The EK math review is a waste. Return that if you can.

I don't recommend using old books, but I do know from first hand experience that the 2006 princeton books are the same as the 2011.. so maybe thats true for most of the other companies as well.

Depending on how soon your MCAT is, your time might be better spent waiting for books to come in the mail rather than starting to study from outdated or sub-par prep materials. EK is great if you already have a pretty solid background in the pre-reqs, but it doesn't do much in terms of teaching you from scratch like TBR.

If you get in touch with BR Teach on SDN and stay in email contact with the TBR people, you might be able to get your books in 7-10 days like I did (5 days for me actually). The other good thing about TBR books is that you can sell them to someone on SDN for almost full price.

Thanks for your prompt reply. I am in canada so not sure how long will it take them to ship the books to me 🙁 , i have tried few people on SDN. My exam is in the first week of sept, do you think it would be waste of time to wait for the books, as i am not left with much of time.