MCAT Prep Materials

[NBKG]

So I'm looking to start studying for the MCAT. I will be graduating in June 2018 from my university but applying for the 2019 year for medical school... so I'm taking a year off to prepare for the MCAT and address other parts of my application. I have some questions:

1. Should I buy the study material now or buy it next summer? My guess is now since I personally want to start preparing as early as possible but I'm worried that if buy the 2018 prep material then it will be outdated or something... silly I know but I just want to make sure.

2. I want to study at my own pace. I was recommended to try Princeton but when I go to their website all they offer is their online tutoring program. Can I just buy a package of books and practice material and not pay for classes? If so, can somebody tell me the name of that package?

3. In general do you guys have any suggestions. I heard that Examkrackers is pretty good and my friend recommends Kaplan even though they are going for a dentist. I'm not trying to start another Kaplan vs Princeton vs Examcrackers vs etc thread. What I would like is for people to share what study materials they found useful for their preparation for the new MCAT. Like a list of items that they should think will help greatly in preparing for the MCAT. I'm open to hear about tutoring that these companies provide but as far as I know, I learned about 95% of material on my own in college. It is just how I learn things.

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[clairephillips]

1) Don't be afraid to buy old materials, particularly materials after 2015. For example, people are still using old pre-2015 Berkeley Review books with success, although they do have to supplement in Behavioral Sciences of course. Buy your materials and get to studying!
2) This is what you are looking for on the PR, but also try to get a CARS or old Verbal TPRH workbook and a TPR Science Workbook - ANY edition of these things will work because they just took out some passages and added somewhere around 5 new ones to the CARS workbook and in the Science Workbook someone said there were also less than 5 new passages and they had just taken out the freestanding questions:
Amazon product
Amazon product
Amazon product
3) Because I'm a rather ancient non-trad, I find I need more details and help than the quick overview EK can provide. I am going to be working primarily with TPR and TBR. I had good luck with TPR in 2014 (I got a 31 10/10/11, which was my goal) and will probably work more from it this time as well.
Also, for orgo, I'm surprised I'm not seeing recommendations for this book floating around. It saved my life in 2014, when I hadn't seen Orgo since 2001.
Amazon product

 

[clairephillips]

1) Don't be afraid to buy old materials, particularly materials after 2015. For example, people are still using old pre-2015 Berkeley Review books with success, although they do have to supplement in Behavioral Sciences of course. Buy your materials and get to studying!
2) This is what you are looking for on the PR, but also try to get a CARS or old Verbal TPRH workbook and a TPR Science Workbook - ANY edition of these things will work because they just took out some passages and added somewhere around 5 new ones to the CARS workbook and in the Science Workbook someone said there were also less than 5 new passages and they had just taken out the freestanding questions:
Amazon product
Amazon product
Amazon product
3) Because I'm a rather ancient non-trad, I find I need more details and help than the quick overview EK can provide. I am going to be working primarily with TPR and TBR. I had good luck with TPR in 2014 (I got a 31 10/10/11, which was my goal) and will probably work more from it this time as well.
Also, for orgo, I'm surprised I'm not seeing recommendations for this book floating around. It saved my life in 2014, when I hadn't seen Orgo since 2001.
Amazon product

The link to the TPR Verbal book isn't working. Just search for it... the book looks a lot like the Science Workbook does.

 

[workaholic181]

So I'm looking to start studying for the MCAT. I will be graduating in June 2018 from my university but applying for the 2019 year for medical school... so I'm taking a year off to prepare for the MCAT and address other parts of my application. I have some questions:

1. Should I buy the study material now or buy it next summer? My guess is now since I personally want to start preparing as early as possible but I'm worried that if buy the 2018 prep material then it will be outdated or something... silly I know but I just want to make sure.

2. I want to study at my own pace. I was recommended to try Princeton but when I go to their website all they offer is their online tutoring program. Can I just buy a package of books and practice material and not pay for classes? If so, can somebody tell me the name of that package?

3. In general do you guys have any suggestions. I heard that Examkrackers is pretty good and my friend recommends Kaplan even though they are going for a dentist. I'm not trying to start another Kaplan vs Princeton vs Examcrackers vs etc thread. What I would like is for people to share what study materials they found useful for their preparation for the new MCAT. Like a list of items that they should think will help greatly in preparing for the MCAT. I'm open to hear about tutoring that these companies provide but as far as I know, I learned about 95% of material on my own in college. It is just how I learn things.

1) Some of my books weren't this years edition but seemed completely fine! I would just buy them whenever you feel you might start making flashcards or reading through them to get a sense of things.

2) I just bought TPR books on amazon for pretty cheap. I'll sell you mine!
All kidding aside I really liked TPR especially for gen chem and o chem. Their psych was somewhat scattered IMO and left some areas not well attended to. I would advise using the khan academy vids to augment that book.

3) Khan academy vids for areas I was struggling in. Leah4Sci helped in some areas too especially MCAT math (free videos on youtube). Again, recommend TPR. I found out how valuable the AAMC study materials were until too late. I highly recommend the question packs and all their FLs obviously.

Good luck! Embrace the process.

 

[clairephillips]

Not sure why this link didn't work last time: Amazon product

The link to the TPR Verbal book isn't working. Just search for it... the book looks a lot like the Science Workbook does.

Ugh, the book is Organic Chemistry as a Second Language.