Okay, TBR for Bio review or EK

[nabilesmail]

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Hey guys, So I seriously suck at TBR Bio passages using EK for Bio review. I don't know what to do, I'm averaging about 56% in TBR Bio Passages. I just completed EK chapter 4 phase 1/2 of Tbr passages and EK 30 minutes+ 1001 bio questions for them.

On the 1001's I score 70-83%
on the Ek 30 minutes I scores 1-14 2-10 3-12 4-9 (;/)

and I have only broke 70% ONCE!!!!! on TBR Bio

I want to do every thing possible to do well on the Bio section of the MCAT 13+

Will EK do this for me? I never took a physiology course and My gen bio class never emphasized any of the systems (we just were told to read the chapter and take an online quiz so I never studied any of them and just took the quiz after reading the chapter, so my physiology base is pretty bad. I'm pretty much learning physiology as I read these books).

Should I read TBR from now on, I know its more detail oriented but should I do it anyways to increase my score. I'm getting scared now. I just started content review 1 month ago and am almost half way through, I'm taking the exam on May 31st.

or maybe I should read TPR Biology?

 

[whatwedo]

TBR's Bio books are more detail than you need. Don't worry about some of the details they throw at you. However, their passages are good, and in the same vein as you'll see on the real test.

 

[nabilesmail]

The thing is I don't feel like I have the knowledge to answer their passages. For example, the TBR passages really emphasized some of the anatomy of the eye/brain, like optic nerve etc. EK never even mentioned the optic nerve and just groups the lower brain 3 parts and upper brain and says probably 2 sentences total.

I'm not doing well in TBR. I'll be doing all the TPR science workbook passages as well once I'm done with content review. Do you think i should do TPR first and then TBR once I have my content review down?

 

[Erythropoietin]

The thing is I don't feel like I have the knowledge to answer their passages. For example, the TBR passages really emphasized some of the anatomy of the eye/brain, like optic nerve etc. EK never even mentioned the optic nerve and just groups the lower brain 3 parts and upper brain and says probably 2 sentences total.

I'm not doing well in TBR. I'll be doing all the TPR science workbook passages as well once I'm done with content review. Do you think i should do TPR first and then TBR once I have my content review down?

they are both detail oriented. i would still go with tpr

 

[411309]

I use TBR for physiology/anatomy and TPR for molecular. TPRs genetic chapter is gold and helped me a ton. I dont think EK bio is any good at all unless you already know a lot about bio. If you don't know a lot about bio you need tpr at least.

And I think TBR passages are tougher than the real thing as far as bio. TBR bio passages on part 2 range anywhere from hard to downright impossible, lol

 

[happymedium]

And I think TBR passages are tougher than the real thing as far as bio. TBR bio passages on part 2 range anywhere from hard to downright impossible, lol

God I hope so. I'm a bio major and I've been getting like 55-65% on the few sections I've done.

 

[mcloaf]

Honestly, I think going all the way through TBR bio is just way past the point of diminishing returns on your time investment. I've been using EK for bio content and doing TBR bio passages as well, and not always doing so hot. In spite of this I've gotten 13+ on all the AAMC practice tests, so the level of detail in TBR bio is not necessary to perform well in real exams.

I find there's an average of one anatomy question per test that I miss because I don't possess that knowledge, but I don't think taking the time to learn it would be worth it at this point, since I'd prefer to cede that brain space to more important things (endocrinology, etc.). Also, I would agree with ColeSmalls that TBR bio passages are generally tougher than AAMC stuff. That being said, they are good practice as many of the MCAT bio passages won't be stuff you've directly studied or memorized, you'll just have to figure it out logically, which is completely doable without the detail in TBR.

This should be taken with a grain of salt, though, as I was a molecular biology major and so haven't needed to review the molecular, bacteriology, or genetics aspects of bio whatsoever. TBR may be helpful in those areas if you need to brush up. For me, I didn't know anything about anatomy/physiology, and have found the level of detail in EK to be more than adequate for 99% of what you're likely to encounter on an MCAT.

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

I use TBR for physiology/anatomy and TPR for molecular. TPRs genetic chapter is gold and helped me a ton. I dont think EK bio is any good at all unless you already know a lot about bio. If you don't know a lot about bio you need tpr at least.

And I think TBR passages are tougher than the real thing as far as bio. TBR bio passages on part 2 range anywhere from hard to downright impossible, lol

I actually really like EK bio. I can honestly say I can only think of 1 question on an AAMC BS section that I didn't feel I could have answered using EK. I don't have much of a prior Biology background either. Not trying to say that EK is better than TPR or TBR, just that I believe it is sufficient.

 

[sbuxaddict]

I did the passages for enzymes in TBR after reviewing the material in EK, and my jaw just dropped because I had no clue how to interpret the Lineweaver Burke plots. In a real test situation, I wouldn't have had the time to figure that out because of the time limit.

But after reading the TBR sections, I saw that their passages are really designed for the review of the material they're presenting. I've heard a lot of people say on SDN that it's way too much depth and that EK is better, so what I've been doing is going by EK and reading the corresponding chapters in BR that I feel weren't adequately covered in BR/sections I'm weaker in. (ie, enzymes/cellular respiration, etc).

 

[nabilesmail]

Hmm maybe I should get TPR fpr review.

Mcloaf, what were you averaging on TBR passages?

I really like EK, and enjoy reading it, its just I feel pretty discouraged at this point. Initially I thought (I heard part 2 is just the hard part of TBR so once I get to the physio it should be better). But I got a 56% on both phase 1 and 2 of the Nervous system passages.

How do you guys compare TPR physio vs EK physio?

also do you guys memorize all the itallics in EK Bio?

 

[TripleDeke96]

I've been using TBR Bio exclusively because my bio knowledge is brutal (I tried EK at first and it didn't offer enough detail for me). But, after going through about 4 chapters of TBR, I've been so overwhelmed with the amount of detail to the point where it gets frustrating. You should definitely check out TPR bio, knowing that it's more detailed than EK but not going incredibly overboard like TBR.

Good luck!

 

[nabilesmail]

I've been using TBR Bio exclusively because my bio knowledge is brutal (I tried EK at first and it didn't offer enough detail for me). But, after going through about 4 chapters of TBR, I've been so overwhelmed with the amount of detail to the point where it gets frustrating. You should definitely check out TPR bio, knowing that it's more detailed than EK but not going incredibly overboard like TBR.

Good luck!

Thanks

 

[mcloaf]

Hmm maybe I should get TPR fpr review.

Mcloaf, what were you averaging on TBR passages?

I would say off hand that I probably miss an average of one question per passage, sometimes three or more, sometimes none. Obviously that varies with the subject matter (I usually get more of the more topical molecular stuff, and tend to miss more in the anatomy/physiology passages, and I got obliterated by the reproductive/developmental TBR portion). Certainly missing one per passage would be bad on real MCAT passages, but I'm doing fine on the AAMC practice bio sections (ochem is not a problem for me) so I think it's safe to say that you can do less than stellar in TBR bio and still be fine for the real thing. I would try and make sure you can nail all the stuff in the EK In-Class exams and you should be fine.

 

[nabilesmail]

See, I'm missing about 50% on TBR Bio passages and I want a 13+ so I definitely need to do something different. I'm going to try TPR Bio, just bought it =]. Should I reread all the Bio chapters I've read so far?

 

[411309]

I actually really like EK bio. I can honestly say I can only think of 1 question on an AAMC BS section that I didn't feel I could have answered using EK. I don't have much of a prior Biology background either. Not trying to say that EK is better than TPR or TBR, just that I believe it is sufficient.

When you take the real mcat and have a test centered on genetics youll see how inadequately EK prepares you for genetics..

 

[MedPR]

BR was pretty hard for me in the beginning, but the passages for EK 3, 4, and 5 have been pretty straight forward. I got about 55% on the passages for EK 1 and 2, but I did the math today for the first 2/3 of EK 3, 4, and 5 and I've gotten 82%. I think TBR mellows out a bit, but maybe I'm getting more out of EK than before.

 

[mcloaf]

See, I'm missing about 50% on TBR Bio passages and I want a 13+ so I definitely need to do something different. I'm going to try TPR Bio, just bought it =]. Should I reread all the Bio chapters I've read so far?

Have you taken any FLs yet? I still hesitate to correlate performance on the two so I'd recommend you do so before getting too worried.

 

[nabilesmail]

BR was pretty hard for me in the beginning, but the passages for EK 3, 4, and 5 have been pretty straight forward. I got about 55% on the passages for EK 1 and 2, but I did the math today for the first 2/3 of EK 3, 4, and 5 and I've gotten 82%. I think TBR mellows out a bit, but maybe I'm getting more out of EK than before.

The thing is I haver done about 55-65% for EK 3,4 as well. My physio background is 0, before a week ago I didn't even know what myelin sheath was!

and I haven;t started taking FL's yet. I'm almost halfway done with content review and will have about 2 months to do FL's. I won't have time to delay and this is my only chance to take the MCAT (seriously it is lol, I won't have time again to study for it since I took this semester light and will be taking heavy heavy semesters next year).

 

[MedPR]

I still like EK for concept review. TBR covers a lot more detail than EK.. My plan is to keep doing EK for review and using TBR for passages and if the FLs seem to be a lot more Bio intensive than EK I'm going to go back and read specific areas of TBR

 

[nabilesmail]

Hey guys, so I just received my TPR Bio book in the mail.

I had planned to go through my TPR science workbook for all of Bio and any chapters I didn't do so hot on for a week after I finish content review and before starting FL's.

Should I....

A) Continue EK reading through SN2 schedule (I'm halfway done), and read the TPR chapter along doing the TPR passages when I get to it?

B) Stop reading EK and start reading TPR now

If I start reading TPR, how do I approach the fact that it is too detailed? I have notes for all the EK chapters so I usually just spend time reading the EK chapter. Then I read the notes and do passages/1001 and add notes onto the pre-notes I already have. The fact that I already have these notes saves me a bunch of time because it takes me forever to read+ take notes.

If I do A) should I just read slowly without taking notes just to try and understand a bit more? or should I take notes along with this book as well and add them on to my EK notes.

Thanks!