Old tbr books?

[akimhaneul]

Hi

My TBR books are from 2013. Are these still ok to use? Anyone using the old books to prepare for 2017 exams?


I also have kaplan books from 2015.


Thanks!


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[SiakTiDoc]

I think the Kaplan books should be fine, I used both the 2015 and also the 2016 (friend's copy) and for the most part the content seemed the same.

I think the O chem books for TBR are a little overkill, but I found the Physics books a good supplement for topics that weren't explained too well on Kaplan (imo).
For the most part I relied on the Kaplan books for content and the TBR books for extra practice via the passages.

Good Luck Op~

 

[Coltuna]

TBR Gen Chem and Physics are the money makers. 2013 edition is fine.

 

[akimhaneul]

Does old tbr bio not have enough biochem?


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[aldol16]

If you're using books that were designed for the old MCAT to prep for the new MCAT, I think you already know the problem. Lot less biochem on the old MCAT and no psychology/sociology section. There's nothing wrong with the Kaplan 2015 books that were designed for the new MCAT.

 

[greatrisk001]

The Kaplan books don't have a lot of biochemistry passages though. Any ideas on what we should use to practice biochem passages?

 

[AvocadoADay]

I had the same question and ultimately decided to purchase just the updated physical sciences books for more experiment based passages (weak area).
-They made a lot of changes to the updated Orgo books, especially Book II.
-Updated TBR Orgo Book II is dedicated to just Biochemistry and would be worth the money, methinks.
-The downside of Kaplan Biochem is that they do not have MCAT style passage-based questions.
-If I were you, I would at least purchase the new Orgo TBR books for the practice.

 

[aldol16]

The Kaplan books don't have a lot of biochemistry passages though. Any ideas on what we should use to practice biochem passages?

Khan Academy practice passages and AAMC materials (QPacks, Section Bank, etc.). You're using content review books for content review. No test prep company that I know of has really good MCAT-style passages in any of the subjects. They try, but they fall short in many ways. So I used Kaplan just for content review and then skipped on to AAMC Section Bank and QPacks. I also did Khan Academy passages in B/BC because those are especially good.

 

[akimhaneul]

Are the passages in old tbr books not really useful anymore?
I thought they were good for really learning the content?

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[greatrisk001]

Hopefully @Miami_Postbac will let us know if the old material is ok for the exam
And I think the old TBR books are good for passages, but I just started with the physics books. EK 2015 for review + old TBR for practice.

I'm following mcatjelly's schedule

 

[5words]

The 2013 cp books are fine...it's a test of cognitive ability with foundational content.

The 2016 biology BR text had plenty of biochem (2 chapters)

So how was the exam?

 

[Gilakend]

There's nothing else I could have done - not in the form of practice or content or mental prep.

Best focused I've ever been. Didn't lose focus until a nice Thai girl in yoga pants caught my eye for about 1/8th of a second while checking my answers on psych. All business until then.

I'm optimistic although I did make some mistakes. Feel I performed at my limit - what's left would be raw intellectual ability.

Old BRs are fine for everything except biochem.

Good to know, so say I have the old TBR books and the EK 2015 books. Would you recommend using the old TBR bio books at all supplemented with EK or just invest in the new TBR bio books? What did you use for bio review?

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

As pointed out in this thread by someone who used the books and took the MCAT, old BR books are fine. Many people have been getting great scores using a mixture of old and new BR books. I have posted my opinion about this a few times and it repeatedly gets reaffirmed (thank you Miami_postbac). I also point out that Organic Book II (the current one) has a large amount of biochemistry and if you only get one new book, that is the one to get. That book is where we added a significant amount of structural biochemistry and biological reactivity. It also has shortcuts for sugars, isoelectric point, and so on.

However, I do want to add that at this point you shouldn't have to ask the question about new books versus old books. If you are looking to save money buying used books, there are now plenty of the 2016 books floating around. I know we were late to market (the last of our new books came out at the start of Summer 2016), but that was to make sure we modeled it after the MCAT and not a practice exam written in 2013 and released in early 2014. Our newest books are the best materials for the MCAT period, with our older ones running second. If you can get older books used for $200 versus current used ones for $300, why not spend the extra money? They'll have higher resale value and the amount you are saving is what it costs to apply to a couple medical schools. Again, old books are fine and if you have them already, you'll be fine. But the new ones are better, and if you are shopping for used books (or new), choose the current ones.

One thing I would ask/suggest is that if you are shopping for used BR books (or selling them), do it through SDN classifieds. It is a great community and we suggest to our students to sell their books there, as opposed to other places. Amazon is NOT an official seller, and the books there are often VERY old and overpriced. Ebay is also a pool of outdated books and Craigslist is often a crime waiting to happen.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

I want to add a plea and a thank you if I may. It has little to do with this thread, but there are so many good people in this thread that I want to mention it. A while back, someone wrote us an email demanding their money back for a PDF version because it was incomplete. At first we thought it was someone playing a joke, because there is no PDF version and it was worded poorly enough to seem fishy. But this person was serious and had no clue they were in possession of pirated materials, thinking that they had purchased a secondhand copy of an actual product. After a few exchanges they realized what they had done and their tone changed. To make amends, they gave us some great insight about something we just flat out didn't realize. In exchange, we sent them a free set of books as a way of saying thank you for opening our eyes to how much thievery happens. Much of it is by people who honestly don't know the impact their actions are having. We had no clue how rampant it was and further had no idea that many people using these pirated materials didn't realize it was stolen material (assuming that the pdf they bought was legit).

So I want to start by saying thank you so very much to the honest people who pay for the materials, both new from us and used from someone selling actual books. We are a very small business that some years operates in the red. You help us to stay afloat in tough years and in good years allow us to donate to various causes. We believe in the highest quality (compare the little things like the ink quality, page thickness, and page brightness in our books) and being small means things cost more to make. We have never been in this business to be rich (as many people have repeatedly pointed out when commenting on our poor website and archaic business methods). We have always prided ourselves on giving everything we've got to help our students attain their goals. Our classes feel like families. We love this, because we love our students. Everyone in our company is a teacher.

So what I'm asking now is that if you are considering PDFs, please don't. Please purchase real books. If you buy used books (from SDN classifieds), then someone else can recoup some of what they spent. If you buy new ones, then we can stay in business, and hopefully you can sell yours to someone else (on SDN classifieds). Given how much money the application process costs, medical school costs, and so on, we know what you are up against. But, is saving a $100 or so (the cost of our books and shipping minus what you can get back after selling them once you're done) worth the karma?

 

[WanderingGraduate]

As pointed out in this thread by someone who used the books and took the MCAT, old BR books are fine. Many people have been getting great scores using a mixture of old and new BR books. I have posted my opinion about this a few times and it repeatedly gets reaffirmed (thank you Miami_postbac). I also point out that Organic Book II (the current one) has a large amount of biochemistry and if you only get one new book, that is the one to get. That book is where we added a significant amount of structural biochemistry and biological reactivity. It also has shortcuts for sugars, isoelectric point, and so on.

However, I do want to add that at this point you shouldn't have to ask the question about new books versus old books. If you are looking to save money buying used books, there are now plenty of the 2016 books floating around. I know we were late to market (the last of our new books came out at the start of Summer 2016), but that was to make sure we modeled it after the MCAT and not a practice exam written in 2013 and released in early 2014. Our newest books are the best materials for the MCAT period, with our older ones running second. If you can get older books used for $200 versus current used ones for $300, why not spend the extra money? They'll have higher resale value and the amount you are saving is what it costs to apply to a couple medical schools. Again, old books are fine and if you have them already, you'll be fine. But the new ones are better, and if you are shopping for used books (or new), choose the current ones.

One thing I would ask/suggest is that if you are shopping for used BR books (or selling them), do it through SDN classifieds. It is a great community and we suggest to our students to sell their books there, as opposed to other places. Amazon is NOT an official seller, and the books there are often VERY old and overpriced. Ebay is also a pool of outdated books and Craigslist is often a crime waiting to happen.

So I purchased the full BR set back in 2014 thinking I was going to study hard and score well on the test. I probably only got through 2/3 to 3/4 of the first biology book and took the test. I seriously rushed into this because I didn't want to take the new test after hearing so many horror stories about how bad it was going to be. I scored a 22 and I'm now going to be seriously preparing for the exam. Three to Four months of scheduled studying should be enough for me.

On to my questions:

1. Should I purchase 2016 Bio I & II books just to get that fresh start? I could sell the old ones fairly easily I presume.
2. Is the old critical analysis book sufficient for the updated exam or should I purchase the new CARS book?
3. Do you feel confident about the quality of the Psychology book since it is the newest addition to the set? (Related question) What should I do about sociology?