Question: How would I prepare for the experimental passages in B/B
You don't prepare for the section bank tests and those experimental passages using content books, you use the SB's as a guide for where you are weak and learn how to improve in those weak areas.
For instance, in one of the SB questions there is a bar graph with the results of research done with rats related to cancer. The passage before the bar graph relates to the actual research done, the pathway, mumbo-jumbo enzymes we're not expected to know, etc.
The first question relates to the pathway. another question relates to the bar graph - how does x effect y and if that causal relationship exists, what caused the effect?
I screen shot that entire passage, and then any question I got wrong, I wrote it down on the page and then the explanation in my own words. Any question I got right, I made sure to know if I got it right because I understood it correctly OR if I got it right because I crossed off the obviously wrong choices. If the latter, I wrote that down as well.
If I had been given one piece of advice before I started all this, it would be AAMC, Khan and nothing else. I could have saved myself a LOT of $$$.
The only additional piece of advice I can give anyone - is that if you're bored with the AAMC materials or run out of them, dig up research papers on PubMed and read them. Get used to reading real research with all the variables and things we're not expected to know. While doing so, try to make an educated guess as to the PI's conclusion and ask yourself "Why" ...
My method IS very time consuming and detailed. I want to make sure I understand the "WHY" of the passage and conclusion because that's what the MCAT tests. Thinking... not rote regurgitation of factoids.
This is solid advice. Question: How would I prepare for the experimental passages in B/B (I hear a lot of people are having trouble with that because some review books don't really prepare you for that) - Which review books do you recommend?
