Prep books for self studying

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milktea475

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hi guys

Because of my school’s pre req requirements for taking biochemistry and physics, I have no choice but to self-teach myself physics and biochemistry before taking mcat.

What prep books do you guys think would work the best for the first time learner?

I want to finish learning new materials over the winter so that I can study mcat overall next spring and take mcat over the summer.

I am hesitant on getting tbr because i heard that tbr is very lengthy and in depth so can be overwhelming.
I’m a slow reader so I do not want to waste my time learning extra stuff.. however, at the same time I want to build strong basic understanding.

Is tbr suitable for ppl who takes a long time to read?

What other prep book did you guys most benefited from?

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I am using TBR for all of the sciences, EK and TPR for CARS, and TPR for pysch/soc. After looking at everything I could, talking to my big sib and her friends, and reading endless posts at SDN and reddit I settled on that combination. I am so glad I did. I looked at what people who scored really well (> 520) used and saw that for them it was pretty much anything worked. I looked at the 510-520 range and found this combination of books to be the most common. I also looked at 490-500 and decided to avoid those materials.

I'm almost done with the book portion of my review and I couldn't be any happier. This was by far the best choice for me. As MCATKings says, TBR books are big because they have great explanations that leave nothing to chance. They tell you both what is right and why the three wrong answers are wrong. They have crazy good shortcuts. I don't recommend them for CARS or Psych/Soc, but they have been amazing for chemistry, organic, physics, and biology.
 
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hi guys

Because of my school’s pre req requirements for taking biochemistry and physics, I have no choice but to self-teach myself physics and biochemistry before taking mcat.

What prep books do you guys think would work the best for the first time learner?

I want to finish learning new materials over the winter so that I can study mcat overall next spring and take mcat over the summer.

I am hesitant on getting tbr because i heard that tbr is very lengthy and in depth so can be overwhelming.
I’m a slow reader so I do not want to waste my time learning extra stuff.. however, at the same time I want to build strong basic understanding.

Is tbr suitable for ppl who takes a long time to read?

What other prep book did you guys most benefited from?
You do have a choice. You can take the courses and then take the MCAT.
 
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I'm not an incredibly fast reader and I used the Princeton Review for content review. I also supplemented it with ExamKrackers for CARS and NextStep for Psych/Soc! These books really helped me improve my score from my first practice test!
 
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It's not even a contest. I took the old MCAT, did well, but unfortunately my scores expired before I applied. I took the new MCAT with no psychology or sociology background and a couple years removed from the sciences. TBR was by far and away the best books out there. Great tricks and great questions.
 
i'm using new kaplan and old EK.... nice combo..... i alternate the books. when i am getting lost in the trees, i go back to EK. when it seems like my knowledge is too superficial, i go back to kaplan.

i bought a fairly recent Barron's MCAT guide very very cheaply........ i think it's actually very good. i think you could use it for the exam with few worries. could maybe use a bit more visual content.....
 
Books : Kaplan Biochem, EK + TBR physics, TPR psych/socio + CARS. *SUPPLEMENT WITH KHAN ACADEMY MCAT SECTION FOR ALL CONTENT REVIEW*
 
hi guys

Because of my school’s pre req requirements for taking biochemistry and physics, I have no choice but to self-teach myself physics and biochemistry before taking mcat.

What prep books do you guys think would work the best for the first time learner?

I want to finish learning new materials over the winter so that I can study mcat overall next spring and take mcat over the summer.

I am hesitant on getting tbr because i heard that tbr is very lengthy and in depth so can be overwhelming.
I’m a slow reader so I do not want to waste my time learning extra stuff.. however, at the same time I want to build strong basic understanding.

Is tbr suitable for ppl who takes a long time to read?

What other prep book did you guys most benefited from?

Hi!

Just a disclaimer: I have a bias here because I studied for the MCAT with Princeton Review and I have taught for them for many years.

That being said, I want to add that equally important to the books you're considering investing in, is to make sure you have a great source for practice questions and full length practice tests. Sometimes students spend so much time reviewing the contents with lengthy books, that you forget to do questions (for strategy) and full length timed tests (for pacing). Be sure you spend at least half or more of your study time doing these latter activities because it's critical, in my opinion. The AAMC has several practice tests you can buy. Commercial companies often provide a lot of their own proprietary tests as well if you end up taking a class. I only took six tests before my MCAT and for me that was more than enough given my time constraints. It usually took me at least a week to work through all the things I had missed to learn something for each of those questions.

I hope that helps. Good luck studying!

David
======================
David Savage, MD, PhD
 
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