For those wondering how 1st Ed. compare to the 2nd Ed.:
I was going to apply for medical school last cycle but I had a serious illness midway through MCAT prep and had to postpone to this year. So I have the unfortunate, but distinct pleasure of owning both the 1st edition and the 2nd edition of this set.
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TL;DR (Better get used to reading long, excessive literature if you preparing for the MCAT ) 🙂
Get the 1st edition if $ is tight. Save your money for the AMCAS/AACOMAS. The two editions are basically the same. I would recommend getting two books from the second edition – The Psychology and Sociology Review and the new Biochemistry Review. The Biology Review is pretty good too.
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The second edition corrects glaring mistakes found in the first edition, such as one of the main kinematics equations in one of the example problems listed as ½ (Vo-V)t on page 53; corrected to ½ ( Vo + V)t on the second edition.
There’s very few new content. Briefly skimming and picking random topics to compare in the two editions, the vast majority of content is identical almost page for page – same exact paragraphs, diagrams, charts, images, example problems, explanations, etc. More importantly, the vast majority of review questions and single practice passage at the end of each chapter is the same. There are a handful of passages that are new to the second edition, but most are just recycled from the first edition. I’m really disappointed because according to the AAMC, the new MCAT tests and focuses more on “multidisciplinary approach in critical thinking, data interpretation, and analysis applied to experiments and experimental research”, and I’ve read many students struggle on these type of passages. So I was hoping the second edition would have more experimental based passages for practice.
New content is very minor, and few and far in between for The Biology Review. For example, the old Biology and Biochemistry Review has 3 sections for “Statistics and Research Methods”. They moved those three sections to the Appendix of the Physics and Math Review – 2nd Edition, and added a new section – Conducting Experiments on Humans. It is 3 paragraphs of really basic info. There are also various minor changes to the Biology Review and a handful of different end of chapter practice passages, but almost everything else is the same between the two editions.
In terms of similarity, the Organic Chemistry, General Chemistry, and Physics Review are virtually identical between the first and second edition. The new MCAT tests less from these three subjects anyways, and given that the content is virtually identical, I feel that getting the first edition would be perfectly fine for content review on these subjects. Likewise, the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills Review is virtually identical between the first and second edition.
The Psychology and Sociology Review has more noticeable improvements between the 2 editions, e.g., in the first edition, there were cartoon drawings of facial expressions representing various emotional states versus actual facial expressions in the second edition. Some topics also contain better explanations, examples, etc. However, the second edition still recycles almost all the same end of chapter review questions and practice passage.
In the 2nd edition, they pulled out the chapter on Biochemistry Review and made it a standalone book, and expanded on the topics significantly, including NEW end of chapter review questions and single practice passage. Still doesn’t include Michaelis-Menten despite it being on the official AAMC topic list.
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Final thoughts:
I think The Princeton Review Princeton Review MCAT Subject Review Complete Box Set, 2nd Edition is a pretty good MCAT prep source ( 3.5/5). In my opinion, I think The Princeton Review strikes a decent balance between EK (very brief, concise) and Kaplan/TBR (maybe too detailed) in terms of depth in their content review. From what I’ve read so far, none of the major prep companies has come up with good practice passages representative of the new MCAT, except the AAMC materials. Get the second edition if you don’t have it and want to use TPR as your primary MCAT prep source. However, first edition is also fine. Another valid option is to get the Psychology and Sociology Review, Biochemistry Review, and possibly Biology Review from TPR, and use another company for the other three subjects.
I want to wish all of you the best of luck on this journey. Study hard; study long. We are not alone in the suffering! It will all be worth it in the end.
By Johnny from Amazon.
