Self study for MCAT question

[Rankik]

Hey everyone,

I've been looking over the sections on MCAT to figure out which material would be best for me to use to prepare for the test. I'm the type that can read out of a science textbook and understand the material, thus I perfer studying alone.

I have looked at the different material and it seems that the BR (at least on this site) has the best rating overall, with the exception in verbal. My question is can you use the BR as a self study? I have read that it involves classes and I was wondering if these are required? Or is all the information in their books that you can learn from them?

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[canIbeAdoctor]

I took TBR this summer and didn't read most of what was in their books, but I did use the books alot for physio since I haven't taken a physio course yet. To me, it seemed like everything that was covered in lecture was covered in the books, and then some.

There's a lot of detail in the bio books, so those should be good. Maybe a little bit too much detail. The physics chem and o chem books are just great. They summarize the material great, have great tricks in them for answering questions, and have great ways of remembering things.

 

[Rankik]

That's good to hear . Anyone else have experience or info if BR can be used as self study only?

 

[sphun65]

Take a look into the EK books as well. They are more condensed. This is key because there may come a point when knowing every last detail is counterproductive. Their 1001 questions books are also helpful and are good supplemental material to the books. They were especially helpful to me when going over weak areas. After spending a week going through half of the problems in the physics 1001 workbook, I was able to increase my PS score from ~9 to ~12. The questions are mostly difficult and tricky, I hated doing them, but the proof that it works is certainly there.

If you have taken the pre-req courses recently, there is no reason to go crazy with the content review. There isn't a need to take a prep course, and if you feel strongly about a particular section, spend your time elsewhere. For example, if you suck at physics and are the bomb in bio, spend most of your time studying physics. If you were to feel especially strong about bio, you could skip it entirely and focus on concepts that you get wrong in practice tests. The key is to identify all weak areas and attack them. The best way to accomplish this is by taking many practice tests (aim for 15+) and reviewing them meticulously. Good luck.

 

[Tin Man]

I liked EK because of their (fairly accurate) assessment about what's "too complicated" to be on the MCAT, what equations will probably be given in the passage, etc. They give a very basic review of everything you NEED to know for the MCAT, with mentions of some aspects that come up but are explained if they do. Basically, if you remember everything you learn from EK, you should get a pretty good grade on the MCAT.

 

[TwoPaddles]

TBR and EK are both nice.

 

[freothalaf]

I started out with EK but found they were lacking in everything except Biology and Verbal. So I got BR for Chem, Ochem, and Physics and found them exceptional for home study. They are long chapters so you have to make sure you have the time, but they explain things very clearly and have 100 questions per chapter to nail the material in your brain. So if you are doing self study you can try EK but I recommend BR.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Take a look into the EK books as well. They are more condensed.

Are they really? I hear some people say this who base it strictly on the thickness of the books, not considering that 60% of the BR books are practice passages and answer explanations. If you were to strip out all but two or three passages per chapter and make the print size the same as EK, I'll bet the books are pretty much the same size. This came up in a thread back in the Spring, and that's what someone found when comparing EK and BR side by side (except for Bio).

I started out with EK but found they were lacking in everything except Biology and Verbal. So I got BR for Chem, Ochem, and Physics and found them exceptional for home study. They are long chapters so you have to make sure you have the time, but they explain things very clearly and have 100 questions per chapter to nail the material in your brain. So if you are doing self study you can try EK but I recommend BR.

I completely concur. The 100 questions per chapter range from simple recall to challenging and thought-provoking, so it takes a while to get through each chapter. But there is no better way to prepare for a test where almost all of the questions are based on a reading passage than to practice with passages and questions. It's time well spent.

Too many people get a false sense of security by reading a chapter and thinking because they know the material and have the concepts and equations memorized that they are ready for the exam. There is no way to just read text and do free standing questions and be prepared for this exam.

 

[sphun65]

Are they really? I hear some people say this who base it strictly on the thickness of the books, not considering that 60% of the BR books are practice passages and answer explanations. If you were to strip out all but two or three passages per chapter and make the print size the same as EK, I'll bet the books are pretty much the same size. This came up in a thread back in the Spring, and that's what someone found when comparing EK and BR side by side (except for Bio).

No.

 

[LostInStudy]

The TBR physics book is actually shorter, if you take just the text, than the EK book.

Anyway, here's my assessment of it all. OP I think a lot depends on where you are at in your knowledge base. If you know everything fairly well and just finished the core classes then EK would probably work as content review only but nonetheless you would still need practice passages. TBR has the best passages in PS and Organic and I don't mean just a little better, their passages are significantly better than any non-AAMC company I practiced from (TPR, Kaplan, EK, GS).

Here's something I posted earlier in my advice thread:

Okay, so I can't technically say what you need or don't need because everybody has their own unique background but I can tell you guys what I used and what I thought. Also be mindful that content and practice are different. Some books have good practice but bad content or vice versa, I've bolded it just in case.

Physics: TPR Hyperlearning and TBR Physics for content (reading and learning it). I read both of them which doesn't take that long because once you read TPR you can basically skim TBR for tips/shortcuts, all in all though I thought that after the first chapter TBR content sucked especially for electricity and circuits. For practice I did EK 1001 Physics, TPR Science Workbook, and TBR passages

G. Chem: TBR G. Chem is a wonderful book. Yes, it is a bit long but the extra time is worth it to solidify the concepts. TBR has everything content-wise you could need. If you ever have a question as to whether to memorize something or not check out the AAMC outlines. For practice I used EK 1001 Chem (especially great), TPR Science Workbook, and TBR Passages

Organic: TBR O. Chem for content. This is the best book they have and in my opinion one of the best MCAT books on the market period. Yes, they get into a bit of detail but don't memorize anything unless they specifically tell you to or if you're getting questions wrong in passages. For practice I used EK 1001 Organic (pretty good actually and I went through it very quickly), TPR Science Workbook, TBR passages.

Bio: I used a combination here of TPR Hyperlearning Biology and EK Biology for content. It worked great for me and was what I needed. TPR explains things to you like you know nothing and they don't really give you extraneous info like TBR LOVES to for bio. For practice I did TBR Bio passages, EK 1001 Bio, and TPR Science Workbook.

The order I give of the practice goes from my rankings of overall quality in increasing order, for example in physics it goes TBR>TPR>EK. That doesn't mean one is bad or good it's just my opinion on the usefulness. For practice, I think each set served it's own purpose. EK 1001 were good for building a general base knowledge and getting all the subtleties of the sciences down. TPR Science Workbook was great at giving you passages of varying difficult and testing your passage comprehension and understanding of content. TBR was good at testing how well you knew the content and passage comprehension skills. TBR has a lot of really hard passages so for PS and organic, that's why they rank #1 for practice.

Even though there's no objective way to rank content because it depends on the student and what clicks for him/her I'm going to give my advice anyway. I'm a big fan of the TPR Hyperlearning content books because I think they teach everything to you from the ground up and assume you know nothing (unlike EK). They hold your hand through the material and give plenty of great in-book questions. However, for both Chemistry subjects TBR is best, in my opinion.

-LIS

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[Rankik]

Thanks for all the info everyone! I will have to look into the EK books as well and make a combination of both.

 

[TwoPaddles]

Thanks for all the info everyone! I will have to look into the EK books as well and make a combination of both.

Search around the forum because I heard EK is not that good for the PS section topics.