Similarities between MCAT Verbal, EK 101, and TPR Verbal

[ieatshrimp24]

A lot of people recommend either EK 101 Verbal or TPR Verbal for study practice. I can't buy anymore books so the verbal self assessment by AAMC is out of the question. In terms of answer explanations and question types, which one (EK 101 and TPR Verbal) is more similar to the real thing? And more importantly, why?

I am a few weeks away from doing my first full length and I've mostly done TPR rather than EK 101 although I'm going to switch over soon. Just wondering whether I should invest more of my time understanding answer explanations from EK or TPR.

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[Cawolf]

I have doing verbal out of both books for a couple months.

I have also completed AAMC # 3.

IMO, the "feel" of TPRH is more aligned with the question style of the full length exam.

I also have very "swingy" performance on EK 101. My performance is more consistent with TPRH, which for me personally, provides better reinforcement of the techniques I am practicing.

 

[TheAnonymous]

A lot of people recommend either EK 101 Verbal or TPR Verbal for study practice. I can't buy anymore books so the verbal self assessment by AAMC is out of the question. In terms of answer explanations and question types, which one (EK 101 and TPR Verbal) is more similar to the real thing? And more importantly, why?

I am a few weeks away from doing my first full length and I've mostly done TPR rather than EK 101 although I'm going to switch over soon. Just wondering whether I should invest more of my time understanding answer explanations from EK or TPR.

TPR in my opinion is much more representative of the actual MCAT VR. The passages in EK101 are way more interesting and easier to read and the questions imo are not very representative (maybe 50% of them are). Id invest in TPR.

 

[NextStepTutor_3]

Definitely TPR, specifically since you mentioned answer explanations. EK 101 has plenty of good passages, but many of the explanations are confusing, and occasionally there really does seem to be more than one correct answer. I also agree with the above post that EK passages are easier to read - many seem almost like stories, and few mimic the sheer density of the more difficult MCAT VR passages.

On the other hand, if you like doing tons of passages, you really can't beat EK in terms of bulk. But doing a smaller number of very representative passages is certainly better than many "un-MCAT-like" ones.