Studying physics with "for Dummies" books?

[Elizabethx89]

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[ed101123]

Give Khan academy a look. It without a doubt got me through both semesters of physics. The physics on the MCAT is algebra based and is mostly conceptual. the passages will give you all the information you need to answer the question s once you get through the useless info they give you

 

[Elizabethx89]

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[ed101123]

also look up leah4sci. com she has a free series called physics for MCAT that os really awesome. I used that to study for the MCAT also

 

[kraskadva]

IMO, the for dummies series is good for explaining confusing concepts when you're seeing them for the 1st time. Their practice problems/answer keys tend to have errors though, so watch out for that.
I second Khan Academy, and also check out wikipremed.com - they have a lot of free resources and their physics material is really good (the orgo and gen chem stuff there is also decent, but the bio and verbal is kinda crap)

 

[Elizabethx89]

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[the_fella]

I started out using Khan (the MCAT Physics section of the site, specifically), but realized that a lot of what he went over wasn't on the MCAT, and it seemed like I was wasting my time.

 

[Elizabethx89]

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[Gauss44]

Response to title:

I recommend Nova's The MCAT Physics Book for self study.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=nova mcat physics&sprefix=nova mcat,aps

Haven't tried Physics for Dummies. There's also all of this: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/free-stuff/1247592/ MIT's Walter Lewin teaches an amazing physics class. If you've had calculus, you should try out one of his free online lectures in the Fat Wallet link to see if you like it.

 

[Elizabethx89]

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[Elizabethx89]

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[edgerock24]

Wanted to say thanks SO much for the Khan recommendations. While I do have concerns that he waters content down a little too much for MCAT purposes, I finally understand what those graphs my review books kept throwing at me mean. 😀 Glad to finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. I registered to take the MCAT on January 23 (exactly 4 months and 1 day from now!), so it's a great relief to feel like taking it that day might actually be possible as long as these videos keep working for me. It's nice to know Khan has video sets for the other subjects I need to study, too. If only I knew about this resource before I spent hundreds on various review books haha.

Yeah, I find Khan great to introduce new material to students. Freelance teacher, in my opinion, is much better for 'actual learning' because he incorporates good examples into his videos. All the best for your MCAT!!

 

[sazerac]

I found the ... For Dummies series of books to be a good read a couple days before the class starts. Just so you will know what's coming at you.

Their editing isn't the best though. I knew I was ready for Biochem when I started finding an error or two per chapter in Biochem For Dummies, based on my prior knowledge of bio and chem.