TBR end of chapter questions difficulty...

[yellowcocopuffs]

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I know that there are numerous posts addressing this question. However, I was wondering whether anyone who has taken the MCAT recently and used TBR to review can provide input whether they found the MCAT questions easier, harder, or about the same as the practice BR questions.

 

[apumic]

TBR's passages are akin to the intermediate to difficult MCAT passages. TBR passages are almost NEVER equivalent to the easier MCAT passages & questions, which is why 1) they're so good; and 2) TBR's scales are set so generously. I can tell you that my MCAT score and practice scores matched almost perfectly with what I was getting on the TBR sectional tests (13-15s about 45% of the time, 10-12s another 50% of the time, and the last 5% of the time being at the top of the 7-9 category).

 

[circulus vitios]

I think they're too difficult after seeing some questions in practice MCATs.

 

[BME11]

they're hard as hell especially the physics section

 

[whiteshadodw]

they're hard as hell especially the physics section

this. but i haven't taken the MCAT yet. however, i will note, that in one passage they expected you to derive or know something off the top of your head even though it wasn't explained in the section. then, i looked in my book to see if they explained it, and sure enough it was pretty thoroughly explained leading me to believe that you couldn't figure that stuff out by yourself if hadn't seen it before in a textbook.

 

[apumic]

this. but i haven't taken the MCAT yet. however, i will note, that in one passage they expected you to derive or know something off the top of your head even though it wasn't explained in the section. then, i looked in my book to see if they explained it, and sure enough it was pretty thoroughly explained leading me to believe that you couldn't figure that stuff out by yourself if hadn't seen it before in a textbook.

I don't recall anything that difficult in the TBR Physics book...what problem are you talking about?

 

[whiteshadodw]

I don't recall anything that difficult in the TBR Physics book...what problem are you talking about?

something about finding the velocity you must throw a baseball at in order to have it orbit the earth. they gave you GMM/r^2, but i didn't know you just set that equal to m(v^2/r), and even when i saw that in the solutions, i didn't understand why. i cracked open my book, and found that if the ball is going fast enough then the curvature of the earth becomes significant, thus the ball is ALWAYS dropping.

 

[apumic]

something about finding the velocity you must throw a baseball at in order to have it orbit the earth. they gave you GMM/r^2, but i didn't know you just set that equal to m(v^2/r), and even when i saw that in the solutions, i didn't understand why. i cracked open my book, and found that if the ball is going fast enough then the curvature of the earth becomes significant, thus the ball is ALWAYS dropping.

Ah... gotcha. That's definitely fair game for the MCAT. I think I actually recall my MCAT having a problem pretty similar to that, although it's all a blur now!

 

[kehlsh]

something about finding the velocity you must throw a baseball at in order to have it orbit the earth. they gave you GMM/r^2, but i didn't know you just set that equal to m(v^2/r), and even when i saw that in the solutions, i didn't understand why. i cracked open my book, and found that if the ball is going fast enough then the curvature of the earth becomes significant, thus the ball is ALWAYS dropping.

yea this is pretty basic foundation stuff
u need to be able to equalize various equations

 

[Silverfalcon]

I think they're too difficult after seeing some questions in practice MCATs.

Eh I disagree. Since you haven't seen the real MCAT, you don't necessarily know how the real one is compared to practice MCAT's.

Honestly, I think some practice AAMC MCAT's are bad that they give false sense of security (except Verbal I think). So, you should always mix other FLs/passages to get more hard problems...

 

[apumic]

Eh I disagree. Since you haven't seen the real MCAT, you don't necessarily know how the real one is compared to practice MCAT's.

Honestly, I think some practice AAMC MCAT's are bad that they give false sense of security (except Verbal I think). So, you should always mix other FLs/passages to get more hard problems...

I'm going to second this. TBR passages were about the most representative of the non-AAMC materials and, really, I'd say the TBR passages may have been more representative of the science sections on the real thing than were the passages on AAMC 9-11. The AAMC Official Study Guide was about the closest thing to real test (possibly moreso than AAMC 11).

 

[Catburr]

Eh I disagree. Since you haven't seen the real MCAT, you don't necessarily know how the real one is compared to practice MCAT's.

Honestly, I think some practice AAMC MCAT's are bad that they give false sense of security (except Verbal I think). So, you should always mix other FLs/passages to get more hard problems...

I third this. Somewhat with regards to difficulty, which on the real (one that I took, anyway) and practice MCATs varies a bit according to easy, medium, and hard problems. I certainly would agree that practicing tough questions in TBR is valuable, since there are definitely at least some questions on the actual MCAT that are equally tough.

But definitely with regards to timing. I finished all the TBR passages before taking any AAMC practice tests, and then felt like I got through passages on the practice tests so much faster than the TBR passages. I would finish the bio portion 30 minutes early, and score 12+ on it. Then on the actual MCAT, I was really using up all the time I had, only had a few minutes to review/reconsider tough questions. I can't say for sure why this is, probably because I was more comfortable making an educated guess and moving on, with the practice tests. Whatever the reason, I still feel like the more time consuming TBR passages were useful, if for no other reason than training me to more quickly think through a problem that required a few more steps than the easy "I remember fact X, therefore the answer is C" type problems.