TBR Phase Improvements

[queenp53]

Hi all, TBR fans and experts!
I've started studying with TBR Science books for over a week now, and am just starting to do the phase 2s of the first chapters. I keep reading everywhere that you're supposed to improve from phase 1 to phase 2, but in all the subjects I seem to be dropping from high70-low80% in phase 1 to about 65% in phase 2.

I do realize that some it may be due to time constraint in phase 2, but it seems that everyone out there agrees that there should be improvement across the phases regardless...so am just worried here.
(Also I found OChem phase 2 was brutally heavy on future chapters' content...which I didn't know)

Is it best to do phase 2 within 3-4 days of reading the chapter or longer than that? To get max learning, should I be doing phase 2 from sole memory or can I briefly read my notes before I begin?

I keep reading all the posts about how TBR is meant to have brutal homework, which I guess I understand as I do learn a lot from getting things wrong...BUT its just hard to get an idea of how successful I would be at that topic if it came in the MCAT because I keep getting questions wrong here and there. I just don't know how or if I'm on the right track from my TBR review. Should I do a few questions from the AAMC question pack to get an idea of how AAMC will present these topics?

Would really appreciate if someone with TBR experience or @BerkReviewTeach could give some insight. I just want to start on the right foot, as its been just over a week so far (Have 12 more weeks).

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[arc5005]

Hi all, TBR fans and experts!
I've started studying with TBR Science books for over a week now, and am just starting to do the phase 2s of the first chapters. I keep reading everywhere that you're supposed to improve from phase 1 to phase 2, but in all the subjects I seem to be dropping from high70-low80% in phase 1 to about 65% in phase 2.

I do realize that some it may be due to time constraint in phase 2, but it seems that everyone out there agrees that there should be improvement across the phases regardless...so am just worried here.
(Also I found OChem phase 2 was brutally heavy on future chapters' content...which I didn't know)

Is it best to do phase 2 within 3-4 days of reading the chapter or longer than that? To get max learning, should I be doing phase 2 from sole memory or can I briefly read my notes before I begin?

I keep reading all the posts about how TBR is meant to have brutal homework, which I guess I understand as I do learn a lot from getting things wrong...BUT its just hard to get an idea of how successful I would be at that topic if it came in the MCAT because I keep getting questions wrong here and there. I just don't know how or if I'm on the right track from my TBR review. Should I do a few questions from the AAMC question pack to get an idea of how AAMC will present these topics?

Would really appreciate if someone with TBR experience or @BerkReviewTeach could give some insight. I just want to start on the right foot, as its been just over a week so far (Have 12 more weeks).

I would say that I definitely tended to improve on the phase II's, but there were always outliers. Overall, I definitely struggled with a lot of the TBR books, and most of my scores were in the 126-128 range for Gen Chem & Physics sections, with the occasional scores lower & higher. I didn't struggled with OChem, because it was probably my strongest section. The Psych book does not do a good job of covering Psych/Sociology on MCAT, so make sure to study from the Khan Academy 300 or 100 or 86 page notes that are somewhere online if you google for them.

Don't get caught up on the hardest TBR problems, because they most likely won't be on the actual MCAT exam. But try to understand the concepts! I noticed I understood the concepts a bit better once I went through them in the diagnostic passages... I could not understand Doppler, Sound, Light, Waves in general the way they were explaining it or testing for it, but once I took the diagnostic passages & reviewed them, the concepts became much more clear. ~ I studied from the 2015/2016 books, not sure how different they are now, but those sets were riddled with errors, make sure you double check the answer keys.

TBR and AAMC materials are very different! Definitely get accustomed to the AAMC material way in advance to your MCAT test date, because the passages are very different than TBR passages

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

@queenp53, As a general rule, people go from about 56% on Phase 1 to about 62% on Phase 2, and about 67% on Phase 3. They go on to average about 510 to 511 on the actual MCAT. So while you may feel disappointed in the drop, you are still above the pace. Did the timing associated with Phase 2 cause trouble? The passage and questions in Phase 2 sets definitely have some time-traps, and part of improving is learning to avoid those traps.

And to add on to arc5005's comments, about ten percent of the questions we have in our books are brain-teasers aimed to push a concept or a weird connection between two seemingly different subjects. Do not let these get you down, as they are meant to generate thought and not simulate the MCAT. As far as our passages go, the most realistic are placed in Phase 3, so see where you are with those.

Lastly, you have only done a few chapters, so don't let those data points predict a trend. There is a very good chance that in the middle chapters you'll see a different trend. It will get better and better, because Phase 2 and Phase 3 often have questions from other sections mixed in, so early on those phases will have material you have not studied, lowering your score. Later on, those outlier questions will be review rather than preview, and you'll do better.

Keep your chin up and always look at your homework with a mindset of "what would I do differently if I saw that question again?"