TBR verbal

[nr6unhH]

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I've been doing TBR verbal, and I feel likes most of the answers are geared toward "comprehension" questions and that answers can be FOUND in the passage.

How is this comparable to real MCAT?

is it a good idea to stick to TBR verbal?

 

[SN2ed]

BR verbal is pretty bad. I'd only use it if you've used up EK Verbal 101 and TPRH Verbal Workbook.

 

[zoner]

why is it "bad"?

I have been doing it and I hate using it, but I don't really know why except that I hate it more than other books 🙂

is it harder than the real thing or easier or whats the dealio?

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Hopefully my name doesn't turn into ex-berkeleyreviewemployee after this. 🙄

The problem with BR verbal, as I see it, is that there were WAY too many chefs. I've been through it while practicing and have learned about it behind the scenes over time. About a third of the passages in the book are really good. The classroom packets are excpetional. These were all written by two guys that were great teachers (I actually only saw one of them teach). Another third is written by average people who I get are important to make sure you have different styles in the book. The problem I found was with the last third. The person who wrote those passages is the same person who did the overall editting of the book. He writes WAY too much, and I often found myself disinterested by the second paragraph of his question explanations.

What worked for me was that I'd look at the length of the answer explanations in the back of the book. Any passage that required more than two pages to explain the questions I'd skip. I did about 60% of the book passages and the ones in the class handouts. I felt pretty good about the passages I did. The truth of the matter is that I don't think any of the materials I went through actually felt like my real verbal, but I'm glad I did all of them. They each had a different spin to them, which opened me up to different types of passage styles. I think that exposure more than anything helped me get ready. I learned to concentrate better and was able to filter out the gold from the sand better.

If you have BR passages, you might as well use them, because you'll need them to get enough total passages to practice everyday. I think 300 practice passages (an average of three a day for 100 days) should help get anyone ready.

 

[enTropeeeeeeeee]

Hopefully my name doesn't turn into ex-berkeleyreviewemployee after this. 🙄

The problem with BR verbal, as I see it, is that there were WAY too many chefs. I've been through it while practicing and have learned about it behind the scenes over time. About a third of the passages in the book are really good. The classroom packets are excpetional. These were all written by two guys that were great teachers (I actually only saw one of them teach). Another third is written by average people who I get are important to make sure you have different styles in the book. The problem I found was with the last third. The person who wrote those passages is the same person who did the overall editting of the book. He writes WAY too much, and I often found myself disinterested by the second paragraph of his question explanations.

What worked for me was that I'd look at the length of the answer explanations in the back of the book. Any passage that required more than two pages to explain the questions I'd skip. I did about 60% of the book passages and the ones in the class handouts. I felt pretty good about the passages I did. The truth of the matter is that I don't think any of the materials I went through actually felt like my real verbal, but I'm glad I did all of them. They each had a different spin to them, which opened me up to different types of passage styles. I think that exposure more than anything helped me get ready. I learned to concentrate better and was able to filter out the gold from the sand better.

If you have BR passages, you might as well use them, because you'll need them to get enough total passages to practice everyday. I think 300 practice passages (an average of three a day for 100 days) should help get anyone ready.

I agree. Although my scores depress when doing BRV, I'm still happy to know that I now have that much more experience with verbal. In my limited experience, the more random exposure you have, the better off you'll be. That way, you'll be prepared for anything that real MCAT can throw at you. However, I do always keep in mind that EKV and TPRV are more accurate.

EDIT: My scores for BRV averages around 9. My scores for TPRV averages from 10-13. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'm hanging on the fact that I have pulled a decent score as a confidence boost.