TBR

[Newtonian21]

So, I have been studying since the beginning of this month using TBR, and their schedule. So far it seems like it's demoralizing after doing each phases. I am getting half to 60% of each phases after studying. Their passages seems hard tho. I feel like I am not just good or going to be good enough by the time im done with review. Any one using TBR here?

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[Zenabi90]

I used TBR for the Sept 2 MCAT. I will present both a short and long answer.

SHORT answer: Don't worry about it. You aren't even 3 weeks into your review for next year's MCAT. I expect you to score low now, and steadily climb as you progress. Wait for FL 1/2/3 to gauge your progress. To quote the 76ers, "Trust the process."

LONG answer:
I find that the passages are generally on-par with the difficulty of the MCAT passages. Some are harder, some are easier. If you set the overall difficulty of the MCAT at a baseline of 100, I would give TBR roughly a 105. Yes, slightly higher difficulty, but it is within reason to me.

Personally, I didn't care what my score was on the passages, especially early on. Why? Because at the beginning of your content review, you simply aren't going to score 75+% unless you were very strong to begin with. And by that, I mean you took the AAMC Sample Exam and got like 70+% I would expect that as time goes on, and you get farther along your review, you will eventually start to see your percentages rise, because as you do passages, error logs, detailed question and answer breakdowns/analysis, etc your mastery of the material will be better cemented. Even then, if you scores remained in the 50%, I would not be discouraged. 50% is respectable. 25% is not.

I would also immediately log off of FB, Twitter, IG, SnapChat, WeChat, Viber, Line, Kik, SDN, and any other social media (yes, I consider SDN social media).
I would make "error logs" of all my practice passages. I hope you are doing detailed review of your passages, and not just merely checking them right and wrong. If all you're doing is scoring them, you have completely wasted the potential of your practice passages. See "General Guidelines for Reviewing" in the following thread. Actually read all of his posts, and everything else covered in the magnificent stickied strategy thread.

Breaking Down the MCAT: A 3 Month MCAT Study Schedule

My first "diagnostic" would be AAMC FL 1, which I would take after having covered roughly 75% of the concepts in each sub-section (GChem, OChem, Physics, Bio, Biochem, Psych, Socio). That is the first time I would really take a look at what I have done so far and see if I can still make my target score by my expected exam date (within 10-15pts of my target score, depending on days left). This also the point where I start adding in Next Step/Altius FLs every few days. Then after I complete my content review, aka 100% coverage, I would take FL 3 to see where I am at. At that point, I would look at my error logs to determine where my content weaknesses are at (anything I consistently am getting wrong on FLs/passages/EK1001) to determine where the most utility can be gained from my studying time. I would also gauge again if I am close to my target (~5-10pts away) and if I can get to my target in the time remaining. If there was doubt, I would log into SDN and ask for advice. I would schedule FL2 exactly 1 week before test day, and perform it in as close to exam conditions as possible (same day, eat breakfast, drive to exam center and home, put on headphones and earplugs, start at 8, take proper breaks). If you're not scoring within a few points of your target score, that is when I would come back onto SDN and ask for last second advice.

I really don't care what I score on my practice passages or non-AAMC FLs. Why? Because they aren't written by AAMC. They are, at best, close approximations of the real thing. So how could you expect to accurately gauge your prospective score? You can't. You're just in it for the practice. Mark your progress by the AAMC FLs, not the TBR passages. If you need more review questions, hunt for the old EK1001 circa mid-2000s. They are great sources of discrete-type practice questions.

 

[Newtonian21]

I used TBR for the Sept 2 MCAT. I will present both a short and long answer.

SHORT answer: Don't worry about it. You aren't even 3 weeks into your review for next year's MCAT. I expect you to score low now, and steadily climb as you progress. Wait for FL 1/2/3 to gauge your progress. To quote the 76ers, "Trust the process."

LONG answer:
I find that the passages are generally on-par with the difficulty of the MCAT passages. Some are harder, some are easier. If you set the overall difficulty of the MCAT at a baseline of 100, I would give TBR roughly a 105. Yes, slightly higher difficulty, but it is within reason to me.

Personally, I didn't care what my score was on the passages, especially early on. Why? Because at the beginning of your content review, you simply aren't going to score 75+% unless you were very strong to begin with. And by that, I mean you took the AAMC Sample Exam and got like 70+% I would expect that as time goes on, and you get farther along your review, you will eventually start to see your percentages rise, because as you do passages, error logs, detailed question and answer breakdowns/analysis, etc your mastery of the material will be better cemented. Even then, if you scores remained in the 50%, I would not be discouraged. 50% is respectable. 25% is not.

I would also immediately log off of FB, Twitter, IG, SnapChat, WeChat, Viber, Line, Kik, SDN, and any other social media (yes, I consider SDN social media).
I would make "error logs" of all my practice passages. I hope you are doing detailed review of your passages, and not just merely checking them right and wrong. If all you're doing is scoring them, you have completely wasted the potential of your practice passages. See "General Guidelines for Reviewing" in the following thread. Actually read all of his posts, and everything else covered in the magnificent stickied strategy thread.

Breaking Down the MCAT: A 3 Month MCAT Study Schedule

My first "diagnostic" would be AAMC FL 1, which I would take after having covered roughly 75% of the concepts in each sub-section (GChem, OChem, Physics, Bio, Biochem, Psych, Socio). That is the first time I would really take a look at what I have done so far and see if I can still make my target score by my expected exam date (within 10-15pts of my target score, depending on days left). This also the point where I start adding in Next Step/Altius FLs every few days. Then after I complete my content review, aka 100% coverage, I would take FL 3 to see where I am at. At that point, I would look at my error logs to determine where my content weaknesses are at (anything I consistently am getting wrong on FLs/passages/EK1001) to determine where the most utility can be gained from my studying time. I would also gauge again if I am close to my target (~5-10pts away) and if I can get to my target in the time remaining. If there was doubt, I would log into SDN and ask for advice. I would schedule FL2 exactly 1 week before test day, and perform it in as close to exam conditions as possible (same day, eat breakfast, drive to exam center and home, put on headphones and earplugs, start at 8, take proper breaks). If you're not scoring within a few points of your target score, that is when I would come back onto SDN and ask for last second advice.

I really don't care what I score on my practice passages or non-AAMC FLs. Why? Because they aren't written by AAMC. They are, at best, close approximations of the real thing. So how could you expect to accurately gauge your prospective score? You can't. You're just in it for the practice. Mark your progress by the AAMC FLs, not the TBR passages. If you need more review questions, hunt for the old EK1001 circa mid-2000s. They are great sources of discrete-type practice questions.

Thanks a lot. I am doing everything so far. Last thing is to get off sdn till after exam. I font have any social media apart from my email address. Please let us know how you did on the test when results pops up. Good luck, and thanks for advice.

 

[Zenabi90]

Thanks a lot. I am doing everything so far. Last thing is to get off sdn till after exam. I font have any social media apart from my email address. Please let us know how you did on the test when results pops up. Good luck, and thanks for advice.

Did well. Put a pair of posts in the 509+ thread.

Best of luck to you as well!

 

[DPTinthemaking15]

I was about to start my MCAT studying and ran across your post. This is the question I asked to @BerkReviewTeach in a PM. They gave me some great insight and hopefully this well help you as well...

Me: Okay... I don't know whether I should begin panicking or crying puddles of tears. To give a little background, I bought the new edition of Berkley a few months ago. I took my "Biology I" passage today (First five passages), and I scored a 51% on passages alone, 50% with the free standing questions. This is my question, am I doomed at this point? Honestly, I am shooting for like a 503-505 on my MCAT. I am trying to be realistic with myself and determine how much work I need to put in. Thank you!


BerkReviewTeach: Sorry to not be around SDN frequently enough to respond sooner.
Do not panic yet!!!! Our books are designed to be difficult. The reasoning behind this is that students learn best after doing a question and reviewing the answer. If you for everything correct, that learning process would be compromised. We sacrifice building temporary confidence to instead build a test-taking regimen. Most people get around 60% on the biology questions, and our average student has been hovering around 511 for the last year and a half. A 504 correlates to about 50% on most books, so hang in their and fight through the pain as best you can.

Good luck, OP!

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

Hi @Newtonian21 ,

As others have said, hard is good (within reason): your goal right now is to learn—both the content itself and how it's tested—and getting huge percentages of things right is not necessarily the best way to do that. It's really important to remember that a huge part of improvement through practice materials comes by analyzing them in a forward-focused way. Review questions thoroughly and understand both why the right answer is right and why the incorrect answers are incorrect (this is especially important for passage-based questions, but can even be useful for pure science). Work through your process for questions you got wrong or were unsure of, and rehearse what steps you would need to take to get it right (for pure recall that might just mean "know something", but for multi-step problems there's often some ways in which you can tweak your process to optimize success). All in all, try to make sure that you're really getting the most out of whatever review materials you use, and over time, the improvements really will come.

Best of luck!!

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

So, I have been studying since the beginning of this month using TBR, and their schedule. So far it seems like it's demoralizing after doing each phases. I am getting half to 60% of each phases after studying. Their passages seems hard tho. I feel like I am not just good or going to be good enough by the time im done with review. Any one using TBR here?

The phases are designed in a way where you should average around 60%, with a slight upward trend from phase 1 to phase 2 to phase 3. Our philosophy is that you learn the most going over explanations for question you missed, so we make our average question slightly harder than the actual MCAT. The important thing to keep in mind is that these questions are learning tools, and they are not meant to measure your current performance. That is what the practice exams are for. Each chapter will be different, but expect to average around 60 to 65% on most chapters. Just make sure that is you saw questions like these again, that you could get 75 to 80%. That is what the goals of our materials are: growth and the development of better test-taking skills.

 

[dexorbit]

I feel the same way. Been studying late September using TBR. And I have been on average scoring low 60% to low 70% on the passages. And there are times that I really just wanna throw the books out the window, curl in a fetal position and lock myself up in my room until test day but that's not really the best course of action. The TBR CARS and Bio books are definitely super hard but I chug along and learn from my mistakes. I've been doing CARS practice everyday (~3-4 passages / day). I started out with high 50% and now I'm sitting at high 60% and close to 70. So, it is indeed progress on my part. It is indeed discouraging but as what they say, "trust the process." So, I'm painfully trusting the process. Onwards!

 

[Newtonian21]

The phases are designed in a way where you should average around 60%, with a slight upward trend from phase 1 to phase 2 to phase 3. Our philosophy is that you learn the most going over explanations for question you missed, so we make our average question slightly harder than the actual MCAT. The important thing to keep in mind is that these questions are learning tools, and they are not meant to measure your current performance. That is what the practice exams are for. Each chapter will be different, but expect to average around 60 to 65% on most chapters. Just make sure that is you saw questions like these again, that you could get 75 to 80%. That is what the goals of our materials are: growth and the development of better test-taking skills.

I am reading through your Gen Chem Book part II chapter 7 (Solubility). Could you guys try to fix the answer explanations to questions 23 and 25? These are in phase I of the chapter. The explanations are completely off from the topic in this chapter. I am not sure to what questions these answers are given. However, I am not sure if this error is fixed yet because I got my books early this year just saying. Thanks!

 

[Medical Muse]

One of the best things about being able to practice passages is to use them as a tool to identify gaps in our knowledge. If we only practice passages that are at a relatively easy difficulty level and on subjects we know well, we cannot improve our score. When you are in medical school and residency, this practice will manifest itself in the form of "pimping." Pimping has a negative connotation, but if done right, it identifies what we know and what we don't so we can address those deficiences. Early on in our MCAT studying, we don't need to worry about how we are doing on any section of the test, but rather that we analyze why we are getting questions wrong and fix it. The whole process can be painful because we focus on our weaknesses, but that's how we increase our scores and get into medical school. Good luck with your studying!

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

I am reading through your Gen Chem Book part II chapter 7 (Solubility). Could you guys try to fix the answer explanations to questions 23 and 25? These are in phase I of the chapter. The explanations are completely off from the topic in this chapter. I am not sure to what questions these answers are given. However, I am not sure if this error is fixed yet because I got my books early this year just saying. Thanks!

Thanks for the heads up. That was already corrected in the latest printing, along with a similar cross-up in the Kinetics section. The answers for Phase I ended up the Phase II explanation section and vice versa in about 1500 copies before we caught the error.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

How is 70% to 80% on Phase 1s?

 

[Deleted member 737595]

I used TBR for the Sept 2 MCAT. I will present both a short and long answer.

SHORT answer: Don't worry about it. You aren't even 3 weeks into your review for next year's MCAT. I expect you to score low now, and steadily climb as you progress. Wait for FL 1/2/3 to gauge your progress. To quote the 76ers, "Trust the process."

LONG answer:
I find that the passages are generally on-par with the difficulty of the MCAT passages. Some are harder, some are easier. If you set the overall difficulty of the MCAT at a baseline of 100, I would give TBR roughly a 105. Yes, slightly higher difficulty, but it is within reason to me.

Personally, I didn't care what my score was on the passages, especially early on. Why? Because at the beginning of your content review, you simply aren't going to score 75+% unless you were very strong to begin with. And by that, I mean you took the AAMC Sample Exam and got like 70+% I would expect that as time goes on, and you get farther along your review, you will eventually start to see your percentages rise, because as you do passages, error logs, detailed question and answer breakdowns/analysis, etc your mastery of the material will be better cemented. Even then, if you scores remained in the 50%, I would not be discouraged. 50% is respectable. 25% is not.

I would also immediately log off of FB, Twitter, IG, SnapChat, WeChat, Viber, Line, Kik, SDN, and any other social media (yes, I consider SDN social media).
I would make "error logs" of all my practice passages. I hope you are doing detailed review of your passages, and not just merely checking them right and wrong. If all you're doing is scoring them, you have completely wasted the potential of your practice passages. See "General Guidelines for Reviewing" in the following thread. Actually read all of his posts, and everything else covered in the magnificent stickied strategy thread.

Breaking Down the MCAT: A 3 Month MCAT Study Schedule

My first "diagnostic" would be AAMC FL 1, which I would take after having covered roughly 75% of the concepts in each sub-section (GChem, OChem, Physics, Bio, Biochem, Psych, Socio). That is the first time I would really take a look at what I have done so far and see if I can still make my target score by my expected exam date (within 10-15pts of my target score, depending on days left). This also the point where I start adding in Next Step/Altius FLs every few days. Then after I complete my content review, aka 100% coverage, I would take FL 3 to see where I am at. At that point, I would look at my error logs to determine where my content weaknesses are at (anything I consistently am getting wrong on FLs/passages/EK1001) to determine where the most utility can be gained from my studying time. I would also gauge again if I am close to my target (~5-10pts away) and if I can get to my target in the time remaining. If there was doubt, I would log into SDN and ask for advice. I would schedule FL2 exactly 1 week before test day, and perform it in as close to exam conditions as possible (same day, eat breakfast, drive to exam center and home, put on headphones and earplugs, start at 8, take proper breaks). If you're not scoring within a few points of your target score, that is when I would come back onto SDN and ask for last second advice.

I really don't care what I score on my practice passages or non-AAMC FLs. Why? Because they aren't written by AAMC. They are, at best, close approximations of the real thing. So how could you expect to accurately gauge your prospective score? You can't. You're just in it for the practice. Mark your progress by the AAMC FLs, not the TBR passages. If you need more review questions, hunt for the old EK1001 circa mid-2000s. They are great sources of discrete-type practice questions.

This is excellent. Might I add that while Reddit has great MCAT resources, much of it is outright mass hysteria. When people say "WTF that MCAT was too hard, I definitely failed," people legitimately start freaking out without warrant.

Also, I'm doing TBR as well. Stop caring about the scores; this is not a class where you need to score a 95% to feel good about yourself. Instead of blindly looking at how you are scoring, look at the individual problems you got wrong and diagnose why you got some things right, some thing wrong, and what to focus on for Round 2.

 

[Habits]

Anyone use both TBR and Kaplan? How do they compare?

I would like to do more practice questions to test knowledge rather than reading

 

[Deleted member 737595]

Anyone use both TBR and Kaplan? How do they compare?

I would like to do more practice questions to test knowledge rather than reading

They are nothing alike. Apples and Oranges.

TBR provides books of mini practice exams and content review, Kaplan provides books of content review with some discretes. One has full color pictures, the other is black and white. One is very thorough (TBR), the other gives you most of the important stuff.