The Berkeley Review CBTs

[JBL35]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hey guys, I'm debating purchasing TBR for my Jan MCAT and I am wondering what you think of their full lengths. I figure if I study for my retake with them I should use their tests since I did all the AAMCs already. Are they about right with your MCAT average, inflated like kaplan, deflated like princeton?

 

[uclaussr]

i think they're really challenging which makes them really good...your ego will be slightly deflated buttttt you learn a lot from them!

 

[281261]

Does anyone know if the verbal in TBR CBTs are the same/different as the verbal in TBR verbal workbook?

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Does anyone know if the verbal in TBR CBTs are the same/different as the verbal in TBR verbal workbook?

The tests are written by different people than the books, so the passages on the CBTs will have a different feel than the books. The answer keys are written by the same people, so the strategies and techniques will be consistent.

 

[Segovia]

Does anyone know if the verbal in TBR CBTs are the same/different as the verbal in TBR verbal workbook?

The CBT verbals are much easier than the book. Of course, the book is like reading Crime and Punishment for every passage.

I would rate their difficulty: TBR Book > AAMC > TBR CBT

I averaged about a point higher on the TBR CBT verbals compared to AAMC. I was getting consistently slaughtered with the book passages. I would do these far out from the test, but steer clear in the final month - at least for the sake of timing and confidence.

 

[281261]

The CBT verbals are much easier than the book. Of course, the book is like reading Crime and Punishment for every passage.

I would rate their difficulty: TBR Book > AAMC > TBR CBT

I averaged about a point higher on the TBR CBT verbals compared to AAMC. I was getting consistently slaughtered with the book passages. I would do these far out from the test, but steer clear in the final month - at least for the sake of timing and confidence.

Ah, crap. I wanted to get these for extra verbal practice, as I already used up EK 101 and TPR verbal as well as AAMC verbal. Are they easy like, Gold Standard verbal easy? Or still tough but a bit easier than AAMC verbal?

 

[puravida85]

BUMP! I'm having the same issue here. I've used up all my AAMC's besides #10. Which I will save for a few days before my MCAT retake in January. I'm looking to purchase TBR for the PS section and their CBT's for practice scoring. Any ideas on what I should do for practice? But before any more practice exams, I need to get the material down and thats what I plan to do with the TBR Books.

 

[Segovia]

Ah, crap. I wanted to get these for extra verbal practice, as I already used up EK 101 and TPR verbal as well as AAMC verbal. Are they easy like, Gold Standard verbal easy? Or still tough but a bit easier than AAMC verbal?

I haven't taken the GS tests, so I can't really comment on them. This is just my opinion, but when I say that the TBR Verbal CBTs are easy, I don't mean that they aren't dense and difficult to read, they just rely more on the facts in the passage rather than intuition. I found that the percentage of questions I could answer directly from the passage were higher for the TBR CBTs than the AAMCs. If you are out of material, then the TBR CBT verbal is fine.

For what it's worth, I averaged about an 11 on the TBR CBTs (verbal), and got an 11 on the real thing, so in the end their scale was at least accurate for me in that section. Again, I would much rather be using the CBTs over the book in the final month. Although controversial, if it has been a while since you took the AAMCs, then I would retake a couple of the verbal sections just to re-acclimate yourself to the AAMC writing style and to get your timing honed.

 

[boaz]

In general they are the best of the pack. I didn't see the verbal workbook, but the FL VR section resembles the real thing more closely than anything I've ever seen. The sciences are also excellent.

 

[ponybreeder4]

i strongly recommend purchasing them. i just took the mcat and the ps section was very similar to the ones in tbr.

 

[futuredoc786]

QUESTION TO ALL ?

i HAVE THE EXAMKRACKERS BOOKS FOR ALL THE SCIENCES AND THE QUESTIONS IN THE 1001 QUESTION BOOKLETS.. DO I NEED TO BUY TBR AND IF SO WHICH SCIENCES SHOULD I GET HOW DO THEY COMPARE TO EXAM KRACKERS ?

 

[futuredoc786]

QUESTION TO ALL ?

i HAVE THE EXAMKRACKERS BOOKS FOR ALL THE SCIENCES AND THE QUESTIONS IN THE 1001 QUESTION BOOKLETS.. DO I NEED TO BUY TBR AND IF SO WHICH SCIENCES SHOULD I GET HOW DO THEY COMPARE TO EXAM KRACKERS ?

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

QUESTION TO ALL ?

i HAVE THE EXAMKRACKERS BOOKS FOR ALL THE SCIENCES AND THE QUESTIONS IN THE 1001 QUESTION BOOKLETS.. DO I NEED TO BUY TBR AND IF SO WHICH SCIENCES SHOULD I GET HOW DO THEY COMPARE TO EXAM KRACKERS ?

The following list is the collected opinions of several SDN posters over the past couple of years. It's a list that was started from a poll that Boondocks did and SN2ed has continued on. It basiically says that each company has their different strengths and that it's best to use a mixture of books. As for which books you buy from each company, that's a choice you should make based on your study preferences.

Biology: 1. EK Bio + EK 1001 Bio, non-detail oriented 1. BR/TPR Hyperlearning, detail oriented 3. Kaplan

Physics: 1. BR 2. Nova 3. TPR Hyperlearning 4. Kaplan

Verbal: 1. EK Verbal + EK 101 Verbal 2. TPR Hyperlearning 3. BR 4. Kaplan (Avoid if possible)

Organic Chemistry: 1. BR, by far 2. TPR Hyperlearning 3. EK/Kaplan

General Chemistry: 1. BR, by far 2. TPR Hyperlearning 3. EK/Kaplan

 

[jryck3]

QUESTION TO ALL ?

i HAVE THE EXAMKRACKERS BOOKS FOR ALL THE SCIENCES AND THE QUESTIONS IN THE 1001 QUESTION BOOKLETS.. DO I NEED TO BUY TBR AND IF SO WHICH SCIENCES SHOULD I GET HOW DO THEY COMPARE TO EXAM KRACKERS ?

I would use TBR O chem, g chem, and physics for my initial content review, and then use EK to brush up on the areas you are rough on. EK really simplifies the material in easy to understand language. I felt that TBR's passages and review material was a necessity since EK's materials had a different "feel" then the real thing. Just compare all of the biology review from EK to the free AAMC test #3 and you'll see what I mean. I was not surprised on test day with these subjects.. however, . Even with 1001 + Biology review, I felt surprised on test day since I didn't use TBR biology for additional passages. You might want to do some research on SDN to see what others think of the TBR biology passages... I'm willing to bet they found the passages in biology helpful as well.