The Berkeley Review Improvement

[elloL]

Hello,

I started studying for my September 18th MCAT last week. I am on phase III for general chemistry and physics, and find that my scores go from 40% to around 55% to 40% again. I have seen that it is supposed to increase, but phase III is so much harder than the others so I do not see how that is? TBR is my main content review, and honestly it is kicking my ass. I have been studying everyday for the past couple weeks, literally all day, each day. I could keep this schedule going for the next few months because I am really motivated to do well, but want to know early on if I should just do some other content review if TBR is not helping me improve at all.

Thank you!

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[BerkReviewTeach]

HOLD OFF on Phases 3s! If you just started studying last week, then I'm assuming you have not read through all 22 chapters and completed all 22 Phase 1s and all 22 Phase 2s (between the physics and general chemistry books). Phase 3 homework sets are meant to be completed after you have done all of Phase 1 and Phase 2 for the entire book. Phase 3 contains questions from all of the chapters as well as from other subjects such as organic and biology. For example, the passage on page 385 of GC2 is based on kinetics, but if you haven't seen SN1 and SN2 for a while, it will be tricky.

Before you move on, read through the intro page to the homework found in the general chemistry book. This should give you an idea of how to best use the books. It's a tiered system where phase 1 is meant to review and relearn concepts and definitions. It's meant to build foundation. Phase 2 is meant to work on timing and test strategy, as there are several questions where PoE applies and several experiment based passages. Phase 3 is the amalgamation of different subjects into passages where only about half to two-thirds of the questions apply to the passage. You'll notice this same trend in the AAMC practice materials. Phase 3 is meant to help you develop skills needed to do well on AAMC times.

Hang in there, because it gets better as you march forward. Also, students getting 56% right on Phase 1 typically get around 127 to 128 on the real deal after mastering the material and test tricks.

 

[elloL]

HOLD OFF on Phases 3s! If you just started studying last week, then I'm assuming you have not read through all 22 chapters and completed all 22 Phase 1s and all 22 Phase 2s (between the physics and general chemistry books). Phase 3 homework sets are meant to be completed after you have done all of Phase 1 and Phase 2 for the entire book. Phase 3 contains questions from all of the chapters as well as from other subjects such as organic and biology. For example, the passage on page 385 of GC2 is based on kinetics, but if you haven't seen SN1 and SN2 for a while, it will be tricky.

Before you move on, read through the intro page to the homework found in the general chemistry book. This should give you an idea of how to best use the books. It's a tiered system where phase 1 is meant to review and relearn concepts and definitions. It's meant to build foundation. Phase 2 is meant to work on timing and test strategy, as there are several questions where PoE applies and several experiment based passages. Phase 3 is the amalgamation of different subjects into passages where only about half to two-thirds of the questions apply to the passage. You'll notice this same trend in the AAMC practice materials. Phase 3 is meant to help you develop skills needed to do well on AAMC times.

Hang in there, because it gets better as you march forward. Also, students getting 56% right on Phase 1 typically get around 127 to 128 on the real deal after mastering the material and test tricks.

Hello, thanks for the reply.

Is this the case for all of the books or just general chemistry? Should phase III for organic chemistry and physics be done after the books are done as well?

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Look at the back of your books, and you'll see which ones have practice exams serving as Phase 3.