The Berkeley Review v. The Princton Review

[bonoz]

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What is the general consensus on TBR v. TPR? What's better? especially, personally, for me Verbal is something I need to work on - what does a better job with verbal?

Cheers

 

[SN2ed]

You can buy the TPR Hyperlearning MCAT Verbal workbook by itself. This link is to the 2005 edition. I believe that's the most recent one.

http://www.amazon.com/Princeton-Rev...r_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226518816&sr=8-12


Originally Posted by TheBoondocks
This question gets asked like every three days. In short, EK series are stripped down with the basics you need to know. Get EK bio, it is by far the best for bio, all the responses on SDN say this. Know this book cold. If you don't believe me, type in EK bio in the search function. Personally, you learn the best from passages, If you have time and the cash I highly suggest purchasing Berkeley Review Gen Chem and Ochem. There physics is good too, but with PR it may be redundant. You will thank me later. You'll probably want EK biology review and EK 101 biology passages and EK verbal 101. PR is good, however, if you want to kill the MCAT you have to be able to integrate material. That's what BR does better than anyone else. Like, be able to answer questions if you see the circulatory system wired in parallel series.

bio - 1. EK bio and 101 bio passages 2. Kaplan 3. PR/BR however, these don't suck, they're just detailed which turns off many people.

Physics 1. BR/Nova 2. PR 3. Kaplan I really think BR but they're are a lot of people who swear by Nova on this site

Verbal 1. Ek verbal and 101 passages 2. PR 3. BR 4. Kaplan (read stay from)

Gen Chem 1. BR by far 2. PR 3. Kaplan/EK

O Chem 1. BR by far 2. toss up between Kaplan/PR/Ek

That is a general list of what i have read on SDN for the past 4 years, i came here and lurked throughout highschool. Good luck and hopefully this will help. EK is for people who KNOW the material and want review. If you are weak in something BR is the best since it's the most detailed and PR is detailed too, Kaplan is in the Middle, and EK is the least detailed but that doesn't mean it's bad. Just depends on the person. If you can I would buy the BR Chemistry books and Physics book. If you complete the PR science workbook along with BR passages and EK bio, you will kill the sciences. Ek Verbal should help you out with verbal.

 

[Muffinpuff]

They are both review courses, TPR is good but their teachers suck...a lot of them, if you need more than just a review course, go take Kaplan. 🙂

 

[J ROD]

BR is better on gchem and ochem. Both are good for Physics.

PR is better for bio.

Verbal: neither.


Get the EK verbal 101 and take practice AAMCs for verbal. If that is not enough practice, then pick up one of them for extra practice.

 

[BlueElmo]

TPR is rather good. I found PS and BS sections to be very well made in TPR. But like the above said, VR is lacking and needs improvement. But that can easily be remedied with a EK 101 book.

 

[bonoz]

BR is better on gchem and ochem. Both are good for Physics.

PR is better for bio.

Verbal: neither.


Get the EK verbal 101 and take practice AAMCs for verbal. If that is not enough practice, then pick up one of them for extra practice.

Then pick up one of them? what is them?

Thanks

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Then pick up one of them? what is them?

Thanks

Are you talking about course books or the class itself?

Boondocks did a great job summarizing the opinions of the books. It seems like most people here say about the same thing he listed.

As far as the class goes, I tend to think BR is better. From a teacher's perspective, I love that they give me a ton of test information on what the trends have been on the MCAT for the past few years. It helps to gain student's trust when you can talk about what things they can expect. I also like that it's about teaching thinking and test strategies as much as it is about covering the material.

As far as verbal materials go, the best stuff from the BR materials are the in-class handouts. I think it's about 150 to 200 pages or so of strategies and practice passages. I find that some of them match strategies that I teach for the physical sciences. If you can find the in-class material for sale anywhere, then you should get it. I don't know much about the VR book, having not read it myself.