What are some good books to help me prepare for the MCAT? I could use a good book for each subject area that will be on the MCAT, but especially for physics.
Using textbooks is better than using the review books because the latter are incomplete. Many people are scared of refering back to the textbooks and rely on the prep review books. But if you look at the way the MCAT is structured, they can ask you anything!
Verbal: Examkrackers' 101 Verbal Passages
This book is really good. I used to score in the 4's and 5's....after I used the book and learned their explanations for deriving the right answer, I increased my score to acceptable levels.
Physics: Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker...6th Ed. Part I and Part II
Even though this book has some calculus, the book is really good in explaining physics concepts and has beautiful illustrations. Make sure you do all the "checkpoint" questions. I also prefer The Princeton Review Physical Sciences Review book for the formulas and tricks to tackle physics questions.
Chemistry: This is the most beautiful chemistry textbook out there....
General Chemistry: by Whitten and Gailey. These authors dont beat around the bush and get straight to the point.
By using the Halliday Physics and Whitten Chemistry... My scores in the PS increased to 11-12 range from a 5 initially.
For the Biological Sciences:
Biochemistry: Stryer's is pretty good. But I used Garrett's and Grisham's since they had a lot of molecular biology.
Genetics: ??
Physiology: Human Physiology by Vander
Organic Chemistry: by Bruice
Again my bio scores went upto 12-13 by using these books.
you're going to need some serious motivation to be cracking open those textbooks and reviewing all that stuff. i think the best idea is to master the high-yield stuff that you will find in the prep books. i havent taken the real thing yet (coming up on sat.) but ive been doing ok on the practice tests
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