What book to buy

[yshalabi]

Sorry if I am posting something that has been discussed in many threads. I am just overwhelmed with the number of comprehensive study books available.

I am a Computer Engineering major so I am an analytical styled thinker who likes to understand the fundamentals and concepts rather then memorizing techniques. I took Calculus based Physics and all the Pre Med books.

What would you guys recommend to aid in my studying? Cost is not a concern and I plan on buying 2-3 AAMC practice tests.

I still have my Organic, General Chemistry, and Biology books. Unfortunately I sold my physics book.

Thank you!

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[LostInStudy]

Check out SN2ed's thread here.

Then my thread here.

That should be a pretty good start. Between those two threads should get you 75% of the way there. The rest is just figuring out what you think will work best for you and coming up with you own plan/set of materials.

Also, forget the textbooks, those are way too in depth to be useful.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[yshalabi]

Thanks for quick reply! Will got on those threads.

 

[SN2ed]

Biology: 1. EK Bio (for content) + BR Bio (for passages and further topic depth if needed) 2. TPR Hyperlearning, detail oriented 3. Kaplan

Physics: 1. BR 2. Nova 3. TPR Hyperlearning 4. EK/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

Extra Practice Material: 1. TPR Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook + TPR Hyperlearing Science Workbook, good source of practice passages 1. AAMC Official Guide to the MCAT Exam (most representative material available) 2. EK 1001 series, helps nail down basics

 

[yshalabi]

Where can I get those extra practice TPR workbooks? I couldn't find it on their website.

 

[yshalabi]

Also how long does it take for TBR to ship out their books?

 

[apc]

I bought my TBR set from craigslist
I suggest you do the same
they come out to be much cheaper, and most of the time they are in good quality
I've seen TPR books on craigslist as well.
also check out the forum's 'for sale' section
I've bought some stuff from there, and was lucky enough to deal with some good people
For Sale and Advertisements
good luck

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

I bought my TBR set from craigslist
I suggest you do the same
they come out to be much cheaper, and most of the time they are in good quality

I disagree with Craigslist being a good source for good copies and would suggest that if someone wants to get used books, SDN classifieds are a MUCH better option. If you are lucky enough to be in LA or Berkeley and can inspect the used books bought using Craigslist in person, that would be good. But I think you personally got lucky with Craigslist, which is typically worse for used books than eBay or SDN.

Besides, the absolute most important thing when buying used books is to make sure there were never any markings in them. Even erased pencil on practice tests leaves a bias that makes the passages less useful.

 

[apc]

I disagree with Craigslist being a good source for good copies and would suggest that if someone wants to get used books, SDN classifieds are a MUCH better option. If you are lucky enough to be in LA or Berkeley and can inspect the used books bought using Craigslist in person, that would be good. But I think you personally got lucky with Craigslist, which is typically worse for used books than eBay or SDN.

Besides, the absolute most important thing when buying used books is to make sure there were never any markings in them. Even erased pencil on practice tests leaves a bias that makes the passages less useful.

I purchased my set in person. Most sellers (at least in my area) are willing to meet in person in order to exchange goods. I always thought that's the greatness of Clist.

 

[Silverfalcon]

I disagree with Craigslist being a good source for good copies and would suggest that if someone wants to get used books, SDN classifieds are a MUCH better option. If you are lucky enough to be in LA or Berkeley and can inspect the used books bought using Craigslist in person, that would be good. But I think you personally got lucky with Craigslist, which is typically worse for used books than eBay or SDN.

Besides, the absolute most important thing when buying used books is to make sure there were never any markings in them. Even erased pencil on practice tests leaves a bias that makes the passages less useful.

Craigslist is a perfectly fine option as long as you meet the person. Anything that involves online transaction is lethal from Craiglist in many cases (not all, but in many). So, I think that as apc said, as long as you meet the person, Craigslist is still fine.

I think that SDN Classified and Ebay are both great options, and to a certain extent, much better than buying from the publisher. BR's shipping charges are outrageous, and because of shipping time (which varies depending on the time of the year), it is really not recommended for someone to try BR books unless there is enough time to receive them.

Don't get me wrong - I have all four BR books (bio, gchem, ochem, and physics). But, I think that while the passages are great, there is more than one way to excel at MCAT, and you don't need BR as you are lead to believe. 30+ habits prove that.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Craigslist is a perfectly fine option as long as you meet the person. Anything that involves online transaction is lethal from Craiglist in many cases (not all, but in many). So, I think that as apc said, as long as you meet the person, Craigslist is still fine.

After re-reading our posts, it looks like we are all saying the same thing. Craigslist is good only if you meet in person, but a blind transaction there is foolish at best.

I think that SDN Classified and Ebay are both great options, and to a certain extent, much better than buying from the publisher. BR's shipping charges are outrageous, and because of shipping time (which varies depending on the time of the year), it is really not recommended for someone to try BR books unless there is enough time to receive them.

Obviously I'm a bit biased here, but I think the bad thing is that they only use FedEx, and FedEx has outlandish shipping charges. I had to send a twenty pound box cross country and was dumb enough to use FedEx. 60-some dollars after the fact, it was too late to ask for the box back. And to be fair to BR, the people on SDN who actually bought from BR directly say it's between 7 and 10 days (in most posts) from sending the order in to receiving books. Did you buy books directly from BR? If so, what was your shipping time?

 

[NickNaylor]

If cost is an option, carve out enough money to get all of the AAMC tests. Doing those tests is absolutely critical to success in my opinion.

I would recommend ExamKrackers since it's cheap, and as long as you have a reasonably good grasp of the material already it'll prepare you well. The EK boxed set, the 1001 Questions series, and the AAMC practice tests should come out to about $600, and that's more than enough practice material.

 

[Silverfalcon]

And to be fair to BR, the people on SDN who actually bought from BR directly say it's between 7 and 10 days (in most posts) from sending the order in to receiving books. Did you buy books directly from BR? If so, what was your shipping time?

Based on what I read here, the actual shipping time may take 7-10 days on good cases, but there is also a time for processing, which may be longer depending on how busy it is at BR. So, it's actually a bit longer than 7-10 days, and obviously, much worse if you order during holidays (I recall many threads last year near Christmas on how people had to wait three weeks and no response from BR available). Granted, I recall from you (I think) that there's only one person who takes care of shipping and stuffs, so if that person's out, then no one is available to answer the phone and whatnot.

I did not buy the books directly from BR for a lot of reasons. One was cost because I had other materials (EK for example), and I didn't have enough money to buy all of them at once. And since the shipping for buying just bio was same as buying entire set, buying just bio and then buying others later would make me to spend more on shipping than the high price that I was paying already.

Secondly, I found a friend who wasn't using his BR set (he got off secondhand from somebody), so I paid $30 for his set of BR GChem, BR Ochem, and BR Physics. And later, I purchased BR Bio for $40.

Did I make a good choice? I think so... Aside from the cost, I think that BR certainly has other pros and cons. There is no argument on the usefulness of its passages - I haven't gone through all of them, but they are clearly very helpful. Content review is also very thorough and tries to hit all the bases. At the same time, however, if passages weren't issue, I cannot really see a strong issue as to why someone would pay about $180 (excluding shipping) for BR GChem, OChem, and Physics because the content review itself can be done with Hyperlearning (another very good review) plus its science workbook. Or, as ColeOnTheRoll said, add EK 1001 sets for practices.

One user once said, "BR is just weird. It will prepare you for all the convoluted and weird passages in the actual MCAT, but it really isn't great for predicting how you will perform in MCAT." I think that's true - BR set is for learning experience, not for estimating one's performance, and based on how I felt, BR really does nice job of killing confidence through that.

Of course, this all means that I will still be using BR for my prep. It just won't my main textbook but rather supplemental materials for practices.