Which MCAT prep materials are best? (Consensus opinions)

[BerkReviewTeach]

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Every week, there are a couple new threads started by people who just joined asking about materials. While the kneejerk response is often do a search, that's not practical for people new to the site. It seems that eventually someone posts a quote from someone who took the time to summarize the materials (usually SN2ed or Boondocks). Here are posts from some posters who have been here a while that did their homework about materials and looked at pretty much everything. These are the lists that have been quoted frequently. The consensus of these lists is as close to definitive list as one can probably find.

not to be rude, but there is a search function. 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. 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 great too. 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 or 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 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 science passages and EK bio, you will kill the sciences. Ek Verbal should help you out with verbal.

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

I unfortunately have bought almost everything, except Kaplan (although I have the premier book).

My 2 cents.

TBR is the best in PS. They have in depth review and it is conceptually strong. I DON'T like EK much at all, but I will use all of their practice questions (I have all 1001 and the whole set of content books).

TBR is no good for verbal.

After spending a fortune, here is what I use:

TPR Bio
TBR - Physics/Chem/Orgo

TPR/Kaplan - single books with quick topics. These are great to read real quick almost like summaries. The sections are around 100 pages and could be finished in 1 day easily. So you could read all BS in one day. Great review.

1001 - practice makes perfect
TPR science review - same
FL - get as many as you can

TBR is great. Lots of Qs in every content book which is why they are great.

Here's the "least" material version I can give:

Bio - EK (PR, Kaplan, or BR for more detailed)

Ochem - BR

Physics - BR (NOVA for explanations)

Gchem - BR

Verbal - EK verbal 101, AAMCs, (PR or BR for extra practice)

Practice tests - AAMCs, Kaplan FL (1-6, 9), BR CBTs


Here's my "new" recommendation for those needing a review plus extras if you need it. I tried to get it down to a book for each subject.

Get a good base but don’t forget to practice. I suggest getting in 10-15 practice tests. Study why you get questions right and wrong and start to learn the MCAT style.

Both content and practice are equally important. Start 2-3 months out too so burnout will not happen. Maybe 20-30hrs/wk...depending on what you need.

BR for Gchem, Physics, and Ochem. EK and EK 1001 for Bio. EK 101 for verbal.

Practice passages definitely help to develop your test-taking skills like the ability to think under stress, time management, not being freaked out by weird questions, and wise guessing. Background knowledge is only part of getting a good score. I highly recommend BR- their passages really helped me. BR science questions are probably a good estimate of what the actual mcat will have (maybe BR is a little harder) and EK 101 verbal passages are about the same difficulty (maybe EK is a little harder) but the actual MCAT will have longer verbal passages (EACH passage 1-2 paragraphs longer).

 

[J ROD]

I am still relevant......😎

 

[apc]

Thanks for making this thread. I'm one of the many newbies 🙂

 

[thawunandonly]

If you really want to get specific, you should specify which versions of the book are being ranked and pros and cons. It may not seem like much at first, but I have the newest Kaplan books and supposedly they are a change from previous versions, including color pages, etc. Sure it seems like aesthetics, but for me providing good presentation is invaluable; it keeps the material alive and holds your attention. Contrary to what is usually said on these boards, there is nothing wrong with Kaplan at all. I am currently using TPR 2008 books, too, on recommendations from this site, and have found them disappointingly lackluster in a few areas (e.g. Kaplan's material is rife with real life applications of the concepts and many more mnemonics). I also have the EK1001+101 series.

The combination of the TPR and Kaplan is good, but for what I have, IMO:

Physics - Kaplan/TPR
Gen Chem - TPR
Orgo - Kaplan
Bio - Kaplan/TPR

That's just for me, anyway. For Physics and Bio, TPR has more content if you're interested and Kaplan has more content than TPR for Orgo. Kaplan gives main ideas, general overviews, and trims the fat. For someone like me with an engineering background, it's no big deal to use that for Physics review because all I need is to refresh info, but I did like the TPR chapter for electrostatics for overall explanations.