Why is Berkeley Review not as popular as Kaplan and TPR?

[BBuilder]

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So, I've recently taken the plunge into medicine. I just joined the forum and have been looking around the past couple of days. I'm taking the MCAT in August of this summer, and i'm trying to figure out which books to buy. It seems like BR, TPRH, and EK's 1001/101/Verbal series are the most highly recommended. I'm a little hesitant, though, from what i've seen on the web in other places, it seems like it's basically just a choice between Kaplan and TPR. How come Berkeley is ranked pretty much the best here, but hardly mentioned on most sites?

 

[SN2ed]

The main reason is because BR's a small regional company that focuses solely on the MCAT. Conversely, TPRH and Kaplan are both large companies known nationwide and cover numerous standardized tests.

 

[FollowTheMoney]

So, I've recently taken the plunge into medicine. I just joined the forum and have been looking around the past couple of days. I'm taking the MCAT in August of this summer, and i'm trying to figure out which books to buy. It seems like BR, TPRH, and EK's 1001/101/Verbal series are the most highly recommended. I'm a little hesitant, though, from what i've seen on the web in other places, it seems like it's basically just a choice between Kaplan and TPR. How come Berkeley is ranked pretty much the best here, but hardly mentioned on most sites?

Dude BR is the best, hands down. They are legit and will probably help you improve the most. I can tell you from experience that Kaplan sucks and EK is good if you just need a slight refresher because you are "the 3.9 GPA kid who sets the curve in all of your classes" and doesn't need that much practice aside from a few AAMC tests. I'm a beast in Orgo and I still bought BR Orgo and I can tell you it just helps soldify everything, and their practice is amazing. It takes a while to get the books but they'll be worth every penny in comparison to the others. Also, use EK only if you are short on time, but their Bio and VR are the best, bar none. BR is good for practice in Bio though.👍

 

[Stingarov]

Around here (UWisconsin), Kaplan just bogarts the 'industry' via saturated advertisement. Simple explanation there. I agree with the poster above me that Kaplan('s testing style) blows, but the material they supply to study, by itself, is definitely decent. EK Bio/1001 Bio is stellar bio prep. I've used both Kaplan and Nova physics to reinstantiate all of that into my neural wiring, as it's been a while since I've taken physics. I have no actual experience with BR, naturally, but feel as though Kaplan just dominates here, and most students buy into it. It's not "awful", but in terms of a comprehensive, holistic review & testing resource, it just doesn't seem as good as the popularity would suggest.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

So, I've recently taken the plunge into medicine. I just joined the forum and have been looking around the past couple of days. I'm taking the MCAT in August of this summer, and i'm trying to figure out which books to buy. It seems like BR, TPRH, and EK's 1001/101/Verbal series are the most highly recommended. I'm a little hesitant, though, from what i've seen on the web in other places, it seems like it's basically just a choice between Kaplan and TPR. How come Berkeley is ranked pretty much the best here, but hardly mentioned on most sites?

As mentioned in posts above, BR is a small company. They run a classroom course in three California cities. They're twenty years old and in that time have chosen not to expand their classroom course. They only do MCAT preparation and have done it longer than everyone except Kaplan. Their owners were key in the start and development of the Hyperlearning MCAT course that Princeton Review bought in the mid 90s. A little while before Princeton Review purchased Hyperlearning, Hyperlearning's main owner and MCAT developer split to start Berkeley Review while the two remaining owners went on to sell to Princeton Review.

BR is a mom-n-pop that only sells their books through their website and uses completely outdated business practices. From what I understand, the majority of their sales come from post bac programs who have relied on their books for years. You probably won't hear of them, because they won't spend millions of advertising dollars trying to make you hear of them.

When it comes to MCAT materials, the people who use them generally love them and swear by them. I'm sure many people had the same hesitation you have, bought other materials first (the well advertised materials), and then when they needed something with more passages and better strategies, they decided to get BR materials. You'll notice that most of the people who rave about them in threads here started with something different before switching. If you can past the vintage 90's website that looks like they sell jewelry and not prep materials, you can take a look at the materials and see what you think.

Just out of curiosity, what other sites are you talking about? Isn't SDN pretty much the major website?

 

[Maica]

i can't find BR books anywhere, anyone have links to their stuff? thanks!

 

[ElliottB]

http://www.berkeley-review.com/TBR/home-study.html

 

[BBuilder]

The main reason is because BR's a small regional company that focuses solely on the MCAT. Conversely, TPRH and Kaplan are both large companies known nationwide and cover numerous standardized tests.

Around here (UWisconsin), Kaplan just bogarts the 'industry' via saturated advertisement. Simple explanation there. I agree with the poster above me that Kaplan('s testing style) blows, but the material they supply to study, by itself, is definitely decent. EK Bio/1001 Bio is stellar bio prep. I've used both Kaplan and Nova physics to reinstantiate all of that into my neural wiring, as it's been a while since I've taken physics. I have no actual experience with BR, naturally, but feel as though Kaplan just dominates here, and most students buy into it. It's not "awful", but in terms of a comprehensive, holistic review & testing resource, it just doesn't seem as good as the popularity would suggest.

Thank you. I guess I didn't realize that Berkeley was just a less advertised company, or how much that affected it's popularity.

As mentioned in posts above, BR is a small company. They run a classroom course in three California cities. They're twenty years old and in that time have chosen not to expand their classroom course. They only do MCAT preparation and have done it longer than everyone except Kaplan. Their owners were key in the start and development of the Hyperlearning MCAT course that Princeton Review bought in the mid 90s. A little while before Princeton Review purchased Hyperlearning, Hyperlearning's main owner and MCAT developer split to start Berkeley Review while the two remaining owners went on to sell to Princeton Review.

BR is a mom-n-pop that only sells their books through their website and uses completely outdated business practices. From what I understand, the majority of their sales come from post bac programs who have relied on their books for years. You probably won't hear of them, because they won't spend millions of advertising dollars trying to make you hear of them.

I have to say, the website of a company, for me, really speaks for it. Maybe it's just because i'm from a software engineering background, but why not put effort into what will, for many people, be the first impression they get of your company? Usually it just indicates carelessness on the company's part. Not wanting to spend on advertising is no excuse for a horribly designed website either; it doesn't cost much to upgrade, and in the end it will probably save time and money to keep it up to date.

Still, it's books that they're about, so as long as they are stellar, I will just chalk up navigating the website to more MCAT mental cost. 😀

Just out of curiosity, what other sites are you talking about? Isn't SDN pretty much the major website?

I've read a few blogs, including:
http://www.medaholic.com/2008/10/06/how-to-self-study-for-the-mcat/
and books like Med School Confidential.

It seems like these usually correlate with other good study tips around the web and SDN, and seem high quality, so I trust them with most things.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

I have to say, the website of a company, for me, really speaks for it. Maybe it's just because i'm from a software engineering background, but why not put effort into what will, for many people, be the first impression they get of your company? Usually it just indicates carelessness on the company's part. Not wanting to spend on advertising is no excuse for a horribly designed website either; it doesn't cost much to upgrade, and in the end it will probably save time and money to keep it up to date.

If you want to send their company this message, it will probably end up where the thousand similar emails saying the same thing ended up. I can't tell you how many times I've told them this, their students have told them this, and I'm sure customers have told them this. I'm speculating here, but knowing what I know about behind the scenes, I am sure that one of the owners designed the website back in 90-something and won't turn to a professional strictly because of pride. It's idiotic and a bad business practice, but true to Berkeley form. I don't think they care about the money that much. If they made just a few small changes, they could make some serious bank. But if they haven't made these changes yet, I doubt it's going to happen any time soon. The only changes they ever make (to the point of obsession) are the continual changes to the lectures and passages/questions.

 

[Maica]

http://www.berkeley-review.com/TBR/home-study.html

thanks so much.

 

[Rolling]

How can BR be so much better than Kaplan?

 

[FollowTheMoney]

It's not hard to beat an over marketed company that is garbage. They over emphasize memorization = WRONG! Their verbal strategy/practice = DETRIMENTAL! Their content review involves passive learning (a lot of random information thrown at you, which you will not remember a week later because you attempted to memorize it) whereas BR involves active learning (application and CRITICAL THINKING = more understanding and better memory retention and test taking skills). Go ask somebody what they scored on the test using Kaplan, I guarantee its in the mid to upper 20s. If you ask somebody who used BR, chances are they scored in the low to mid 30s. Any variation of this is due to outside factors = would've done well anyway/good test taker/extremely smart/etc.)

 

[doraxplorer]

so I should just order the entire set of Bk review and I'm all set in terms of material for studying? Are there any areas that BK is weak at that we should buy other books for?

 

[mirarle]

^ I'd like to know this too. Is there a particular area BR excels in that would really really help me? I'm not the brightest in physics so I'm thinking of getting more physics help.

Good to know more info about BR. Wish I knew about it earlier though. I have already dropped 200 bucks on EK books, but I'll see if I can spare 240 after I get my next paycheck to get the whole set...

Also, the BR website color scheme is bleh. If they would just change the bg color it would be much easier to navigate.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

so I should just order the entire set of Bk review and I'm all set in terms of material for studying? Are there any areas that BK is weak at that we should buy other books for?

There have been quite a few posts on this, including many in the 30+ thread. BR is considered to be the best in physics and chemistry. The summaries that are often quoted are the following.

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.

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).