Your Verdict: Benefits of BR PHYSICS/CHEM/OCHEM

[orangeblue]

Hi Folks,

I am just starting on my BR prep boooks and wanted to hear some of your stories/input/insight on why/how BR physics/chem/orgo is great! I heard that they show you tricks etc and give lots of practice questions in the books.

Also, since BR is focused on only MCAT materials, they do a good job with it.

Your comments are appreciated!!!

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[tman5890]

Hi Folks,

I am just starting on my BR prep boooks and wanted to hear some of your stories/input/insight on why/how BR physics/chem/orgo is great! I heard that they show you tricks etc and give lots of practice questions in the books.

Also, since BR is focused on only MCAT materials, they do a good job with it.

Your comments are appreciated!!!

It's very detailed. If you haven't taken the courses in awhile or they aren't your strongest subjects, TBR will really help clear things up. I've been using them to review and it's really good for me since physics wasn't my best. The books also contain tons of passages which alone makes them worth it.

 

[IDFsoldierboy]

Hi Folks,

I am just starting on my BR prep boooks and wanted to hear some of your stories/input/insight on why/how BR physics/chem/orgo is great! I heard that they show you tricks etc and give lots of practice questions in the books.

Also, since BR is focused on only MCAT materials, they do a good job with it.

Your comments are appreciated!!!

I will say I did a Kaplan course (wasted 2000 dollars with it) my friend and I mainly did TBR physics chem orgo and bio...I can't comment on the content but the passages were GREAT this book improved my score by at least 8-10 points on the real MCAT we would take 1 subject and do 1 passage from each of the 10 sections then the next day we would switch to another subject and when we got back to the first subject we would do the next passage...most of the answer explanations are great sometimes they get lengthy...but I felt that the difficulty of most questions matched the difficulty of the MCAT these were great books and I HIGHLY recommend these books...I think by the time I said F*** Kaplan I got like a 24 on a prac AAMC exam...after I switch to TBR I hit 37 max and got a 32 (10 11 11) on the real thing...

 

[Swagster]

There's a reason why so many threads that rank materials have TBR as best in the areas you mentioned. Their passages are great and their explanations are gold. Some people like their text and others don't. I personally do. I appreciate the tricks they present in their explanations. I really like the questions in the chapter. I have pretty much every book people use and I'd agree with the majority that TBR is best in physics, gen chem, and orgo.

 

[PhaseShift11]

I think they're great for physics, the chapters aren't too long (unlike bio) so you can get through them quickly. The passages are tricky and numerous, both good aspects.

For chem, I thought they were great too, lots of little tricks to make your life easier and the passages are also tricky and good.

Ochem - not so much, perhaps because I did absolutely fine in ochem 1 and 2 when I took them, so I felt 50 pages of nitrogen compounds was a bit overkill. Also a lot of the reactions they teach are not apparently on the real MCAT, so I guess do it if you have time, but I used Kaplan's orgo book which would cover the same chapter in like 10-15 pages, and have only the required reactions.

 

[shushumiga]

Right now I am using the TBR. I also have Kaplan series and I can tell you that if you have good backround knowledge of the material in each subject use Kaplan but if you don't then use TBR. I honestly think that TBR is better than Kaplan/EK.

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

tbr ochem is absolutely worthless, Ochem should take about 1.5 weeks of studying if you're a traditional student

 

[coyotelime]

All of their chapters(not passages) are pretty detailed. This is coming from someone who has followed SN2's schedule to a T(on day 87 right now, - the Hat Trick, I just review). Please let me explain.

Organic Chemistry: As stated already, if you've had a solid understanding of organic chemistry from your lectures and labs, there is absolutely no reason to go through TBR chapters in detail. I did find the last chapter(Organic Laboratory Techniques) to be great though, it really refreshed my memory on the concepts behind what I did in lab. Maybe EK? I wouldn't know.

General Chemistry: It's very thorough but hits the concepts hard. I would recommend it if you have the time, but otherwise EK should be okay.

Physics(passages): Ridiculously difficult. It completely destroyed my confidence in physics to the point where I gave up and bought NOVA and just did the passages from TBR. I have been consistently scoring 10-11s on AAMC PS and missing 3-5 questions at MOST from the physics, which just goes to show you how unnecessarily difficult the passages are. I always understood TBR chapters but got killed on the 25 review questions and passages afterwards.

Please don't get me wrong, the chapters are really concerned with a conceptual(but detailed) understanding of the various subjects and offer many memorable mneumonics for all topics. But as many on this forum believe, the passages are where it's at. The TBR passages are there to prepare you for those 1-2 OMGWTFBBQ passages on the real deal. I have yet to be intimidated by a FL passage(done 3-9) because TBR passages make the tough ones seem easy.

It is to my understanding that we are ultimately responsible for only the material covered on the topic lists. Thus, you may want to start from that and study the corresponding information in TBR. Good luck!