Your opinion on all MCAT material

[WhereMyLiberalsAt]

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[jenniferdamit]

I can only speak on Kaplan review books bcus that's what I used. I found it helpful. it covered the content in depth i heard EK is more broad as far as content review so glad I went with Kaplan review books. Nextstep practice test offers the closest to the real MCAT test.
If you do need Kaplan complete set 3rd edition review books let me know. Selling mine brand new still in the box. Kaplan practice test are really hard and aren't true representative of the real mcat but like I said earlier their books and online tools are very helpful just not their practice test total crap. stick to NS, AAMC, TPR
Goodluck with your studying.

 

[Optimist Prime]

They'll all prepare you content wise for the test. TBR goes into the best detail and I believe are the best all around. NS has really good passages that are pretty close to the MCAT.

 

[theonlytycrane]

if you need in-depth review get the Kaplan 7 book set or TBR.

if you need a quick review get the EK set.

Either way don't spend too much time on content review. You can also rent books from the library if they have prep books.

Do all of the AAMC problems, KA verbal / psych, NS tests or NS diagnostic + full-length 1 (both free) and EK tests.

Do NS verbal 108 / EK CARS 101 / TPR hyperlearning verbal if you need more verbal practice.

Prices should be ~$100 - $150 for content review books, ~$200 for the AAMC bundle, ~$200 - $250 for practice exams, and ~$50 for any extras you want to buy.

$500 - 700 to prep. $300 to take the test... I just realized how overpriced this all is.

 

[WhereMyLiberalsAt]

if you need in-depth review get the Kaplan 7 book set or TBR.

if you need a quick review get the EK set.

Either way don't spend too much time on content review. You can also rent books from the library if they have prep books.

Do all of the AAMC problems, KA verbal / psych, NS tests or NS diagnostic + full-length 1 (both free) and EK tests.

Do NS verbal 108 / EK CARS 101 / TPR hyperlearning verbal if you need more verbal practice.

Prices should be ~$100 - $150 for content review books, ~$200 for the AAMC bundle, ~$200 - $250 for practice exams, and ~$50 for any extras you want to buy.

$500 - 700 to prep. $300 to take the test... I just realized how overpriced this all is.

Thank you for your response! Like I said before I am planning on using mcatjelly's study plan, and after looking at it 71 out of the 101 days. This leaves about a month of "test prep".... Is this too heavily focused on content review in YOUR opinion? Like mentioned above NS has good FL's.... Should I just Buy their pack of 4 for like $100? or is it better to get a good spread of companies to get a broader scope on the test?

 

[theonlytycrane]

Thank you for your response! Like I said before I am planning on using mcatjelly's study plan, and after looking at it 71 out of the 101 days. This leaves about a month of "test prep".... Is this too heavily focused on content review in YOUR opinion? Like mentioned above NS has good FL's.... Should I just Buy their pack of 4 for like $100? or is it better to get a good spread of companies to get a broader scope on the test?

Yeah, it's way too content focused. I'm not saying ditch content altogether, some students may need more time for content. But budgeting only a month of test prep is dangerous IMHO. Depending on when you're testing, you want at least 2-3 months of test and practice problem focus. This may mean pushing your test date back, moving through content faster, or mixing test practice in with content. Mixing practice tests in early with content is probably the best option.

For practice tests you can get 3 free from Kaplan, you can get a diagnostic and full-length #1 free from NS, and you'll have the AAMC unscored, scored #1, and scored #2. So that's 7.5 tests. Altius also has a free full-length you can get.

If you want more, you can upgrade to the NS 4 pack (#1 would be the free one mentioned above) for 3 more tests costing $99. Or you can spend $100 on two of the four EK tests. You also want to budget time for the AAMC section bank, which isn't a practice test, but contains 300 of the most important practice problems for you to slowly work through. So even just using the AAMC stuff and free tests above ^ may likely be enough. The extra tests are available for students that may need more practice or have extra time / $. It will come down to a balance between your budget / not burning out / your confidence / your practice test scores on whether to buy and do more tests.

Hope that helps!

 

[deleted446889]

Is it a good idea to go through 2 different study sets to be as thorough as possible? I've heard TBR is the best for detail and EK is the best for a more streamlined review, so I was thinking of going through all of TBR (already have the books), and then do all of EK, followed by ~2 months of all the practice material I can get my hands on. Will also need to supplement for CARS and Psych/Social.

I'm not sure if this is overkill and ineffective, but I'm basically starting from scratch and want to MAXIMIZE my score! Going to start my prep now and hope to take the test at the end of April, so that gives me about 6 months. Also taking biochemistry and working on weekends.

Sorry to hijack your thread OP.

 

[deleted446889]

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[Seattle Mariners Fan]

Kaplan is not worth the paper its printed on. It offers weak and disorganized content review and no MCAT style practice material.

TPR offers very detailed and very well organized content review. It offers limited practice material.

TBR offers extremely detailed content review and exhaustive practice material. Their P/S book is not recommended as its mostly biology and very weak outside of that. And their passages expect much, much more content recall than the actual exam will.

EK offers quick, high-yield content review and a lot of practice material.

Khan Academy has been great, the best and most consistent resource. Really wish his stuff was available in print form.

 

[aldol16]

All test prep companies will prepare you adequately for the MCAT content-wise. Some might go about it in a more roundabout fashion than others, but you'll be prepared in terms of content. The key is to find a book that is both concise and comprehensive - it's supposed to be a review, not a textbook that teaches you material for the first time. If there's an area you need more help on, then Khan Academy videos are great, although some go into more detail than necessary. Where the real studying comes in, however, is the practice passages. Not the end-of-chapter exercises in the content review books but the actual FLs. Your best resource there is AAMC Section Bank, AAMC FLs, Khan Academy practice passages (B/BC and P/S only), AAMC QPacks, and then all your test prep companies' FLs.

 

[zurc2014]

Kaplan is not worth the paper its printed on. It offers weak and disorganized content review and no MCAT style practice material.

TPR offers very detailed and very well organized content review. It offers limited practice material.

TBR offers extremely detailed content review and exhaustive practice material. Their P/S book is not recommended as its mostly biology and very weak outside of that. And their passages expect much, much more content recall than the actual exam will.

EK offers quick, high-yield content review and a lot of practice material.

Khan Academy has been great, the best and most consistent resource. Really wish his stuff was available in print form.

I 100% respectfully disagree. I took the exam twice and studied with EK for the first exam and Kaplan for the second. I would say Kaplan>>>>>>>>>EK. I always recommend it to my friends.

 

[Seattle Mariners Fan]

I 100% respectfully disagree. I took the exam twice and studied with EK for the first exam and Kaplan for the second. I would say Kaplan>>>>>>>>>EK. I always recommend it to my friends.

It does offer reasonable foundational level content, but its inferior to TPR on content review because TPR is extremely well organized while Kaplan is....not. And TPR offers one or two passages per chapter, kaplan offers zero.

 

[nousername4444]

You can find both EK and Kaplan materials on the cheap (free), so get both. I think EK is superior to Kaplan in every way but some people find comfort in the details of Kaplan and TPR review books.

Look up the MCAT study materials thread on reddit, there should be a Dropbox link to transcribed Khanacademy notes. Download the condensed 100 pg version for the behavioral sciences. I never took a psych or sociology class but I managed to get a 130 on this section just from reading the KA transcribed notes and doing the in chapter questions in EK all within a week of my exam.

The MCAT is mostly a reading comprehension test, the test materials you use won't make or break you. if I had to do it all over again I will make biochemistry note cards of amino acid structures and names, nucleotide/nucleoside structures. Read the KA behavioral science notes and make about 50 notecards, do the in chapter EK problems, then do every problem on e-mcat.

 

[ch91]

I think it depends on how comfortable you are with the material already. I just graduated and am studying for the MCAT...I started with the kaplan set but found they were taking way too long to move through so switched to EK. Once I start taking practice exams i'm going to use the kaplan books to fill in any details that I might not know rather than spending so much time on all of the details in every book before.

 

[koolkid596243]

Kaplan is not worth the paper its printed on. It offers weak and disorganized content review and no MCAT style practice material.

TPR offers very detailed and very well organized content review. It offers limited practice material.

TBR offers extremely detailed content review and exhaustive practice material. Their P/S book is not recommended as its mostly biology and very weak outside of that. And their passages expect much, much more content recall than the actual exam will.

EK offers quick, high-yield content review and a lot of practice material.

Khan Academy has been great, the best and most consistent resource. Really wish his stuff was available in print form.

Though I do think Khan academy is great, I think I would go more broadly and say YOUTUBE as a whole is a MASSIVE, underused resource. Tons of videos out there that can help students with almost any question.