Best prep book for learning from scratch?

[wjl123 7]

Hey guys,

I'm currently preparing for the mcat exam in the August of 2020 while working full-time right now. I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed with the amount of content I have to cover for the exam, and the fact that I need to learn all of them from scratch since I have not taken a single course covered in mcat...

I have the Kaplan prep books, but I've been told that it's too light on the content, and that TPR is the way to go if you're learning from scratch. Is this true? Any recommendations? I'm just afraid of wasting time by using the wrong prep books to study. 

I have around 3 months to learn (hopefully) 60+ % of the content, mostly during evenings and weekends. I'm hoping to cover the rest and do practice exams starting in May next year when I have the summer off. 

 

Any advice is welcome! Thanks!

[IMislove 571]

I used khan academy, TPR and EK while working full time. Used may-July, wrote in early August. Decent enough, you may be doing overkill but you know yourself best. Just don’t burnt out. 

[Vivieeeeeee 43]

I used TPR and so did many of my friends who did well on the MCAT. I would recommend TPR and supplement it with Khan Academy if you want more explanation on some subjects. Best of luck

[frenchpress 341]

I used Kaplan + Khan academy as needed for topics I wanted more explanation on. Worked well for me (514).  I learned probably 50-60% of the material from scratch over 10 weeks studying evenings and weekends (full-time job). I actually liked that Kaplan wasn’t super detailed - it was enough info for many topics without being overkill. I did regular practice exams (~every 2-3 weekends) to figure out what I needed to understand better and dive more deeply than what Kaplan provided. 

Where I thought Kaplan fell short was the practice exams. Don’t bother with them. The official practice exams and questions banks, and NextStep tests, were much better practice. 

[wjl123 7]

Thank you all! I will probably get the TPR books, and use Kaplan for maybe quick review/refresher. 

[ancef 3]

I used Kaplan with some Khan academy, teaching myself everything from scratch, and scored a 517. I think Kaplan is great for content. As previous posts mentioned, go elsewhere for practice tests. Good luck!

[wjl123 7]

what are your opinions on uworld for practice?

[Limes 12]

The MCAT subreddit has some excellent resources as well. I had been out of undergrad for 6 years and managed a 510 with the materials there, anki flash cards, and uworld.

Good luck!