Kaplan Review Book vs. Princeton Review Book

[blues]

Hello all, i wrote for the first time last august and I used the Kaplan book and AAMC tests. I thought it was ok. I ended up getting a 29O, which I sort of expected, as I didn't feel very ready. I am now debating on which review book to get. I have been reading the posts and a lot of people seem to agree on the fact that examcrackers are good so I am getting those for sure. But I also want something besides those. Is the new Kaplan premier book that (I assume) targets the cbt a lot different from the 2005-2006 version? and for people who have used the princeton book (cracking the mcat) was it good? Also does the new version of Kaplan practice tests contain different tests from the fourth edition? Thanks so much!

[UBCGuy]

I am sorry Kenneth but I don't fully understand what you mean by the second paragraph. I think it is probably a typo. Is the Kaplan the best or useless?

[avenir001]

I think Kenneth is saying Kaplan was the best overall...whereas TPR was overall useless but did help with some of the (few) weak sections of Kaplan.

 

I tried TPR for a week, didn't like it, returned it, and bought KCR instead. Later on I also bought the EK books, but I have to say I prefer Kaplan. I think it covers all the mcat topics thoroughly enough...obviously it's not a textbook and if anyone has trouble understanding a topic, they should refer to a textbook...but Kaplan is pretty good for a review book. EK is more advanced and may give you a deeper understanding of some topics...but honestly, in my opinion, a good strategy for the mcat is to know the material covered in KCR, work on your timing, practice with aamc's tests...and if you have extra time after these, sure, go ahead and read the EK books...but they do take a while to read and most of the end-of-section questions are wayyy harder than anything you'll see on the mcat.

[The Law]

I'm using the Kaplan 2007 book right now to go over physics and I'm finding it very very good. It's been really clear. I also have the EK physics book, but I don't really like it very much.

[Jochi1543]

There's also a Barron's. I originally reviewed with Kaplan, but ended up not taking the MCAT when I was planning to, so I'm taking it in April instead....I thought Kaplan was pretty well-structured, but after all the underlining and highlighting I did in there, it was difficult to use it again. I bought the Barrons prep book (it's more compact and also comparatively cheap), and I gotta say that it's not as well organized as the Kaplan. It's not too big of a deal for me since I remember most of the material pretty well anyway, after all the studying I did last summer, but I wouldn't use it as my one and only book.