jasmin Posted January 2, 2007 Report Share Posted January 2, 2007 Hi Everyone, I am new to this whole MCAT prep thing, and I am looking for some good advice on review books. I am thinking of the AAMC practice tests for sure, but I am debating between Kaplan, the Golden standard, Princeton review, and ExamKrackers. I would appreciate any advice on how to effectively study for the MCAT (especially from those who did not take a class), and on other resources that may been of help to people, or anything really.... Thanks in advance Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everyoneloveschem Posted January 2, 2007 Report Share Posted January 2, 2007 The Gold Standard is awesome. I also had someone elses old Kaplan books, which were helpful for additional background, but I'm sure a textbook would be equally good. In fact, I studied over the summer at Carleton's library and used their physics texts a couple of times. Practice exams are also very very useful. Many of the books offer them, but I found the AAMC exams to be the most indicative of what to expect (as you hope would be the case). The are quite expensive, but maybe someone you know has a copy you could borrow...or there are dubious copies floating around online. If you are going to do them, pretend you are doing the real thing: do them in a certain order, time yourself, do them all together. If you buy the AAMC ones, save them for when you are actually ready to try writing an exam, you don't want to waste them. I think I worked through the sections in the order weakest to strongest, so bio, phys, chem. I didn't do anything for VR. I didn't do anything for WS and I did very poorly, though I'm not sure if practicing would have helped. That is about it. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
degoo_ Posted January 2, 2007 Report Share Posted January 2, 2007 If you took first year bio, physics and chem, you are well prepared for the MCAT. Dig up those old notes and go over everything. Borrowing a book from someone taking a course could outline the stuff you have to go over. I took a course (TPR), and in the end thought that I could have used that time better. You should get your hands on the old AAMC tests. Write one without any help, and then you'll see exactly the areas you have to focus on and also learn how to alocate your time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UBCGuy Posted January 5, 2007 Report Share Posted January 5, 2007 I got the new Kaplan 2007 review book (not sure if there is more than one, but this one is huge and is supposed to be comprehensive) and so far it is pretty good. I have only gone through ~20% so far, but it seems to be reasonably complete and straight forward. For me it is not something that I am learning from per se, but more of an outline of what I need to remember for the exam. I think that I will probably compliment it with texts and class notes. Just started this Christmas so we are basically in the same spot jasmin. Hope that your studying goes well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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