Illuminant Posted December 16, 2011 Report Share Posted December 16, 2011 Hi guys, I am new to this process and I don't know how to prepare for the MCAT itself, so I want to hear from your experiences how did you guys prepare for the MCAT? What books did you guys use (Kaplan, princeton, ExamKrackers, TPR, and EK) what does TPR and EK mean anyways? Which of the above proved to be the most useful for the MCAT? Are preparatory courses useful? Thank you all for your help, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted December 16, 2011 Report Share Posted December 16, 2011 These questions and more have been answered in the past...i would recommend the search function to find what you're looking for. It's next to "new posts". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Illuminant Posted December 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 These questions and more have been answered in the past...i would recommend the search function to find what you're looking for. It's next to "new posts". not quiet .. what's next to the "new posts" is a writing saying "Page 1 of 173" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted December 17, 2011 Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 not quiet .. what's next to the "new posts" is a writing saying "Page 1 of 173" yeah...so that's good reading material to start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Illuminant Posted December 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 yeah...so that's good reading material to start What I implied in my last post is that there are a lot of pages to search (272 pages) just to answer the questions above, and so you're not really helping me when you're refering me to the search function. I also know where the search funtion is located on this forum, and so you talking in a rude manner to me made you look dumb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markov79 Posted December 17, 2011 Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 Hi guys, I am new to this process and I don't know how to prepare for the MCAT itself, so I want to hear from your experiences how did you guys prepare for the MCAT? What books did you guys use (Kaplan, princeton, ExamKrackers, TPR, and EK) what does TPR and EK mean anyways? Which of the above proved to be the most useful for the MCAT? Are preparatory courses useful? Thank you all for your help, idn. there are a bunch of threads on which prep company to use (if you use one at all). so i think mac has a point. you just gotta use the "right" keywords... "prep company", "kaplan", "tpr"/"princeton review", "best company", etc. NB: not guaranteeing those will work... just some examples. anyway, that sort of helps answer one of your questions... tpr=the princeton review, and ek = examkrackers. i can't remember exactly what the general consensus is, but i think most people say to use either kaplan or tpr for science, and then use EK's verbal strategy. i don't know about writing, but i think kaplan and tpr are fine for that. i think most company's will prepare you well, though, if you're willing to put in the work (which you clearly should, since this is one of the most important cut offs for med school); and i don't think anyone wants/liked to do it twice. i've also heard that if you have a science degree in the works or in the past, kaplans serves you well enough, whereas PR helps if you don't, since it provides more info/material, etc. (note: that's not referring to the amount of example tests... just the textbooks. no idea about what the testing materials are like). also, i've heard that kaplan is better if you have more self-discipline/like to study on your own. they have 6 hours/week (2 3-hour sessions), whereas, i think, PR is in the class room 4 (or 5?) days a week, for a few hours. i took kaplan so i'm not sure about PR's set-up. someone please correct me if i'm wrong. edit: this doesn't include practise tests, which do the whole 5-6 hour thing every so often (should be around once a week near the end of the course?). /edit so there are a few differences. but as i said above, most people recognize that you can do well with any (or none) of the companies you listed above. i found it helpful, but that's one voice. you should probably wait for more people to tell you if you should use a company or not... but i can't see it being a detriment, other than with respect to your bank account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted December 17, 2011 Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 What I implied in my last post is that there are a lot of pages to search (272 pages) just to answer the questions above, and so you're not really helping me when you're refering me to the search function. I also know where the search funtion is located on this forum, and so you talking in a rude manner to me made you look dumb. That's because you asked a lot of questions...be prepared for a lot of answers (or in your case, search hit results). I'm not trying to be rude, but generic questions do warrant the use of the search function before posting. It's something that long time members and mods try to encourage to help get you on your way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vorpal Posted December 17, 2011 Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 It's called extreme lurking - I'm in the same boat myself where I really don't know which prep company is the best for me. But the difference between you and I is that I've been reading these forums for a couple of months now and instead of posting questions that have been answered time and again I look up different threads and read all the responses ! There's already a ton of information on these forums (everyone is just so helpful!) and I'm glad it wasn't lost when the site recently went down. That being said, I think you should definitely check out ExamKrackers for verbal reasoning (it's pretty much the best out of all the options in that section) and then decide which company you want to learn from for the sciences based on how you learn as a student. My .02 p.s. thehumanmacbook - your name reminds me of the South Park episode the humancentIpad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Illuminant Posted December 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 i can't remember exactly what the general consensus is, but i think most people say to use either kaplan or tpr for science, and then use EK's verbal strategy. i don't know about writing, but i think kaplan and tpr are fine for that. That being said, I think you should definitely check out ExamKrackers for verbal reasoning (it's pretty much the best out of all the options in that section) and then decide which company you want to learn from for the sciences based on how you learn as a student. So far, I seen that TPR is the best for the writing section .. EK is best for the verbal section .. TPR is best for the physical science section .. EK is the best for the biological section .. but what about Kaplan .. I need more searching on that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bretzky Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 I would say hands down, EK for verbal. Some Kaplan verbal stuff is rather difficult, and not really representative of the actual test, and format. I did all EK books, and liked how they present everything. I wasn't falling asleep while studying, and actually pulled off a few chuckles. Salty the Cracker is wicked. I did not like their ochem book though. I found it really condensed and confusing, so I used my Kaplan book for ochem. But yeah, that's my opinion. I'm not one of those crazy people that wanted and could get a 45, so I didn't want study materials that were much harder than the actual test. I wanted study materials to help me get a competitive score (31Q), and also that wouldn't put me to sleep in the process. As for written, I think the only resource I used was aamc's practice prompts, and their info about it/ a little info from EK on written. Written for the mcat is a formula you need to follow, and you don't have to be a brilliant writer to do well on it at all, although I'm sure it undoubtedly helps. Make sure you give yourself enough time so that you are doing practice exams the week or two before it, as personally, those were the absolute BEST way to study for me. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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