Best Self Mcat Prep?

[Knicks17]

I am taking the Mcat next summer of 2018, but I would like to start reviewing this summer instead of cramming for three 3 months. What are the best books or book sets available. What tips do you guys have that will yield the most efficient studying?

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[pioneer22]

@BerkeleyReview

 

[Knicks17]

How about Kaplan and I am also thinking about taking a course next year what do you guys recommend?

 

[GummyWorm]

I am taking the Mcat next summer of 2018, but I would like to start reviewing this summer instead of cramming for three 3 months. What are the best books or book sets available. What tips do you guys have that will yield the most efficient studying?

Berkeley Review is the Holy Grail for the Mcat Physical sciences, for the Cars & Psych/Soc section invest in Kaplan and The Princeton Review books. Buying ALL of the AAMC materials is essential. Khan Academy is your best friend. Form a study schedule , practice passages, Review Practice test and you should be good . Good Luck!

 

[ChopinLiszt]

I made a big word doc with all the topics in the AAMC guide (copied from the online guide) and then filled in info about every topic. This site follows the guide pretty closely. MCAT Review
I didn't find any books super helpful - I don't think they cover enough stuff or take the right approach to coincide with AAMC tests (but I haven't seen Berkeley - only Kaplan, NS, TPR, and EK books). I think if you combined learning every topic listed in the AAMC guide (all those topics can easily be found on the internet, including Khan Academy!) and took all the AAMC practice material questions, plus supplemented with some kind of CARS practice, you'd be pretty good to go. Maybe get Lehninger biochemistry book - the pdf of older versions can be found free online.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Berkeley Review is the Holy Grail for the Mcat Physical sciences, for the Cars & Psych/Soc section invest in Kaplan and The Princeton Review books. Buying ALL of the AAMC materials is essential. Khan Academy is your best friend. Form a study schedule , practice passages, Review Practice test and you should be good . Good Luck!

Thank you so much for your comment about our science books. We take a great deal of pride in presenting thousands of relevant questions with detailed answer explanations and strategies to quickly answer questions. For students who take to our approach, science passages on the MCAT should be easy going.

I sincerely hope people read the Warning-MCAT Readjusting again thread and see what people who have taken the MCAT have to say. It seems that 90% of the comments in the SDN MCAT forum are from people who have not taken the MCAT, so when a thread comes along that includes feedback from people who have actually taken the exam, you have to get as much as you can from it.

 

[eyh]

@AdaptPrep

 

[mspence]

I am going to medical school in the fall and did the Kaplan course. The class was ok, but what really helped was outside studying using flashcards and the books. Taking weekly test helped a lot as well. The material do not change, but questions do. I ordered 2 sets by accident which I am getting rid of now. the new set with the flash cards are up for sale. Here is the link if you want to take a look.
mcat 2016 | eBay

 

[Spectar]

I am taking the Mcat next summer of 2018, but I would like to start reviewing this summer instead of cramming for three 3 months. What are the best books or book sets available. What tips do you guys have that will yield the most efficient studying?

Here is what I did (it worked for me):

Kaplan course/books: these were honestly excellent. I would recommend these books if you have time, they go into extreme detail so you won't miss anything on the exam but you end up learning a lot of extra stuff that will probably never come up. Good for Bio, Biochem, Physics, Chemistry, Orgo. Terrible for Psych/Soc and Research methods. Cars- okay strategy but not my style. I didn't find the course very helpful, just the books, practice exams (I took 6/10 of them) and flashcards. You could probably get away with just getting the books and still be fine.

ExamKrackers Book set: Great for broad strokes but don't cover everything you need. I used these as a great refresher for general ideas after I was done with the kaplan course and books. I didn't read them all- I first did the questions in each chapter and if there was anything I didn't understand I would then read the particular section I was having trouble on. They have 30 minute practice tests for each chapter that are great. GREAT FOR CARS. Skip these books if money is short.

Khan academy Psych SOC. I used this 100 page doc on reddit somewhere - it was essentially everything you needed to know for the Psych/Soc section. If you cant find it on reddit let me know. Great FREE resource that has everything you need for psych/soc.

AAMC material: Buy them all (if you get a kaplan course or princeton course they provide it to you for free). Their practice exams are representative and section banks are good for practicing the harder material you will get. I regret not buying the flashcards that they sell.

Also use the free NextStep Mcat exam 1, as well as the free Princeton exam 1. If you buy only the kaplan books then you also get 3 free mcat practice exams.
Also consider getting 101 passages from examkrackers, I heard good things.

 

[Knicks17]

Here is what I did (it worked for me):

Kaplan course/books: these were honestly excellent. I would recommend these books if you have time, they go into extreme detail so you won't miss anything on the exam but you end up learning a lot of extra stuff that will probably never come up. Good for Bio, Biochem, Physics, Chemistry, Orgo. Terrible for Psych/Soc and Research methods. Cars- okay strategy but not my style. I didn't find the course very helpful, just the books, practice exams (I took 6/10 of them) and flashcards. You could probably get away with just getting the books and still be fine.

ExamKrackers Book set: Great for broad strokes but don't cover everything you need. I used these as a great refresher for general ideas after I was done with the kaplan course and books. I didn't read them all- I first did the questions in each chapter and if there was anything I didn't understand I would then read the particular section I was having trouble on. They have 30 minute practice tests for each chapter that are great. GREAT FOR CARS. Skip these books if money is short.

Khan academy Psych SOC. I used this 100 page doc on reddit somewhere - it was essentially everything you needed to know for the Psych/Soc section. If you cant find it on reddit let me know. Great FREE resource that has everything you need for psych/soc.

AAMC material: Buy them all (if you get a kaplan course or princeton course they provide it to you for free). Their practice exams are representative and section banks are good for practicing the harder material you will get. I regret not buying the flashcards that they sell.

Also use the free NextStep Mcat exam 1, as well as the free Princeton exam 1. If you buy only the kaplan books then you also get 3 free mcat practice exams.
Also consider getting 101 passages from examkrackers, I heard good things.

Thank you so much!!!