Previous Test Prep Week Summary
Thanks to so many of you for your great questions. There have been some highly insightful questions in every thread, so I figured I'd consilidate them into one summary. This covers most of the posts. I've omitted duplicate questions as well as some of the posts that had no question.
As someone who is somewhat unfamiliar with TBR books, can you explain the approach to teaching the content they take as opposed to other review books?
For example, I've seen books that have focused more on explaining concepts and teaching the information that might be covered on the MCAT, and others that are more similar to a collection of practice questions.
Where does TBR fall on this continuum, in your view?
For a breakdown of the books, look at the home-study thread in this forum. That will give you the numbers if you will.
As for the philosophical approach of the books, it's a what you need varies from chapter to chapter type of book. For physics, there are several sample questions that demonstrate math tricks and test-taking strategies in the first book (chapters 1-5) and more concepts and applications in the second book (chapters 6-10). Every chapter has ten passages and 77 questions, divided into a 25-question summary exam and a 52-question practice exam. The most impressive part of our books, where no one in the continuum touches us, is our answer explanations. Our philosophy is that rather than writing one line that say "use equation X. This can be seen on page 1xx," it is far better to write a detailed explanation, even if it's redundant. This is where our students learn, so this is where we put a great deal of our efforts.
The general chemistry and organic chemistry books are similar in this sense, being that they had the same primary author. These books emphasize concepts and learning to answer questions using just a few concepts. All of these books emphasize POE whenever applicable and teach multiple ways to solve various questions.
The biology books are more about exposure to information. Again, like the other books, each chapter is a different and the emphasis varies, but overall it's about processing many terms and concepts. There are about 100 questions per chapter as well as a practice exam at the end of each book.
Our verbal book spends the first fifth of the book going over ideas and strategies and then last four fifths is passages and answer explanations.
So our books are both a review book and a passage book in one. We offer more passages in our books than any of our competitors. I hope I've answered your question.
How much more effective are your products as compared to other review sets?
Reply from mzblue
- Great books for content review and practice especially if you're like me who's been away from the material for 8years. Their material is in-depth and covers all the basics and more. They have tons of practice passages at the end of each chapter.
Reply from TXKnight
- To answer a question or two posted here regarding the effctivity of BR books. I will start by saying that even though i have not taken the MCAT yet i can tell you that my grasp of the topics has increased dramatically. I have been out of school for several years (aprox. 9) and these book helped me remember and understand (in occasions better) the topics as well as develop test intuition. This is work in progress since I am almost done with my content review and will be taking the test in April but so far, a great experience.
Your question could get the generic one sentence answer or a detailed reply that could take ten to fifteen pages. I'll stay to the less is more philosophy here. To do well at the MCAT, there really are only two things you need to. First, practice with plenty of realistic passages. Second, review those passages in detail as you read through the answer explanations and make adjustments to either your test-taking skills or you knowledge base to assure that you'll get questions like those correct in the future.
Our materials are built with those two ideas in mind. Our books come with more passages than anything else on the market, BY FAR! Our explanations are detailed, often explaining a question from a straight-forward use your information to find a right answer mentality as well as a POE (process of elimination) mentality that applies several test-taking strategies. Our answer explanations are second to none.
That said, might I suggest you take advantage of some of the other forums at SDN to read about materials. You'll find that the majority of older posters here will suggest using a mixture of different materials. During this week, I endorse just one product. But the reality is that there are several great materials out there, and we are a part of a package that includes materials from three to four vendors.
How many passages would you say the TBR comes with compared to other companies?
What makes our books quite different is that they are not textbooks; they are workbooks. They have review material, but it's integrated with several multiple-choice sample questions. You need multiple-choice questions rather than fill-in-the-blank questions. Our review section is followed by ten to fifteen passages at the end of every chapter (for the exact number in each book, consult this thread). Everything is contained in one book. I know most other companies have a separate textbook and question book. Because we are run by teachers, we have a very different philosophy to business and learning. That's an easy way to tell which books were designed and written by teachers as opposed to designed by a business manager and written by someone else.
So to answer your question, there are more passages in our books than the review books of any two companies combined. The other key point is that roughly 85% of our questions are associated with a passage, which is essential given that about 82% of the questions on the MCAT are associated with a passage.
Asking for CBT only:
With the CBT, how much have the TBR exams undergone changes in recent years? I know that the books have constantly been revised, and as someone who used old TBR books on the first time and the new one now, there are definitely differences. But what about CBT? Have the questions been revised to reflect the topics emphasized in the recent MCAT (i.e. very integrative and less on rote memorization)?
Great question. The honest answer is that we've sat on our duffs since January of 2010. We made changes to the exams every Fall (2007, 2008, and 2009) to some extent (changed out a passage here and there, threw out some questions, and expanded some explanations). We actually have about eleven and a half exams worth of passages on that server but only nine CBTs at any given time (seven for home study and all nine for in-class).
Part of not changing this last Fall had to do with a focus on upgrading the system to be more compatible with multiple browsers (before it was Firefox pretty much exclusively) and part was the realization that we had arrived at the place we wanted to be with our exams. Our tests have a full range of passages now, from easy to hard, weird to completely predictable, and straight-forward to wild mixtures of topics. Students last year said they felt quite prepared for the exam, so based on that feedback we decided to sit out this cycle of change.
The great thing about the people at AAMC is that they've written an exam that rewards thinking and only to a small extent a large knowledge base. It's an excellent exam, that you can't study for in traditional ways. If you read the AAMC's Official Guide to the MCAT, it says it as plain as day. That is an absolutely fabulous book that EVERYONE should get. It demystifies the exam by presenting an honest perspective of exactly what the test is about. We completely trust their wisdom.
If we take your classroom course, can we keep the books as well, more subsequent self-study?
Yes, the books are a part of the classroom materials (included in the course cost). There are about an additional 1000 pages of handouts with the course, although much of that is just more passages and explanations.
If you look at the course thread in this forum, you'll see a detailed list of the course materials.
Do the Berkley Review CBTs provide detailed content analysis, similar to the AAMC practice tests, to help identify weak areas for review?
Not at all. We stopped using exams to identify weak areas years ago, because it was causing our students to panic and focus in areas they shouldn't have focused. Often times students would get a question incorrect (like a graph question for instance) not because they didn't know the topic, but because they didn't read the axis right. So they'd get feedback that they didn't know the material when in fact they did. What we count on is the best feedback system around, and that's the test taker. Only you know why you missed a question, and whether you know the material well. That's where the answer explanation becomes huge.
What our exams provide better than anyone is detailed answer explanations that include tips on either the material, test taking strategies, or both. So rather than you concluding from a missed question that you don't know buoyancy well and then you going back to your review text to read more about buoyancy, our answer explanation talks about buoyancy, relevant concepts and equations, and then addresses how to answer the question time efficiently. There is then no need to go back to your study materials unless you failed to recognize the terminology in the question and answer explanation.
The score reports are a pretty gimmick, but when you think about it, wouldn't it be far more time efficient to have an answer explanation that fills any gaps you may have than simply telling you that you have a gap?
What do you mean by at least 45 days? Do you lose access to them at some point?
The accounts are set up to be open for a minimum of 45 days and likely around 50 days. Access is lost at some point. You can change that opening date if you feel it is necessary, but by having a window of usage time, it forces a test taker to use the exams seriously and not waste them by using them like a practice book. Why would anyone need to access practice exams longer than 45 days? If the answer is because you postponed your exam, then postpone your access window too. But if the answer is because you want to do one exam early as a diagnostic exam, it's not a good move. We as a company completely disagree with the utility of starting with an exam and feel that diagnostic exams are misleading.
Here is a blurp from another post that explains this philosophy:
- An effective plan starts with honestly assessing what YOU need. Not all of us come from the same educational background, have the same intuition and logic, and pick up concepts at the same rate. Knowing yourself is the first step to establishing the perfect study plan. Counting on a diagnostic exam to determine your strengths and weaknesses is crazy, yet many people do this. For an exam to be truly diagnostic of all of the concepts, equations, and terms on the two science sections of the MCAT would require well over a thousand questions. The other problem with diagnostic exams is that we often miss questions on material we know (and know well) because of the style of the question, not the content. The result is that diagnostic feedback based on one or two questions in a subject area is misleading. Lucky guessing or low question difficulty could give you a false sense of understanding in a trouble spot as much as a careless error or high question difficulty could give you a false sense of need in a strong subject. The bottom line is that you need to assess your abilities, because you know yourself better than anyone. No matter what the one question involving a titration curve on a commercial diagnostic exam tells you about your understanding of titrations (either you know it 100% or 0%), you know best whether or not you know that subject well.
So rather than starting with an exam, start with either the table of contents in the review books or the list of topics from the Official MCAT Guideline released by AAMC. Go through the lists for each subject topic-by-topic and identify areas that have traditionally bothered you, decide how much content review you need (most students overestimate this), consider how good you are at multiple-choice exams, and figure out how well you learn from doing practice exams. From there you can layout a personalized schedule.
There have been several mentions of office hours for the TBR prep course. What would happen if a student had a packed schedule and could not make the scheduled office hours? I'm assuming that the instructors have set hours each week that students can come in and ask for help. Is it easy to approach instructors to schedule an individual appointment that fits the student's schedule better? The reason I ask is that I would want to be able to ask for help should I need it, but I don't want to be hindered by my schedule.
Office hours during the school year are a mix of set weekly hours and some flexible hours that vary week to week based on student requests. Some instructors do appointments while others will set times based on requests, but have them open to anyone who can attend. In the summer, they are generally flexible for pretty much every instructor, although a few have set weekly hours.
Some people have said that TBR's Bio review books are too detailed, which makes it difficult to grasp all of the material presented within each chapter. How would you recommend overcoming this great amount of detail so we can better prepare ourselves for the bio portion of the test? Obviously it is better to be over-prepared than under-prepared, but I was a bit overwhelmed while looking @ a friend's TBR bio book.
Thanks!
--E
There are two typical comments at SDN about the biology section. One is that our biology books are heavy on details and the other is that one of our competitor's books is missing a few things that appeared on a recent MCAT. After that, there are typically replies that the test has gotten harder and that our book helps prepare for the challenging passages really well. There are also posts defending our competitor's book that the bio sci section is like verbal in that you can get everything from the passage, and that their book was good enough. These comments are frequent enough that I strongly believe both to be true. Both books work well, but an ideal book would be a hybrid of the two. Unfortunately, that book doesn't exist. But a student with the combination of the two books can create the perfect book.
As far as BR bio text goes, I love the Nerve and Muscle chapter, the Heart and Lung chapter, the GI Tract and Kidney chapter, and the Cellular Function chapter. I thought that was the perfect amount of detail integrated with applications and concepts. I felt the Reproduction and Development chapter and the two Genetic chapters were good, but pushed a few more details than I wanted. The Metabolic Components and Metabolic Pathways chapters were the ones that made me wish for a Sparksnotes version. That's where a combination of books would help. Do the detailed chapters first and then review with the short book.
As far as passages go, BR has some that are superb. The great thing about the biology books is that the passages were written by multiple writers with a wide range of backgrounds, so you'll find a broad cross section of styles and expectations. There are some very easy passages in the books followed by complete mind twisters. I personally think that is the best apsect of the biology materials. The MCAT is a moving target, which explains why some people swear by the concise approach and others swear by the details are good approach. I think you need to balance both approaches. In the end, our book has great utility when used in conjunction with another book.
Is the staff at TBR aware of the negative outlook that people have about the verbal book and what are they doing to rectify the situation. Every other subject is considered amongst the best in the industry and I'm curious as to what TBR is doing to reach that same level on the verbal? Why has it been a struggle?
Very poignant question! We are well aware that premeds who do their homework know that our physics, general chemistry, and organic chemistry books are the best and our biology book is in the running for best or second best. There is a deep sense of pride in this.
But our verbal is not on the same plane as our science books, and many students wonder why. I think the answer is found in two parts. This subject is discussed behind the scenes quite often. The basic gist is that (a) everyone in the company is well aware that the market place perceives our verbal book as a distant third best and (b) the mindset of everyone in the company is that we are a teaching company first and a book seller second.
We review how our classroom students do in the various subjects each year, and their verbal averages are in the 9.0 to 9.8 range. So while book buyers don't choose our verbal book, the combination of our book with the in-class handouts, exercises, and teaching is getting good results. Our conlusion is that the combination of our verbal materials and course is effective. So any changes we make are aimed at the classroom materials, some of which in time will get incorporated into our books. But as I mentioned in a reply to another question, the energy of recent years for verbal reasoning has all been dedicated to the excercises in the in-class portion and not the book.
So the verbal book gets the least love. The ironic thing is that the verbal book was the most challenging to develop, because of the large number of passage writers and the number of passages that got rejected. I personally think the problem stems from the editor, because there are some excellent passages and ideas in the book. But he set out to blend everything into a uniform voice by putting in his take. When he did this, some of the nuances of other writers were lost and some explanations became too long to stay interested in. Still, there are some great, realistic passages in the book.
I don't see that editor leaving anytime soon, so my honest answer is that the book will likely not change for a while. Someone else is in charge of the classroom material, so that will continue to evolve with feedback. The book is useful for people looking for additional passages, and there are students who find it helpful. I think it suffers from the little sibbling syndrome in that it looks bad compared to how great the other BR books are. But there is definitely utility in it if you know how to use it and can put aside any preconceived bias towards it.
Does TBR's CBT package include any of the actual AAMC 3-11 practice exams like some of the other companies like Kaplan offer with their online practice products.
No, our $100 to $200 CBT package does not include the seven AAMC practice exams included in Kaplan's $1749 online package [the eighth AAMC exam is free to anyone through AAMC]. We figure students can buy AAMC exams 4, 5, and 7-11 on their own and not pay us a middleman fee. BTW, AAMC gives exam 3 away for free and exam 6 has been removed from their listing. So to buy all seven of our exams and the seven AAMC exams available from the AAMC website, you need only spend about $450.
BR has a different business philosophy and your comparison question has triggered some thoughts. In addition to not offering AAMC exams or a $1700+ online program, there isn't a tutoring program charging well over $100 per hour for private tutoring. Instead, BR has a small class with a ton of office hours included in the course cost (which ironically enough is cheaper than the online package you mentioned above.) If a student wants private one-on-one tutoring rather than the BR course, they work it out directly with a BR teacher or tutor, so that they don't have to pay some crazy $150 or so an hour for tutoring and the teacher can make all of the money without BR taking a cut for not doing any work. BR is a business no doubt, and their reason for existing is to both provide a service as well as make money. But hopefully there is a good balance.
Have there been any recent update/s to the home-study books in comparison to last year?
Yes. Physics is new and improved (sounds like a laundry detergent) as of November 2010. It has several new passages, includes more questions than before, has answer explanations to the B-questions (as well as the A-question) in the text, has several new test startegies incorporated into the text and answer explanations (especially in terms of math and), has a vastly improved electrostatics and magnetism chapter, has an incredibly simple and brilliant approach to fluids and lenses/mirrors, and basically is an easier book to use. The reviews for the new physics book have been through the roof, and the printing that was suppose to last until September 2011 is on pace to be completely bought out by April because it's been so popular.
Also, the two biology books now contain practice exams at the end (thus they are larger because of the additional passages and answers).
2 questions I have:
1) Are there plans for a 3rd phase in the next set of BR Physics books?
2) Are there other ways of obtaining (purchasing) the in-class passage sets and such? Add'l practice materials and the like?
There are plans, which are actually in motion. The 3rd phase will consist of either four passages and some free-standing questions or five passages, depending on the section. Some of the passages slated for Phase 3 are currently being used in the course and once they have been revamped and ran through a beta run one more time, they will become part of the books. It will be similar to the latest biology book, which has a summary exam at the end.
At this time there are no plans to sell the in-class materials, given that those change with every new administration of the course. There are plans to add several sectional practice exams to the on-line portion of the course. Once we have enough CBT data points from those exams, the best of those summary exams will be available for home-study. I know it's lame to have no time estimate, but assuming there will be some passages thrown out at the different stages of development, it will take a couple cycles before it will be ready.
Question: are the phase 1 and 2 passages in the book comparable to the real difficulty of the MCAT passages or are they harder/easier?
Reply from mzblue
- Phase 1 seems to test the stuff you learned. Phase 2 can incorporate something from a different lecture so i feel like it tests understanding of the material.
Compared to the mcat i took last august, i'll say for the sciences, there were certain chem and physics passages that made me happy i prepped with TBR. I think TBR passages are on par with the mcat passages although some mcat passages are easier and don't require much thought. For the difficult science passages, it was deja vu cuz i'd seen similar stuff. For ochem 2 stuff, i could've sworn they looked in the TBR ochem book to make those questions. Sadly, i skimmed through the thing once.
I didn't use their bio book much last year because it wasn't recommended highly on SDN but i've been using it this year and i have to say i love it. I feel like it ties the pieces together in great way. The passages can be killer at times but i feel like i'm getting a hang of it.
Sadly, i didn't prep much for verbal. i did 3 chapters in EK 101 and i was stuck at 9. This time, i'm using different material for verbal and i haven't gone below a 12. With more practice, i'm praying to consistently score in the 14s or 15. The sky is the limit.
Phase I are typical not realistic, not because of difficulty though. These questions are all (or close to all) coming from one basic theme or topic, where the MCAT mixing things up in their passages. These are meant to review and relearn information. And yes, they are generally difficult, because when you miss them, the answer explanations are there to teach a mnemonic or strategy to use on future questions (in phase II and phase III).
Phase II is meant to incorporate a few more outside (but related) concepts as well as stress you for time. The purpose of Phase II is to develop good timing and to apply the tricks you learned in Phase I.
Phase III is all about the realism of mixing random topics and presenting some bizarre and quirky experiments and applications.
