MCAT RAFFLE ITEM: 1) Berkeley Review Home-Study Book set 2) Berkeley Review CBT exams

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How would you recommend spacing out the CBTs? Is one day in between sufficient enough for reviewing the CBT, or would you recommend two days in between?

This really comes down to you and your schedule. Personally, I think two days between exams is a good idea if possible, but sometimes a person's schedule just doesn't fit that plan.

If I had an open schedule, I'd take a test and the grade it right afterwards. I'd look at the questions I missed without reading the answer explanations and try those again. I'd make an error log that simply designates the error as careless (and what the carelessness was) or content base (I missed it because I didn't know the material). I'd give myself the night to digest the exam in my mind, because that is where your knowledge really grows. Let it percolate a bit. The next day, I would read through the answer explanations (for every question, whether I got it right and wrong). I'd add to my error log the equations to terms I needed. On the third day, I'd go back to troublesome questions (not necessarily ones I got wrong, but ones that I got right feeling insecure or got wrong for a reason other than brain-farting). I'd rewrite those questions and answer choices. I'd spend the next few hours reviewing material and doing passages from my regular study materials. Later that day, I'd try the questions I wrote that morning. This will be tiring, but amazingly helpful.

Then, I'd start the entire three-day process over again.

How long before starting studying for the MCAT should someone who lives in the east coast order the Home Study package?

Great question. The short answer is two weeks if your are paying by credt card or money order and four weeks if paying by personal check.

Let me start my longer answer by apologizing for our archaic system and explaining the timing. There is the mail runner, who collects mail at 1:30 or so each day. When he returns, the process of boxing books and making labels begins. If the number of orders are typical that day, then he'll finish by 3:00 and the shipment goes out that day to FedEx. Any orders paid for by check are placed in the ten day hold pile. Money order and credit card orders go out the same day if possible (on busy days they may go out the next day). Problems that cause delays come into play in a few ways. First, Mondays are really busy (two days of mail come those days), so it's usually a case where only some orders go out the same day. Second, there are two post offices in Berkeley, and the Berkeley Review PO Box is at the secondary post office. This adds a day (maybe two) to standard mail getting to our box (priority mail is handled faster). Lastly, there is the FedEx timing factor. Their last pickup is around 3:30 in the afternoon, but due to variation in how busy they are, it's a moving target. From time to time, we miss their pickup for that day and it sits.

So there is a bit of luck involved in the timing. If you hit it just right, then your order could be on its way to you two to three days after you mailed it. If you hit it wrong, then it will take longer. Also, during the holiday season, the sweatshop shuts down and the workers have been known to take a day off here and there.

Your post said "at least" 45 days, so is there a way to extend this time period?

The time period goes until the first automatic shutoff date after 45 days following the user's requested start date. The philosophy behind the time window is to encourage students to not use the exams as standard study material, but to only take them once they feel ready. More than six weeks should be plenty of time to take and thoroughly review three to seven CBT exams. This will hopefully motivate you to stick tightly to a practice schedule.

In terms of the Berkeley Review products available, can you currently download the CBT tests online or is it in CD format?

We have a dedicated website for taking the practice exams. The site is absolutely state of the art and has not crashed in its four and a half years. Pretty much the polar opposite of our company website.

How do your CBTs compare to the actual MCAT? Are they a reliable predictor of real MCAT performance?

I really appreciate your question. In addition to my input, you should also search for threads over the past few years on CBTs. Our exams are considered harder than AAMC practice exams and a great simulation of the difficulty, randomness, and variety of topics found on the typical MCAT.

As far as predicting an actual MCAT score, threads here at SDN show that they are about the same as AAMC practice exams. That is to say, your scores will likely fluctuate over a four to seven point range, and your actual MCAT score will fit into that range about 90% of the time. Because of the randomness factor of the MCAT, no single exam (AAMC included) can ever be an ideal indicator (because topics vary so much from exam to exam). But the collective set of scores can be helpful in predicting how you'll do. Our curves seem generous on many of our more difficult sections, but they are surprisingly good.

Do you have plans to update the CBT's or add cbt8 anytime soon?I understand the the exam is constantly changing like replacing parts of ochem with more bio. Are the CBT's updated regularly or have they been the same since release a few years ago?

Yes. There actually is a CBT 8 and CBT 9, but they are currently only available to students in our lecture course. There are three additional exams that we rotate through the system, although the last content change/modification was in early 2010. Right now most of our CBT work has been on the programming end in an effort to stay compatible with IE, Firefox, and Safari.

I would love love love to enroll in The Berkely Review course. (From what I hear) The course is superb and the owners are always very helpful. Unfortunately, because I'm located on the opposite side of the country, the chances of me enrolling is slim to none. Have the owners ever considered making their classroom content and lectures available online to out-of-staters like me. Perhaps they could include a membership fee of some sort as well. I think this would be extremely beneficial for future test takers. Also, has there been any discussion to expand the company in the future to other states?

And finally, my last question is regarding the ordering system (which seems very ancient by the way :p) Will an online payment system be included in the near-future? If so, do you have any idea when?

Thanks for your time :)

In 1995, BR expanded to UW and U Michigan, which gave it seven locations total (San Diego and Davis were up and running then). The expansion taught a valuable lesson that with live instruction that counts on face-to-face interaction and depends on amazing teachers, it's next to impossible to expand. It's just not a formula that translates into a bulk model, because with our style of teaching and our approach to the MCAT it's hard to find the perfect teacher to do it. They scaled back in size and have been content with running just three to four centers.

On-line classes have been discussed, but in a small in-house trial run, it was a disaster. The student feedback streaming was delayed just enough to create awkward silences and questions that were late by just enough to throw the lecture continuity off. Live on-line classes, in our opinion, don't work very well. Even with the absolute state of the art systems, when you try to add too many feeds into the system, there is discontinuity. It's like on-line gaming when too many people join. You can't have any more than three to four people in a live video chat of this caliber. Also, a big part of teaching is reading the facial expressions and class mood, which is lost when it's not live instruction. You might as well have video clips and give up any attempt at live on-line. Many of Todd's lectures have been recorded, but those will likely stay buried.

In 1996, the owners opted to reduce down to just California centers and not over-stretch the staff. Selling books for home study usage was not introduced until 2003.

And as for the website (vintage 1997), the webmaster (and part owner) has been promising upgrades but at the end of the day just doesn't want to change it. All of the online efforts for the past five to six years have been on the exams, which use a completely different host btw. An online payment service has supposedly been in the works for a few years now, but if you ask me (and this is just my opinion) they don't have an interest in becoming a big company. The major companies have made attempts to buy Berkeley Review on a few occasions, and it came down to BR not wanting to sell. They are people who like running a small business, which as foolish as it may seem to people with big business in their blood, it works.

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I feel like the 45 day time period is really short. I'm use to studying for a much longer time (3 months) and spreading my practice tests out throughout the entire period.

In one of your responses, you said we shouldn't take these exams until we're "ready". Can you expand a little more on that and what you mean by being ready for a practice exam?
 
Why 45 days? That seems like such a random number. What if I postpone my MCAT?
 
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I actually just asked BerkReviewTeach something similar to this through email.

For bio, there's a new copyright edition but the contents are similar as in 2004.

Physics is new as of 2010 and made many changes so just get the new one. This is important! :)

Chemistry, 2008 or later is fine.

Organic chemistry, huge changes since 2004 so try to get anything copyrighted after that year.

Verbal, 2008 or later are fine.

If you buy it this year and put it off for maybe a year or two, my guess is you're probably fine. There won't be so much changes in the books nor in actual MCAT.

:thumbup:


What changes occurred for Orgo?
 
Do the Bio and Physics book contain any discrete questions interspersed with the passages at the end of the chapters?
 
Why 45 days? That seems like such a random number. What if I postpone my MCAT?

That would be a great idea!!!

As many others have said before, 3 months is just about the right amount of time to prepare for the MCAT's. If you really push yourself, then it could be done in 60 days. If I were to take on the 60 day challenge, I would study 7-8 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I'd probably take a day off every 2-3 weeks. Burn out is not really an issue for me but if you think it might be for you, then it'd be a good idea to take a day off and study a little harder/longer during the other 6 days.

A friend of mine took the MCAT's a couple of years ago and he got a score in the high 20's. He's in med school now and he says that if he were to take the MCAT over again he would probably get a 35. I asked him why he thinks that and he said that med school taught him to study much more efficiently. So moral of the story is...

"Study long, hard, and efficient!"
 
Are the set of books that are being auctioned off are the most recent versions/editions of the books that are currently being sold? Also, how much can I expect the Berkeley review books to change within the next year?
 
I feel like the 45 day time period is really short. I'm use to studying for a much longer time (3 months) and spreading my practice tests out throughout the entire period.

In one of your responses, you said we shouldn't take these exams until we're "ready". Can you expand a little more on that and what you mean by being ready for a practice exam?

The 45 day window stems from a company philosophy that starting with a diagnostic exam is pointless. You shouldn't start exams before you've covered at least two-thirds of the material. One and a half months seemed like a good amount of time to build test experience and test skills while finishing off the last of your review. It forces the issue for you to be committed and organized.

What's meant by ready is that when you sit to take the exam, the equations and concepts will have been recently reviewed for the most part, so any questions you miss will be due to minor gaps in knowledge or test-taking errors. If you haven't reviewed and you're missing questions because you flat out don't know the material, then you're wasting an exam.

I ask you in return, what amount of time do you think would be better than 45 days? Is there a compromise you'd recommend? For some students in the class, there are circumstances where we open the exams up early by request.
 
Why 45 days? That seems like such a random number. What if I postpone my MCAT?

45 days is a month and a half, which seems like the right amount of time to do a test a week after having fully reviewed. I'm trying to figure out what scenario a person who bought five exams would need access for longer than 45 days.

If you decide to postpone your MCAT, speak to them early and see what they'll do. I know people have delayed their start date (based on their new exam date). I don't think they care when the 45 day window is started, just that you have that window tied to your actual test date.

BTW, you get to pick your activation date. It doesn't start when they receive it, but instead when you designate it to begin. And finally, most accounts go for more than 45 days. Ask some people who've used the BR CBTs how long their exams were actually active for.
 
What changes occurred for Orgo?

I think that might be a typo. The major change happened in 2004 after the people at AAMC removed ether chemistry, benzene chemistry, and alkene chemistry. That was a huge change in the books, as an entire chapter went away. In 2007, the changes were nothing more than some passage changes and question changes if anything.
 
Do the Bio and Physics book contain any discrete questions interspersed with the passages at the end of the chapters?

Physics, yes. There is a 25-question practice exam that is three passages followed by three to four discrete questions. After that there is a 52-question practice exam with 12-13 discrete questions and 7 passages.

In the biology books, the end of the chapter is purely passage based. There's an exam at the end of each book that has both discretes and passages.
 
Are the set of books that are being auctioned off are the most recent versions/editions of the books that are currently being sold? Also, how much can I expect the Berkeley review books to change within the next year?

The auction is for the latest set of books. That's all that's in the inventory. Over the next year, there is plans for the organic book to have a significant change and the general chemistry book to have a significant change. The timeline is a mystery, much like it was for the physics books.
 
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The auction is for the latest set of books. That's all that's in the inventory. Over the next year, there is plans for the organic book to have a significant change and the general chemistry book to have a significant change. The timeline is a mystery, much like it was for the physics books.


Doesn't the saying go something like this "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"??

Why mess with the chemistry books?!?!?!
 
Was there something "wrong" with the old physics set? A friend has offered to let me buy hers after she takes the MCAT in April but she has a set purchased last April before the new Physics book came out. Is the new physics book a huge improvement from the old?

Does Berkley Review give a schedule with the home-study book package?

Thanks! I have heard great things about Berkley Review! I hope I win!
 
The easiest thing to do is get an international postal money order. They're cheaper than the bank. But you're going to get nailed on the shipping tarriffs.

Also, if you could forward the information you have about the illegal e-books, it would be highly appreciated. It could be useful in a current situation if it ends up the tracer code on the e-books you mentioned matches.

It's completely illegal for people to buy, sell, or possess those e-books. Luckily most copies keep a record of where they started and every computer that has touched them. It's been interesting to say the least and has actually resulted in some strange bonding between competitors in this industry.

Oh darn it!

Btw, I re-checked for the advertisement and it seems that the person removed the posting. But I'll let you know of any future encounters with these false advertisements. :hello:
 
Doesn't the saying go something like this "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"??

Why mess with the chemistry books?!?!?!

The guy who writes the chemistry books was the author in charge on the recent physics update, so I think it's just in his blood to keep improving the books.
 
Was there something "wrong" with the old physics set? A friend has offered to let me buy hers after she takes the MCAT in April but she has a set purchased last April before the new Physics book came out. Is the new physics book a huge improvement from the old?

Does Berkley Review give a schedule with the home-study book package?

Thanks! I have heard great things about Berkley Review! I hope I win!

The older physics book was pretty much the unanimous decision as best physics book on the market. But the new one really filled in the gaps that one had (the E&M section is improved, the B-questions now have explanations, many new math tricks in almost all of the sections, and about 30% of the passages have been switched out.) The practice questions now have some discretes as well. The new physics book is just a great book. You'll be fine with her books for all of the other sections, but it might be worth the effort and money to upgrade the physics books.
 
Oh darn it!

Btw, I re-checked for the advertisement and it seems that the person removed the posting. But I'll let you know of any future encounters with these false advertisements. :hello:

Thank you for the effort. Let's see how the raffle plays out. If you don't win, PM me.
 
I have been studying with many different review books, ranging from Berkeley Review to exam-crackers to Princeton. And have found that some topics are stressed in some books while not the other. Do you guys know, which reviews books do the best job as far as covering ALL the topics for the MCAT. And which books go overboard?
 
According to many students on this website, TBR seems to be one of the best MCAT companies out there, will TBR courses expand to other states?

I heard a lot about the TBR books and their significant improvement in student's MCAT scores. I was wondering, who are the authors for the TBR books? How long have they been teaching the MCAT?

Also, if you have the stats, how close is the student's TBR practice test scores to those of their actual MCAT exam scores?

In addition, how long has TBR been teaching the MCAT?


Thank you so much for your time!
 
I have been studying with many different review books, ranging from Berkeley Review to exam-crackers to Princeton. And have found that some topics are stressed in some books while not the other. Do you guys know, which reviews books do the best job as far as covering ALL the topics for the MCAT. And which books go overboard?

I'm going to so my best to be politically correct and at the same time answer your question.

The MCAT is a constantly evolving test. They (AAMC) are continually writing new passages (and plenty of them with 26 administrations per year having at least some of the passage non-field tested). So exactly what is heavily tested is a moving target. No one at SDN talks about what exactly was on their MCAT (violation of several user agreements if they did) but they sometimes mention what they over-studied. If you read through threads here, I think you'll find a general answer. But that would be a ton of reading and a case of diminishing returns.

So the next best suggestion would be to look at the revision dates for the materials you are using. How much have the materials changed over the last five years (since the test went completely CBT)? Common sense would say that the materials that have changed the most are the ones that have the most up-to-date focus. The ones written and editted by people still actively teaching MCAT classes are the ones that will most likely have the feedback necessary to modify and stay current. On the other end of the spectrum, if there are typos that have been there for years and years, then you can safely conclude those materials haven't been updated, so their emphasis might also be outdated.

A perfect example is the topic of vectors. If the materials have several pure vector questions (boat going east in a northbound stream, etc...) in their homework section, then they are probably a little outdated. But if the vector questions are of the applied type (force diagrams and resultant momentum vectors after collisions), then the materials are probably pretty current.

I think the best suggestion would be for you to look in the front of each book you are using and see when it was last updated.
 
According to many students on this website, TBR seems to be one of the best MCAT companies out there, will TBR courses expand to other states?

I heard a lot about the TBR books and their significant improvement in student's MCAT scores. I was wondering, who are the authors for the TBR books? How long have they been teaching the MCAT?

Also, if you have the stats, how close is the student's TBR practice test scores to those of their actual MCAT exam scores?

In addition, how long has TBR been teaching the MCAT?


Thank you so much for your time!

Expansion is highly unlikely, because quite honestly, the owners like knowing each of their students and being a small, personal company. They expanded from 1994 to 1996, only to find it was hard to keep track of everyone in six different cities, and have since scaled back.

For the details about some of the authors, look at the course information list under teachers and you'll see their names in blue. Those are some of the authors. The three major authors have been teaching MCAT over 20 years, but the truth is that they are more senior editors at this point. Professors, graduate students, and doctors are free to submit passages from the BR topic list using BR question guideline, but whether they make it to the books comes down to the screening of the editors. The primary authors write the answer explanations. I think the expertise and experience of each author in their field within the MCAT prep world is what makes the materials so good and why they emphasize answer explanations so heavily.

For students in the course that take at least seven TBR exams, their actual MCAT score is on par to two points higher than their BR average. However, that comes with a disheartening range at times, which is why I emphasized the seven exams. You will bomb one completely and destroy another one, so take extreme scores with a grain of salt.

As for how long BR has been doing MCAT, they have been doing MCAT longer than every company except Kaplan. They formally started in March of 1992. Todd Bennett, one of the founders, started at UCI College of Medicine in 1988 as an instructor and went on to be the primary developer and partner of the Hyperlearning MCAT course in 1990. Dale Schmidt, another one of the founders, started a Berkeley reader service in 1989, helping premeds review. The other members of the original team have either moved on or reduced their teaching load.
 
Hey maybe I can win the books or cbt's so I can use them.


:p
 
The 45 day window stems from a company philosophy that starting with a diagnostic exam is pointless. You shouldn't start exams before you've covered at least two-thirds of the material. One and a half months seemed like a good amount of time to build test experience and test skills while finishing off the last of your review. It forces the issue for you to be committed and organized.

What's meant by ready is that when you sit to take the exam, the equations and concepts will have been recently reviewed for the most part, so any questions you miss will be due to minor gaps in knowledge or test-taking errors. If you haven't reviewed and you're missing questions because you flat out don't know the material, then you're wasting an exam.

I ask you in return, what amount of time do you think would be better than 45 days? Is there a compromise you'd recommend? For some students in the class, there are circumstances where we open the exams up early by request.

For me, I think 90 days would be a more comfortable number. Having already taken the MCAT, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the knowledge but there's something I'm lacking when taking the exams themselves. Even after a lot of practice, I keep making silly mistakes. Maybe it just takes me longer but I'm thinking I just need a lot of practice.

I want to use the TBR CBTs to gauge my progress (since they seem pretty accurate) and then take some exam krackers/kaplan exams (maybe even look over/retake some of my older practice exams) in between for learning purposes. However, with 45 days, I don't think I can mix much of the other exams with TBR...and the pricing makes it so I can't buy them one by one.
 
OMG! I was gonna say the physics books are like the chemistry books and the chemistry books are my favorite. I think i wrote on my blog that the new physics book read like the chemistry ones and now i'm certain that's what has changed about them. I had the old physics book and maybe it was me but i had a hard time getting it. This time, i love them. I understand what i read. Whoever that guy is, he's awesome! Funny thing is i like how he said in the chemistry book one time "say no to physics".LOL

The new change in the physics books make them soo worth getting. Of course, i get 76% on my phase 1 in physics and do the princeton review science workbook and score 95% on the same chapter type of questions. Was talking with a girl i met at Barnes and nobles who was reading TBR book and we both agreed TBR questions sure make the science workbook questions look like a cakewalk.

The guy who writes the chemistry books was the author in charge on the recent physics update, so I think it's just in his blood to keep improving the books.
 
With respect to your cbts, how is the verbal. I've heard that the verbal is pretty bad. Is it worth it to purchase them to do the PS and BS only?
 
For me, I think 90 days would be a more comfortable number. Having already taken the MCAT, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the knowledge but there's something I'm lacking when taking the exams themselves. Even after a lot of practice, I keep making silly mistakes. Maybe it just takes me longer but I'm thinking I just need a lot of practice.

I want to use the TBR CBTs to gauge my progress (since they seem pretty accurate) and then take some exam krackers/kaplan exams (maybe even look over/retake some of my older practice exams) in between for learning purposes. However, with 45 days, I don't think I can mix much of the other exams with TBR...and the pricing makes it so I can't buy them one by one.


You know, I think one of the recurring themes on this forum is that you should take 90-120 days to study and that taking much longer is not effective because you will forget a lot of the material that you learn. So if you stick with that time frame, then you should not need more than 45 days. Personally, I think I will need them only the last 30 days because of the timing of the course and the MCAT test date.
 
I don't think the verbal in the CBTs is what is badly rated. What i read was that the passages in the book were easy and weren't representative of the hard passages people saw on the exam. But i have seen people post that after the first few it gets ok. TBR revises their material a lot so i'm sure there's been some change in their verbal books as well.

Honestly, i think people should stop being too "fill in the blank" with verbal books. No verbal book is going to give you the exact same passages you'll see on the MCAT. What you'll get is something trying to be representative of the MCAT. I've seen some people say kaplan vr isn't great and i've seen others say kaplan verbal was exactly what they saw on the mcat. I've seen people say EK was similar to the verbal they saw on the exam, My exam wasn't as hard as EK verbal, it was a lot easier and most of us who posted in the thread after the exam agreed on that. EK is a good practice for verbal. I've seen someone use TPR and done fine and have seen the opposite.

My point is, reading comprehension is reading comprehension. Use a source that'll make you read hard, boring materials and ask you questions similar to what the MCAT will ask. Verbal requires a lot of practice. And sometimes, a person scores poorly because their comprehension sucks. The books are there to help you practice your reading comprehension.

If you're taking a CBT, i wouldn't suggest skipping the verbal. Get yourself used to reading 7 passages on the computer for 60minutes. Build your stamina. Great athletes aren't great solely because they have the natural talent. Part of their greatness comes from practicing to perfect it.



With respect to your cbts, how is the verbal. I've heard that the verbal is pretty bad. Is it worth it to purchase them to do the PS and BS only?
 
Have they already announced the raffle ticket winner?

I haven't received anything, so I guess I aint lucky. hehe.
 
I'm sure it's difficult to do because you guys are probably busy, but do you think there will be a easier method to order the books in the future? They seem like great books from what I've heard, but the whole process of getting them is so difficult. If I do plan on getting the books, would it be best to buy them all or just the subjects that I need? I'll probably be taking a Kaplan course since I live in the east coast so which books can I do without if I get the Kaplan books?
 
I'm sure it's difficult to do because you guys are probably busy, but do you think there will be a easier method to order the books in the future? They seem like great books from what I've heard, but the whole process of getting them is so difficult. If I do plan on getting the books, would it be best to buy them all or just the subjects that I need? I'll probably be taking a Kaplan course since I live in the east coast so which books can I do without if I get the Kaplan books?
A lot of people has asked your question and I don't think it'll change any time soon.

from what I heard, every one of their books is good except the verbal.. I would think it'll be better to order at once to save on shipping.
 
Will there be any raffles this year?

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It doesn't look like SDN is having Test Prep Week this year. If they have one, then there will be plenty of raffles.

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