Hey guys, I’m about to embark on my path through my premed pre-reqs and I’d like to get some advice on some books that I could use to help me prepare for the MCATs while I’m taking classes.
SKIP ITALICS IF YOU’RE NOT INTERESTED IN READING MY RECENT HISTORY:
Let me give a brief history, like all of us here on this forum, I have a story. I graduated in 2007 from a large UC with a degree in Business Economics with an emphasis in Accounting. Following through on my career path, I got a job after graduating in Public Accounting and studied for and passed my CPA exams. While I was working in public accounting and studying, I didn’t have time to really question whether I liked what I was doing or not.
Once I passed my exams and went to work, I realized that I saw no point as to what I was doing and I hated what my day-to-day work life was. After a long time of soul searching and a serious life-altering event, I have decided that I’m going to pursue medicine.
Until I found this forum, I seriously doubted the viability of this option because I put so much hard work into getting to where I was in business already and my undergrad degree is completely unrelated to science but after browsing stories written here for a while, I see people with stories with uncanny similarities to mine (CPA’s even!) who are changing their careers with 20+ years more experience than I have and I can’t pursue a career in something that I have absolutely no desire to be involved in. I’m only 26 and I have a long career ahead of me.
One thing that I did get out of the CPA exams was 1) learning a lot about myself and how hard I was willing to work in order to accomplish my goals, and 2) had I had my CPA study books while I was in my undergrad classes, I would have aced them.
Now I want to take my premed pre-reqs and study for the MCAT and I hope to apply the same logic to this exam. I of course plan on studying hard exclusively for the MCAT prior to the exam but if if somebody has any books that they recommend studying concurrently with taking pre-reqs I believe I would be placing myself at an advantage when it comes time to study and take the exam.
Hi Moustafa
Welcome!!!
I just finished the Princeton Review course so I used their material pretty much exclusively. I found it to be pretty good.
I have heard a lot of people talk about how good the exam krackers books are for the MCAT. They also have CDs - Audio Osmosis I believe they are called so if you are an auditory learner that might be a good combination for you.
Hope that helps a bit.
Lynda
- LJSimpson Said:
Welcome!!!
I just finished the Princeton Review course so I used their material pretty much exclusively. I found it to be pretty good.
I have heard a lot of people talk about how good the exam krackers books are for the MCAT. They also have CDs - Audio Osmosis I believe they are called so if you are an auditory learner that might be a good combination for you.
Hope that helps a bit.
Lynda
That definitely helps Lynda. I was hearing a lot about Exam Krackers on this site and I wanted to go and take a look at some of their books. I guess they're not as well known as Kaplan or Princeton Review but they are a bit more specialized, only providing books for the MCAT and LSAT so I guess that's the reason. I'm going to look into them.
Thanks for the help. We all need to have our own advantages!
My experience with Examkrakers at the moment is very good. I graduated 10 years ago from my BS in Biology and Im now finishing my Masters degree in Molecular Microbiology. The audio CD’s you can used all the time and if you have an iPod you can download it into your computer and transfered to the ipod and listen the lessons when you have some spare time. A few days ago I buy the book Dr. Alpha O. Diallo MCAT Pearls which I used to reinforce concepts learned in Examkrakers.
Also I found a page on the web that you can used if you got any trouble with the lectures. www.MCATwizard.com
I hope that the tips will help you. I wish you good luck and success…
i used examkrackers. i also looked at berkley review…which was way more in depth. the examkrackers was definetly more in lines witha review book.
i might also suggest buying the 1001 questions series…you can knock out a few questions as you do each section. the ohysics and gen chem ones are good. the bio and orgo not so much
hth some
It looks like Examkrackers is the direction I’ll take. It sounds like there’s nothing but good feedback and it is a comprehensive set.
I’ve heard good and bad on Berkley and Princeton. I’ve heard mostly good on ExamKrackers, mostly in passing. Anyone know of the disadvantages, limitations, or criticisms of ExamKrackers? It makes me nervous when no one has the least bad thing to say on a subject. Even if a disadvantage is petty or “n/a”, that still is information I’d like to know…
I’ve heard from others in my post-bac program that they liked ExamKrackers for practice questions. However they said it was a very abbreviated review for the subjects, content wise. Some good test taking strategies there.
I used Kaplan myself, which I think is a bit excessive but which does have a good topic division. it might be better for reviewing content areas. Somewhat different strategies. Was ok for me but not rather time-intensive.
Kate