What books or materials to prepare for Post Bacc?

Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time poster Like many of you I’m an older fellow looking to start the journey to becoming a doctor. I’m currently 30, and if God Willing, then I’ll be in my first year of Med School at the tender age of 33.
I can’t start taking Post-Bacc classes until June at the earliest. So, in order to get ready I wanted to refresh myself with general chemistry, biology and physics.
Does anyone know of any relatively inexpensive books that can help me? I was thinking of getting the Examkrackers set, but I think that those books are more geared towards the MCAT. If anyone thinks that they would be good to get back into the swing of things for the basic science req classes, then please do tell
Thanks much in advance!

I think that you should just wait until the classes start. If you have this burning desire to start reading ahead find out what book you will be using and start reading the first few chapters…Examcrackers are good but waaay to condensed for someone that has never taken any of these courses to really understand although the Biology book may be good reading for you it was more straightforward then the rest.

Hi Efex!
Thanks for you reply. The reason I wish to start ahead a bit is that anything I take during the summer will no doubt be condensed. I also work 50-60 hrs a week, so getting familiar with stuff now will hopefully help me stay up to speed once classes begin in June.
I’ll check out examkrackers and the textbook my school will use though! Great idea! Does anyone else know of any other books that could help though? Thanks!

Outside of the actual course material, I would recommend brushing up on your algebra skills, which are required in both physics and gen chem. It’s hard enough figuring out the science that goes into the word problems, but struggling with the mathematical mechanics just compounds the issue.
There are several review books out there, “Forgotten Algebra” is one that comes to mind, but there are several others also.
Hope this helps,
Tara

If you just want a review, I’d seriously look at the “dummies” series - Chemistry for Dummies, Algebra for Dummies, Statistics for Dummies are all good. I haven’t seen Physics for Dummies, myself.

Hi,
To review for those classes I would highly recommend Kaplan’s big Comprehensive book. It has all the subjects you need for the MCAT. You can get it at any book store and at Amazon.com for $70. It is well worth the money.
Good luck with the journey you are getting ready to go on. It is a ong one and at times can be very trying and difficult. Don’t give up!!
Good luck.

I knew I’d be taking Physics first so I picked up the Schaum’s outlines for “Beginning Physics” (I and II) and was reading them before classes started. They have them for every subject I think. It helped a lot to not be seeing things for the first time in lecture. Now that the semester is well underway I am still referring back to those books either for pre-reading or clarification. They also have extra exercises which was helpful when I was studying for my first test.





Edit: OMG I can post from work again!