<p>Hi,</p>
<p>(I looked through the stickied MCAT thread and didn’t really see much about this there, so I’m sorry if it’s somewhere else and haven’t seen it)</p>
<li><p>What are the BEST MCAT prep books in your opinion, and why?</p></li>
<li><p>How did YOU study for the MCAT if you’ve already taken it? What was your plan (ie: total length of time – like a year, hours per day…)?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’ve hear bad things about Barron’s, a POLAR disparity about Examkrakers (take a look t amazon’s reviews), Kaplan’s tests being too easy…, etc. I’m aware that these opinions don’t belong to everyone, though.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I am interested too. I'm taking the MCAT July 10 and am currently going through Barron's. I bought that book simply because I didn't know anything about any particular brand and had used Barron's for other standardized tests. I'm learning, though, as I go through it.</p>
<p>Opinions about certain publishers'?</p>
<p>I'm not in an authoritative position to comment (I'm currently studying for the MCAT myself), but what I've heard (it was either here or on SDN, can't remember): if you're trying to decide between two books to study for the MCAT, you should probably go with both of them.</p>
<p>1) Kaplan's books trump everyone else's (seriously. I'm working for them next semester), and EK for extra verbal practice. Sample exams from Kaplan are actually far harder than anything ever given by AAMC. I noticed a sharp decrease in difficulty when transitioning from Kaplan full-lengths to AAMC full lengths.</p>
<p>2) MCAT study schedule (be cautious: everyone's different): set aside 3 hours/week-day and 5 hours/weekend-day during the semester to review content. I used flashcards while walking to/from class, waiting for lecture to start, etc. Rough semester because I was taking 16 credits (including Biochem and microbio), but it's all over :-D</p>