<p>My daughter is a rising junior. She is planning to take a gap year and take her MCAT in her senior year. I am wondering if she will need all of her science textbooks to fully prepare for MCAT or if materials from the MCAT prep course will be sufficient. I would like to sell her textbooks from freshman and sophomore year to get some cash to cover for getting her books for the coming semesters, but not sure if that's the right thing to do knowing that she will need to prep for her MCAT. Any insights will be much appreciated.</p>
<p>I think I referred to my textbooks once during the course of my MCAT prep. I’d go ahead and sell them…as your daughter can probably find her old textbooks in the school’s library if needed</p>
<p>College textbooks are absolutely useless to prep for the MCAT - sell them!
(If you come across a topic that you don’t fully understand while studying, thats what the internet is for, not your old college books)</p>
<p>My advice is to get the Kaplan book and study from that - it’s very concise and easy to read. The Princeton Review book set is overly detailed and annoying to read, IMO.</p>
<p>My D. has been fully in charge of her textbooks, I have no idea.
However, she took Kaplan prep. class for MCAT prep. and she liked it. On the other hand, she did not improve in Verbal section, which has been her weakest on all her standardized tests. I heard from others on CC that Examkrackers are much better for Verbal than Kaplan. Third point is that my D. was preparing for MCAT while taking her junior classes with a lighter schedule of about 16 hrs / semester. That has worked well for her, since material in Physics and some upper Bio (either Genetics or Physiology) was very fresh in her mind. She even thought that 2 weeks break between spring finals and MCAT was way too long and wished that she scheduled MCAT right after finals. She did very decently on MCAT and was lucky to get highest practice Verbal score on real exam as Verbal has been her main concern. She is starting Med. School in about 6 weeks.</p>
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<p>Not to get too terribly off topic here, but verbal is the hardest to improve. This is because the skills we use for the verbal section are the hardest to improve since they are the most ingrained into us. The skills we use in the verbal section we’ve been developing ever since we’ve learned to read, whereas the skills used in the science sections are relatively newer, so they’re easier to change (not to mention that the science sections test more explicit knowledge, whereas the verbal section is completely implicit knowledge). </p>
<p>I saw a one point gain on my verbal from my first practice test to the real thing (of course, I only gained 3 points from my first practice test to the real thing), and I cannot be sure if that’s because I had a good day on verbal or if I actually improved on verbal.</p>
<p>^Some people on CC suggested that they improve a lot using Examkrackers for Verbal instead of Kaplan, which many suggested is useless for Verbal. My D’s experience supported these suggestions, she did not use Examkrackers for Verbal.<br>
Yes, her way of reading serves her very well when she reads textbooks for classes. She tends to think thru and make logical connections while reading. It slows you down, while material gets absorbed more efficiently. Her way does not work on standardized tests. As I have mentioned she got lucky on real exam, so her total was very balanced, Verbal being only 1 point below other 2. I am sorry going of topic here, I thought it might be helpful in preparation. D. has gained 10 points total from frist practice test before any preparation to the real exam.</p>
<p>it might be good to have your textbooks for reference, especially if you are anything like me and obsess over details while studying.</p>
<p>I would recommend keeping your textbooks as a reference while you study for your MCAT. Personally, I read through most of my chemistry book (while taking notice and doing the practice problems) before I took the MCAT. But this was very personal, and I think it is essential that anyone who takes the MCAT recognize this. For example, I had not seen general chemistry for 3 years. Kaplan review was not going to help me, I had to go back to the real material and relearn it! Organic chemistry was the same thing, 2 years since the class, and I reread some of the material from my book. However, I ran out of time and used the kaplan review material, and I feel that if anything, the organic chemistry was what held me back from a higher BS score. Finally, I never really touched my physics or biology books, as I had taken both classes recently, and the kaplan review was enough for me. Your daughter should think about what material shes forgotten, and keep the relevant books. If you can afford it, keep all of them, because you never know when you will want to review a concept when Kaplan or Princeton Review etc. is not clear enough for you.</p>