Customer Reviews

Examkrackers 1001 Questions in MCAT Biology

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book looking for a good passage-based practice for the biology section of the MCAT. From my experience with the book 101 passages in Verbal Reasoning, I was impressed with Examkracker's accurate represenation of real MCAT questions. However, I soon found numerous errors in the questions used in this book, and I confirmed that they were wrong with several physiology and biology professors. From that point, I gave up on the book, because it caused more harm than good.

This book is full of errors. The Examkrackers website has a forum for errata, but you have to pay for an "Elite" membership to access it. Ridiculous.

The answer explanations are often incoherent and the answers they deem correct make you question your sanity.

This book contains 101 MCAT Biology passages and 1001 questions overall. No other book I used to prepare for the exam simulated the real test as this text. My biological sciences score jumped 4 points to a 13 from the first time I took the MCAT. In fact I recommend the entire ExamKracker series.

I bought this book to help me brush up on my biology for the MCAT and to get a feel for what the questions would be like. While this book does have some moderate degree of usefulness, I would probably not buy it again. As others have said, this book is FULL of errors! It's both time consuming and frustrating. At times I was convinced that the author (a 3rd year med student who hopes to be a surgeon, according to the back of the book) had no idea what he was writing about (seriously, take a look at the passages in the "Microbiology" section. 1) They have almost NOTHING to do with microbiology and 2) The passages themselves are very choppy and incoherent, 3) The questions seldom have anything to do with the passage.) The book is good for the covering the areas which you know almost nothing about (i.e., stuff you covered for a week in Bio 1, but haven't taken another class in or thought about since.) If you have knowledge beyond the Bio 1/Bio 2 level of the subject, feel free to skip that section because the mistakes will drive you crazy in a hurry and just make you doubt your awesome self. You will save yourself a lot of time and one big head ache. All in all, there was some good information, and there were a lot of questions, but I'm sure that there are better books out there. If you do decide to go with this book, just keep this in mind; If you THINK the book is wrong, it probably is. Don't sweat it. Move on.

This book was AMAZING. I don't understand how people could rate it so low for the SMALL mistakes the book had. The mistakes were so minor, just like a misspelling or something extremely minute. NOT A BIG DEAL, not so problematic that a normal person can't overlook and continue working. This book gave me much needed practice, review and it did it while duplicating the real MCAT format in terms of passages followed by questions. With a few estimations on time you can actually time yourself like I did and go through the book/chapters timed like on a real MCAT exam. The explanations were thorough and understandable. You can definitely improve by at least 3 points when you finish this book. I strongly recommend timing yourself through each chapter, treat the chapters like mini exams.

Did every question in this book and saw my AAMC practice scores increase over the weeks. I did 1 section of the book each week for 3 months leading up to the real thing, and got me a 12 (started with 8, then 9s, then 10/11, then consistent 12s on my practice tests). I am still in the process of applying, but feel much more confident with a 34 on my plate thanks to this book.

This book is one of the best tools to hone your biology test taking skills. With 101 passages and 1001 questions, you will become familiar with every topic covered on the real MCAT AND know some topics in details which may not be possible by just studying one of the prep books. I improved my scores from 8 to 14. Sure there may be some errors (maybe less than 10 questions), but i think it's definately worth to go through this book to prepare for the most important aspect of your medial school admission.

It's a good tool because it gives you a lot of practice. Only downside is some of the explanations in the back aren't effecient.

These 1001 questions books along with the Audio Osmosis and their MCAT study package raised my MCAT score 4 points after I bombed the first one trying to study with Kaplan. Highly recommend for MCAT study, as well as physics, chemistry, bio, and ochem classes. I wish I had these books for those classes because they would have made the concepts a breeze. (yes, I am leaving the same review for all of the books I bought from ExamKrackers and no, I'm not getting paid to talk them up. They really are a fantastic study package.)

I think this was a great purchase.. I'm using it to supplement my princeton rev coursework. The questions seem to be written in a style most closely mimicking the actual MCAT's bio section and I actually feel like I've learned and accomplished a lot as I look over the answer key.