Examkrackers 101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning [Paperback]

David Orsay (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1893858243 | ISBN-13: 978-1893858244 | Publication Date: August 15, 2002 | Edition: 1

This book contains 101 MCAT verbal passages in the form of 11 full length verbal exams formatted exactly like the New 2003 MCAT. Questions have complete explanations for correct and incorrect answer choices. There are 12 tear-out answer grids in MCAT form in the back of the book. Language, diction, passage length, question length, question difficulty, and even font have been carefully crafted to resemble an actual MCAT. You won't find a more MCAT accurate set of verbal exams.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

I asked my brother, David Orsay, to write this book, because I knew his background, personality, and talents were perfect for such a job. David has a mastery of verbal skills possessed by very few, yet he possesses a trained eye for detail that is required to produce an accurate replication of any exam. He is obsessive in his desire for perfection in every task that he performs. Even as an underachiever in high school, I watched him walk into the SAT with no preparation or even interest and score in the high 90 percentiles on the verbal section. He took the Department of Justice Federal Law Enforcement Exam for U.S. Marshals and scored what we were told was the only perfect score in the history of that examination. There have been others that have scored 100%, but only because they were given extra points for previous job history. To my knowledge, David was the first and only person to answer every single question on that exam correctly. His military training in not one, but two of the most elite special forces units in the U.S. armed services has trained him to be disciplined, precise, and demanding in his tasks beyond what most of us would consider mortal. When David accepts a task, it is executed and accomplished with a rare and comforting certainty and an excruciating effectiveness.

In less than a year working exclusively on MCAT verbal, Dave has become a true expert in how to produce a replica of an MCAT verbal exam. I was anxious to take the first practice exam myself and see if David had succeeded where the prep companies had failed. I was impressed and quite excited by what I found. The mechanics such as passage length and question length were, of course, accurate. The language was exactly right, but David has done more than that with this book. I believe that in "Examkrackers 101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning", David has done what no one else has been able to do. He has captured the essence of the MCAT verbal. These exams aren’t just difficult; they are difficult in that peculiar MCAT way. The questions leave you with that uncomfortable feeling in your gut where you just aren’t certain about every answer.

After taking the first verbal exam in this book, I felt exactly the way I felt after taking the real exam. I wasn’t certain I had done well. My actual score on the real MCAT and my score on the first exam in this book were nearly identical. I scored a perfect score on the real MCAT and missed only two questions on the first exam in this book. I find the exams in this book to be an accurate reflection of the exams on a real MCAT. I highly recommend "Examkrackers 101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning" to use as practice for the real MCAT.

Good Luck.
Jonathan Orsay

Product Details

• Paperback: 516 pages
• Publisher: Osote Publishing; 1 edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893858243
• ISBN-13: 978-1893858244
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Education & Reference > Education > Test Guides - Graduate & Professional > MCAT
  • #77 in Books > Education & Reference > Education > College Guides

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book for VR preparation, February 29, 2004

By 

Ulysses - See all my reviews

This review is from: Examkrackers 101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning (Paperback)

I run private tutoring courses for the MCAT, and I would say that this book is arguably the best source for MCAT Verbal Reasoning questions, aside from the real exams from AAMC. (Needless to say, I use this book in my course.) The writer accurately captures most aspects of the real exam, including passage length, question wording, distribution of question types, and ambiguity of the correct answers. The only major flaw that I find with this book is that some answer choices are not well supported (even taking into account the fact that the correct answers on the MCAT are supposed to be somewhat ambiguous). In some cases, there are blatant errors in the question stem or stated correct answers, or, more rarely, two equally correct answer choices. For this reason, I would rate this book 4.5 stars, but since Amazon doesn't let me do that, I will give it 5 stars. :) On the actual MCAT, the incorrect answer choices are usually a little more differentiated from the correct answer. These mistakes and imperfections are frequent enough to be a little annoying, but not abundant or major enough to topple this book off the pedestal of being the best VR preparation book out there. Kaplan's and Princeton Review's materials do not quite compare (especially Kaplan's, which contain too many explicit detail questions). Keep in mind that the questions in this book are probably going to be slightly more difficult than the real MCAT questions, which are not quite as tricky. Have fun and good luck.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Practice, but Far from Perfect, August 7, 2006

By 

Colonel Kurtz "GloriousRex" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Examkrackers 101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning (Paperback)

Given the usually high profiled stuff from ExamKrackers, this book was for me a disappointment. Let me just say that if you want to score high on verbal, more practice is a must, therefore it's logical to get this book. However, if you are looking for a very clean practice, this book doesn't deliver. While i recognize that verbal section on the MCAT can easily allude to personal bias and subjective opinions, on the actual MCAT the 'correct' answer should be easily justified from the 'inccorect' answers. Around a little over 2/3 of the questions in this book fit that description, everything else is full of ambiguous and unsupported answers, many passages tho interesting are abstract and difficult to read. This can get extremely frustrating if you are expecting to see concrete improvements. However, by dealing with these flaws, and sometimes overly difficult (downright impossible or simply incorrect) questions, you might still gain something that will give u an extra edge on the actual MCAT, which could be sufficently more clear and precise given that it is the verbal section.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent in Quantity - not as good but Decent in Quality, July 24, 2004

By 

Ralph W B Yeung (Edmonton, AB, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Examkrackers 101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning (Paperback)

I purchased this book in hopes of preparing for the Aug 04 MCAT. I had previously been studying Verbal Reasoning with Kaplan, but wished to see what another company had to offer.

Pros:
The book certainly as an excellent number of passages. I have yet to find another book that provides the sheer quantity of passages Examkrackers offers. The book aims for an accurate simulation of the Verbal MCAT, providing tear-away sheets for you to fill out ovals as you finish one of the eveven full length tests. The passages are from a good range of topics.

Cons:
The passages themselves do not contain many hard words, nor are the sentence structures as difficult they should be. I consider myself with only mediocre Verbal Reasoning skills, yet I found that in very few the passages was I confused. I feel there is a lack of abstract passages - which often appear on the MCAT.

The greatest setback of the book are the explanations at the back of the book; many explanations for questions are simply direct quotes from the text, and do not provide an in depth analysis. I feel this approach does not adequate fulfill an explanation's role - if a simple quote could make me understand the reasoning, I likely would have understood the reasoning in the first place!

Nonetheless, the sheer amount of practice you get from this book will provide a test-taker with a sound foundation for tackling the MCAT.