Customer Reviews

Examkrackers 101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book has perhaps bridged the gap between me and medical school. In July I bought 101 Passages and diligently took a full length verbal section about once every three days as part of my preparation and it made the difference between medical school in the Carribean and becoming a viable candidate for some first tier U.S. medical schools. I also carefully studied Jon's advice in his Verbal Reasoning study guide and followed it religiously. It helped improve my score substantially. So why is this book so great? First, the text is identical in size and font to real thing, so you feel perfectly comfortable and familiar with the appearance of actual passages, question stems, and answers on test day. Second, the passage topics were right on the money -boring (cabinet making, charitable trust management, etc.), irrelevent to medicine, and challenging enough. Third, passage length was identical to that which you encounter on the real thing. Fourth, the answer choices are ambigious and you never really feel good about your answers -that is the essence of MCAT verbal. Dave perfectly captures that in 101 Passages. Fifth, there are 11 full length practice sections, which help you master your timing and slowly but surely improve you score. Sixth, Jon is pretty helpful on his website and will respond to most of your questions and give you that personal support that makes him kind of seem like a coach whose on your side. Lastly, there's nothing else out there that comes close to 101 Passages. Get this book to improve you verbal score. To really ace the verbal, carefully study the lectures in the thinner Examkracker's Verbal Reasoning study guide. Force yourself to adopt Jon's strategy. It will help you. If you do nothing else, remember these two points of advice: (1) finish the verbal sections no matter what you do, and (2) read for the main idea and be sure you have it in your head before you look at the questions. Jon covers that in depth in the thin Verbal Reasoning Study Guide in addition to about five or six other tips that really make the difference. Keep the faith premeds and believe in yourself.

The verbal is by far one of the most difficult passages around for MCAT test takers, and I certainly fall into this category. If you want to do well on it, you must PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! The examkrackers verbal is an excellent tool that will give you the necesary practice. Try to get your hands on a lot of verbal passages (be careful, don't buy any of the teaching solutions MCAT products, this is one of those garbage prep materials the EK author was talking about) and work through the problems. Familiarize yourself with the common questions that frequently pop up on these verbal passages, and don't fill in the obvious answers. Practice and prepare, and you will do fine.

its great but make sure u have time to go over it 3 times. go over the questions u did not get and ask ur self why

EK Verbal reasoning book is ONLY be purchased for SERIOUS STUDYING! This is not like those other verbal books where the passages are so easy that youre getting 12's or 13's..this book WILL bring you back to reality. My first practice test I scored a 7 and the second test I scored a 6. I usually score 10 on other exams. I think this book is HARDER than the actual MCAT but its worth every penniy. The choices really do suck and sum of tehm make ABSOLUTELY NOOOOOOO sense, but they make you think more like the MCAT writers. Do not be discouraged if you are not doing well on these exams. Just focus and you start to improve. By teh end of teh book I was getting 13's!

Passages are easier to read than Princeton Review and AAMC tests. The wording of the questions is not as convoluted as the AAMC tests. However, the questions are very difficult to answer. Often times there is not enough information in the passage to correctly answer the questions, and it seems like there could be information to support more than one answer choice. While it's true that questions on AAMC practice MCATs 7,8,9 have many attractive 'trap' answer choices, this book takes that to the extreme. Therefore, I don't know if this is an accurate representation of the verbal section.

This source of verbal practice for the MCAT is great. It is a must for anyone taking the MCAT and attempting to do well on the verbal resoning section. The author has done a great job of capturing the "MCAT voice" by giving the reader challenging passages and questions that are like those on the MCAT. Hands down, this is some of the best stuff on the market! Other pre-meds would agree if they took a look at this book. Check this book as a must have, not only a "good" source.

This book is amazing. Not only does it have warm up passages, but it has 7 real practice verbal exams......It is a must for anyone who believes that "practice makes perfect!!!" After this book, you will be so sick of practice exams, and ready to go for the real deal!!!