BEWARE THE POSITIVE REVIEWS...
...because they are a SCAM. I bought this set based on the positive reviews, largely ignoring the cautionary negative reviews scattered throughout. The truth is, these books are nowhere near as good as the reviews say. Lemme tell you right now -- the negative ones are the real ones.
In a nutshell: I found the books to be very poorly written and organized. First off, they spend a ton of time talking down to you and bashing other exam companies. If they were really as good as they say, they wouldn't need to do that. Then they go on to explain why their SINGLE AUTHOR is "uniquely qualified". Their reason? He's a history major who never even went to medical school, who "sat for three MCATs while considering medical school" over a span of about EIGHT YEARS back in the late 80's/early 90's, and finally "scored in the ninetieth percentile in all three sections". Um. Excuse me. Isn't 90th percentile about a 33-34? The first time I took the MCAT, and all I did was read haphazardly through my books and do 3 practice tests. I didn't even understand optics going in. I got a 37. If all he could manage was a 33-34 (and that's assuming his 90th percentile in all three subjects was even on a single test) after three tests and eight years, what the hell makes him think he's qualified to write a book teaching ME how to take the MCAT?
But let's just ignore all that and discuss the meat of the books themselves: the science.
On that count, I have to say that the explanations are oftentimes really convoluted and confusing. The information on the MCAT test structure itself is flat-out wrong in a number of places. There are typos all over the place, and they have the audacity to charge you a forums registration fee on their website to look at the errata for the books. The "MCAT tips" from their "Salty the Kracker" mascot were useless and extremely irritating. And probably worst of all, the practice problems are horrible. They look like they were copied off some generic textbook -- totally off the scope of the MCAT (either too easy or too hard), and sometimes downright illogical/wrong.
The one good thing I have to say about their books is that they draw out all the electron-pushing diagrams in o-chem, which few other review books do. For everything else, they were crap. I finally fled to Kaplan, which I found to be leaps and bounds better. Which isn't to say everyone should go get a Kaplan book, because I haven't had a chance to look through Gold Standard, Princeton Review, Columbia Review, or any of the others -- but it is to say that you should, AT ALL COSTS, avoid exam krackers.
Horrible!!
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MCAT
The package of books was delivered promptly. I worried about where it would be dropped off, but it was safely tucked away on the porch, in the event of rain. The packaging was tidy and secure.
I was super pleased with the set of books. Crease-free and shiny. The presentation of the information made me feel like these books would really be all I need to prepare for the MCAT, thus saving me a couple thousand dollars on a course.
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