Customer Rating:      Summary: Verbal Reasoning is not easy, GET THIS!! Comment: As hard as you'll work on preparation for this exam- your preparation for the Verbal Reasoning section will be the most important. Most people complain about this section. I was included, until I took studying for it head on. I needed all the practice I could get and this book gave me 2 passages a day for 50 days. I timed myself (18 min total, 9 minutes a passage for the two) and corrected it that day. It increased my speed and ability. The guys that write these Exam Krackers books only want you to do well. I can tell after working on this stuff for five months straight that is the case. -Matthew Wolak
Customer Rating:      Summary: Not the real thing, but about as best as anyone could make it Comment: Having taken the real MCAT in 2003, and also AAMC practice tests 3-6, I would say that Examkrackers 101 passages doesn't quite hit the center of the target in terms of actual emulation of the real MCAT. However, it may just be a psychological bias of mine, knowing that it isn't written by AAMC. The passages seem to be just about as difficult, and the questions are written well. The aspect that seems to be just a tad off is the passage topics (I felt the AAMC passages were of a higher quality writing). I give it 4 stars because it is in my opinion 100% beneficial to use this book if you want to practice verbal. I'm definitely able to approach the real MCAT more confidently knowing that I've practiced Examkrackers passages.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Do not agree with the answers Comment: There are answers in the book that does not make any sense at all, especially towards the end of the book. Some of the wrong answers are obviously right, and I asked two of my friends who are also studying for the tests, and they both agree with me that the answers are a little "fishy".
Furthermore, the author does not explain why the answer is the way it is. It just says "WRONG, this is clearly not implied in the passage" without any further explanation. Instead, it should tells us how to answer the question, strategies, what to look for, if we get it wrong / right, rather than merely explain with "CORRECT, this is implied in the passage."
But then this is the only book that has enough practice tests, and I have seen even worse verbal practice exam book out there.
I however like the examcraker books for the science section.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Best Unofficial Verbal Passages Available Comment: The use of this book is the reason why I was able to score a 13 on the MCAT verbal reasoning section. I had never been that satisfied at my performance on standardized test verbal sections, but I also wanted to score well on the MCAT verbal. Over this past summer before the August 2005 MCAT, I used this book as my main verbal practices. When compared to every other resource out there other than the official old MCATs from the AAMC, this guide has the most MCAT-like passages and questions. In fact, they are slightly more difficult than the actual test. With 11 practice verbal tests, this provided enough practice to figure out what I needed to do to correctly answer the most difficult verbal questions.
Customer Rating:      Summary: closest match to AAMC practice tests Comment: There are only about 5 real practice AAMC verbal tests. This is not that many if you need a lot of work in verbal. This book was very well-written almost identically to the style of AAMC questions. Orsay captures the subtle nuances of question stems and answer choices. There should be more abstract passages though.
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