Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

100% Recommend this set if you intend on spending the time to study properly. Unlike Princeton Review, you're getting a much more concise product that focuses on what you need to know. Little side panels with MCAT Expertise, Mnemonics, and Real Life ties in are great in case you're having a tough time understanding the section in question. They also do a really good job of tying things together; they make it a point to tell you "well, your studies of Biochem are not isolated. You'll see mention of this concept in Organic Chemistry chapter 8 because it is very important across the board." Stuff like that. There are also some interesting ways that they introduce a chapter and relate it to you- I've even cracked up a few times at their scienc-y jokes. I just spent the past 8 months with these books. I read them all the way through (except Verbal), highlighting/underlining things I found important. Then I went through them all the way again, taking scrupulous notes on all the important stuff that I had highlighted, or that the MCAT Expertise portions had brought up. Then I went through each practice passage at the end of the chapters, and I made sure I knew why every answer was what it was. The questions at the end of each chapter cover at least a portion of each topic from the preceding chapter, so if you're clueless, you can go back and study up, and then realize what they're asking about. The practice problems were pretty easy, they just made sure you were aware of what to know. The practice tests that come with the package, on the other hand, were usually very difficult. With them, it wasn't enough to just know the material- you had to be able to catch the curve balls they would throw. Lots of tricks. But, there are only so many tricks to know and when you spend enough time figuring out how to solve them when they appear, you get a very good grasp on the basic material. Then I moved on to the AAMC practice questions. There weren't very many tricks here. They were much easier to answer because I had developed a strong understanding of topics in anticipation of harder questions. I took the test last weekend, and I was freaking out about Phys/Chem. But the questions throughout the test seemed to be all focused on the basic knowledge. I didn't see many curve balls, and I felt really good. It seemed like Kaplan gave me tough questions where you had to understand A to get to B. The real test only asked about A. It was a great feeling, and I thank Kaplan for their diligence and thoroughness. I'd rather have spent extra time learning all the details they suggest just to be more familiar. I mean, shouldn't that be the attitude of an aspiring physician anyway? One note I would make on Psych/Social- you're going to have to learn most/all of the definitions in this book. As opposed to the other sections, this is more definition regurgitation than problem solving. They definitely cover what you need, but you'll have to do more than just understand the practice questions.