Comments for The Graduate Research Depot

Comment on Pilot Varsity Disposable Assorted Multicolor Fountain Pen 7-Pack Pouch by Sammy Hoznour

Sammy Hoznour — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:19:57 +0000

Who makes the best quality ink for fountain pens? When choosing the appropriate ink for fountain pens, you should not base it on the brand. Read on and discover tips on how to take care of your fountain pen and find a good ink to go with it.

Comment on Examkrackers Mcat Complete Study Package by Esben Vogelius

Esben Vogelius — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:00:44 +0000

I studied for the MCAT using the examekracker books and the princeton review materials side by side. The princeton review material was far more extensive, but none of the extra material was on the MCAT.

The princeton review exam’s were also much harder than the actual MCAT or the examkracker tests (which were of the same difficultly). I guess their theory is that if you can handle their material the MCAT will be a snap. This a disserice to their students as it both demoralizes them and doesnt realistically prepare them for the exam.

Another advantage the examkracker books had was that they were nearly mistake free while the PR had many glaring mistakes.
5 stars

Comment on Examkrackers MCAT101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning by Jake

Jake — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:27:06 +0000

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.
5 stars

Comment on Examkrackers MCAT101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning by Ralph W B Yeung

Ralph W B Yeung — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:06:43 +0000

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.
4 stars

Comment on Examkrackers Mcat Complete Study Package by J. Jin

J. Jin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:02:21 +0000

This study package is marketed as the only one out there that gives you everything you need to know and nothing more. That's absolutely true. While studying for the MCAT, I used these books as my sole source of review material and found nothing lacking. I had friends who were taking Kaplan and Princeton Review prep courses, and I looked at the books they used: they all tell you to memorize way more info than you need. They're also a lot more boring than the Examkrackers books, because, face it: if you're going to spend three months poring over some review books, you might as well get ones with color pages, a really dorky cracker mascot, and at least some sense of personality behind the writing voice. The Examkrackers books won't ask you to waste valuable brain space on extraneous material, and the style of the books favors conceptual understanding over rote memorization (though of course the latter is used when appropriate, as with biological sciences).

I would suggest that in addition to buying this package, you also get the Examkrackers "101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning". It's probably the only good book out there for practicing MCAT verbal questions and it's an absolute must. I was scoring 9's on the Verbal before I worked through it, and 12's by the end.

I would say that if you can learn and memorize all the things that these Examkrackers review books tell you to, you are completely set in terms of knowledge. Everything else is just practice, and for that I suggest doing all the tests you can get your hands on. The AAMC publishes old MCATs which are DEFINITELY worth buying, despite the expense. For more practice I would also suggest Princeton Review's "Practice MCATs" and Kaplan's "MCAT Practice Tests" (each contains two complete tests) as well as Kaplan's "MCAT 45". Examkrackers also puts out a book titled "16 Mini-MCATs" which I found to be useful for additional practice. The only caveat I can add is that Princeton Review's practice tests are written to be harder than the actual MCAT -- they will ask you questions about stuff that is contained in their books but is NOT on the MCAT. Therefore, I wouldn't panic if you find that you don't do well on them. The Examkrackers and Kaplan tests ARE commensurate in difficulty to the MCAT so they are more useful for gauging your performance.

I did not use any of the Examkrackers 1001 Questions series, because I understand that all of the questions in those books are stand-alone, which is unrepresentative of the real MCAT, on which almost all the questions are passage based. However, if you're having trouble learning the science, they might be a good option because stand-alone questions really test your knowledge base. Just keep in mind that success on the MCAT is based just as much on how well you can glean information from passages as it is on pure knowledge. And learning how to glean is something that only practice with actual MCATs (either real AAMC ones or test company-made ones) can give you.

So basically, my point is that if you use this study package and practice the hell out of all the practice tests you can find, you should be fine. I never took a MCAT prep course (couldn't afford one) so all I did was shell out about $300 for books and tests, and I ended up with a nice 42R. (15P, 13V, 14B) It can be done. Examkrackers can help you do it. Go buy this study package now. ^_^ 5 stars

Comment on Request for Proposal: A Guide to Effective RFP Development by V. Biscay

V. Biscay — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:42:13 +0000

I bought this book because I was to lead a group in developing an RFP but had no experience with RFP’s. I don’t know how this book will meet the needs of anyone with a lot of experience but I am extremely impressed by its readability, organization, and applicability. I’m still working on the project but have gotten good feedback on what I’ve developed, which I could not have done without the guidance and information in the book. It is logically sequenced and appears to cover all bases, though someone with a lot more experience would be better able to assess this. Impressed? Very.
5 stars

Comment on Case Study Research: Design and Methods by Kivelã Hanna

Kivelã Hanna — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:41:41 +0000

I used this boos as one of the key references for the research part of my MBA dissertation.

Pretty handy and practical tools and quite good frameworks for structuring the whole work.

I liked this and especially the pictures a lot.

- Hanna
4 stars