Testing Solutions' 30 Day Guide to MCAT CARS Success | Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills Kindle Edition

Testing Solutions have done a good job in creating Verbal exams that match the types of questions that you see on the practice AAMCs. The passages are on the tougher side and the style of writing in the passage is a bit repetitive (it seems that most of their passages come from a similar source/author). However, the tests really shine in the way the questions are phrased and the answer explanations. I have taken plenty of verbal passages from Princeton Review, Exam Krackers, Berkeley Review and Kaplan and I would rate these highly on the list (Testing Solutions=Princeton Review=Exam Krackers>Berkeley Review>Kaplan). If someone was to slip me this exam, I would not be able to tell the difference between these and the AAMCs...until I received my score. Some of the questions are much trickier than the real test. I average 2-3 points lower on these than I do on the AAMC Verbals, Princeton Reviews and the Exam Krackers.Pros:- Well formatted questions. Seem very similar to what you see on the practice AAMCs. It will prepare you well for those exams.- Extremely well done answer explanations. Answers are very well organized and each wrong answer choice is explained well. None of the huge paragraphs you would find in Berkeley Review.- Overall, the tests are much tougher than AAMCs, even more than AAMC 8 and 11 Verbal. The passages will take you longer to read and the questions will kick your mental butt. I appreciate challenging material, so this is a positive.- Great Value, cheaper alternative to purchasing an entire course.Cons:- Passages are a bit repetitive in terms of style.- Formatting on the Kindle Reader is very frustrating. I used the Kindle Desktop app and was really annoyed. Questions and Passages are split up into multiple pages, making it hard to be accurate in terms of timing. I have heard that they are coming out with an electronic testing program, that should fix this issue.- These seem to keep increasing their price on these tests so I would jump on them immediately. Test 1 was free 2 weeks ago on their website, it's now $4. Test 2, 3 and 4 used to be $2 on Amazon, now they are $3.I would use these tests along side AAMCs and Verbal Self Assessments. These tests have better representative questions and explanations than any material out there (Yes, even the much touted Princeton Review and Exam Krackers). However, their passage material is harder to comprehend and not as diverse as some other prep companies. If you start seeing sevens and eights on these tests, don't freak out. These are much harder in my experience than the real test.

I recommend these Verbal Reasoning Practice Tests. The content is challenging and comparable to AAMC difficulty level. In fact, I think that I even preferred these Verbal practice tests over Exam Krackers 101 passages for Verbal, -which is often considered by many, the next best thing to actual AAMC practice materials. The content/subject matter in these materials was relatively dry (a good thing!) making it more challenging to stay focused and not let your mind wander. The question style/content seemed on par with AAMC official practice exams. The explanations are also quite effective, much better than other materials.I am only deducting one star due to the formatting issues of how this test is offered. Without a doubt, it is beneficial to be able to complete your practice passages on a computer screen as opposed to in a book, but the overall format needs to be improved. You are only able to access roughly one question per viewing screen, so there is a lot of back and forth jumping between screens to reference the passage, then the questions. A "split-screen" view similar to that offered on the real exam and on AAMC practice materials would be much better! Additionally, there is no option to select an answer choice or strikeout wrong answer choices, although you CAN highlight text. (in the passage only) This means that you must write down and keep track of your answer choices on paper as opposed to selecting your answers electronically on the practice exam itself.Also, it is worth noting that you do NOT need to have a Kindle to be able to access these tests. Simply download the Kindle reader app to your Mac or PC. Overall, this is a solid, well written product, but there is something to be said for practicing under "as-real-as- possible" conditions. Once the formatting issues are addressed, this will be a 5 star product. But for the price, these materials cannot be beat! I highly recommend if you are wanting more Verbal Practice!

My feelings for the product are very similar to the other reviewers. Initially, I was a bit skeptical as I had not heard of TS1 verbal products before and it can be hard to find decent verbal practice, but I was pleasantly surprised. I have not taken the real MCAT yet, but have taken all of the available AAMC, examkrackers, and several Kaplan verbal exams. Compared to these, I would say TS1 is nearly on par with the AAMC passages, perhaps a little harder in some instances, but this is based on only one verbal exam so that could vary. The passage length was very similar to and perhaps longer than some of the AAMC passages (but nearly the same equivalent) which is more like the real MCAT, and longer than the examkrackers passages. This created an exam-like feel to it. The questions themselves were very similar to AAMC ones. So overall, AAMC is about equal to TS1 maybe a little greater since they are the real deal, which are both above examkrackers and then kaplan.The use of Kindle is a bit cumbersome and kind of frustrating, but you get used to it quickly even if it is not the most realistic in terms of the real MCAT. I used the Kindle app on my Mac and even with small font, there would only be two questions per page and the passage could span 2 pages so there was a lot of flipping back an forth if one really needed to look back at the passage. Ideally, TS1 should use a format similar to MCAT so that the passage and all of its corresponding questions are on a single page, but I can see that would be difficult to sell on Amazon since Amazon supports Kindle downloads almost exclusively.Tl;dr very good product for such a low price and I look forward to using more of their verbal tests.

Their passages are more similar to what you would find in Kaplan verbal passages and to a lesser extent Berkeley review. The main issue being that the questions are more detail-oriented rather than abstract/ main-idea-oriented. Half the time the language of the questions and the answer options is so confusing that you end up picking the only answer option with the easier wording which you understand and it usually turns out to be the correct answer. So the answer choices might leave you very confused but as long as you pick the answer that's more comprehensible you'll likely score right. The rest of the questions are relatively straightforward with the emphasis still being on details from the passage. The boring factor of most passages is probably what most accurately resembles AAMC passages, which is great for adapting yourself to reading excruciatingly boring stuff while trying to understand them. If I had to pick only one, I would pick examkrackers 101 passages as it definitely offers a better replication of AAMC question styles, though the passages are rather simple. Extra practice from TS1 though is definitely worth its value, considering that you'd have to pay 3-6 times more for Kaplan, Berkeley or other similar test-prep books in verbal reasoning that offer similar, if not worse, practice material.

Having written the MCAT before, I thought this was very similar in style and difficulty of the passages & questions. If anything, it was even harder. As a new product, these questions are also advantageous because not many people have this resource, unlike the popular TPR/EK/Kaplan. The explanations were helpful and the passages were also similar to the real thing in terms of the subject (natural science, arts, history). The only thing I didn't like about this test was the format. I downloaded the Kindle app to my computer and was expecting the format to be similar to that of other prep companies. However, that was not the case. When taking this test, if you want to look something up in the passage, you have to flip pages between the question and the passage, which can take up precious time. If you want to highlight something, you have to press the highlight button every time, and the app may try to look something up in a dictionary for you. Hopefully, these problems will be solved soon, since the company is developing a course with tests that will be in a more familiar format. Overall, useful content & practice, bad format. Taking the MCAT again later this summer, so will for sure be buying the rest of the TS verbal tests. Looking forward to see what this company will put out next!

I have used all my verbal resources from TPR, EK, and AAMC, so I have been in the market for newer practice tests. This met my expectations. The passages were of similar difficulty to the AAMC ones. The format was kind of upsetting, since it required me to waste time while under timed conditions. I'm very happy I found this product, hopefully it will help bring my score to an 11+.

Very detailed explanations for all answer choices, not just the correct one's. They also give you the difficulty of each passage and each question, so you can take that into consideration when going over your answers. Also a great value at under $5!

40 questions at that price are really a good deal! It is also in a digital format which means that it will look and feel just like the MCAT! good luck