Many of the other reviews sound disappointed in the depth of the explanations. When using this book, it is important to remember that it is a REVIEW, not a teaching textbook. Kaplan definitely makes the assumption that you have had in-depth courses in the the subjects by making references to things but not providing much explanation. This book is best used, in my opinion, as a sort of checklist for possible material that could be on the MCAT. If there is any area the preparee is weak in, the best way to re-learn it is to find an actual textbook.

This book, while providing a helpful checklist of MCAT material, should have been further edited or revised or whatever it is publishers do to check for errors. Spelling, numerical, and punctuation errors are frequently encountered, not to mention the errors in the end-of-subject review sections (like missing a question and spending ten minutes reading their explanation and looking up the mechanism, only to realize the "C" on their key should have been a "D". Frustrating to say the least).

Overall, very worthwhile if you have the time

I have used the MCAT material on the CDs before. After studying other MCAT material regularly for about 12 weeks, I cracked open this book and software, and took the practice exams over the course of 4 weeks. I got this book dirt cheap using the strategies given in this other book me and my roommate brought from admissionsmystery. com which also a very insightful book. This book at times is humbling and punishing. The reading passages are long and confusing. Nonetheless, this book was pivotal in me achieving a high MCAT score. Yet of course you are taking the MCAT, you are going to having more reference material than this book.

Personally, I found this book pretty helpful, and I have no complaints about it as I scored high having spent about half of my prep. time with this book. As I said, it's a good place to start. Beware, though, that this book alone will not be enough. As some reviewers complained, this book is not all that thorough, so it helps immensely if you have taken classes on the covered subjects and actually remember what you've learned. I personally had to use my old textbooks a bit to understand some things outlined in this book. But, MCAT being as comprehensive as it is, I don't think you can expect a single book to thoroughly cover everything you need to know.
With that said, I would recommend this book and a few other MCAT practice test/workbooks be used together. Kaplan has couple books that just has practice tests, and I can say they are helpful also from my experience. And unless you're a genius that never forgets anything you've learned in class, you will need your old textbooks from bio, chem & phys.
More than anything, what you need to do as you get close to your test day is you should pretty much be working on practice test most of the time and just occasionally look through this kind of review books. Start with review books and finish with practice tests. This strategy made the most sense to me, and it worked for me, but I suppose everyone has his own style of test preping. Good luck!

This book neatly summarizes all of the subject material for the MCAT. Its strong point is lots of information in a readable format. The one weakness is the small number of practice problems. There is one set of questions for each section (Bio, Phys, VR, etc..), and only one practice test. If you want lots of practice problems you should use this book as a starting point for knowledge review, but supplement it with something with more opportunities for practice.

This is a must have. I like the previous year's edition better, but its hard to find. Do as many questions as you can in this book.