Other (not Kaplan or TPR) Live Course Ratings and Opinions

QofQuimica said:

This is a thread for people who have taken a live MCAT prep course from somebody OTHER than Kaplan or TPR to rate the course on a scale from 1-10 (with ten being the best) and to post their thoughts and comments about the course. If you took a Kaplan or TPR live course, please vote and respond in the appropriate threads for those two companies. Please do NOT vote if you have not already taken a live MCAT prep course, but anyone can feel free to post questions for previous course enrollees. Posters, you might want to comment on some of the following questions, but feel free to disregard some of these and/or add others of your own:

1) What live classroom course did you take? (ex. BR, EK, TM, a course offered through your university) When/where did you take your MCAT prep course?

2) What would you say were the strengths of your course?

3) What were the weaknesses?

4) Do you feel that your prep course prepared you adequately for the MCAT?

5) Would you recommend that future MCAT students take this prep course?

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1. EK in NYC, Feb to April 2006 for this recent mcat

2. I had a great Bio Sci proctor. She was a NYU med freshman who is extensively learning the subjects in her own classes. She always took the time to make notes for each class so it wasn't just her reading from the book. She was also fun in a sense that she encouraged participation so you get to know your mcat mates and share mnemonics (example from the boys: order of classification King Philip Came Over For Great Sex - Kingdom Phylum Class...etc. ) Did not have an ego. There was no stupid question to her, free to ask away. She also brought in cookies which was nice since we all know how poor med students are.

3. I had a bad Phys Sci proctor. Didn't care at all, he had no idea what he was talking about. Unprepared, the first day of class he came in 10 mins late. Looked really disheveled as if he came from a game or something. No notes, didn't even do the problems before coming to class. Read straight from the book. After bad evaluations from his students, he was replaced.

4. Yes it did. You can only get so lucky with the type of proctors you have. Some are just in for the money, others really make the effort. It isn't necessary to say, but doing the assigned EK homework (1001 books) is crucial.

5. Yes. EK prep courses has something that others don't have: test-taking strategies. Their courses are designed so you get 1 hour lecture and 1 hour topic test/review. You're forced to take the mini-quizzes so no excuses. Topics and questions are also interdisciplinary so you get repetition which is key.

QofQuimica said:

This is a thread for people who have taken a live MCAT prep course from somebody OTHER than Kaplan or TPR to rate the course on a scale from 1-10 (with ten being the best) and to post their thoughts and comments about the course. If you took a Kaplan or TPR live course, please vote and respond in the appropriate threads for those two companies. Please do NOT vote if you have not already taken a live MCAT prep course, but anyone can feel free to post questions for previous course enrollees. Posters, you might want to comment on some of the following questions, but feel free to disregard some of these and/or add others of your own:

1) What live classroom course did you take? (ex. BR, EK, TM, a course offered through your university) When/where did you take your MCAT prep course?

2) What would you say were the strengths of your course?

3) What were the weaknesses?

4) Do you feel that your prep course prepared you adequately for the MCAT?

5) Would you recommend that future MCAT students take this prep course?

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1. Examkrackers (EK) in New Brunswick, NJ for April 2005 and August 2005 MCAT. I took the MCAT in August 2005.

2. I wouldn't say EK is any better than PR or Kaplan.

3. I signed up with EK because they seemed like the company that "cares" about the student. I paid $1500 and signed a contract that said I could retake for free if I don't feel prepared for the exam. Both instructors were ok. One of them didn't show up for a class one night, which angered quite a few students. The Saturday simulated exams were problematic. We were sent an exam that we had already taken two weeks prior. I thought these were just one-time accidents that should be forgiven. Other students who drove from an hour away were not so happy. I was not prepared for the April MCAT so I retook the course and signed a contract for the August 2005 MCAT. I also referred 5 friends because of the retake policy. The problems with no-show class instructors and no-show sim. exam proctors continued. The Bio/Verbal instructor I remember particularly well because he read from the book (which we had already read) and couldn't answer any questions. I was so embarrassed to have referred so many people. A friend who recently took the course for the April 2006 exam said that in Madison, NJ one of the instructors was so bad that all the students left and stopped going to class. I wanted to retake the course for August 2006 but unfortunately the last contract I signed said I have to pay 50% of the full course price for retakes and that this agreement supercedes all previous agreements. I can't afford to pay that much for a course that doesn't really prepare me for the MCAT.

4. No, EK did not prepare me adequately, that is why I need to retake the course.

5. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! I wish I could tell everyone in the world not to take EK. My sister just signed up with Kaplan because I told her to tell everyone at Boston College not to take EK. I invested my money in them originally because the MCAT and MCAT prep is expensive. The "free" retake policy ("free" meaning $300 for updated materials") best fit my financial situation. In case I wasn't well prepared (which I wasn't) I wanted the assurance that they will allow me to retake until I feel prepared. I feel that EK was rather fraudulent in their changing of the contracts.

bump

1) What live classroom course did you take? (ex. BR, EK, TM, a course offered through your university) When/where did you take your MCAT prep course?

Berkeley Review in Westwood (UCLA), summer 2006.

2) What would you say were the strengths of your course?

If I had to sum it up in two words: Todd Bennett. He's the lead instructor. He's also the guy who wrote half the books, so he knows his stuff, and more importantly, he knows how to apply it to the mcat.

3) What were the weaknesses?

I thought the verbal was a little weak. I don't know if that's so much the fault of the course as it is just the nature of the verbal section.

4) Do you feel that your prep course prepared you adequately for the MCAT?

The prep course gave me a plan and some good review classes and study materials. What prepared me for the MCAT was using their plan as a guide and studying my ass off.

5) Would you recommend that future MCAT students take this prep course?

Definitely. Berkeley Review has great study material, the classes are actually good, and the instructors generally know their stuff. I was very happy with the course and with the results.

I took Berkeley Review in Irvine, CA over the summer.

I thought the program was quite strong when the permanent instructors (Dale and Todd) were teaching, and a bit weaker when the others were teaching.

Verbal was a bit weak, but that could be just the nature of the program.

The biggest strength of the program IMO were the practice tests, and encyclopedic knowledge of the MCAT of Dale and Todd.

I felt I was pretty well prepared by the program and did fairly well on the test (39S)

I'd recommend it for any students in the geographic regions that the program is available (California)

1. EK in Chicago

2. Can't say much becasue they canceled the class ( was told they were "postponing another month" but where does that leave me since I want to take the test in April ) that was supposed to start Feb 2 for the April '07 MCAT. It seems that they did a halfa** job simply trying to slap something together last minute. I'm in the process of getting a refund, which they appear to be stalling on.
3. As the way things stand, I would not reccomend this company to anyone. They wasted my time and now I'm really screwed with my preparations for April and might have to wait till May. Orsay sucks donkey balls!! I'm telling all my fireds at school to stay away from EK classroom course.

AK1kinase said:

1. EK in Chicago

2. Can't say much becasue they canceled the class ( was told they were "postponing another month" but where does that leave me since I want to take the test in April ) that was supposed to start Feb 2 for the April '07 MCAT. It seems that they did a halfa** job simply trying to slap something together last minute. I'm in the process of getting a refund, which they appear to be stalling on.
3. As the way things stand, I would not reccomend this company to anyone. They wasted my time and now I'm really screwed with my preparations for April and might have to wait till May. Orsay sucks donkey balls!! I'm telling all my fireds at school to stay away from EK classroom course.

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their books are the best though...but yeah that sucks. I am glad i didn't sign up for that class to froze over 1500 buck for God knows how long...

QofQuimica said:

This is a thread for people who have taken a live MCAT prep course from somebody OTHER than Kaplan or TPR to rate the course on a scale from 1-10 (with ten being the best) and to post their thoughts and comments about the course. If you took a Kaplan or TPR live course, please vote and respond in the appropriate threads for those two companies. Please do NOT vote if you have not already taken a live MCAT prep course, but anyone can feel free to post questions for previous course enrollees. Posters, you might want to comment on some of the following questions, but feel free to disregard some of these and/or add others of your own:

1) What live classroom course did you take? (ex. BR, EK, TM, a course offered through your university) When/where did you take your MCAT prep course?

2) What would you say were the strengths of your course?

3) What were the weaknesses?

4) Do you feel that your prep course prepared you adequately for the MCAT?

5) Would you recommend that future MCAT students take this prep course?

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Hi,

Besides Kaplan and TPR, has anyone ever heard or taken a course called 'PREP 101 MCAT' course? As I visited its website, it seems that the course is more flexible and it offers more after-class resources. Any advice?

Thanks.

gotmeds? said:

1) What live classroom course did you take?

Berkeley Review in Westwood (UCLA), summer 2006.

2) What would you say were the strengths of your course?

If I had to sum it up in two words: Todd Bennett. He's the lead instructor. He's also the guy who wrote half the books, so he knows his stuff, and more importantly, he knows how to apply it to the mcat.

3) What were the weaknesses?

I thought the verbal was a little weak. I don't know if that's so much the fault of the course as it is just the nature of the verbal section.

4) Do you feel that your prep course prepared you adequately for the MCAT?

The prep course gave me a plan and some good review classes and study materials. What prepared me for the MCAT was using their plan as a guide and studying my ass off.

5) Would you recommend that future MCAT students take this prep course?

Definitely. Berkeley Review has great study material, the classes are actually good, and the instructors generally know their stuff. I was very happy with the course and with the results.

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DrizzT said:

I took Berkeley Review in Irvine, CA over the summer.

I thought the program was quite strong when the permanent instructors (Dale and Todd) were teaching, and a bit weaker when the others were teaching.

Verbal was a bit weak, but that could be just the nature of the program.

The biggest strength of the program IMO were the practice tests, and encyclopedic knowledge of the MCAT of Dale and Todd.

I felt I was pretty well prepared by the program and did fairly well on the test (39S )

I'd recommend it for any students in the geographic regions that the program is available (California)

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Thank both of you so much... it means a great deal to read such kind words. And congrats on a great score. Knowing how smart you are, I'd have to say that great score is all you!

bumping for some more recent opinions.

bump- any recent thoughts on examkrackers has it gotten better since the other posts on here? in particular philadelphia locations?

The TPR at my location got really bad towards the end. We had 9 verbal lectures that became pretty worthless, and they could not find a physics instructor for us until about the last 3 weeks of class. Even then, we did not have adequet physics lectures. They tried to fit in 4 physics lectures in a single weekend when I was packed with tests for school. Needless to day I missed them all. So If you ask me if I would go and spend $1600 for medicore program, at least at my location I would say no.

I heard a lot of good things about the TBR program though and seeing how they even have an active member on the forum I would definetely say take that if you have a chance

TBR needs to expand!!!

Are there any recent EK advocates? Pluses? Minuses?

Is the EK Verbal actually "EK MCAT Verbal Reasoning and Math?"

Beta Cell said:

Is the EK Verbal actually "EK MCAT Verbal Reasoning and Math?"

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It could be either that (EK MCAT Verbal Reasoning and Math) or the EK Verbal 101 Passages

This thread just got linked to a current thread. It was great when QoQ first posted it. I wish she wouldn't have lumped all the "others" together, because I can only assume from the replies in this thread that the 7 ones are not the same company that's getting the 10 tens.

Voted a ranking of 10.

• 1) What live classroom course did you take? (ex. BR, EK, TM, a course offered through your university) When/where did you take your MCAT prep course?

I took Berkeley Review at UCLA in January 2009 to April 2009.

• 2) What would you say were the strengths of your course?

The teaching was amazing; far better than the professors at school. Todd Bennett (one of the owners) did most of the teaching, and he was far and away the best teacher I've ever seen. His tricks and shortcuts saved me on physical sciences and is the entire reason I scored as well as I did. Maha, Todd, Dale (another owner), and Chelsea taught organic chemistry and biology exactly at the level that was required for the MCAT. They broke down what I needed to know and unique ways to look at the material. The books are excellent (as pretty much everyone at SDN who has used them says), so having the authors as my teachers was incredible.

• 3) What were the weaknesses?

I wish they would have held the office hours at one location instead of three places on different sides of campus. They got crowded towards the end of the class.

• 4) Do you feel that your prep course prepared you adequately for the MCAT?

Much more than adequately. Everything on my test was something we either talked about in lecture or I did in the homework. I couldn't have been any more prepared. I liked that the practice tests were so close in difficulty with my actual MCAT.

• 5) Would you recommend that future MCAT students take this prep course?

Definitely! I came close to signing up with a different course, and am so glad I did BR. I wouldn't have broken 30 without their help, let alone got a 38. I'm not one of those geniuses in school that get things without studying. I work hard and keep an okay GPA by studying more hours than almost everyone I know. The way they taught me to think about things for the MCAT made a huge difference.

After reading so many reviews on TBR from SDN it seems like SDN should be an advertiser for TBR. Every review seems to be telling great things. My girlfriend and I will be taking the course in 2011. I'm going to keep checking back to make sure TBR keeps up with their great work.

1) What live classroom course did you take? (ex. BR, EK, TM, a course offered through your university) When/where did you take your MCAT prep course?

2) What would you say were the strengths of your course?

3) What were the weaknesses?

4) Do you feel that your prep course prepared you adequately for the MCAT?

5) Would you recommend that future MCAT students take this prep course?[/QUOTE]

1) Altius, Salt Lake City, UT
2) Awesome tutors (everyone gets their own private tutor and you get 20 hours of one-on-one time with him/her in addition to the regular classes). Awesome materials: they are very succinct. Much less volume than other courses, and yet seem to contain everything you need. Awesome "Conceptual Focus": They teach you the "why" and "how" behind everything, preparing you to answer pretty much anything the MCAT asks. In most courses you're just memorizing and that only prepares you for a handful of very specific questions.
3) Maybe more proctored exams. They have you take 13 or so full-length exams at the end, but only 2-3 of them are proctored. The rest you have to take on your own time at home. I wish there had been a few more proctored ones.
4) DEFINITELY! My whole approach to the MCAT was changed after joining their program. I became more conceptual, I stopped memorizing, I was more analytical, I had a far better understanding of the exam. I was very well prepared, largely because the personal tutor is constantly following up with you and you have to report to them weekly. So you keep right on track and they do push you very hard.
5) Absolutely. I hope they expand around the country so more of you can take it. But I did talk to the owner once and he said they want to stay pretty small, so it may just stay a Utah thing. They have people who move to SLC for the summer just to take their summer course--that's how incredible it is! One of my buddies is in their course right now and he said one kid in their class commutes twice a week from a city 250 miles away.

FishHungry said:

1)
5) Absolutely. I hope they expand around the country so more of you can take it. But I did talk to the owner once and he said they want to stay pretty small, so it may just stay a Utah thing. They have people who move to SLC for the summer just to take their summer course--that's how incredible it is! One of my buddies is in their course right now and he said one kid in their class commutes twice a week from a city 250 miles away.

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Eh? Altius is not staying small. It has already run Princeton Review out of Utah and taken a huge bite out of kaplan's market as well. Personally, I don't think kaplan is leaving anytime soon because they're so huge (why they got so big, I will never understand). Altius is moving in on other markets as well. A couple of my friends from the group I studied with at BYU are tutoring for altius up at a bunch of Oregon campuses and University of Kansas. It's expanding to more campuses than just those in Utah and Idaho; trust me. It will take time, though.

FishHungry said:

1) Altius, Salt Lake City, UT
2) Awesome tutors (everyone gets their own private tutor and you get 20 hours of one-on-one time with him/her in addition to the regular classes). Awesome materials: they are very succinct. Much less volume than other courses, and yet seem to contain everything you need. Awesome "Conceptual Focus": They teach you the "why" and "how" behind everything, preparing you to answer pretty much anything the MCAT asks. In most courses you're just memorizing and that only prepares you for a handful of very specific questions.
3) Maybe more proctored exams. They have you take 13 or so full-length exams at the end, but only 2-3 of them are proctored. The rest you have to take on your own time at home. I wish there had been a few more proctored ones.
4) DEFINITELY! My whole approach to the MCAT was changed after joining their program. I became more conceptual, I stopped memorizing, I was more analytical, I had a far better understanding of the exam. I was very well prepared, largely because the personal tutor is constantly following up with you and you have to report to them weekly. So you keep right on track and they do push you very hard.
5) Absolutely. I hope they expand around the country so more of you can take it. But I did talk to the owner once and he said they want to stay pretty small, so it may just stay a Utah thing. They have people who move to SLC for the summer just to take their summer course--that's how incredible it is! One of my buddies is in their course right now and he said one kid in their class commutes twice a week from a city 250 miles away.

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That's cool that FishHungry liked Altius, but I took it and hated it.

1. My tutor was horribly unorganized, arrived 10-30 minutes late for every individual or group session, and would get snappy if I asked for any sort of explanation.
2. They tell you "don't focus on memorizing," but then if you get any question wrong you're supposed to make a flash card about it and memorize it.
3. They tell you that they give you all these "real MCAT questions." They emphasize this again and again, and tell you that Kaplan and the rest give you questions that Kaplan wrote, not AAMC. But the thing is that the "real MCAT questions" that Altius gives you are just the ones that come from e-mcat.com -- which you could also purchase if you were a Kaplan student, or not taking any MCAT class at all!

I know that there were people in my group who liked this class, so make up your own mind. I just wanted to share my experience so that fellow SDN members would know that not everyone likes this company!