Did you take the Kaplan MCAT Prep Course?

[FutureDrB]

So I'm thinking about enrolling in Kaplan's MCAT Advantage course, but really need to justify dropping $1,899 on it. Eeesh.

I was just curious to see how many of you took it and how beneficial did you find it?

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I heard Kaplan is overall crap and that all prep courses are a waste of money. You may be better off just buying the books and adhering somewhat to the 90-day plan.

 

[Ebola4Breakfast]

So I'm thinking about enrolling in Kaplan's MCAT Advantage course, but really need to justify dropping $1,899 on it. Eeesh.

I was just curious to see how many of you took it and how beneficial did you find it?

I took the online version. Personally, and this is probably an unpopular opinion, I thought it was a waste of money. It's probably highly individual-dependent. If you have a lot of time, it's probably a worthwhile investment. The classroom version may be a better investment. The book series wasn't bad... they just seemed to be textbook vomit and include a good bit of unnecessary information. I preferred the Exam Krackers books. Take my opinion with a grain of salt because my MCAT score was in the mediocre range.

 

[FutureDrB]

Appreciate the feedback. I've just begun self-studying with the books. I have heard good things about Examkrackers.

 

[RIdoc11]

i am a kaplan graduate... it depends if you can force yourself to stay on a consistent productive study plan to sufficiently prep yourself... if you need it spoon fed (like me) then enroll in a prep course.

i am one of those snobs that took kaplan's summer intensive program... total overkill, but i needed it

 

[ilubse7en]

i did princeton hyperlearning review..
it was my third time taking mcat, the first two times i tried to make my own schedule, but i ended up spending too much time on bio (something i liked) and too little on verbal (something i hated), ended up with uneven score...

i loved hyperlearning, if you have busy schedule or have hard time making and keeping the schedule, its great..
its online so you don't have to attend the course, you can very well listen to the lecture in your pajama. it also has tons of practice material, didn't really like the verbal tho, they teach you how to focus on few sections and pretty much guess on one difficult section, which it thought was ridiculous.

 

[DryHopped]

I took the MCAT advantage in-class course and I felt that it was beneficial. I scored a 31M (11 PS 10 VR 10 BS). I liked the structure of the course, my teacher, and the strategies I was taught (minus the passage mapping). If you need structure, or if you are a non-trad who is a little fuzzy on some of the commonly tested concepts (which was my case) the course is worth the money in my opinion. If all the material is fresh and you don't need any structure, you could save a lot of money by self-studying with the materials endorsed in the MCAT forum.

 

[CopToEM]

Honestly, from what I've gathered both on here and at my undergrad, whether or not the class is beneficial depends very highly on who the teacher is. I know of a couple people who took it this past Summer and absolutely despised the med student Kaplan contracted to teach it. He was, in their own words, more or less of the opinion that, "If you're here then obviously you're not smart enough for medical school."

Certainly, if you have a teacher who truly engages you and makes it a worthwhile experience you may find it beneficial. On the other hand, you won't know that until you've dropped the cash, and then you may find out the opposite is true.

I personally don't know a single person at my undergrad who took the class and was pleased with the decision. Most of them try to justify the fact that they paid for it by saying they, "really found the materials helpful." I don't know about you but I don't believe there are any MCAT materials worth $1,900.

Head over to the MCAT forum, pull up SN2ed's plan, and plug it into a calendar of some sort. Make yourself stick to it. There's no reason it should cost you $1900 to review for the MCAT.

I'll steal someone else's analogy that I saw on here: [MCAT studying] is kind of like setting a goal to eat 5 pancakes a day for a week. You might do pretty good for a few days but on Wednesday you decide you don't want to have pancakes. So, you don't eat pancakes that day. However, now, on Thursday, you have to eat 10 pancakes to make up for it. I think you catch my drift.

Hang in there! Good luck!

 

[DrWily]

Just to mirror what everyone else said..

SN2ed's 90-day program is DA BOMB. I stretched it out to 4 months cuz I had time. Do it. Do what the man says there. It's an extremely well thought out plan and has proven results. You won't be disappointed.

I got the Examkrakers books, 1001 questions books, TBR books, and AAMC practice full lengths. I'm sure you can get all of these for under $1,900. Buy used on amazon or half.com or even here on SDN's classifieds.

 

[islanders11040]

for real sn2ed's is awesome. it got me from a 26 first practice test to a 33 on last practice test and a 32 on the real mcat. do it. did it over 3 months

 

[DrapDO]

Well, I'm going to go against the grain here so prepare yourself. I took the KAPLAN on Demand on line course and found it to be very beneficial. I paid 1600 and would do it again because I really liked the structure and ease of their learning platform. In my opinion they do go into too much in depth in some areas, but they give you all the tools you need to be very successful on the MCAT. You don't just get review books and a lecture on the testable material, you get thousands of practice questions and access to all of the AAMC practice tests and eight or nine Kaplan practice tests. Also, you can generate quizzes of MCAT style questions that are timed and run with software similar to the real MCAT. Kaplan also allows you to monitor your progress in each section of the number scored test, by subject and by sub-subjects. For example, you can see your patterns in physical science section, in chemistry and down to subject of reaction kinetics. Also you can break down your strengths by question style and know if your good at experimential vs. passage based vs. stand alone questions in each subject. Another aspect I liked was how they taught you test crisis management skills which for some might be intuitive but gave me lots of ideas and strategies that I would not have thought of. They also teach you how to spot classic traps and wrong answers (mostly beneficial in verbal) which I would not have learned about on my own. Also I really liked their quick fact sheets because they were the condensed version of all the really important concepts and equations you need to know for each subject and were perfect for keeping on your night stand or in your backpack for review. Now, I will also agree that some of what they tell you is complete crap like their passage mapping which is good in principle but takes way way way to long to be practical. I also hardly touched the flash cards, and if you really memorized all the equations, and details they tell you to it would take forever. Your pretty much one your own with the on demand version, but this was fine for me because I can learn from a book and audio lectures. Overall Kaplan was a good but not an outstanding experience. I would do it again because It helped me get the score I needed on the first try. Say you spend 800 on books and review material and take the test twice at 250 a pop and now your 1050 into it, and at a disadvantage on your apps. Was it worth 1600 to me yes, but I think a more appropriate price would be 800. Can you get all the prep you need cheaper? Yes. Can you do well without structured learning objectives, review and preview questions and access to all the review questions, practice tests, and statistics you that you can handle, and crisis/test management advice? Totally up to you and your learning preferences. If I thought I could do it without kaplan I would have!! 1600 is lot of money my family could really use. I really needed to maximize study efficiency because I had part time work, a wife and child, and full time school competing for time. I will admit that I didn't push myself as hard as I should have only studying 3-6 hours a week for 4 months and would have gotten 3-4 more points if I put an extra 2-4 hours a week into it. I did not get a great MCAT score, but a 27 (11 B 9 VR 7 P) was good enough for me to get into all 6 medical schools I applied to, and was much better than the 19 I got on my first practice test. During the Kaplan program my practice tests ranged from a 25 1st one to 30 with most 28-30 with subject averages (9-12B 6-8V 8-10 P). I know my score was nothing to brag about but I only took the test once which in my opinion looks and is better than taking it 3 times to get the coveted 30 or better and saving 1000$. However it is plain stupid to pay that much if you can get the same results on your own or using the SDN method. Oh and one more thing, I kid you not one of my writing prompts on the real MCAT was almost identical to a Kaplan practice one! Didn't help me much as I only scored a M but I thought it was funny. Sorry I think wrote too much, but I was just trying to give a picture of my experience with Kaplan. Good luck however you decide to study!!!

 

[FutureDrB]

SN2ed it is.

 

[DocGodfather]

Just to mirror what everyone else said..

SN2ed's 90-day program is DA BOMB. I stretched it out to 4 months cuz I had time. Do it. Do what the man says there. It's an extremely well thought out plan and has proven results. You won't be disappointed.

I got the Examkrakers books, 1001 questions books, TBR books, and AAMC practice full lengths. I'm sure you can get all of these for under $1,900. Buy used on amazon or half.com or even here on SDN's classifieds.

I had no idea what you were talking about when you said SN2ed, until I looked it up lol. From what I've hear, TBR books are the best prep books available for the MCAT. They have prep classes in California, but classes are very limited, so I will probably just buy the books on ebay or something.

I also just bought Kaplan's MCAT Complete 5-Book Subject Review set. I read some good reviews about this box set, so I'm going to review these books over the winter break and let you guys know what I think about the chemistry sections.

 

[IamKing]

My experience with Kaplan was terrible. My friend is currently using sn2ed MCAT study plan and he thinks it is really helping. He also took Kaplan with me and didn't get much out of it.

 

[CopToEM]

You can't beat TBR for study materials... period. However, I did find the Biology texts way too dense. I ended up not reading past the first volume and switched to ExamKrackers Biology.

 

[DocGodfather]

You can't beat TBR for study materials... period. However, I did find the Biology texts way too dense. I ended up not reading past the first volume and switched to ExamKrackers Biology.

A couple others on here also had good reviews for EK's Bio text. I think I'm still going to buy all the TBR books, and maybe spring out some more cash for EK's Bio and Physics material (since I just got Kaplan set.

 

[clinke]

SN2ed it is.

Smart guy. Yeah I took Kaplan and found it to be a waste of time. I'd prefer to just spend a couple hundred on a bunch of books and read away.

 

[corpsman33]

I bought the Kaplan books, took 18 days of leave from work, and spent every minute in Starbucks studying. Refills are only 50 cents, but be warned, after 3 or 4 venti coffees I had significant dysrhythmias/palpitations.

Glad I never have to study for the MCAT again, but.....good luck!

 

[Loudster]

I took an MCAT prep class put on by my school. After about 2 weeks I realized they were just reciting information from the books at me and it was kinda a waste of time. I then went out and bought Examkrackers. I honestly feel like I got more out of studying the review books than the course.

I just didn't need the structure that having a formal class provides.

 

[Mayi88]

Kaplan classes are a waste of time (i mean the actual classes you go to). The books are good if you need a lot of background info.

My advice....

Go on amazon
search 'used exam krackers'

it's cheaper and frankly a much more time effective way to study.

 

[dntke1518]

Also, the AAMC practice tests are a good investment also. I felt like half of the challenge was just knowing the test.

 

[MoonlightG]

i am a kaplan graduate... it depends if you can force yourself to stay on a consistent productive study plan to sufficiently prep yourself... if you need it spoon fed (like me) then enroll in a prep course.

i am one of those snobs that took kaplan's summer intensive program... total overkill, but i needed it

How did you do on the MCAT?

 

[Shammyguy3]

Took the class four years ago. Scored a 25. Just bought the updated text books and self studied, scored a 512 this April.


Self study.

 

[MoonlightG]

Took the class four years ago. Scored a 25. Just bought the updated text books and self studied, scored a 512 this April.


Self study.

What did you differently than before? It is difficult for me to stick to a study plan which is Why I enrolled in a Kaplan course. Advice would be highly appreciated.

 

[Shammyguy3]

What did you differently than before? It is difficult for me to stick to a study plan which is Why I enrolled in a Kaplan course. Advice would be highly appreciated.

This is something you have to work on (sticking to a study plan). You have to be dedicated and committed to being the best learner you can be. Build a good foundation by reviewing the material. There's quite a lot of it, especially if you haven't taken Biochem or Psych/Soc in some time. You can pretty much skip all Orgo stuff, you can probably review the entire Kaplan book in a day just by reading and passively taking some notes. That's how little there is on Orgo now.

I worked full-time while I studied., so I prepped from end of October to the middle of April for my test. I'd come home from work, eat. How did I stay disciplined and not distracted? I bought these:

QuietComfort 35 Wireless Smart Headphones | Bose

Listen to your favorite study music (classical, piano, what-be-have-you). Monday through Thursday as I worked I aimed to get anywhere between 8-10 good hours of studying. Fridays were half-days for me for work, so I got a very solid 6 hours of studying in on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays = 18 hours of the best studying (with breaks!) on the weekends.

When you take practice tests, start no sooner than 8 weeks before your real exam. My real test date was a Saturday at 8, so I woke up early Saturdays and went to the local University's library to take the test. Simulate it like the real thing, bring the lunch that you will eat on the real exam date.

Later Saturday night, relax for a few hours. Then before bed, go over 1 of the sections, and the other 3 the next day. Understand why you got questions wrong or right. The next week you review what you're poor at and do practice questions to prepare you for the next full-length practice test on Saturday.

You should see a gradual improvement in your scores assuming you're not the smartest student (like me), but one of the hardest working ones.

 

[SergeantBuzzKill]

Took the Kaplan prep course and scored 27. Took the TPR course and then scored 515 (~34 on the old MCAT). BUT, this also could be because I didn’t start out “fresh” like I did with Kaplan. I found Kaplan’s verbal strategy to be complete crap, but N=1. Loved how TPR goes into greater detail in each subject