$8000!

I haven't.. but.. honestly, I found the classes to be useless.. just buy the books and study on your own..

$8,000?!?????????!!!!!!???!??!?!?! 😱

I hiiiighly suggest not forking over that much money! Even the clasroom course which costs like $1600 is a lot! My suggestion would be to get the books and some of the online resources they provide and get plenty of practice on your own!

granted that would only work if you can force yourself to study...

It's more lol

"The cost for the Summer Intensive Program with room and board at either location is $10,999"

I have actually taken the course... if you want my opinion PM me. However, I may not respond until next week cause there is much to tell

BloodySurgeon said:

I have actually taken the course... if you want my opinion PM me. However, I may not respond until next week cause there is much to tell

Click to expand...

You did the $8000 class? Wow!

Why didn't you enroll in all four MCAT course available in Westwood and use the leftover $1500 to get private tutoring for 30 hours or so?

Taking four classes would have gotten you 400 class hours, tons of office hours, about 40 CBTs, and enough books to make a 24-hour bonfire when you were done.

It has pros and cons (having 10Gs as part of the big con). Also the program was a lot different than I thought. If I were to decide again, I wouldn't have taken the program. However, I wouldn't suggest everyone to turn ur back on the offer so quickly either. The program was meant for certain type of ppl, I just guess I didnt fit into that type and I had personal problems at the time which made things extremely difficult for me to use it's potential to the max. Many people were happy with the end results and there were a wide variety of people from traditional to non-traditional students.

The program had almost literally 24/7 tutoring throughout the program (6 weeks) and a lecturing and recitation class each running about 3 hrs everyday. Not only that, but before or after you can attend the classroom courses at ur local kaplan center and have tutoring for 1/3rd the price. They highly recommended that you read the review book beforehand because the class is intense but since I was in school, this was not an option.

Although they suggest that the program is intense, if you are familiar with the content the classes may seem very basic to you as all the classes taught in kaplan are meant to go over the basics. That's kinda how I felt when taking the class, but they have a very good speaker for lectures and for those who forgot their material I could see why this was useful. Some of us by the end actually stop going to the lecture but they eventually made the classes mandatory.

But the best part about the program, would definitely be recitation and tutoring... which really where all ur money is going to. You have around 7 teachers (most are mediocre but a few are amazing) and they really go through things with you. The only problem is, you go only as fast as the slowest person in the class. This was the biggest downfall of their program really. But what can u do?

This program is really meant for 2 types of people. Those who are just completely hopeless and don't know any of the material and they want to learn it fast, or if you are very dedicated and have done the mcat before and done bad and dunno what to do now. All other scenarios I felt you would be better off just studying on ur own unless the program has change significantly since I took it.

If you dun mind the expense I would suggest u 2 do this... you are allowed to attend any course you want before the class starts in the summer. Take a class, do the quizes, read the book, etc. Don't stress too much, just put around 1-2hrs a day. Then after the class when u start summer, just sleep through the lesson plans or re-hear em (same exact teaching though) and get through recitation. After recitation just study ur butt off everyday. When u have questions, ask the teachers constantly... they pretty much just stand there to answer questions. If u want, ask them to go over things or quiz u. If you do this, I wouldnt see y u cant get a 35 or higher. If you fuk up like me and dun do this, u will end up with the same score u started with. Best of luck.

That sounds exactly like my regular Kaplan course. We had lectures 3 or 4 times a week (I think 3) at three hours long. Except for my class all the teachers were horrible except for one sub we had for a day (Pretty much all of the students stopped showing or talking to the last teacher we had after the others left). Then, we could also call up or email any of our teachers about questions. On top of that, there were specific office hours where we could get tutored by certain teachers. We could set-up meeting times as well. Lastly, we could go to the Kaplan center and get help if we wanted it. I really can't see the difference between that and the course you took except for: 1. the money & 2. this program is stretched over a longer period. I bet if you simply took all the classes the normal program has and put them back to back, the program would look just like the $8000 one.

I could never recommend an $8000 course. That is a horrendous waste of money when it seems like you're getting nothing more than Kaplan's regular course in a shorter time.

The MCAT boils down to two things: studying hard and having the will power to push yourself. If you can't do those two things, you probably don't stand a chance against the MCAT. It doesn't matter what course you take when there's no will power behind it or when you don't want to put in the work. Courses are made to motivate people to study and to provide readily available material, not to act as a silver bullet for the MCAT (though many wish they were). At the same time, if you really HAD to spend money on a course to get you to study, I think that's a troubling sign. Except if you have no one else around who's taking the MCAT at the same time. Camaraderie is important and a good teacher/friend or friends can really be a partner in arms against the beast that is the MCAT. Hopefully the goal of becoming a doctor and helping others is motivation enough to finish that next practice test or flip that next page.

Well there's my late night rant. I should probably write this when I'm 😴when I'm not tired I mean. Forgive me if this isn't very coherent.

Please, I'm sad enough... 🙁

I guess the real question is - do you feel like you're going to do well in the MCAT?
The proof will be in your performance and if it increases your score on test day, I say it's not money down the drain. Exorbitant, yes, but if it put you in a better place who's to judge come Saturday?

I wish you well. Don't be sad. Just go in there and kill that test!
s.

ya, but I got here where I am mostly because I studied my ass off AFTER the SIP lol.

For $10 Gs it better come with room and board in the Bahamas for a few months, and my own personal bahamian masseuse!