Pros and Cons of Kaplan prep course vs. Princeton Review prep course

Kaplan's verbal is not really representative of the real deal. TPR verbal is more representative, and better practice. Plus,the TPR hyperlearning books are way better than Kaplan books (which you can just buy at a bookstore or something anyway-their big Kaplan book is the same thing as their class manuals). Finally, TPR has about 3-5 instructors per course, whereas Kaplan just has 1 instructor for everything. However, it really depends on your location, as course quality varies by location. Ask around.

First off, teacher quality differs too much area to area to make a comment on that.

TPR:

Pro:
- Better books in all areas
- Offers a decent amount of practice material

Con:
- Practice tests aren't great

Overall:
TPR Hyperlearning is the safe bet. At worst, you have access to some great books.



Kaplan:

Pro:
- Tons of online practice material
- Some good FLs (#1-6)

Con:
- By far the worst books out of the major companies

Overall: If you know you'll get a great teacher, go for it. Otherwise, I'd avoid. In either case, you'd need to buy new content review books.

PreMedHopeful said:

I didn't see a big thread on this, so here it goes: Name the pros and cons of Kaplan classroom prep vs. Princeton classroom prep...

YOUR TASK
List pros, cons, how well you feel the company prepares you and what you would do a second time around...


TIMING
Also, in terms of timing is it best to take the course RIGHT before the exam OR like take it well in advance, get the review materials and then study for it and take it later OR take the course after you have taken the exam after you did bad and realized you needed a course haha

THANKS!!!

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I'm currently in a TPR hyperlearning course. For me so far:

PROS: The books are sectioned by subject, you get a physical science book(chem and phys), bio sci book(bio and ochem) and a verbal book. I love the science books, very worth it. The books go over a lot of material and, in my opinion, are very descriptive and easy reads. If you haven't seen this stuff in awhile, these books are excellent to freshen up that memory. For the teachers, you get one for bio/ochem, chem, phys and verbal. So far, my teachers do a good job of making hte material presentable. This will probably be a regional thing though. The verbal and science workbooks are excellent.

CONS: By far, the verbal strategy isn't my cup of tea. I'd say this stretegy is pretty similar to how they teach SAT kids how to read passages. The verbal teacher isn't the best, but then again you can't blame the teacher because their verbal strat books just sucks. I'd go with EK if you want to learn verbal strategies. Cost is a con too I guess.

I can't really comment on their online tests, but if you were to take TPR, I'd recommend you buy the set of EK books including their 1001 series to complement these.

one question to add. would you guys say that kaplan books are too detailed?

Don't take Kaplan, it's well known that Kaplan is the worst of the test prep companies. Their FL's are good but that's pretty much it.

I'm currently enrolled in a Kaplan course and I'm about half of the way done. My opinion of the course so far:

Pros:

Great online material - Online workshops offer a good review plus they offer section quizzes and tests to reinforce the material covered in that particular section.

Haven't taken a Kaplan FL yet, so I can't comment on that.

Cons:

The strategy that they enforce on you from day one is not all that great in my opinion. They tell you to do "passage mapping" which you take notes on each passage and figure, and combine them to find the main point. I don't find this approach all that helpful because I think it's really time consuming. Not only that, but to actually be good at it requires time in itself.

Their review books when compared to other review books like, TPR, TBR, and EK, most likely rank in the lowest or second lowest out of those four. Although I do find their biology chapters to be decent, it's not as great as the other review books out there.

I don't know if I'm the only person who thinks this way but, it seems to me that they somehow alter their questions and answers to work with their strategy. Maybe I'm just being extremely paranoid.



I can't really say much about the TPR review course.

PreMedHopeful said:

WHAT DO YOU MEAN DON'T TAKE KAPLAN?!!!! So far from the majority of people I talked to, they all said Kaplan is #1 and has the most people that go on to medical school but that stat is twisted...People told me that TPR gives more practice and has easier exams, WHILE Kaplan has harder exams and is more concise....RIGHT??? Any comment??


OVERALL here is my question: WHICH PROGRAM WILL GIVE PREPARE ME THE BEST IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME, lets say 3 months, SO WHICH PROGRAM IS WORTH THE MONEY AND OFFERS QUALITY NOT QUANTITY?!!!

P.S. Sorry for the caps...lol

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I've also heard that kaplan isn't the best option. The kaplan near my school does not have the best reputation. TPR gives you a lot of practice material, just don't follow their verbal strategy. TPR should prepare you, I like their bio and physics. Supplement them with the EK set + 1001/101 verbal, and you're golden. I don't know if kaplan does this, but TPR will give you all availble AAMC FL CBT's.

Kaplan:

Pros- tons of material, more practice= much better at handling the real MCAT. Bio book I think absolutely KILLS TPR but....idk...Kaplan Physics is killed by TPR though


Cons- almost $2000

I am trying to make the same decision and this info is invaluable

PreMedHopeful said:

From my research:

Kaplan:
Pros- Shorter course schedule, cheaper by $200, good online full-length exams, harder tests prepare you better for actual exam, high score guarantee is better, better reputation overall

Cons- bad books, one teacher only- he/she could be bad, less practice, more emphasis on concise review

Princeton Review:
Pros- better books, more practice with A LOT of TESTS, longer schedule, more teachers with a teacher per subject, more quality, but not as good reputation, known as second choice for many

Cons- more expensive by $200, tests are EASIER-so more isn't better in this case, longer schedule isn't concise review, more in-depth

Please give me your OWN individual feedback and personal opinion about the program you had and if you had regrets, why and did the program successfully prepare you for it???

Please share input about practice tests, teachers, and course books

THANKS!!!

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I've seen the Kaplan course material books and their bio/ochem book is honestly fine. I occasionally used it in conjunction with EK to refresh on topics. I didn't like Kaplan's Phy Sci book. I also didn't like TPR's phy sci book. I really liked TBR's phy sci.

I've heard Kaplan offers tons of online material, but TPR gives you the science & verbal workbook, which are awesome practice... but can also be bought online for less than $100. TPR's books are probably all better than Kaplan's, TBH.

I'd vote against the course. Your money can be better spent elsewhere. There's no company whose books are the be-all-end-all of MCAT studying. You'd be better off mixing and matching books and self-studying. But that's just me. I happen to like not paying $1300+ to force myself to study.

If it's going to be a couple thousand dollars, I'd like to avoid adding another 1-2K to the cost! How do people take these courses anyway? Are their parents paying?

I took a TPR course recently:

Like a lot of people have said, the TPR hyperlearning books are great. The course itself was almost a waste of time, as I feel like I could have just stayed at home and learned just as efficiently from those fantastic books. I thought their practice exams were decent, but the bio section was a joke.

Just speaking of the Kaplan book, it's great for BS and PS. It's shaky at best for VR- their method of taking the verbal section takes too long and is too counterintuitive. Their version for the written section flat out sucks- takes forever, hard to organize, doesn't lead to a coherent essay.

Before making my decision I was told this by a number of people: (note that I'm in Canada, not sure if this applies 100% in the US)

TPR over-prepares you for verbal, Kaplan over-prepares you for physics.

Personally, I took TPR Hyperlearning, simply because I'm good at physics and would better need the extra help for verbal, something I haven't done much of. Also, the reason I took this course is similar to yours, I was doing summer research full time and needed something external to keep me on track.

The Course:

I liked having multiple teachers. Because everyone varies in teaching ability (regardless of knowledge of material), it's always nice to have better teachers for certain subjects than one really bad teacher. I liked my verbal teacher a lot, and the course kept me on track. The books are excellent. I'm a medical sciences student, so while I had the foundation down, these books helped re-confirm everything and expand them to examples where the concepts were really able to hit home. I did the course with 1.5 weeks to self-review between after the course and my actual MCAT date. However, I'll have to admit that because of my busy schedule that summer (research publication), I didn't study AT ALL external from the course, and only took 1 full-length practice test. However, with that said, I got 14-14-8 (verbal) and am re-taking in 2 days (exactly one year later). lol.

So, I think the course helped a lot in terms of just content review, however if you really want to do well first time around and ensure you get your money's worth (i.e. a GREAT mcat score), make sure you actually do the practice exams when they're scheduled. Princeton does have this great perk to re-take the course if you don't do as well as you would like. So while I'm not attending courses this summer, I've studied from home with the books (which are awesome) and the provided aamc tests online. I personally don't see any problems with my choice, and I would recommend this to other people.

As an added note: I think the TPR tests are great practice if you have time. The physical sciences passages are way more difficult than aamc (more calculations) and the verbal section is also more challenging, but if you have the time, I think this could prove to be beneficial practice. The BS section is rather simple.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about Kaplan, but I liked TPR.

From my experience, the Kaplan course was horrible. The people they hire to teach the course are not "Teachers", they are just people who did well on a specific section of the exam (what ever portion they teach). Some people are naturally good teachers, others are horrible regardless of how well they know the material. When I took the class, I had a differnt instructor for each section. The biology section was instructed by a current medical student at Baylor, who ended up being an excellent teacher. The Physical sciences section was instructed by a senior at my university who apparently did well on that section of the test when he took it. But, was a horrible teacher and didnt know how to answer alot of questions. In fact, most days we would come in and he would ask if there were any questions, if not, he'd tell us to go home and study. Luckily for me, I was already pretty good with physics. The verbal reasoning stuff taught by Kraplan is the worst by far that I have come across. I remember the instructor for that portion of the course even suggesting not using it. I think it is completely out dated and was probably useful for the paper based version of the exam, where you could take notes on the side of the paragraphs.
The books offered with the course were fairly useful. The Physics/Inorganic Chemistry book, I felt to be very complete and I did not need to supplement my studying for that section with any other materials. But, like I said, I was already very well off with physics and chemistry.
The Biology/Organic Chemistry book, I would say was complete for biology, but lacking in explaination for O-chem. But, I am also very well versed in Biology (Bachelors and Masters in Microbiology), but its been a long time since I have touched on O-Chem.
The Verbal Reasoning section offers alot of practice, so the book is only good for that. Throw out their sections in the book for strategies.

I would recomend just purchasing the books from Kaplan and also from the various other companies (I especially like the VR book from The Berkely Review...I havent tried their other books, but have heard they were good). If you just need something to help keep you on track with your studying, I would suggest finding a reliable study partner and setting dates to meet up to discuss certain topics. That way, you have a deadline to cover certain matieral....which is essentially the same thing that the kraplan course will do.

Oh yeah, and the guaranteed higher score or your money back, or what ever it is, is also not truthful. The first day you walk into the kaplan course, you'll take a mock MCAT exam. You'll score horrible on it because...you havent started studying yet. Their guarantee is that you will score higher than that exam on the real thing. DUH! You are allowed however, if you arnt satisfied, to retake the crappy course for free i think..or maybe it was $500. IMO, if the course is crappy already, its not going to help much to retake it.

I am currently taking the TPR hyperlearning course, and I am halfway through this. As far as the teachers go, the physical science teachers (physics and gen chem) are absolutely fantastics. Verbal teacher-neutral Orgo teacher-bad and Bio-puzzled. The books are great, as someone said earlier, the worst thing this course could give you is phenomenal books. The phsyical sciences book is worth its weight in gold. The biological sciences book is a joke. The verbal book which contains passages is good practice, the but strategy itself seems a little long winded. Overall its a good course, I would recommend

PreMedHopeful said:

Unfortunately, I don't have a car nearby my college so only Kaplan is available because it's right across campus...I know I know it's KRAPlan but what can I do? No car, no ride??? I can't taxi or ask a friend to drop me EVERY single day....

I'm doing Kaplan in fall, repeating them in spring, and then taking MCAT in May and then I might do TPR in summer and repeat MCAT in July/August if needed...good????

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PreMedHopeful, I sent you a pm.

PreMedHopeful said:

-REVIEWING THE CONTENT AND UNDERSTANDING THE MATERIAL TO DO WELL?

-HAVING A DECENT UNDERSTANDING AND GOOD GRASP AND FOCUSING ON TAKING PRACTICE TESTS/PRACTICE QUESTIONS AND IMPROVING SCORES THAT WAY??

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The MCAT is 1/3 content review and 2/3 practice tests/practice questions.

Do you guys know if the old 1001 EK books have the same questions or they are different?