Best MCAT Prep Program

[necta]

Hello all!
Curious to hear what you all think the best MCAT prep program is. I am currently considering the online Kaplan course because of my full time work schedule, but am flexible on other options. I have heard of the recent faux-pas with a certain company that was getting MCAT questions by taking the exam. Obviously, that would not be an issue since you would be getting better inside information. However.....

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[braluk]

Moving to MCAT forums. Good luck on your MCAT!

 

[Shadowstar]

Kaplan is a good program, I recommend it. Its a bit expensive though.

 

[necta]

Thanks for the response Shadow. Money is not an issue, as I try to do well to counterbalance my crappy undergrad GPA with a decent MCAT score after post-bacc. Any more input please?

 

[jennifermov]

it totally depends on what you need as a student....

Kaplan does not go into very detailed review of the material needed on the MCAT, but does a great job and focusing on the things most commonly seen on the MCAT (i like this because it's just not possible to study everything you might see on the test!) they also give you lots of great strategies.

my impression of Princeton review is that their class is focused less on strategies, but you get more detailed content review than kaplan. this might be to your benefit if you've been out of class for awhile...?

honestly, i chose kaplan because the center was closer to my house. i now teach for them. between these two, i really think it depends on what you need..... hopefully more people will be able to put in their two cents and give you concrete reasons why either course helped....

the best class in my opinion? the berkley review (if you want to go to CA for the summer). i had a friend who took it and his score went up a lot. when i took the mcat the second time, i studied from his review books only. the content review went into a lot of detail which i liked. (i felt like if i could handle their REALLY hard sample questions, i could handle the real thing) plus, for physics and chemistry questions, they explain the logic behind the science and show you how to reason out the answer (rather than depending on straight math and formula use)

 

[killinsound]

if you know the content somewhat and you are an independent studier : kaplan

if you forgot almost everything : TPR

if you really know your content: EK

 

[Shrike]

Roughly speaking, what killinsound says above is right. It's not correct that TPR doesn't really do much with strategy, but that strategy gets taught in conjunction with a whole lot of subject matter instruction, so looks small by comparison. Still, we work on strategy nearly every day.

Re the whole having-people-take-the-test thing, that's been common knowledge for years (assuming you're talking about us). AAMC sues us; AAMC doesn't win. Rinse and repeat.

If money really isn't an object (hey, you said it above), then the best course will be the intensive course TPR will, I hope (it's not fully approved yet) offer this summer in a still-undisclosed location: a still-undisclosed amount of live-in, full time prep with the best teachers in the company. If several grand (seven, maybe?) is burning a hole in your pocket, maybe that's the answer. (As I said, we aren't quite sure, so don't quote me yet...)