Best prep courses?

[700003]

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[blimpflimp]

i took the kaplan prep course, which was a couple of months long. i personally did not find the course helpful.. the textbooks were not precise enough... not enough depth, and not enough practice problems. i had a friend who took examkrackers, and it seemed like she had a more positive experience. i ended up using the EK books to study for the mcat. the quality of each course varies by region/teacher, though. make sure you talk to other pre-meds at your school before deciding on which course to take, since it can be pretty expensive.

 

[trino]

I am planning to sign up for an MCAT prep course this summer. Which one do you guys recommend? I know there's kaplan and princeton (are there any more?) but idk which one is better to take? I know like absolutely no information about either of these.

Also, can someone give me insight as to how long these prep courses usually are? Is there one that is less than 3 months? I think that's too much time for me to devote 😕 And how can I sign up for these prep courses?

Thanks in advance!

I took Princeton and loved it. Two things though
1. PR teaches you to a 45. I have a biology background so I found it easier to review. My roommate took kaplan and it seemed like Princeton stressed the fact that you should know everything. Kaplan stressed knowing enough to get a 33 (+\- 3)

2. PR uses their own instructors that use their own material (with an outline). My roommate said kaplan instructors have to stick to the lesson plan strictly. PR can be a plus or minus depending on the instructor and how good he is at coming up with his own stuff

I don't know specific timing, but I do have a friend that started PR in May and took the mcat in August. PR and Kaplan websites have the dates of their course

 

[medmedman]

From those I've talked to, Kaplan sucks (I took Kaplan) and Princeton rocks

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

How busy is your summer going to be? Are you going to be taking classes, doing research, or working in addition to studying for the MCAT? If so, I would definitely recommend M Prep's eCourse. You go at your own pace. If you are busy, you can schedule the content review lectures when you are free. I have heard great things about their QBank questions.... lots of passage-based BS and PS and of course VR.
On the other hand, if you need to be disciplined or have a lot of free time on your hands go with one of Princeton's courses... The material seems to be far superior to Kaplans...

OR, if you are somewhere in the middle like me you can SN2ed's 3-month self study 😉

 

[3931]

I took The Princeton Review's Summer Online Hyper-learning Course and I highly recommend it. It raised my MCAT score substantially. Good luck to you in whatever program you choose.

 

[feli_owl]

I took The Princeton Review's Summer Online Hyper-learning Course and I highly recommend it. It raised my MCAT score substantially. Good luck to you in whatever program you choose.

Anyone else use the Princeton Review's online course? I want to take Princeton but the closest center is 50 miles from my home. Listening to the bad things about Kaplan, I'd rather take the Princeton online instead of Kaplan in person.

 

[ZebAkers]

I took Kaplan Advanced Online Course (~6 weeks), and I highly recommend it. Material presentation and depth may be lacking, but their focus on strategy is very effective. And to be honest, you don't need to master as much material in detail for the MCAT as everyone claims. A solid understand of overarching themes will suffice (I took it without having taken Organic2 or Physics2, and other than organic I only had general bio/chem under my belt). My score went from an average of 28ish on practice FLs to a 39 on the real thing; I attribute 80% of that improvement due to strategy, repetition, and practice. Repetition and practice you can do on your own, but Kaplan proved invaluable when it came to strategy development. Take everything they say with a grain of salt though, as their verbal strategy is lacking...I recommend substituting mental mapping for written mapping (their suggested method).