Chad vs. Khan vs. Wikipremed

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I haven't used Chad or Khan for MCAT prep, but I have used WikiPreMed and I like it quite a bit. Use the videos and practice materials for subjects you're weak on.
 
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kimicurtis said:
Thanks! Also, I forgot to mention I have the Kaplan online class. Are there videos any good?
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Not at all and they are LONG, like a couple hours a piece or something (if i remember). Although I will admit when I was really stressed one of their videos was telling me that it would be ok which made me, frankly, crack up laughing, so it worked. I'm the type of person that likes to use stuff they have paid for, so I watched a lot of the videos despite feeling I could have better used my time reading a book or working practice problems.

But their online stuff is excellent, including their class notes and foundation reviews which is better than their printed material.

edit: by "online stuff" i mean their exams, practice problems, section tests, sectional tests, and topical tests.

edit2: Try watching their "Fast facts" videos, you might like those, they seem better than their class videos.
 
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NuttyEngDude said:
Not at all and they are LONG, like a couple hours a piece or something (if i remember). Although I will admit when I was really stressed one of their videos was telling me that it would be ok which made me, frankly, crack up laughing, so it worked. I'm the type of person that likes to use stuff they have paid for, so I watched a lot of the videos despite feeling I could have better used my time reading a book or working practice problems.

But their online stuff is excellent, including their class notes and foundation reviews which is better than their printed material.

edit: by "online stuff" i mean their exams, practice problems, section tests, sectional tests, and topical tests.

edit2: Try watching their "Fast facts" videos, you might like those, they seem better than their class videos.
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Thanks! I will try the fast facts videos and I know many people rave over their topical, sectional, and FL's so I will be using those. Still can't decide whether I should spend that extra money on Chad or just go with khan/wikipremed.
 
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I love love love khan academy! The only problem is that he doesn't cover everything on the mcat and his subjects aren't catered to standardized tests. His focus is on you understanding the material. sometime his explanations are long. He's big on explaining why. He doesn't just throw rules and formulas at you, he derives them. If you have the time, I'd say watch khan first and then chad second.

Some other free YouTube channels to check out are InteractiveBiology, Bozemanbiology, brightstorm2, and IsaacsTEACH. Oh, and Crashcourse is good for evolution.
 
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jeffs office said:
I love love love khan academy! The only problem is that he doesn't cover everything on the mcat and his subjects aren't catered to standardized tests. His focus is on you understanding the material. sometime his explanations are long. He's big on explaining why. He doesn't just throw rules and formulas at you, he derives them. If you have the time, I'd say watch khan first and then chad second.

Some other free YouTube channels to check out are InteractiveBiology, Bozemanbiology, brightstorm2, and IsaacsTEACH. Oh, and Crashcourse is good for evolution.
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i think khan academy does really well teaching immunology, and they are actually enjoyable to watch
 
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kimicurtis said:
Thanks! I will try the fast facts videos and I know many people rave over their topical, sectional, and FL's so I will be using those. Still can't decide whether I should spend that extra money on Chad or just go with khan/wikipremed.
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Their subject tests are like ek1001 or tpr discretes, those are good too when you're working on content or at the end of content. regarding the videos that's your call, not sure how you learn and they all have a different approach of presenting material. in the grand scheme of things, $100 or whatever, is not much.
 
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leric90 said:
i think khan academy does really well teaching immunology, and they are actually enjoyable to watch
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I agree. Sal's side notes are funny sometimes. Like how he didn't answer his wife's phone call once and him saying she'd probably be upset. Lol tmi.
 
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Alright-

So Chads Videos are great. My only complaint is that he does VERY simple examples in the lecture. Luckily--on the quizzes, the solutions he posts explains them a bit.

Overall--I'm very happy. I feel I got my 100 bucks worth.
 
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NuttyEngDude said:
Their subject tests are like ek1001 or tpr discretes, those are good too when you're working on content or at the end of content. regarding the videos that's your call, not sure how you learn and they all have a different approach of presenting material. in the grand scheme of things, $100 or whatever, is not much.
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Does Kaplan offer their topicals and subjects tests without taking their MCAT course?
 
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Used all three, but I thought chad's was overall the best.

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NuttyEngDude said:
Their subject tests are like ek1001 or tpr discretes, those are good too when you're working on content or at the end of content. regarding the videos that's your call, not sure how you learn and they all have a different approach of presenting material. in the grand scheme of things, $100 or whatever, is not much.
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Yeah, especially after all that other money I have been spending. I'll use khan/wiki for now, then try to get Chad after some money roles around at the end of the month.
 
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LaughingMan said:
Alright-

So Chads Videos are great. My only complaint is that he does VERY simple examples in the lecture. Luckily--on the quizzes, the solutions he posts explains them a bit.

Overall--I'm very happy. I feel I got my 100 bucks worth.
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That's my complaint as well. Especially in physics, he will boil all material down to its simplest form and his in class problems reflect that. Then you get to a TPRHL passage and the diagrams alone will be incredibly confusing at first glance because you are so used to the simple way Chad presented the material.

If you master the material, no problem, but if you are still learning, it can be very confusing.
 
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kimicurtis said:
Which is better for MCAT prep?
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Check out Steven from Free Lance Teach... he is very through with topics and does lots of practice problems with you... you will really know how to solve the problems after you watch all his lectures... some of his lectures are very long though... but you can skip around if you think he is going too slow... and he is free too. 🙂
 
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I've used them all. I think Chad's Videos are amazing, both the MCAT and College Course videos. He gives great tips and tricks. His Gen Chem and O-Chem MCAT videos are great and his Physics is okay. I will recommend utilizing his non-MCAT videos as an adjunct for your courses.
 
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LaughingMan said:
Alright-

So Chads Videos are great. My only complaint is that he does VERY simple examples in the lecture. Luckily--on the quizzes, the solutions he posts explains them a bit.

Overall--I'm very happy. I feel I got my 100 bucks worth.
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Which video sets did you pick if you don't mind me asking?
 
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I can only comment on Kaplan..

I'm taking the online course, and of course I read the chapters before watching the video associated with that chapter. If you're like me and read pretty actively, and go maybe a little bit slower and try to learn everything in one fellow swoop, do the practice problems (there are 12-15 for each chapter) and try to understand when to use the formulas, etc, the videos were pretty useless. They essentially go over some of the main formulas again and their key components, and then do some passage/passage questions.

If you're maybe short on time (ie test in a couple months and really need to do some content review) and insist on doing some Kaplan, then I could see somebody skimming the chapters quick, jumping straight to the answer key for the practice problems and understanding those, then benefitting from the videos to fill in the rest of the information.
 
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Use chad man. Chad is amazing at teaching chemistry. Not sure about physics or bio but I heard wikipremed is best for physics. I'm sure chad is great for those too though, seeing as how he's so good for chem.
 
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wikipremed has good intentions, but the physics videos are not that great....the pace is ssssssslllllllllllooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww. If you require a pace as slow as his, then you won't do good on the MCAT. During the lectures there is so much wasted time...he could do a lot more, but its free so that is a good thing...he does have a lot of other on the website and they are beneficial
 
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stlrams22 said:
wikipremed has good intentions, but the physics videos are not that great....the pace is ssssssslllllllllllooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww. If you require a pace as slow as his, then you won't do good on the MCAT. During the lectures there is so much wasted time...he could do a lot more, but its free so that is a good thing...he does have a lot of other on the website and they are beneficial
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Lol, what a pointless generalization. I agree he goes slow sometimes but it's worth it because I found he offers a lot of foundation insight linking concepts together that I never got out of TBR. If you don't like it don't use it, but it's worked fine for others. :shrug:
 
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I watched all of Chads videos and all of wikipremed videos. They both compliment each other. If you have the time they are great. If you are time strapped then all of Chad and as much of John as you can get. I bought his package which comes with a cd of all his videos and sped him up as I watched him.
 
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mcloaf said:
Lol, what a pointless generalization. I agree he goes slow sometimes but it's worth it because I found he offers a lot of foundation insight linking concepts together that I never got out of TBR. If you don't like it don't use it, but it's worked fine for others. :shrug:
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Maybe you would do well on the MCAT, but most of the topics he teaches like you have never been exposed to them before (mcat is timed, taking extensive time to present a small amount of information is not beneficial). If it takes you 5 minutes to understand that doubling the velocity (with mass constant) increases the kinetic energy 4X after taking two semesters of chemistry and physics, then you may struggle with the mcat (the reason for my "pointless generalization"). I agree that he explains things with a different perspective and that is really helpful, especially for concepts you think you understand well, but then after watching his video have a better understanding.
 
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Chad for science, khan for math specific help when needed. I like the wiki premed guy for physics, but it was just too much for me.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using SDN Mobile
 
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stlrams22 said:
wikipremed has good intentions, but the physics videos are not that great....the pace is ssssssslllllllllllooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww. If you require a pace as slow as his, then you won't do good on the MCAT. During the lectures there is so much wasted time...he could do a lot more, but its free so that is a good thing...he does have a lot of other on the website and they are beneficial
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As a punishment for your condescension, I'm going to point out that you might not do so "good" on the verbal section.
 
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Cynicalbrit said:
As a punishment for your condescension, I'm going to point out that you might not do so "good" on the verbal section.
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Wasn't talking about the verbal section, I might not do so "good", but I'll do "good" enough to get in somewhere.
 
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stlrams22 said:
Wasn't talking about the verbal section, I might not do so "good", but I'll do "good" enough to get in somewhere.
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2kizi8.gif
 
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stlrams22 said:
Maybe you would do well on the MCAT, but most of the topics he teaches like you have never been exposed to them before (mcat is timed, taking extensive time to present a small amount of information is not beneficial). If it takes you 5 minutes to understand that doubling the velocity (with mass constant) increases the kinetic energy 4X after taking two semesters of chemistry and physics, then you may struggle with the mcat (the reason for my "pointless generalization"). I agree that he explains things with a different perspective and that is really helpful, especially for concepts you think you understand well, but then after watching his video have a better understanding.
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Well, the point is to be as useful to as many people as possible, which is best accomplished by starting at the beginning. Not everyone who is studying for the MCAT is in the position that it sounds like you are where you've recently taken your prereqs. Some haven't taken them yet, some have taken them years ago. If it's too slow you can fast forward, I know I did at points. I'm also not sure how the MCAT being timed should inform the way that the material is presented during content review; are you contending that because time is tight during the actual exam then information should be rushed when you're learning it? There is a time and place to learn timing and test conditions: practice passages and full length exams, not video-based content review.

Cynicalbrit said:
2kizi8.gif
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Love that gif.
 
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mcloaf said:
Well, the point is to be as useful to as many people as possible, which is best accomplished by starting at the beginning. Not everyone who is studying for the MCAT is in the position that it sounds like you are where you've recently taken your prereqs. Some haven't taken them yet, some have taken them years ago. If it's too slow you can fast forward, I know I did at points. I'm also not sure how the MCAT being timed should inform the way that the material is presented during content review; are you contending that because time is tight during the actual exam then information should be rushed when you're learning it? There is a time and place to learn timing and test conditions: practice passages and full length exams, not video-based content review.



Love that gif.
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I'm not sure what the backlash about my opinion is about. Perhaps referring to the OP and the original intention would remind you that this forum is for discussing various MCAT preparation courses, ie "Chad vs. Khan vs. Wikipremed." For some people, these videos may be useful, for me some parts are useful. My main problem with his videos is much of the time is wasted (not used for instruction, reason for my remark about KE). He could convey the same ideas in half the time.
 
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stlrams22 said:
I'm not sure what the backlash about my opinion is about. Perhaps referring to the OP and the original intention would remind you that this forum is for discussing various MCAT preparation courses, ie "Chad vs. Khan vs. Wikipremed." For some people, these videos may be useful, for me some parts are useful. My main problem with his videos is much of the time is wasted (not used for instruction, reason for my remark about KE). He could convey the same ideas in half the time.
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Sigh.

There's no backlash about saying that WikiPremed videos are slow at times; if you'd read my post you'd see that I agreed with you. My contention was with the assertion that people who need or want slower content review will necessarily perform worse on the MCAT. I also pointed out why I think starting from the very basics and going slow is probably a better strategy to make the materials useful for more people--but I guess I'll assume you didn't read that part of my post either.

Also, what you meant to say when you were trying to be condescending was that that topic of the thread is comparing the various resources. I'm trying to have a discussion about the pros/cons of one of those resources so I'd say I'm squarely on target. Perhaps you want to review the thread title yourself instead of getting into flame wars with quotations.
 
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mcloaf said:
Sigh.

There's no backlash about saying that WikiPremed videos are slow at times; if you'd read my post you'd see that I agreed with you. My contention was with the assertion that people who need or want slower content review will necessarily perform worse on the MCAT. I also pointed out why I think starting from the very basics and going slow is probably a better strategy to make the materials useful for more people--but I guess I'll assume you didn't read that part of my post either.

Also, what you meant to say when you were trying to be condescending was that that topic of the thread is comparing the various resources. I'm trying to have a discussion about the pros/cons of one of those resources so I'd say I'm squarely on target. Perhaps you want to review the thread title yourself instead of getting into flame wars with quotations.
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"My contention....will necessarily perform worse..."

Actually, if you read my later post, I clarified my position " If it takes you 5 minutes to understand that doubling the velocity (with mass constant) increases the kinetic energy 4X after taking two semesters of chemistry and physics, then you may struggle with the mcat"--but I guess I'll assume you didn't read that part of my post either.
 
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stlrams22 said:
"My contention....will necessarily perform worse..."

Actually, if you read my later post, I clarified my position " If it takes you 5 minutes to understand that doubling the velocity (with mass constant) increases the kinetic energy 4X after taking two semesters of chemistry and physics, then you may struggle with the mcat"--but I guess I'll assume you didn't read that part of my post either.
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Rage on. :meanie:
 
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Cynicalbrit said:
While some people might say that this post added a lot of value to this thread, they should be reminded that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
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While some people might say that this post added a lot of value to this thread, they should be reminded that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
 
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Cynicalbrit said:
The quote is from a Banksy painting. It's meant to be ironic - that's the point.

tumblr_l2l332Gbh01qz7bx9o1_500.jpg




I'd say this thread has outlived its usefulness.
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Oh...don't be so "cynical", this post has lots of "usefulness" left, just refrain from posting and it will get better.
 
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