Chicago MCAT course--Help!

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beauregard

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I really need to take a prep course for the May 09 MCAT.

I'll be a reapplicant and especially need help with Physical Sciences.

I took the MCAT the first time on 6/13/08 and scored:
*6*PS/9VR/9BS, Q

My options are Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Exam Krackers as far as I know.

I would like to have a score improvement guarantee, and I'm not sure that EK has that.

Help please! I'm obviously indecisive! :)

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I took neither the Kaplan course or the EK course but I used practice materials from both companies and so my suggestions may be useful to only a certain extent.

I was incredibly pleased with the resources Kaplan offers to their students. The review notes are excellently organized, though sometimes contained more information than was necessary for students. Because of this, Kaplan would be a good choice if you are bit rusty and could use a good foundational review. You should, of course, utilize their resources as much as possible to get the most you can out of the class.

I used EK's home study guide and I thought their 30-min lecture exams were very helpful. What I noticed, however, was the fact that their review notes are extremely condensed. I wouldn't recommend them unless you were already pretty familiar with the topics they cover. They assume that you are, and because of it, the texts are not quite as organized as what you would see in Kaplan's texts. It is, however, a great review that might prove to be a useful read a few weeks before the exam; you can get through the books relatively quickly. I actually relied on EK almost entirely for organic chemistry because Kaplan went way too in depth for what was needed on the MCAT, imo (though I found Kaplan's section on organic chem. experimental techniques to be useful).

Now I'm not 100% sure what EK's classroom course will offer you in terms of materials. But if they give you the home study guide, then what I have said would be relevant.

I'm sure you'll be fine whichever course you choose. The gist of my recommendation is this: if you need a solid foundational review, Kaplan is great. On the other hand, if you are pretty familiar with the content but just a little rusty, then you probably wouldn't need a Kaplan course, and can choose less pricey alternatives.

It's good to see that your verbal reasoning is acceptable by med-school standards as it is the most difficult to improve. I firmly believe that your science scores can improve a lot by May 09.
 
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