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- Thread starter carrot395
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I took it and liked it, I teach for them now so maybe I am bit biased but I thought it was a great class. I can't say whether or not it influenced my score (I ended up getting my initial target score on my first diagnostic FL, so take that for what its worth), but I definitely enjoyed the structure and the pacing that it brought to my study schedule. If you don't take the class I still recommend the books and the online portal, which I used extensively and absolutely brought up my score.
I can; I'm in it right now. I definitely find it worthwhile. I think you get out what you put in. TPR gives you an extensive schedule of material to cover outside of the classes: pre-class warmups, readings from the review books, tons of practice passages from the workbooks, regular FLs. I and my classmates are taking a full courseload this semester and, along with ECs and stuff, find this schedule to be unmanageable. But the point is that there is a host of material and practice problems which will prove incredibly useful if you decide to take advantage of it. (I plan to test in August, so I will have time to go back through and fill in the gaps.) My teachers are good except for one, but YMMV.
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Which subject is the bad teacher in? (Don't say physics
)
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I took a Princeton Review class back in 2013 when I was preparing to take the MCAT my first time (so not the new test, sorry) and I definitely think they presented some good content and were able to provide some really good teachers, but overall I wish I hadn't taken a class in the first place, whether it was Princeton or Kaplan or whichever.
Similar to the poster above, I was way too busy to keep up with the actual act of studying along with the all the time spent in class, as we met everyday for 2-3 hours (I'm assuming yours is something similar). For me personally, it worked a lot better the second time around to just buy a set of books from the Berkeley review and study on my own, but I'm the kind of person that needs plenty of alone time to assimilate new info.
Overall, I would thoroughly consider the amount of time you can afford to study each day and week based on your current commitments, and see how that fits with the course's schedule.
One thing in particular that I didn't like about TPR course though: the way they teach how to approach the VR section. My teacher had us only thoroughly read the first six passages and then guess the best we could on the seventh, with the assumption being that you wouldn't have time to read all seven fully and answer their questions. Once I started practicing them more on my own the second time around, I found I could get through all the passages just fine in the allotted time, it just took a little practice in reading faster than normal.
Best of luck!
Similar to the poster above, I was way too busy to keep up with the actual act of studying along with the all the time spent in class, as we met everyday for 2-3 hours (I'm assuming yours is something similar). For me personally, it worked a lot better the second time around to just buy a set of books from the Berkeley review and study on my own, but I'm the kind of person that needs plenty of alone time to assimilate new info.
Overall, I would thoroughly consider the amount of time you can afford to study each day and week based on your current commitments, and see how that fits with the course's schedule.
One thing in particular that I didn't like about TPR course though: the way they teach how to approach the VR section. My teacher had us only thoroughly read the first six passages and then guess the best we could on the seventh, with the assumption being that you wouldn't have time to read all seven fully and answer their questions. Once I started practicing them more on my own the second time around, I found I could get through all the passages just fine in the allotted time, it just took a little practice in reading faster than normal.
Best of luck!
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Worst 2000 I ever spent. The tutor/teacher revealed to us that he scored a 31 and hadn't actually applied to med school yet. I mean, if you buy a product, you should know all the details before hand but it's not like Kaplan discloses that stuff!
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As an Instructor I feel like the class is more geared towards those who are struggling to get above a 30, not those who are reaching for 35, 36, 37, 38 etc. The strategies we teach are just suggestions, and I did not use any of them in my test taking. The strategies are designed to bring those people who are struggling up to higher scores, and I really believe they work, as most of them (at least for physics) basically detail a checklist that you can run and it will solve all the physics problems for you, just much slower than if you intrinsically knew how to solve them (hence the strategy of time management and guessing).
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i would say it's better than not preparing at all but worse than having the answer key on your exam day
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Good point. However, I don't think that the marketing of the course would align with your statement though. Unfortunately, as a young and insecure pre-med, I felt better safe than sorry. I've since learned.
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I've been out of undergrad for 5 years now, and I registered for the PR online course. So far I'm liking it because it's a lot online testing (similar to the exam itself) and a schedule to follow.
I could have bought books and committed myself to following something like the SN2 method, but between working 3x10 hour days at my job, taking a course 3 days a week, and volunteering... I appreciate NOT having to rely on myself to be the source of motivation. Fighting every impulse, I took my first full length exam today, followed by 3 hours of class, and coaching. Because the schedule said I should complete a full length in the first week, and it happens that I have a course every day. I certainly don't intend to use some of their schemes, but no one is forcing the point.
Results may vary, but I think I will get out of it what I need.
I could have bought books and committed myself to following something like the SN2 method, but between working 3x10 hour days at my job, taking a course 3 days a week, and volunteering... I appreciate NOT having to rely on myself to be the source of motivation. Fighting every impulse, I took my first full length exam today, followed by 3 hours of class, and coaching. Because the schedule said I should complete a full length in the first week, and it happens that I have a course every day. I certainly don't intend to use some of their schemes, but no one is forcing the point.
Results may vary, but I think I will get out of it what I need.
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I took the course and found it useful for my own situation: I only had 3.5 weeks to prepare, and I was 6 years removed from intro biology (took genetics and other upper levels instead) and hadn't seen E&M since my poorly taught high school physics class. I took the accelerated 3 week course to fill in these gaps and to give myself some necessary structure to my studying. Yes, I was spending an exorbitant amount of money for what I probably could have done myself, but as another poster mentioned above, it was the motivation I needed to get myself into gear.
This being said, the information PR has in their lectures and books may not be the most comprehensive or advanced, but I never really saw the need to go much deeper than what PR covered. For example, I found TBR far too detailed/unnecessarily over-complicated and ended up sticking the PR and EK. Plus, the real strength of the PR course is their monstrous science workbook and their practice tests -- while they're not of the highest quality, it's gives you a huge bank of questions to work through. I didn't manage to get through 10% of the science workbook or even all the practice exams, but that still much helped me solidify my understanding of my weaker areas.
If you make the effort to really master and understand the material, you're going to be more or less set for the exam. To be fair, on exam day I did encounter a few questions where the details went over my head, but I was able to reason through most of these questions. Obviously I have no idea if I ended up getting those questions right, but my point is that you don't need to *know* everything on the exam -- despite how cruel the MCAT may seem, the MCAT does give you enough information to work through problems. If you have a limited amount of time to study for the the MCAT, this forest-not-trees approach is the strategy I'd recommend for most people; it's exceptionally difficult to cover every detail of the exam unless you have a very good foundation and your time is better spent mastering the big ideas and working on your problem solving skills.
Obviously, taking the course may not be for everyone (do you need structure or are you motivated enough to stick to a schedule? do you have the luxury of spending your money on a course like this? are you okay with having to work through problems or are you more comfortable knowing the nitty gritty? do you already have access to enough practice problems and exams?). And maybe I just lucked out with good instructors. But I'd argue that to generalize and say it's only for people who are seriously unmotivated or aiming for "lower" scores would be misleading.
This being said, the information PR has in their lectures and books may not be the most comprehensive or advanced, but I never really saw the need to go much deeper than what PR covered. For example, I found TBR far too detailed/unnecessarily over-complicated and ended up sticking the PR and EK. Plus, the real strength of the PR course is their monstrous science workbook and their practice tests -- while they're not of the highest quality, it's gives you a huge bank of questions to work through. I didn't manage to get through 10% of the science workbook or even all the practice exams, but that still much helped me solidify my understanding of my weaker areas.
If you make the effort to really master and understand the material, you're going to be more or less set for the exam. To be fair, on exam day I did encounter a few questions where the details went over my head, but I was able to reason through most of these questions. Obviously I have no idea if I ended up getting those questions right, but my point is that you don't need to *know* everything on the exam -- despite how cruel the MCAT may seem, the MCAT does give you enough information to work through problems. If you have a limited amount of time to study for the the MCAT, this forest-not-trees approach is the strategy I'd recommend for most people; it's exceptionally difficult to cover every detail of the exam unless you have a very good foundation and your time is better spent mastering the big ideas and working on your problem solving skills.
Obviously, taking the course may not be for everyone (do you need structure or are you motivated enough to stick to a schedule? do you have the luxury of spending your money on a course like this? are you okay with having to work through problems or are you more comfortable knowing the nitty gritty? do you already have access to enough practice problems and exams?). And maybe I just lucked out with good instructors. But I'd argue that to generalize and say it's only for people who are seriously unmotivated or aiming for "lower" scores would be misleading.
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I really just meant the strategies that are taught during the class. I think the content is very applicable to anyone. I took the course myself before I ended up teaching it, and the structure was really good for keeping me on track. I took the class during the summer and had almost no other commitments so I had the tendency to screw around.
