Honest opinion of Kaplan

[cyberchicken001]

Hello all

I just signed up for a Kaplan course given in my school. I chose Kaplan mostly because of the convenience and the reduced price which I got (30% discount), even though I have read numerous negative things on SDN.

I realize that Kaplan's books may not be as good as, say, TBR or TPRH. But from what I've heard and seen of their online resources, it seems to offer a lot.

My question is: Now that I have already chose Kaplan, if I totally buy into Kaplan's study program, use only their resources and study for the MCAT rigorously, do you think that is sufficient to do well? Are the negative reviews of Kaplan overly critical? Can I trust my MCAT to their study methods?

I would love to hear your opinions. Thanks!


(P.S. I got a 26 on their diagnostic exam before any content review)

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[maybemed2013]

I think you could do great with Kaplan.
I am in a PR course and I have brought Kaplan Bio and physics, the physics is not as good as PR but the Bio is great, I love how the author comes up with easy ways to help you remember things.

 

[Roxas]

It's been said before on SDN but I'm a firm believer that the company you choose has far less to do with your success, and your study habits and hard work are what really matter. It is important to pick books that jive with your style of learning (i.e. EK is good for quick concise content review, while TBR goes into much more detail). As long as you like their books/practice material, and they fit your style you'll probably be ok.

 

[AntonFreeman]

It's been said before on SDN but I'm a firm believer that the company you choose has far less to do with your success, and your study habits and hard work are what really matter. It is important to pick books that jive with your style of learning (i.e. EK is good for quick concise content review, while TBR goes into much more detail). As long as you like their books/practice material, and they fit your style you'll probably be ok.

I agree with above. also make sure you use AAMC MCAT outline to make sure you covered all topics. think of it as like a final study guide for your class. anything on that outline is a fair game. don't hope for certain topics not to be on your test day.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Get a refund right now. Kaplan is a waste of your money.

 

[zipnogg]

It's really about the amount of effort you put into preparing for the MCAT. You wouldn't blame a bad exam score on the pencil you used, would you? Nor would you credit your pencil for a great exam score. You get the score that you got because that's the effort you put into preparing for it combined with your base intelligence.

You'll do fine. Don't worry.

 

[brood910]

IMO, taking classes = waste of time + money.

Books = all the same, regardless of what you get.

Of course, if you are weak in science, then you probably should get EK books to supplement. DONT GET TBR. It is overrated on this forum although it has a ton of uselss info.

 

[sodarayg]

i thought the classes themselves were super useless but i liked and did most of the online material.

kaplan books are okay for super quick general review but i also used TBR for practice questions

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

kaplan is good, gets bashed way too much on this site. Like the above poster said, it's more about what you make of your studying/materials vs. what company you use.

 

[hkcwushu]

I had a close friend of mine get 35 when she took Kaplan, and another that got a 39. ON the other side i know people who got below 25, so whats the big deal? Kaplan alone I don't think will help you. My friends who got 30+ from Kaplan all studied REALLY hard, and they used EK 1001 as well as AAMC practice tests. The reason people recommend TBR is because not only is the content thorough,but there are a ton of practice passages, and the explanations for answers are really nice.

So if you're already committed to Kaplan, then just make sure you get a whole lot of practice passages and figure out why you get answers wrong and right.

Also, do NOT follow the Kaplan verbal strategy. I know they try to teach you how to triage, map, and highlight, but it does not help at all. I highly recommend picking up the EK Verbal and Mathematical Techniques book to understand the strategy, then use verbal passages from EK 101 verbal and The Princeton Review Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook. That will definitely set you up for verbal.

So yeah, good luck, im sure you'll be fine

 

[cyberchicken001]

Thanks for your opinions everybody!

I believe that Kaplan's reputation on SDN is not representative of most people's opinion of them because many SDN posters are very self-motivated and like to learn things their own way. That's why they even bother spending their time on SDN. For the average pre-med student, I think Kaplan is more advantageous than buying a bunch of books and studying on your own.

I figure that which prep course I picked would have less to do with my success than the amount of effort I put in. I think they all offer great resources, you just have to push yourself to take advantage of them.

 

[UCSultanPepper]

I think the classes are a waste of time, and you could prepare yourself much better by studying on your own. I believe this is because you can really focus on your own weaknesses. I thought the review books were very helpful and the practice FLs as well. Ditch the VR book, go with examkrackers VR.

 

[QuantumFlame]

I completely agree that personal motivation and dedication to putting in the necessary time is more important than the nitty gritty details of which book combos or test prep company to obtain a course from.

Of course, if you are weak in science, then you probably should get EK books to supplement. DONT GET TBR. It is overrated on this forum although it has a ton of uselss info.

I would have to strongly disagree with your assessment of TBR. I used it and found it to be incredibly useful. I think people get this perception that MCAT prep is all about memorizing facts or learning formulas. The strength of TBR is that it prepares you to think critically while exposing you to a wide variety of passages. Granted, my experience is anecdotal, but I think saying it is "over-rated" and has "useless information" is a bit of a stretch.

Ultimately, everyone should use the materials that work best for them, as has been stated before.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Thanks for your opinions everybody!

I believe that Kaplan's reputation on SDN is not representative of most people's opinion of them because many SDN posters are very self-motivated and like to learn things their own way. That's why they even bother spending their time on SDN. For the average pre-med student, I think Kaplan is more advantageous than buying a bunch of books and studying on your own.

I figure that which prep course I picked would have less to do with my success than the amount of effort I put in. I think they all offer great resources, you just have to push yourself to take advantage of them.

Honestly, I took Kaplan this summer and frankly, it was the biggest waste of my time. You'll spend 6 hours a week just in a class with 100 people where you will learn absolutely nothing. Furthermore hallf of your books will be extraordinarily weak and useless, so I'm going to tell you again, to go spend your time better by self studying and doing something else because Kaplan will not motivate you and will not teach you anything.

I'll tell you the truth, I learned more in the last 2 weeks of me not being in Kaplan than I did the entire 2 months of being in Kaplan.

 

[JaBoomDay]

Kaplan is one of those classes where you get out of it what you put into it. They give you so much stuff and I think if you really need that much guidance then it's a good class to take. It's all dependent on how hard you work though. They severely underestimate how long it takes to get through all the material they give you though.

Everyone is different. Some people like EK better, some like Kaplan. Personally, I did Kaplan and if I was having a particularly hard time with a concept then I'd pick up an EK book to get a different perspective on it. It really helped. I do agree that the class is a huge waste of time. It didn't help me at all because I really needed more time re-learning some concepts. The class is not good for teaching, but excellent for reviewing. So I wouldn't recommend the class unless your foundation in the sciences is solid. The class goes WAY too fast to learn anything but it's a good pace to refresh your memory.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Kaplan is one of those classes where you get out of it what you put into it. They give you so much stuff and I think if you really need that much guidance then it's a good class to take. It's all dependent on how hard you work though. They severely underestimate how long it takes to get through all the material they give you though.

Everyone is different. Some people like EK better, some like Kaplan. Personally, I did Kaplan and if I was having a particularly hard time with a concept then I'd pick up an EK book to get a different perspective on it. It really helped. I do agree that the class is a huge waste of time. It didn't help me at all because I really needed more time re-learning some concepts. The class is not good for teaching, but excellent for reviewing. So I wouldn't recommend the class unless your foundation in the sciences is solid. The class goes WAY too fast to learn anything but it's a good pace to refresh your memory.

I don't even feel like it was teaching you much tbh. You spend 2 hours literally doing extra complex problems that make no sense to get into the habit of seeing mcat style problems.This not to mention the fact that you after about 20 minutes really cannot even stay somewhat concentrated on the material.I personally wish I had just turned it on, turned off the volume and spent the time actually reading the books a few extra times.
I would honestly say I should have spent 90 bucks and lived on Chad Video's site for the entire summer, I'd have probably been able to actually work on my weaknesses as opposed to spending time doing things I was strong in.