How good is Kaplan's MCAT 528 Advanced Prep book?

[VJ_2019]

Hello everyone,

I have read a few forums and a lot of people have suggested going for the 7-book set from Kaplan but what I want to know is how is that 528 book compared to the set, what's different and is it worth buying it along with the set?

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[Allosteopath]

I would steer clear from Kaplan and put your money elsewhere. There were over 10 core concepts on my test that were not covered in a single piece of Kaplan prep material.

Friends of mine shooting for the 500-510 range loved it. But if you're going for 520+, you'll find the class a massive waste of time and the books extremely subpar and lacking in many areas.

I used Kaplan to study and agree with this sentiment, there were topics on my MCAT that were not covered at all by the Kaplan books.

 

[Mooseforkicks]

Friends of mine shooting for the 500-510 range loved it. But if you're going for 520+, you'll find the class a massive waste of time and the books extremely subpar and lacking in many areas.

I don’t know about this. I exclusively used the Kaplan book set for content review, making Anki decks (though I also used all official AAMC materials for practice before the test). I scored 520+ on my actual MCAT (which wasn’t a fluke, that was consistent with my AAMC full lengths).

I can’t speak to other test prep books because I didn’t use them, but Kaplan worked fine for me.

 

[wontonsoup]

I would steer clear from Kaplan and put your money elsewhere. There were over 10 core concepts on my test that were not covered in a single piece of Kaplan prep material.

Friends of mine shooting for the 500-510 range loved it. But if you're going for 520+, you'll find the class a massive waste of time and the books extremely subpar and lacking in many areas.

What in tarnation? I used only AAMC materials/tests + 7 book set from Kaplan to plug holes in my knowledge and scored 520+ on the real thing.

 

[On The Move]

I bought it and it pretty much outlined how to go about and answer some passages. Nothing special.

 

[deleted972488]

I used the Kaplan 7 book set (except for the CARS book), Khan academy, UWorld, and all AAMC material. Scored in the 100th percentile and hadn’t taken the prerequisite courses in 7-10 years.

I purchased the 528 book but didn’t end up using it. I would say don’t bother with it.

 

[deleted972488]

Every MCAT is different. Given the pure mass of material covered in Kaplan's book, it makes sense that Kaplan covers all of the bases for many (if not most) MCAT test dates. As can be seen by the positive sentiments ^^^^

But in my case, and in the case of many others, the MCAT we took strayed significantly from Kaplan's study resources. That should not be ignored, even if most people found Kaplan prepared them well for their test date. From my experience, Kaplan does not prepare you well enough for EVERY possible test.

Relying on only one source for information is unwise. Kaplan doesn’t cover everything. That’s why I also used Khan Academy and UWorld.

 

[dr_kateb]

The P/S section for Kaplan is pretty awful but there’s a free KA pdf for it. All the other books have more than you need to know, especially with physics and organic chemistry. The 528 book seems to be about test taking strategy instead of content review like the others.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Before In started studying I consider all of the books out there by looking at reviews and results at reddit and sdn. The 7-book set was the first thing I eliminated from my list. Do a search for people who need to repeat the MCAT because they scored below 500 and they're almost all people who used their 7-book set. There is a thread for people who broke 509. There should be a thread for people who didn't hit 495. It would be predominantly Kaplan users.

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

I would steer clear from Kaplan and put your money elsewhere. There were over 10 core concepts on my test that were not covered in a single piece of Kaplan prep material.

Friends of mine shooting for the 500-510 range loved it. But if you're going for 520+, you'll find the class a massive waste of time and the books extremely subpar and lacking in many areas.

Ehhh disagree. I also only used Kaplan and Khan Academy and score much greater than 90th percentile. The book series does a good job with content and the 528 is more strategies (which are veryyy important!). No one should solely use one resource though. I'd recommend at least two for full coverage of the material.

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

Before In started studying I consider all of the books out there by looking at reviews and results at reddit and sdn. The 7-book set was the first thing I eliminated from my list. Do a search for people who need to repeat the MCAT because they scored below 500 and they're almost all people who used their 7-book set. There is a thread for people who broke 509. There should be a thread for people who didn't hit 495. It would be predominantly Kaplan users.

If someone doesn't break 500 on the MCAT, it's not a "[inset test prep company] resource problem" it's a comprehension/study problem lol

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

If someone doesn't break 500 on the MCAT, it's not a "[inset test prep company] resource problem" it's a comprehension/study problem lol

I mostly agree, although there are some bad materials out there that have students studying the wrong subjects emphasizing the wrong things.

Don't you also think that if someone breaks 518 it is also not due to the prep material. I don't think the two people who broke 520 in this thread did so because of those books. They would do well no matter what. Extreme scores on both ends of the scale have little to do with materials. Materials matter if you're someone like me who based on GPA and SAT are supposed to be around 504.

When I was deciding on what to use I looked at what materials people who did well (510 to 516 or so) used and what people who did poorly (493 to 500 or so) used. I wanted to break 510 but feared I might be 500, so I looked at people in my demographic. For the 510 to 516 crowd it was fairly well spread out. For the 493-500 crowd nearly all were either Kaplan book users or they took a live online course.

 

[deleted972488]

I don't think the two people who broke 520 in this thread did so because of those books.

There are at least three people who posted in this thread about scoring 520+ and relying mostly/solely on those books for content review. Were the books missing or skimming over some topics? Yes. Again, that's why I used Khan Academy and UWorld to supplement. Could I have used a different set of books for content review? Sure, but they would likely also be missing or skimming over topics, and I would still recommend using multiple sources for information.

 

[VJ_2019]

Oh man still with the mixed reviews I guess some stuff works for someone and doesn't for the other so I guess I'll stick with Kaplan for now and use maybe Berkley review or Examkrackers when I get close to giving the actual exam.

 

[VJ_2019]

Every MCAT is different. Given the pure mass of material covered in Kaplan's book, it makes sense that Kaplan covers all of the bases for many (if not most) MCAT test dates. As can be seen by the positive sentiments ^^^^

But in my case, and in the case of many others, the MCAT we took strayed significantly from Kaplan's study resources. That should not be ignored, even if most people found Kaplan prepared them well for their test date. From my experience, Kaplan does not prepare you well enough for EVERY possible test.

So did you take the mcat twice?

 

[VJ_2019]

So did you take the mcat twice?

and what did youse use the second time TPR, TBR?

 

[Lawpy]

Hello everyone,

I have read a few forums and a lot of people have suggested going for the 7-book set from Kaplan but what I want to know is how is that 528 book compared to the set, what's different and is it worth buying it along with the set?

Oh man still with the mixed reviews I guess some stuff works for someone and doesn't for the other so I guess I'll stick with Kaplan for now and use maybe Berkley review or Examkrackers when I get close to giving the actual exam.

Eh i wouldn't try to work with too many resources. I'd just stick with 1 or maybe 2 and go from there. Kaplan is alright. Berkeley Review and EK are great resources to practice from, since they have great test taking strategies and good practice passages. Regardless of what you're using, you should do a lot of practice passages in timed conditions and actively review your answers. This is critical for doing well.