Is the Kaplan MCAT Prep Course Worth the Cost?

[Yammy_A]

I'm currently looking into MCAT prep material, and I was wondering if the Kaplan MCAT Prep Course was helpful enough to match it's price. I took the Kaplan SAT prep course, and honestly didn't not like the course at all, found the course simple and very repetitive. Therefore I was wondering if that would be the same for the MCAT course.
I have already ordered MCAT test prep material, like the EK books and AMCAS practice tests.
However would it be more beneficial to take a test prep course as well?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. Yes, I already know that previous members have posted similar threads regarding this topic, but I could not find a recent post regarding this topic, so I posted about this question again.

THANKS SO MUCH!

Update 05/19/2015

So I decided to self-study for the MCAT instead of taking a prep course. I already have the AAMC Material and I recently bought/received the ExamKrackers 2015 Books. I'm also planning to buy The Berkley Review MCAT or the Kaplan. Any advice on which one to get between both? And other books that I should consider?

Thanks for all the help!

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[StarFall]

No, they'll give you the materials and such, but you still have to study on your own. They don't "teach" you really, more like have discussion. They can spend a lot of time on a small amount of material. Buy books and self study.

 

[Dreamstoo]

Based on some of the April MCAT scores I know in real life, I would say it was a pretty solid course. Seems like a good set of books to self study too.

 

[Yammy_A]

No, they'll give you the materials and such, but you still have to study on your own. They don't "teach" you really, more like have discussion. They can spend a lot of time on a small amount of material. Buy books and self study.

So would you recommend buying the Kaplan MCAT books as well? or would EK books be enough?

 

[StarFall]

So would you recommend buying the Kaplan MCAT books as well? or would EK books be enough?

Can't say how effective the books are, but most would say to pick a set as your primary and use a secondary set.
My personal opinion would be to use Kap + TBR or TPR + TBR. Browse and get some more opinions.

 

[DrHart]

How much do you value money?

 

[RaspberrySlushy]

I took the TPR course before for the old MCAT (but then wasn't able to take the MCAT at the time) and I liked it a lot. They had different instructors for each subject which was great b/c you really got each person's expertise and got some good tips from each person. I esp found it helpful when we did passages as a class and discussed them in depth. We did a few of those each class.

I still have all the lectures and my notes and will be using those to study for the new MCAT, along with other material.

The verbal strategy didn't work for me at all but they did have some good tips for verbal in terms of question type and misleading answer choices.

Overall I found it helpful but I haven't taken the real thing yet and I do think it's up to everyone's own learning style. At the time I was studying while taking classes and working so I liked having that extra motivation/obligation to go to class for the MCAT and I liked refreshing in a group and going through passages that way and found it useful. It was also nice to have instructors who you could go to for help if certain passages or questions or answer explanations stumped me.

For full disclosure though, I didn't pay for it directly. I got a scholarship type deal that I used for the class.

 

[Excision]

No. I took a kaplan course for the old version. The only thing that gave the old kaplan courses any value were their practice tests, sheer volume of practice questions, and AAMC exam explanations. The lectures are essentially just someone reading your lecture book to you. The content books were okay, but wordy. The analytics were a pretty neat feature. However, if their content is questionable to begin with then the analytics don't really mean anything. The exam has changed considerably, I cannot imagine that what they are currently selling is worth the price tag.

I'm a big fan of self studying. There are plenty of great resources out there which give you better content for less $$$ (i.e. youtube videos, TBR), your net savings will be like $1300.

 

[Yammy_A]

Can't say how effective the books are, but most would say to pick a set as your primary and use a secondary set.
My personal opinion would be to use Kap + TBR or TPR + TBR. Browse and get some more opinions.

I was looking into the TBR books, and I noticed all it's editions are like 2013 and 2012. Are the books still useful for the 2015 MCAT?

 

[jashlin]

I'm in the course right now and I find that the pace is a little too fast and they need more time for actually reviewing over difficult topics. For example I have a class on Tuesday and before the class I am supposed to read chapters 1-8 of the BCHM Book, take the quizzes, and review. I work full time and I have to sleep sometime so there is no way I can get it all done. The weekends are becoming full of hours of studying to make up for the chapters I missed before the class rather than reviewing the material. A lot of people are struggling with this in the class. I do like that they have the MCAT channel which allows you to watch all kinds of different videos on different topics. The course also comes with 11 FL practice tests, the review books, the flashcard app, a work book, access to instructors to help with scheduling, the AAMC practice question bundles, and access to Kap's practice question bundles. I guess we will see in the next month or so if it was worth it.

Has anyone else noticed that the Kaplan books are covering topics not listed on the AAMC MCAT outline? Since I am reading the review books so thoroughly I have picked out that there is more detail than needed.

 

[mcatjelly]

I was looking into the TBR books, and I noticed all it's editions are like 2013 and 2012. Are the books still useful for the 2015 MCAT?

Definitely.