Kaplan - a huge waste of money?

[Kitra101]

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A thread to hear the opinions about Kaplan. Personally, I think it was a huge waste of time and money. Anyone have positive things to say? Anyone else have comments on Exam Crackers, Princeton Review or some other prep course?

 

[Rendar5]

Princeton Review was fantastic!!!! But then again, I got fantastic teachers in the subjects I was weakest in. The other teachers were a mixed group.

 

[drmota]

i had a positive experience with kaplan. the teachers were good. i attribute my good score on the MCAT only to the fact that I did EVERY SINGLE PRACTICE PROBLEM that Kaplan had to offer. i recommend everyone do the same. i mean if you just go to the classes and do the homework, ya, its not gonna help you out. its all a matter of how much time you put into it. period.
-mota

 

[doctorFred]

i was both a kaplan student and, temporarily, an instructor. i think the classroom time wasn't a great deal of help, but the practice exams really helped my performance on the real deal. i took 7 full lengths in all, and my score jumped from an initial of 18 to a 34 on test day. so, i can't really say in good faith that the class doesn't help. it is a bit of money, but considering the eventual outcome, that's a damn good investment.

 

[TigerLilies]

I was wondering the same thing. Should I take the Kaplan or Princeton Review course? I am so confused by all the marketing!!

 

[Rendar5]

In the end, they both have good questions I would think? The real question is which course has better instructors. I'd find someone who attends local classes to see if they were good.

 

[kirexhana]

i took princeton hyperlearning starting in january 2005 for the april 05 test, but i had other review books to look at and actually finish too, haha (berkeley review). my first diag was V:6 P:9 B:11 and W:M, all my scores went up by at least 3 pts after the three months on the diags, and the actual one really did reflect what i got on my final diag (+/- 1 pt on each section).

in terms of how much princeton contributed to this increase, i really think that their materials are good and i had a very good experience with their physics and g chem instructors. their bio and o chem was kinda sucky. but my strengthes were in biological anyway. the verbal instruction really didn't help me, i think that was all just practicing and getting used to the questions. my writing score fluctuated a lot and thankfully ended on a good note.

hope this insight helps and to those april 06 testers, gluck!

 

[drmota]

someone recently tried to argue to me that schools might look past the MCAT because people can just take a class and do well on it. but a) i dont think this is necessarily true for the mcat, i know a lot of people that took the class and did far from well, and b) isn't there some stat about how like 80% of matriculants took some sort of prep class for the mcat? any info would be invaluable at putting my mind at ease. thanks
-mota

 

[Dr.Erin2B]

Kaplan is somewhat helpful and all, but certainly not worth what they make you pay. I firmly believe that I could have done just as well on the MCAT with self-study of my old text books and a good MCAT review book for a fraction of the price.

Kaplan basically spoon-feeds you what you need to do a decent job on the MCAT. It is my understanding that you will certainly NOT be spoon-fed anything in medical school. Maybe it's best to buck up now and use the MCAT to see where you stand in the pack and assess your medical school aptitude.

In short, I don't recommend it... especially to self motivated students that have done well in their intro level classes. Let me tell you, sitting through three hours of learning about ABO blood type and Rh factor... excruciating when you already know it all.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

well, it was and it wasn't. i think the structure was good, especially with all the practice exams. however, you can get that along with all the materials by just doing the online thing. our instruction was mostly mediocre, and it focused more on test taking strategies than i thought was necessary. of course, i'm not a person who has trouble with standardized tests.

overall, from what i've heard here, i'd probably take princeton review over kaplan just because tpr supposedly focuses more on teaching the material than on teaching you to master the test. my biggest weakness was the material because it'd been 8 or so years since i'd taken chemistry and biology. mastering the test itself wasn't such a big deal.

i guess i'd probably take a kaplan class again if necessary, but i'd opt for the online program.

 

[BlinkyCat]

I was wondering the same thing. Should I take the Kaplan or Princeton Review course? I am so confused by all the marketing!!

I took Kaplan, and I highly recommend it. There were a couple of people in my class who took the princeton review prior to Kaplan. They did horribly and claimed that princeton review's material was significantly lacking. They said that kaplan is really much better ( more material and practice tests than princeton review apparently). Also, there were rumours coming from kids who taught princeton review that they purposely write easier practice tests towards the end so it gives you the illusion that you're doing better...and then be unpleasantly surprised on test day...That to me is kind of manipulative...just my opinion 🙂

 

[Lorrayne]

I don't know about Kaplan, but I found princeton review to be extremely helpful for me. As an English major who hadn't completed all the pre-reqs prior to the MCAT, I really liked that TPR actually taught you the material. The instructors cut to the chase and cover so much material in a relatively short period of time. In fact, I found the TPR classes to actually help me in the O-chem II class that I was taking at the same time.

 

[dajimmers]

You definately can learn it on your own, if you've got the time and determination. Books and notes from classes, a big MCAT review book, and plenty of practice tests. It worked for me. But, I did have tons of upper-levels that helped before I took the MCAT (Biochem, Genetics, Microbial Genetics, Microbiology, Cell Bio, Immuno, Virology). But I like new subjects more than re-review anyways.

 

[Saluki]

I thought the classroom teaching was awful- a total waste of time. However, the review books are good, and all the online practice materials are incredible (I wish I'd made better use of them🙂 I think the biggest thing that helped me boost my score from the diagnostic to the real thing was having the practice tests that were actually administered by someone else. I know you can sit down and give yourself a practice test from AAMC, but it just doesn't feel as real. I've got such problems with test anxiety that it was really good for me to have several practices under exam day conditions. I think the online course would probably have been a better deal. That said, I think that if you have discipline and good review books you could prepare without kaplan...

 

[gdbaby]

someone recently tried to argue to me that schools might look past the MCAT because people can just take a class and do well on it. but a) i dont think this is necessarily true for the mcat, i know a lot of people that took the class and did far from well, and b) isn't there some stat about how like 80% of matriculants took some sort of prep class for the mcat? any info would be invaluable at putting my mind at ease. thanks
-mota

I agree Mota, I took the Kaplan course and did horribly on the April MCAT. I did every practice problem and took every subject and topical test. Little did I know that, even though the MCAT says you only need the first year of biology, you really need Physiology to to understand all those endocrine hormones and that bloddy nephron! It took another few months and ExamKrackers (which is what I used to study for the August test) to get it all straight for me.

 

[Saluki]

I didn't ever have physiology and I did OK. I think a lot of that stuff is just memorization...

 

[pagemmapants]

I think that it depends on your study style (of course). For me personally the Kaplan in-class time was mostly useless and pretty boring, although I did meet some really interesting people (the instructors, mostly), but the practice tests and the HUGE store of practice problems were indispensably helpful. While the diag is designed (somewhat) to give you an artifically low score, I still jumped from a 24 on the diag to a 38 on the real thing, with my verbal going up 5 overall. I consider that to be QUITE an improvement, particularly since verbal has virtually nothing to do with content and everything to do with strategy. Speaking of strategy, a lot of their little "Kaplan Methods" really are useful, but if you find someone that has taken the course they can tell you all about it without you having to pay for it.

All in all, it was worth it to me.

 

[SensesFail]

Definetly worth it.

As an aside, I'll share a personal experience.

Last year, when I was getting ready to write the MCAT for the first time, I came on here and almost everybody was against taking a prep course. I was fresh out of sophomore year and pretty happy with my 3.7 GPA 🙄 and figured I could handle the MCAT by self-study with old TPR review books. I should've checked into it more and not been so naive but I just went ahead and didn't take the course. In the end, I got a bad mark and had to re-take this summer.

This summer, I decided to take the Kaplan class and it paid off bigtime. True, the instructors will vary in their teaching ability, but the 11 Practice Tests and tons of other practice materials are worth the hefty $1500 pricetag.

Ultimately, I'd say take a practice test and see where you're at. If you score <30, I'd recommend the course. If you're at 30 or above on the diag, then you obviously are at an advanced level and probably need to just brush up on some content with some old review books/take some more Practice tests.

If you do take the course, make sure to do all of the homework and all online materials (TWICE, if possible!!). The in-class instruction just scratches the surface and just makes sure everybody's on the same page.

 

[badlydrawnvik]

I thought Kaplan overall was pretty useful. I mean sometimes I got frustrated because there were kids in our class that were either know-it-alls that wanted to teach or kids that needed EVERYTHING clarified (they usually never did any of the prep work). Despite this, I think Kaplan is the only reason I studied for the mcats. I didn't really do anything outside of Kaplan's coursework and I felt it did a good job reviewing the basics and showing you what you needed to know and what it took to get the good score. Sure it's expensive but I think you might as well do it as a backup. What's more expensive, the mcat course or reapplying to medical school?

 

[medicomel]

i didn't do everything i should have to keep up with their Higher Score Guarantee, but i am certainly glad that i went with Kaplan. i read their comprehensive guide BEFORE the class started in november, so everything from then on was a review. it helped reinforce the material for me, and i could get through it faster because it was the second time that i was seeing it verbatim. i used the extra time to work on their topicals, and to go to the center to do the AAMC-released verbal passages. aside from kaplan, i used examkrackers audioosmosis CDs. they helped a lot, and it helped relieve some of the boredom.

 

[thesmartazz]

I thought that overall, Kaplan was a waste of time/money. Their materials were good, but I doubt that I would have done that much worse if I simply had studied with the EK materials that I purchased along with AAMC tests.

Classroom time is required for the higher-score guarantee, and it's unfortunately really, really pointless a lot of the time. But I do acknowledge that this largely depends on the quality of instruction that you receieve, which is highly variable.

 

[45408]

Kaplan basically spoon-feeds you what you need to do a decent job on the MCAT. It is my understanding that you will certainly NOT be spoon-fed anything in medical school. Maybe it's best to buck up now and use the MCAT to see where you stand in the pack and assess your medical school aptitude.

That's terrible advice. I suppose you wouldn't study for it at all, so you get a "true" assessment of your standing? I hope you don't study for your exams in class either. 🙄

Kaplan is not for everyone, but I sure benefited from it.

 

[burrito]

Where does ExamKrackers stand in the MCAT prep war? worst? better? is the class worth taking?

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

I couldn't tell you anything about Examkrackers classes - not available in my neck of the woods - and Examkrackers classes are pretty new.

I did take Kaplan. I didn't get as much as I should have out of the classes - I was working full-time and taking two classes on top of it, so I was rarely prepared for class (most people weren't, but a few were - and they probably got more out of it). I have to say, though, that for me - the practice exams under timed conditions were worth the money. You can simulate timed conditions at home, but having to get out of bed early on Saturday and be at the test center at the same time as the real thing - having to function early in the morning in a room that was not as comfortable as I would have liked - probably "toughened" me up quite a bit and helped me to get ready for the real Test Day. For my age and the limited time I had to study, I was quite pleased with my final April score - which was exactly the same as my best Kaplan full-length practice test.

I did, however, use the Examkrackers books as my primary study tool. The Examkrackers books are like very compressed little textbooks - so, even if you missed the material in class, you can still understand the concept if you read carefully - it's not just a "recognition" review.

Kaplan is expensive. I'm working full-time and, while the fees hurt, they didn't put me into the poorhouse. If the Kaplan fee is going to hurt you financially for a long time to come - I would have to say that Kaplan is not absolutely necessary at all. But those practice tests certainly helped me.

 

[JohnUC33]

If you have any self-motivation, buy the EK audio Osmosis because you can listen to the lectures as many times as you want. Its been two months, and I can still remember some of Jordan and John's corny jokes. They teach the material in a very common sense and straight to the point way. I took a Kaplan course for the first MCAT (used Osmosis for second). The Kaplan tests were great for overkill. But, if you can master the Kaplan tests, then you can do well. If you are like me, I used Osmosis the second time for content and did all the Kaplan tests for practice. I hope that helps. Oh, use EK for verbal. I cannot stress that enough.

 

[SearsTower]

kaplan = overkill? I did better on a couple of Kaplan's tests than I did on the actual thing, heh.

 

[FirgoMD]

I did kaplan but didnt feel confident enough to take the real exam. This year I heard good reviews about EK material and gave their books a try. Got all the books including 101 verbal and 1001 sciences. Did most of the questions and all of the 101 verbal. I was having a terrible time trying to bring up my verbal scores from the practice and the EK books really helped. Usually I was scoring like 6-8, but on the real thing I got a 10. Just buy EK from amazon.com and you will be well off if you put in the work. The material covers almost everything u need to know, but you have to do the questions because they dont go over everything in those review books. I ended up with a 10 in each section of the mcat...total 30. I reviewed the MCAT material in 6 weeks...so getting this score I am very happy with this score. 🙂

 

[McGillGrad]

I think that it was money well spent but I also do well with structured classes and coursework.

Kaplan's classes are okay but what really makes the difference is the Qbank, the Full-Lengths and all of the topical exams and quizes.

If you do all of that and LEARN from your wrong answers then you will do much better than just studying last minute.

Doing well on the MCAT has a lot to do with being comfortable with the exam and finishing it on time. Kaplan helps with that and that is what makes it worth the money.

I do not mind spending $1300 when it comes to my future.

 

[kgboy]

I agree with the post above.

Taking Kaplan is worthwhile if you are actually going to use all the extra materials they give you. I think most of the value in $1300 is in the extra problem sets and answers, not really the teaching. I haven't tried TPR so I don't know, but Kaplan gives you crap load of problems.