kaplan course beneficial?

[krajapak]

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Just wondering if anyone's taken the kaplan Dat course? I just want to know what you guys think about the course and advise.

 

[2loveshuy]

I thought it was a waste of money. I took the online course and couldn't motivate myself to actually study for the exam. There's a 3 month period if you decide to do that option, and I guess I just didn't use the material. If I was to do it over again, I would suggest that you just buy the Kaplan blue book, destroyer, Crack the PAT, and Topscore. And you should be set. And Achiever if you need more practice exams. Buying these books wouldn't set you back as much as paying for the Kaplan course itself. The blue book is the exact book that you pay for in the course too (except the course book as a few practice problems after each chapter, which really wasn't that helpful) Good luck!

 

[hygiene101]

Just wondering if anyone's taken the kaplan Dat course? I just want to know what you guys think about the course and advise.

Waste of time and money. Instructors just read the section that you have in the book that you can read it yourself. I would just get the online excess to get the practice exams.

 

[jay47]

Seems like everyone is always raggin on Kaplan here. I actually teach one of the DAT classes, and from what it seems, everyone has a "crappy teacher" who reads out of the book. If this is what they are doing, then they are not doing their job. I always find things outside of the book, the lesson, the course that apply and help my students understand the concepts associated with the material. If you get a good teacher like myself, who actually cares about his students doing well, then you should find the course much more helpful.

Another thing, a lot of people say that the materials aren't that good and are a waste of time; OF COURSE THEY ARE IF YOU DON'T USE THEM!!! Trust me, if you do the online stuff it WILL help you. You may not be able to score 25 with just Kaplan, but you can score in the 20s with enough effort. So many people pay the $1400 for the course and then don't use all of their online stuff- it amazes me because it is really good, but they think just because they paid $1400 they are going to get a good score. On the contrary, YOU (no matter who you are) have to put in the work to get a good score.

Kaplan is one of many roads (and in my opinion, a much easier one) that you can take to get to the score you need. I'm not trying to sell the course, but just expose some of the reasons people post bad things about it on here.

 

[LinhN]

I actually did a Kaplan tutor for the cost of the course because my course was cancelled. Actually some of the on-line stuff was helpful, and my tutor was really good. I don't know about the classroom, but if you can get a couple of hours for a private tutor, its def. helpful if there are certain concepts you can't get from the books. It really improved my PAT section. You can see my improvement on a recent thread, but I also DAT destroyer this time around, so that also helped as well in the other subjects.

 

[pcakes]

i had a great teacher (at Kaplan in UM, Florida). she was very smart and definitely showed she wanted to help us succeed. i felt like it was very useful. it helped me stay on track, i prepared for each class, reading the material and doing the online work. then being able to discuss topics with other classmates and my teacher was helpful, kind of made it more fun to study. if you could pay for the $150 more for the classroom course vs the online one, I would recommend it.

 

[camshaft]

I'm doing the online course right now and I love it. (I also found a $100 off coupon code at retailmenot, so that was a nice bonus). The online course is really well organized, which is what helps me. Even though I'm dedicated enough to sit down and start studying 2 months before I take the DAT, I hated that daunting feeling of how much material there was to cover. I was second guessing myself in regards to what I should cover, whether I was spending too much or too little time on it, and whether I was covering it in too much or too little depth. The online course is split into 12 lessons. Each lesson will first tell you what chapters to read in the main book (usually about four at a time), and then will have slide presentations (about 20-30 slides) for each topic, with about 4 slide presentations per lesson. Each slide presentation is then followed by a quiz, and the end of the lesson is finished off by an online video lecture. It also includes a couple full length practice exams. So yes it's expensive, but the thorough organization and layout of all the material makes it worth it I think.

 

[2009er]

its a waste of money, u can buy the kaplan book for about 70 bucks... its good enough. i'd rather spend my money on achiever, top score, destroyer and crack. its good enough. because either way u have to study on ur own.

 

[drpsuedonym]

its a waste of money, u can buy the kaplan book for about 70 bucks... its good enough. i'd rather spend my money on achiever, top score, destroyer and crack. its good enough. because either way u have to study on ur own.

This is the problem with people that don't take Kaplan and then continue to rag on it. Yes, when you sign up for the class you get a review book. Yes, the review book has questions at the end of each chapter. NO, those questions are NOT the basis of Kaplan's prep material.

The best and most helpful part of Kaplan's materials are the 5-7 subject tests that they have for Bio, Chem, Ochem, and QR. The subject tests are right on par with the real tests in terms of difficulty level and they do a great job of taking you from knowing the material to being able to take the test.

They also have these really great workshops on specific subjects which are really helpful, especially if you're struggling with a certain area.

So for God's sake. Let's get this straight. If you only bought the blue book, or if you took the class/online course but didn't USE any of the material, you do not get to offer your opinion about Kaplan's usefulness.

 

[HuntingPro]

NO WAY!!! DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY....
I bought the $70 Kaplan book from Barnes and Noble and thought "WOW what a great book!" I started reading it and completed all of the questions. after that I wanted to practice more so I thought to myself "I will spend the $1,320 to get a better score" I did and found out that ITS THE SAME THING THAT I HAD. they do offer more questions but if anyone has ever reviewed every Q then you will notice a trend. they ask the same Q about 2-3 times (but placed in different tests and sections). O by the way the people who work in the tech support section don't seem to like their job. I will say that the PA section of the Kaplan is pretty good. Other than that I would totally save my money and use it for the application process. I'm going broke before I'm in 😡.

 

[creative8401]

It was a waste of money. There are cases where students are happy, but majority complain because the student teachers, for lack of a better term, read from their book. I dont think its worth it to be 1400 for someone to read the material to you.

 

[Contach]

It is a great course, and I wouldn't take it for the classrooms but instead for the online materials only.

whether it is worth all 1000$ is another story.. I would say it would be a really good deal if they offered it for 700$.. But Kaplan online materials - practicing on the computer, and they centre that I could study in to emulate testing conditions, etc was all very helpful.

It's not worth all this stress, there are many ways to the same end.

 

[supraman]

The class was ftl. The online material ftw. Take online material so you don't have to travel.