Disclaimer: I haven't taken the MCAT yet or any of the AAMC practice tests.
I know a lot of you are preparing for the MCAT right now, as am I, so hopefully what I have to say can be of some help.
I'm hypothetically enrolled in both the Kaplan and TPR courses, but that's a long story. That being said, I actually took the Kaplan course, mostly since that's what everyone else was doing and because it had more resources.
I used TPR for content review. I found the Kaplan books too frivolous and rather condescending, but the TPR books were on-point albeit a bit dense. It was useful for me though, since I haven't taken any of the requisite courses since freshman year, three years ago. After reading through those books for about 2 weeks, I started taking the Kaplan exams.
(As a note, when I took the Kaplan diagnostic, I got a 25: PS 9, VR 9, BS 7)
Full-Length 1: I found this mildly difficult, but I took it a long while after my diagnostic so I think my difficulties were more strategy-related. Score didn't change much.
Full-Lengths 2-9: Verbal, I feel, is way too easy. Overall, I am finishing with maybe 20-30 minutes to spare in each section and my score has improved dramatically. That being said, I think the BS and PS were fair in their balance and level of difficulty. (Averaged 39: PS 12, VR 14, BS 13)
Full-Lengths 10 & 11: Killer. Maybe I just hit a wall, but my scores tanked by about 15 points. After reviewing the exams, I noticed they were a lot sneakier than the others and there were definitely some poor questions mixed in. From what I've read on SDN, others have had similar problems with these two.
Today I started using my TPR online materials, beginning with the Online Diagnostic 1. I'll begin by saying...the test gave me a killer migraine. The passages were dense, there was a ton of extraneous information in them and even in the questions themselves, the testing interface was kind of buggy, and there were more calculations in PS than I was expecting. It was a draining exam, but that is expected of a a true diagnostic test. However, as I have a month until my test date, I think I need the pain. I'm no masochist. It's just satisfying to finish one of them and see that even with an unreasonable exam, I can still do okay (34: PS 11, VR 12, BS 11). Sure, it wasn't as well as I did with Kaplan, but I don't need a confidence boost. I just need to work harder. Soon I will be done with TPR exams and I'll move onto the AAMC ones...and then off to the real thing.
My conclusion: Pick Kaplan. TPR may have harder VR, less score inflation, and longer passages, but you can ultimately get more out of Kaplan. Kaplan offers more exams, but also in-depth score reports (which I love). Their interface is intuitive and keeps track of how you do in every single topic. They visualize the trends in your scores. Their explanations are also superior to TPR. If you are just starting MCAT prep, Kaplan will really project you into a score range where you can feel confident. In addition to their 11 full-lengths, you also have access to their QBank where you can design tests to address your weaknesses. If you finish Kaplan, go ahead and tackle TPR, but be sure to have acetaminophen handy (I certainly needed it)!
