Kaplan... good prep or not so much?

[EKdental09]

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Hi,
I'm new to this forum and have a question. I'm about to take the DAT in a couple of weeks for the first time. In Omaha, Kaplan is a highly regarded program and so I've been using their books and took their class to help me study.
After doing some reading, I've heard many people complain about Kaplan's product and say that there are much better programs out there. I purchased a few extra practice tests to take through Top Score, but I am now contemplating looking at some other sources for these last few weeks? My weak areas are my sciences, and I'm worried Kaplan's coverage isn't enough for me.

What does everyone think? Is studying just the Kaplan material a bad move or should I spend my last few weeks working from a different source? Any help is greatly appreciated🙂

 

[diplo123]

Wow this is perfect timing. I just finished my DAT less than an hour ago, and I wanted to come on here and talk about Kaplan. So many on this forum say that it's not adequate, and this and that. It's BS. The Kaplan course (not just the blue book) has tons of resources. I felt very well prepared by it, and I think if you take the class and do all the homework you don't need to buy any other books.

My scores:
PAT: 20(85.4)
QR: 19(84.9)
RC: 25(98.5)
Bio: 21(91.7)
GC: 24(95.2)
OC: 22(91.5)
TS: 23(98.2)
AA: 22(96.4)

I'm really proud of my scores. btw they are higher than my scores on the Kaplan practice DAt's, which were very realistic. take kaplan definitely.

 

[211183]

hey diplo. thanks for that info. I too am using Kaplan as my primary source for studying. My test is Tuesday, and I hope to get scores like yours. Did you think teh subject test difficulty level was similar to the real thing? I think tehy are pretty difficult, but my kaplan prac dat scores are ranging bet 18-23 for the sections.

How did you know you were prepared?? You didn't use any supplemental material??

Doing my last week freak-out.....

 

[funktion]

These DAT forums are awash with peoples' opinions about kaplan and many other study guides. Use the search function, it is your friend. In my opinion Kaplan is good for chem and orgo. I feel that Kaplans bio is a good overview but needs to be supplemented in terms of its depth of the subject. Its okay for the other stuff but I would definitely suggest supplemental materials. Good luck and welcome to SDN.

 

[diplo123]

hey diplo. thanks for that info. I too am using Kaplan as my primary source for studying. My test is Tuesday, and I hope to get scores like yours. Did you think teh subject test difficulty level was similar to the real thing? I think tehy are pretty difficult, but my kaplan prac dat scores are ranging bet 18-23 for the sections.

How did you know you were prepared?? You didn't use any supplemental material??

Doing my last week freak-out.....

Well, I won't say that I never looked at any other resources. When I had questions or wanted to look stuff up, I would use my old text books. But if you are getting 18-23 on your practice tests than I would say you're in great shape. My last practice DAT which I took on Saturday was like 19 AA and 21 PAT and 19 TS. Last Thursday I got 15's on both my chem sections and was freaking out. I don't know how I did so well on the chem section of the DAT. The key is to read the questions carefully, like kaplan says, and think about the solution before reading the answer choices, as many of them are traps. I would glance down just to see the format however.

Overall, I think all the workshops and readings from the book was definitely adequate. Good luck.

 

[EKdental09]

Thank you so much for the information, and congrats on your great test scores.
Its very reassuring to hear that you were scoring 15s on the chemistry sections a week before. I was supposed to take the test a week ago, and the same thing happened to me. About 5 days before, I was scoring 15's on all of the science topics and I had a freak out, and pushed my test back 3 weeks. Hopefully my experience is similar! Thanks again.

 

[211183]

thanks diplo. Half of it is confidence--- I'm still searching for the last bit of it before Tuesday. You helped! Congrats on your scores!! 👍👍

 

[DentalDeac]

There are a lot of Kaplan haters on SDN, but using only Kaplan got me 20 Bio, 23 GChem, 23 OChem so I would say it did a pretty good job.

 

[Daydream46]

my review: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=549869

 

[Persevere13]

i used kaplan online, pulled an 18 in every science section, 19 in PAT; i think RC and QR depend on the individual...

looking back, it wasn't QUITE worth the $$$ but its definitely a good base