Kaplan Material (name changed)

[Dizzan09]

I've been taking the Kaplan course for the past month or so. I received a 19 on my Diagnostic (which I'm not too worried about because I've heard those are designed to scare, and I simply didn't remember simple equations). While I study with a fair amount of intensity, I find that the Kaplan passages at the end of each lesson are still very difficult. I'm able to get about half of the questions right. I would appreciate feedback from anyone who has taken the actual MCAT after taking the Kaplan course and can give me a good comparison to not only the Kaplan diagnostic and actual MCAT, but the short Kaplan practice passages and the actual full-length Kaplan tests and the actual MCAT. Also, to anyone else currently enrolled in a Kaplan course, let me know your feelings on Kaplan material.

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[jot]

hey i took kaplan. i thought there materials were very dated and not reflective of the test. i htink they like to give you the really hard stuff so "when you get to the mcat it will be easy". however, this is a bit of a wasted effort in my mind. the topicals are only useful to see what your major wholes in knowledge are - go back and fill them in the best you can. the kaplan tests above #5 are stupidly hard, i got a 24 #7 the week of the mcat (which was discouraging), and the highest i ever got on a kaplan test was a 31. aamc tests were a different story, 4,5,6 are good predictors of the real thing in content and scoring - i was hovering around a 35-36 average for those. on the april test a bit better than my highest scores on an aamc test - i don't know how representative that is. i thought one intangible about the test was confidence on the day that you take it. some of my classmates freaked out hardcore and did worse than they should have. use the nervous energy as a eustress and just focus, be confident and rock it (its hardly that simple but you get the point). anyway goodluck.
-jot

 

[Resident Alien]

Kaplan #'s 6-11 are standardised with scores of those who took it in California. That's why you do poorly on them. Kaplan is rectifying the problem, so it better represents the country.

The kaplan tets are very useful if you make a real effort in understanding why you got wrong what you got wrong. The topicals are the hardest of the tests, and are there to reinforce your concepts (they are meant to be taken right after you review a subject area).

My score on the actual MCAT was equal to my highest kaplan score.

 

[jot]

hah are californians smarter? i suppose eh?
-jot

 

[Doctor Octopus]

I got a 20 on the Diag and ended up with a 33!

I agree with Jot. I took Kaplan 6-9 and scored in the 21 to 25 range. I'm glad I'm not in California! Kaplan tests 1-5 seemed to give a decent prediction of my real score, but aamc were the most realistic.

 

[Mudd]

It isn't that Californians are smarter or have better colleges per say, but the competition to get into the UC system is intense. 5000 or so applicants for anywhere between 92 (Irvine) to 150 (UCLA, not counting the med track slots) open spaces per school makes people work their butts off.

Also, I think test prep courses are forced to provide a better service here, because of the extra competition. Kaplan's California course offers more hours than other sites. PR also offers a more classroom intensive course out here than most of their locations. This is probably due to student demands and stiff competition from Berkeley Review. When a course offers between 100 and 140 hours with professors making up most of the teachers, the bar is seiously raised. Couple that with the change in teaching dynamic set by BR (concepts, intuition, and data analysis rather than information processing and memorization) and you get higher scores.

If EK (am I legally allowed to mention them anymore?) is as good as people say, I'm sure you'll see NY scores increase because of the EK factor and the fire they light under the corporate programs.

 

[coolwaters]

My recommendation with kaplan would be to take maybe one test of 6-11, but not more - there's something to be said for having confidence going into the test. There were some topicals where I only got half of the questions right, and some where I did a little better. I think that generally for tests 1-5 the verbal and bio are pretty right on (verbal on #1 is a little easy), however the physics are usually way out there in terms of the complexity of formulas, etc. Keep in mind that you can often get a lot more wrong on a Kaplan phys sci. section to receive a 10 than you're able to get wrong on the actual MCAT. But that's because the questions aren't as complex on the actual MCAT.

 

[Tweetie_bird]

Dizzan,
Please check your PMs.

Thank you,
Tweetie

 

[Resident Alien]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by jot:
•hah are californians smarter? i suppose eh?
-jot•••••See Chemistry Boy's response .

 

[jot]

hah - i didn't actually think so. they're just cooler (was just enamored by my visit to san fran and san diego; i'm living on the wrong coast).
-jot

 

[Tweetie_bird]

In light of the recent events on SDN, I am having to change the name of this title to something less offensive.

Please refrain from posting controversial titles/threads unless your OWN experience with any test prep company demonstrates that. After some thought, I have had to change the title of this thread so we don't offend any Kaplan tutors on SDN. If you have any questions/concerns about this, feel free to contact me.

This is still an open forum, let's just be a bit cognizant about what we say, and realize that our words affect others.

Thank you,
Tweetie

 

[Kry]

I took my Kaplan diagnostic last Thursday and did fine, got a 25 (8V10B7P). I've also noticed that the topical exams (Physics) were pretty tough (20 out of 30 right), but the AAMC questions (Physics) were ridiculously easy (35 out of 43 questions right) - What gives?

 

[AntGod22]

god big brother is everywhere. Damn you mr. wells!!!!!!

 

[Mudd]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by AntGod22:
god big brother is everywhere. Damn you mr. wells!!!!!![/QB]••••Mr. Wells is your big brother? Wow!!!

 

[Kry]

Amazing! Where do I sign up? Big brother here I come. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

 

[Mudd]

I know the Big Brothers organization does recruiting a couple times a year, but I'm not exactly sure where you would go to sign up. Maybe Mr. Wells, or Mr. Orwell, can help you find the Big Brothers.

I wonder if Mr. Wells is his (maybe her) biological big brother or just through the organization. Let me know if you find anything out.

 

[Kry]

Will do. I wonder how it will look on my secondaries? Under what section will it go under. :wink: