kaplan or princeton

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eldoctor

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I know this has been asked before, and I searched old threads but most are just that, old. I'm interested in hearing WHY you'd pick one over the other. The PR Hyperlearning seems to have A LOT more hours of class time than Kaplan for ~ the same price, but who knows what that translates to...

Also, if I am interested in taking the July '10 MCAT, when should I register for it?

Thanks a bunch

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Just a personal opinion: kaplan seemed very mediocre and princeton seemed to be top shelf. I wouldn't do anything kaplan.
 
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Kaplan has a more extensive testbank and focuses more on self learning. Princeton is more structured and has a lot of classroom hours. It depends on your personal learning style. If you think you're above teh curve in terms of knowledge and just want materials, kaplan might be better. Classrooms always move at the pace of the lowest common denominator so you might be bored out of your mind.

On the other hand, if you need a lot of structure to stay on track and on schedule, then princeton might be better.

A final point is to find out who are teaching the class. A lot of these classes are highly dependent on how competent the teacher is.
 
moving in 5....4....3...2...

Hey now, give me a second, I'm busy over here :p Moving to MCAT Discussions.

Honestly I had a good experience with Kaplan and would recommend it to anyone as I felt their online resources were great, but I know lots of people used Princeton or Exam Krakers and did great too. I think it's just a matter of choosing one and sticking to it, studying diligently.
 
i used kaplan/pr as a general overview when studying for the mcat
for things i was a little shaky on, i used examkrackers (it's really good for verbal especially)
 
Just a personal opinion: kaplan seemed very mediocre and princeton seemed to be top shelf. I wouldn't do anything kaplan.

That "mediocre" service improved my score from a 26 to a 32.

OP: As mentioned before, it depends on your style. Kaplan emphasizes self learning and ample practice. It worked great for me. I followed the syllabus to the teeth, even getting ahead so I could do practice tests. If you put your energy into the course and go beyond the required stuff, you will do fine.

For Verbal: EK Verbal book + 101 passages.
 
I did Princeton Review and have no complaints. The course kept me on target and motivated me to study. But, it also provided practice tests in real life testing conditions. (This might be different now that it is computer based.) But, the results were good.

I went from a 27 --> 38
 
I know this has been asked before, and I searched old threads but most are just that, old. I'm interested in hearing WHY you'd pick one over the other. The PR Hyperlearning seems to have A LOT more hours of class time than Kaplan for ~ the same price, but who knows what that translates to...

Also, if I am interested in taking the July '10 MCAT, when should I register for it?

Thanks a bunch

Kaplan. Here's why. Kaplan has copious amounts of practice. I got access to tPR. Their online gives you 9 TPR tests, 8 AAMCs, and 80 passages of online drills. Kaplan gives you more than what you can do. Do Kaplan and get the TPR books as they are better for content. The Kaplan Topicals, sectionals, subject tests, etc are gold. Going through that and reviewing will give you a great score.
 
Kaplan. Here's why. Kaplan has copious amounts of practice. I got access to tPR. Their online gives you 9 TPR tests, 8 AAMCs, and 80 passages of online drills. Kaplan gives you more than what you can do. Do Kaplan and get the TPR books as they are better for content. The Kaplan Topicals, sectionals, subject tests, etc are gold. Going through that and reviewing will give you a great score.

So you admitted that TPR material is better. But you that Kaplan has more material. Which is more important, good material or a lot of material? Plus the material is only as good as the teacher who is teaching it.
 
Which is more important, good material or a lot of material? Plus the material is only as good as the teacher who is teaching it.

You can get plenty of material through eBay or Craigslist, so quality of teaching is the only factor that matters with a class. The class I took had amazing teaching that went well beyond the books and emphasized tricks for answering questions quickly and accurately. That's what really matters.

Meet the teachers ahead of time for both classes and see what you think of the way they handle qestions.
 
Meet the teachers ahead of time for both classes and see what you think of the way they handle qestions.

This is a good idea. One big difference between Kaplan and TPR is that Kaplan has one teacher for all five subjects. TPR has a teacher for each subject: Bio, O-Chem, G-Chem, Physics and Verbal. TPR's method is much more specialized.
 
If you can adhere to a good study plan, consider EK. I think the quality of those books surpasses that of either the TPR or Kaplan materials.

I took Kaplan, had a very competent teacher, and still found the class hours to be a waste of time. Half the class was concerned with breaking into the competitive range for acceptance and half was shooting for scores in the high-30s and into the 40s. This just bogged down the learning process and things reverted to a lowest common denominator discussion for most subjects.

So I'd recommend using neither, saving the $1000+, and trying to develop a study plan you can commit to that involves a lot of full-length exams.
 
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