Kaplan, PR, and MCAT

[Mossjoh]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi, I'm currently studying for the MCAT a various number of ways. I am taking Kaplan and doing their practice tests, and also I have looked at Flowers and Silver Princton Review books. I notice a definite trend here however. The Princeton Review books and practice tests seem easy to me, and I can do all these problems. However, the Kaplan practice tests and review material seem more complicated and I have more trouble with this. Which of these is closer to the real MCAT format? The opinion of anyone who has taken Kaplan would be appreciated.

Thanks
Mossjoh

 

[jefftzeng]

I've taken the Kaplan and will agree with what you've said. The Kaplan questions are a bit more specific and complicated than some of the other test prep books. My personal opinion is that the Kaplan questions (Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences) are really nothing like the real MCAT. The real MCAT was slightly more broad based questions. One pitfall with the Kaplan due to its specific contents; there is a possibility that the real MCAT can cover certain topics (especially in the Biological Sciences) that are not reviewed in the course. This actually happened. I had thought that the Kaplan material covered most everything that you needed, but there were a handful of topics that I failed to study over before the real MCAT. Good luck to you. The reading portion of the Kaplan I thought was close to the real MCAT.

[This message has been edited by jefftzeng (edited 02-21-2001).]

 

[Medigirl]

I took the Kaplan course and used Flowers and Silver books, too. I found that Kaplan prepared me well for the Biology and Verbal sections, and over-prepared me (if that's possible) for the Physical. For instance, at Kaplan, they have you memorize all the physics formulas, and it turned out that 99% of them were provided on the real MCAT. I agree with the last poster; the physical science questions on the MCAT were qualitative rather than quantitative.

The Flowers and Silver book had really easy Verbal passages, which I did not think was indicative of those on the real MCAT. While not all the Biology/O.Chem topics on the test were covered in Kaplan, I never encountered a question I knew NOTHING about. So, I say use Kaplan as your primary study aid, and use the Flowers and Silver book to sharpen skills. Good luck!

 

[rxfudd]

Originally posted by jefftzeng:
One pitfall with the Kaplan due to its specific contents; there is a possibility that the real MCAT can cover certain topics (especially in the Biological Sciences) that are not reviewed in the course. This actually happened.

Do you happen to remember what it was that was not covered (topic-wise)? I'm preparing using Kaplan books as my sole study guides and have about 16 practice tests (Kaplan and PR) to work through.

Anyone have any opinion on whether Kaplan is more like the real thing over Princeton (i.e. tests given out in the class, not prep books) or vice-versa? I've heard that the PR class tests, but NOT the PR prep book tests, are about as close to the real thing as it gets (aside from AAMC tests) and I just wanted to verify this. Thanks.



[This message has been edited by rxfudd (edited 02-21-2001).]

 

[rxfudd]

...

[This message has been edited by rxfudd (edited 02-21-2001).]