My advisor recommended I take this class. Is it worth the money or am I better of studying by myself with materials such as Destroyer and CrackDAT?
Kaplan Prep Class
- Thread starter bprior
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I took the full on-site class. I wouldn't really recommend it, as I think the online class is basically the same thing and much cheaper. Also, if you do choose Kaplan, make sure to use something else for the PAT section as theirs are waaaaaaaaay too easy. I would easily get a 22-23 on them and then I would take the PAT section on the achiever and get a 17. 🙁
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For the money you could do so much better.
Get Crack DAT PAT, Chad's videos ($30/mo - And give you so much more than Kaplan), Buy Cliff's and/or Barron's AP BIO (read them each twice), and maybe look into DAT destroyer and math Destroyer.
I took the Kaplan in-class course. It is solely up to who the instructor is and the caliber of which they are able to teach the class. Otherwise you have a monkey standing up front regurgitating stuff that you could very easily read. They cover MAYBE 10% of the information needed.
It truly is NOT worth it.
Get Crack DAT PAT, Chad's videos ($30/mo - And give you so much more than Kaplan), Buy Cliff's and/or Barron's AP BIO (read them each twice), and maybe look into DAT destroyer and math Destroyer.
I took the Kaplan in-class course. It is solely up to who the instructor is and the caliber of which they are able to teach the class. Otherwise you have a monkey standing up front regurgitating stuff that you could very easily read. They cover MAYBE 10% of the information needed.
It truly is NOT worth it.
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I would only do it if you get a discount or a scholarship. You have to realize that you already know this stuff (except maybe PAT) and they are just reteaching it to you. However, it may be worth it because of all the online materials and practice exams they have. It depends how much practice you want.
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I recommend that you take this "reteaching" with a grain of salt.
$30/mo for Chad's videos -vs- $1300 for Kaplan in-class course..
$200 for DAT and Math Destroyer -vs- $1300 for Kaplan in-class course..
$129 for CDP ......
$30 for the BIO AP books...
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From what Ive experienced, most advisors really dont have the best advice haha.
Key to getting a 19+ :
-Bio:
Cliffs AP Bio (10$) + DatQVault (22$ for 500+ questions) + Alan's Notes (free) + Campbell (you should have from Bio courses, for Ear/Eye/Histology/Brain/Ecology) + Seeing as many multiple choice questions possible (Campbell's online quizzes that come with the book are amazing)
-Chemistry:
Chad's Videos (30$) + DAT Destroyer (200$ w/ Math Destroyer) + Alan's Notes (free) + 2-3 Practice tests (60-80$)
-Organic Chemistry:
Chad's Videos + DAT Destroyer (especially the roadmaps) + 2-3 Practice tests
-Perceptual Ability:
Crack DAT PAT (10 test addition to get your timing down) is all you need
-Reading Comprehension:
Crack DAT Reading (remember to practice this, much more influential on getting in than you'd assume)
-Quantitative Reasoning:
Math Destroyer - this is a must (usually people tend to neglect this section, thus dropping their AA a point or two, practice this early on studying by timing yourself 40 questions in 45 minutes. the section is, personally, the most difficult due it being at the end of a 4.5 hour test AND that it's pretty tricky.)
-Practice Tests:
Topscore seems to be the best practice test material, along with the ADA 2009 test.
Good luck! Plan ahead and make sure you order a decent portion of these materials before you begin to study. Helps a lot to have it all when you need it and not rely on the mail(wo)man.
Key to getting a 19+ :
-Bio:
Cliffs AP Bio (10$) + DatQVault (22$ for 500+ questions) + Alan's Notes (free) + Campbell (you should have from Bio courses, for Ear/Eye/Histology/Brain/Ecology) + Seeing as many multiple choice questions possible (Campbell's online quizzes that come with the book are amazing)
-Chemistry:
Chad's Videos (30$) + DAT Destroyer (200$ w/ Math Destroyer) + Alan's Notes (free) + 2-3 Practice tests (60-80$)
-Organic Chemistry:
Chad's Videos + DAT Destroyer (especially the roadmaps) + 2-3 Practice tests
-Perceptual Ability:
Crack DAT PAT (10 test addition to get your timing down) is all you need
-Reading Comprehension:
Crack DAT Reading (remember to practice this, much more influential on getting in than you'd assume)
-Quantitative Reasoning:
Math Destroyer - this is a must (usually people tend to neglect this section, thus dropping their AA a point or two, practice this early on studying by timing yourself 40 questions in 45 minutes. the section is, personally, the most difficult due it being at the end of a 4.5 hour test AND that it's pretty tricky.)
-Practice Tests:
Topscore seems to be the best practice test material, along with the ADA 2009 test.
Good luck! Plan ahead and make sure you order a decent portion of these materials before you begin to study. Helps a lot to have it all when you need it and not rely on the mail(wo)man.
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I took the Kaplan course and it kills me every time I think about how that money could've paid for all my application fees. Taking a Kaplan course is like throwing $1200 in the trash can.
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That's pretty much everything I used!
don't do it. i took the course too... and i'm pretty sure the course doesn't change that much even if you have a really good instructor. they're supposed to follow a pretty strict outline for each class session (hence, why they read verbatim off their papers). i actually went to the first couple classes in one state and then repeated all of the classes in another state... both instructors said almost the exact same things... they asked the same questions, told the same jokes, yadda yadda...
if anything buy the online course just for the practice tests... or try to access them from someone who already has them.
if anything buy the online course just for the practice tests... or try to access them from someone who already has them.
Thanks for all the advice. I am really glad I asked you guys about this seeing that a lot of you have been through the exact same things I am going through. The money will be better spent on other test prep material and application costs.
