Kaplan's Online DAT course vs Classroom environment

[yumimartian]

Hellooo all,

I'm new to sdn and am very glad to have found such a useful resource! i'm just wondering if anyone has taken kaplan's online DAT course? If so, can you please comment on it? Do we still have the option of going to the Kaplan center if we so desire? Do you recommend that as opposed to the classroom course? I'm located in SF and from what I've heard from previous Kaplan students, the instructors are lousy. I'm sure not all of them are, but I've heard from students that a majority of them are.

-yumi

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[Generallee]

Hellooo all,

I'm new to sdn and am very glad to have found such a useful resource! i'm just wondering if anyone has taken kaplan's online DAT course? If so, can you please comment on it? Do we still have the option of going to the Kaplan center if we so desire? Do you recommend that as opposed to the classroom course? I'm located in SF and from what I've heard from previous Kaplan students, the instructors are lousy. I'm sure not all of them are, but I've heard from students that a majority of them are.

-yumi

I've been through both... The first two weeks of kaplan DAT in class were just not my type of learning. Its not that the teachers are lousy, its that they have to follow a strict syllabus to be able to finish the lecture in the amount of time allotted. I felt that what they were teaching me, I could have easily done on my own. It's kind of like having a professor teach his lecture straight out of the textbook. For me, that doesn't really help since I read the textbook religiously. I don't learn much in that type of setting. So, I dropped the classroom portion and forfeited the difference in cost between the classroom and online and opted for the online course. I felt this is more than sufficient. In fact, there is an "online" teacher who goes through the exact same thing that a regular classroom teacher goes through, almost verbatim. In my opionion, save yourself some money and opt for the online classroom. If your the type of student that can't stay on task and get side tracked or can't discipline yourself to study, then that's when I might consider doing the in-class course. But, as far as learning the material, you will learn just as much with the online course. My understanding is that you are still able to go to the Kaplan facility to do practice tests and such but can't attend the classroom. Hope this helps.

 

[yumimartian]

I've been through both... The first two weeks of kaplan DAT in class were just not my type of learning. Its not that the teachers are lousy, its that they have to follow a strict syllabus to be able to finish the lecture in the amount of time allotted. I felt that what they were teaching me, I could have easily done on my own. It's kind of like having a professor teach his lecture straight out of the textbook. For me, that doesn't really help since I read the textbook religiously. I don't learn much in that type of setting. So, I dropped the classroom portion and forfeited the difference in cost between the classroom and online and opted for the online course. I felt this is more than sufficient. In fact, there is an "online" teacher who goes through the exact same thing that a regular classroom teacher goes through, almost verbatim. In my opionion, save yourself some money and opt for the online classroom. If your the type of student that can't stay on task and get side tracked or can't discipline yourself to study, then that's when I might consider doing the in-class course. But, as far as learning the material, you will learn just as much with the online course. My understanding is that you are still able to go to the Kaplan facility to do practice tests and such but can't attend the classroom. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the thorough response Gen. It helps alot! I also have another question. You spoke of an "online" teacher. Is this a recorded lecture you can watch online? Or how does it work?

-Yumi

 

[snoosnoo]

There is added benefit to having someone with personal experience with the test. He/she can be a wealth of information to pull from that isnt taught in the books. A lot of intangibles there.

Also, i did the online course but i wish i had taken the classroom as well, especially to have someone to cheer me on and tell me that i'm doing well. It was hard for me to gauge my progress solo, so it would have been nice to have a someone there to mark my progess. Just my 2 cents

 

[yumimartian]

There is added benefit to having someone with personal experience with the test. He/she can be a wealth of information to pull from that isnt taught in the books. A lot of intangibles there.

Also, i did the online course but i wish i had taken the classroom as well, especially to have someone to cheer me on and tell me that i'm doing well. It was hard for me to gauge my progress solo, so it would have been nice to have a someone there to mark my progess. Just my 2 cents

Just had to look inside yourself for that inner person to tell ya that you are doing gurreat. haha. Thanks for the response. How did you do in your solo studies?

 

[snoosnoo]

I did well.