MCAT Prep Course Selection

[Anglory]

Hello SDN, first time posting.

I understand MCAT prep course threads are all over the forum, but I'm curious about my situation. After reading all the threads, I see a lot of posts about how courses are a waste of money if you can manage your own schedule.

The thing is, I'm quite bad at doing so and lack the work ethic to force myself to study for it. I am deciding on taking the TPR in-person review class this summer. I considered Kaplan but was dissatisfied with how they only have 6 hours of classes every week, albeit a lot of online resources.

I just need a prep course with a lot of in class time and practice exams. Solely for context, I have a 4.0 in my undergraduate courses so I feel like I can pick up the material relatively fast. However, I'm a terrible standardized test taker (bombed critical reading on SATs) and need to refresh on the material. Thank you very much!

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[BerkReviewTeach]

It is great that you have a sense of what you need in a class. That is where everyone should start: a self assessment. I'd suggest that you ask any company you are considering if you can sit for an actual class. Ask for multiple choices in terms of date and time, and pick it based on the topic that stresses you the most. Make sure you are seeing an actual teacher in an actual class. Keep in mind that you will only be seeing one of the teachers you will have for the class, but at least you'll have an idea of how one of them teaches. Do not bring your credit card with you, so that you give yourself time to reflect on the different options before signing up.

Classes depend completely on the quality of the teacher, which varies from location to location. A good teacher should offer up great ways to recall information (that work when you are stressed out), a well organized pool of information, techniques for being time-efficient when solving questions, and most importantly test taking tricks. Getting better at taking the exam is the single most important aspect of a class. If your teacher stands in front and reads from a one-size-fits-all teacher's manual, then many of the students will not benefit. Class curriculum should be based on both the exam content and the student's needs. One thing we do (I'm not trying to push a course, because it is highly likely we are not in your area) is leave open slots in our schedule that we fill in based on student feedback. One section might want a class on working with graphs and they may have found electrochemistry tough, so we will customize a lecture to have many table-based passages on redox material. If you can find a class which builds in some flexibility, that is a useful class.

The reason you hear many people say not to take a class is because there are many successful people who study on their own. A class is great for some people, a decent guide for other people, and a waste of time and money for still other people. Make sure you know who you are and what you need, which is clearly what you have done already. It sounds like you have ruled out online classes, which is a great start. With Khan Academy, Chad videos, Wikipremd, and many other sources, it seems foolish to pay of an online class when there is better stuff out there that is much cheaper (possibly free). If you are going to spend money on a class, make sure it's with live instructors and that there are office hours held in person.

Good luck in your decision.