Hello SDN, let me preface this thread by saying that what I am about to describe is my own experience with and my opinions about the Princeton Review Hyperlearning course (now on referred to as PR). I understand that the instructors and overall quality may vary from facility to facility and that my experience may not be representative of PR's quality as a whole. Feel free to add in your own experiences with PR as well (that's what the forum is for, silly). I'm taking the July 29th MCAT, so an understanding of my final score and personal study strategy will ultimately decide if the PR course truly helped me to be prepared or not (I will edit some stuff in later if I can). I hope you find my advice useful as you consider Kaplan or PR or BR or EK or anything else. If this thread topic has already been made and I'm reposting, what the heck, itza forum on ze internetz, and I'm giving more than just 3 sentences of "I took it last summer and did well, it's gooood."
Consider this a personal experience filled with my well intentioned opinions and pick info which you consider relevant and reliable (I'm trying to flame-proof this thread - I hope it works). I'm taking a break from MCAT studying to write this because I realize that the whole Kaplan vs. PR vs. EK vs. BR thread is one of the most repeated threads in SDN with little in depth detail of what a course might entail. I apologize if I'm breaking any type of forum code by posting my MCAT diagnostic scores or making good ol' PR angry or happy. Here goes, these are my experiences and opinions about PR to help you learn more about the program, take everything with a grain of salt.
I am going to talk about: 1. My background/stats and how the course has helped me 2. Quality of practice materials compared to what else I've seen and used 3. A usual day in a PR course/instructors/facilities....etc. 4. Big points to consider + my end result (will be edited in later if possible)
Only when I receive my MCAT score will I truly be able to tell if the course helped me prepare as much as possible. Having great materials will not increase your score at all if you do not utilize them properly. That being understood, I can describe my experience thus far with the PR course and my progress in several diagnostics and AAMC practice exams. Is this process completely dependent on the individual? Completely, you could have a better study strategy or just be smarter than I am. The opposite is true as well. Remember, just because you choose resources from EK, PR , BR, or Kaplan - it doesn't 100% guarantee a great score. A good MCAT score comes from natural ability, hard work with comprehensive study practices - and frankly, luck. Thus, my results thus far are MY results thus far. Someone could take PR and start off amazing or terrible and finish amazing or terrible. There is so much more to the big picture than just 1 course.
1 - My background/stats
I will be a 5th year senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology/Spanish and minoring in Chemistry and Medicine, Health, and Society. I'm taking the fifth year due to the fact that I had a poor study method (with a great work ethic) that didn't work so well for the core BCPM courses - I went from being a B/C+ student as a freshman and sophomore to being a B+ student my junior year - then I developed a new study strategy and have received straight A's my senior year. This fifth year will allow me to demonstrate to medical schools that I can handle the tougher courses such as Biochemistry and Immunology and that my past mistakes were a result of being ill-prepared in regards to study tactics rather than my actual ability to comprehend the material. I do research in a cancer lab, and I am active on campus as a Head Resident of a freshman dormitory. I was not the perfect little angel student coming into college - I came from a low end school where I breezed by with little effort and did not develop proper study methods. Combine this with me trying to do a ridiculous amount of extracurriculars during freshman and soph year and the result was that I received C's the first time I took Orgo (retaken with two A's). I have a B+/C in physics, a B+/C+ in General Chemistry, and a C+/B+ in Biology with a retake of the C+ to a B+ (Thought I was 20 points above the curve with an easy A, but the professor retracted his decision to curve - sticking me with the 88, grr) I have A's in Parasitology, Microbial Population Biology, and Cellular Neurobiology from my senior year.
Current overall stats are a school reported 3.36 cGPA (3.42 AMCAS cGPA) with a current AMCAS sGPA of 3.18. If I do well in my fifth year - I can ultimately end up with a 3.54 cGPA with a 3.38 sGPA. Not the most amazing stats, but hopefully a solid MCAT in addition to great extracurriculars and the great LORs I have been blessed with will help inch me in to some of my state schools and maybe some mid-tier OOS school acceptances. I am not a URM, and I am from IL. Everything I just said may be unimportant, I'm just giving you an understanding of the type of student I was coming into the course.
1-2: Did the course help me?
I took the Princeton Review course because I assumed that the course would teach all the material and study strategies for the MCAT. I assumed that my teachers would be qualified professors and not students. I assumed that close 1 on 1 contact with teachers was possible. I assumed that I would go from nearly crapping my pants when physics and chemistry were mentioned to standing like a champion over a defeated MCAT spitting in its face and doing funny dances over it. Did I assume right? Let's see.
A week from taking the MCAT, I feel confident. I know that I can easily do fine on the MCAT with about a 30 by just doing my thing, but I'm striving for a 35+ (and who on SDN isn't striving for the best?). Am I prepared to do it seeing that I barely understood let alone remembered Physics and Gen. Chem prior to the course? Sure, PR has definitely prepared me for everything I have seen *thus far* and in my opinion, their practice diagnostics are the closest resemblance to the practice AAMC MCATs offered online. I have used EK, Kaplan, and PR materials and all obviously have advantages/disadvantages. Once I finished reviewing using the Hyperlearning books (nothing else) and made personal notecards (over 1000 :-O), I went from receiving 24's-29's to 30+'s. I started May 10th with the course and will take the July 29th MCAT. I usually put in 5-6 hours a day outside of the course on the homework (11 a.m. to 4-6 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m.-7 p.m on weekends including diagnostics). So, with the help of PR's materials, I feel academically prepared for the MCAT - the biggest thing now is to manage the stress, realize that this "little" exam can be retaken even though evaluations by the adcomms of the retake vary, and use my time effectively when I take the MCAT. No one, including me, can see into the future and say exactly if the MCAT will go amazing, fine, or meh. I'm staying hopeful and trying to be realistic, but can I say truthfully that PR has prepared me for everything? I *think* so, but remember that I still haven't taken the real deal yet, and I will post later in detail how I felt taking the real thing and the results I achieved. I could do terrible on the real thing, but does that change my experience of PR or the quality of their materials? No, preparing for the exam requires the total package - dealing with stress, total preparation, questions given on the exam, and personal factors. I'll stop blabbing the same point over and over now.
Included below are the results of the diagnostics I have taken thus far, thus emphasizing my progress from being completely unprepared to feeling like a champion. You should view the AAMC diagnostics more closely because according to popular rumor and word of mouth from my PR instructor - PR purposely makes you take their diagnostic in the first 3 weeks of the course (you don't have to, but to be eligible for the refund I think you need to - check me on this). It's one of their medium/hard exams, but you will find it extremely difficult if you haven't studied everything or have little recollection from your core courses. Rumor is that PR scales your grade harder on the 1st diagnostic and the grading gets easier towards the latter half. I can't speak if this is true or not, diagnostics just went better with more preparation and review. I believe that PR tells you that if you don't do better on your MCAT than you did on your 1st diagnostic or are unsatisfied in any way, you can retake the course. It's a nice reminder, but when they purposely make it so that you go into the first diagnostic with little experience and knowledge, it's routine to do poorly. I can understand that they want students to gauge how much PR has helped them at the end of the course, but if they really utilize a harder scaled score in the beginning and grade easier toward the end, I find it useless as a diagnostic of your academic preparation (granted the grading rumor is true). I didn't like the idea of taking the diagnostics prior to reviewing and studying all the material, but it was good practice for getting over the "fear" of the MCAT and understanding the stamina and focus needed to do well. So, pros and cons in the way they want you to complete diagnostics, I understand their reasoning and my opinion is that you should definitely do every diagnostic possible - it would give PR a whole new goal to strive for if they could improve students scores after a complete review by providing instruction on useful test-taking strategies and providing options for basic concept review and advanced concept review, but my view is probably unrealistic :-/
Sure, the grading rumor could be true, but I've done alright thus far and every test I have taken I have improved - with few exceptions. I did the PR diagnostics all in order.
D-1 B:8 P:5 V:6
D-2 B:10 P:4 V:6
D-3 B:10 P:6 V:7
D-4 B:10 P:8 V:9
D-5 B:10 P:9 V:9
D-6 B:11 P:10 V:10 Hurray! My first diag >30!
D-7 B:11 P:12 V:11
D-8 (PR's self labeled "hard" one) B:11 P:8 V:6
(Not so good to have this ego crush before the actual exam, but it does a good job of making you feel panicked and stressed when you actually take the exam and your mind and heart race.)
D-9 B:11 P:12 V:9 (The one they offer for free on the website)
AAMC practice exams offered by PR - AAMC 3-10
AAMC 3 - I took this one before PR D-3 to see what I would actually do, and then I get all this shebang about it being the easiest one. This could be true - but some claim it's harder at the time due to lack of having reviewed anything yet) B:9 P:10 V:10
My last two practice exams (about a week before the actual MCAT having reviewed all the PR material and put in a good amount of work
AAMC 4: B:9 P:11 V:10 I was hoping for better on this one.
AAMC 5: B:12 P:13 V:11 The last diagnostic I finished. Hope the end result is like this.
*****I still have AAMC 6-10 left to do, and those are probably the most important in predicting end results, but I think you can see the improvement from just May to July.
All grading scale rumors aside, I have improved my score from a 19 to a 36 according the the diagnostics I have taken (with a strong upward trend). I feel like I know what I need to know, and time will only tell if I do well on the real thing. I am satisfied with how PR has helped me to prepare for the MCAT. This is my own opinion of the Princeton Review as a preparatory aid, not of the the class. Take it as you wish.
2. Materials
Constant debate will occur about which materials are the best to buy. I won't say that anything is the best or the worst - because it's all relative based on your abilities and needs. That said, I have used a Kaplan MCAT practice test book, the Kaplan MCAT in a box set, the EK review books, the EK 1001 Q series, and the EK Mini-MCAT collection.
Compared to preparation with materials from PR, my opinion is that -
1.
Kaplan's MCAT in a box set is of little use except for some term review, it's not the greatest tool in my opinion compared to some review books. Low on time, as in the MCAT is the next day? Then I would look at these.
2.
EK material is solid and helpful, especially the Mini-MCAT book. However, their books and practice materials have SO....MANNY.....TYPOHSS. It gets frustrating after a while and I wish they would actually realize realize that their words were duplicated in some of their questions. If the AAMC 3-5 exams are considered to be a model for the knowledge the MCAT necessitates, then it seems like the 1001 Q series does an excellent job of providing practice for concepts, even if some of the questions involve too much calculation compared to the MCAT or are more difficult than the average MCAT question.
3.
I have not used BR materials, nor did I even know such a company existed until I visited this site! I can't attest to anything they have.
*Remember, these are just my opinions, use whatever you find best to help you if you are looking at my info. I don't have enough experience with Kaplan, EK, and BR to say they would be better or worse than PR. Kaplan exams, to me, seem to include concepts that would not be on a real MCAT, which is why I have strayed from using them I guess. Back to the point, I think the majority of PR Hyperlearning materials are excellent and for the most part, very truthful to the structure of offered AAMC exams.
For people interested in the PR Hyperlearning course, here are the materials they offer and how I found them helpful or not compared to other resources that I have utilized. Remember, this is only one opinion.
1.
Online access to PR diags 1-9 and AAMC diags 3-10 (most helpful)
2.
Science workbook - this is a huge ~1000 page book they give you that contains Chem, Phys, Orgo, and Bio practice questions and passages both for personal study and homework. The explanations of answer choices for the questions are straightforward solutions and the explanations for the passages usually describe the correct answer and why the other answer choices are incorrect.
Physics - 425 standalone questions and 62 passages
General Chemistry - 92 standalone questions and 93 passages
Biology - 146 standalone questions and 87 passages
Organic Chemistry - 138 standalone questions and 45 passages.
3.
Verbal workbook - 43 passages along with 4 practice tests consisting of 7 passages each.
4.
Physical Sciences review book - this is another huge book that contains physics and general chemistry review materials. The pages and text are in black and white - but that's not a bad thing! They box out important equations and provide review sheets at the end of each chapter with the important equations. Distributed throughout the chapters are occasional questions that will test understanding - and they really help. From what I've seen, PR has covered everything described in the MCAT topics list on AAMC's website. They also included a basic math review at the end for the math that is necessary on the MCAT.
5.
Biological Sciences review book - the other huge review book styled in the same fashion as the physical sciences review book. This one has Biology and Organic Chemistry. Has a review sheet at the end of the Orgo reactions they think you should know.
6.
Verbal and Writing Review: a smaller book much along the lines of EK's verbal and math review style. They offer tips and tricks on how to do well, and as you will find out later, some are more valuable than others.
7.
Study Guide - PR gives you a 6-7 page paper booklet loaded with hundreds of questions designed to pick at your memory. They try to make you remember the basic concepts. I can't say any questions because that would be copyright infringement :0. Rest assured, they have a blend of simple and complex questions.
8.
In class compendium - this is the in-class workbook with passages for all subjects that you complete in class. It's basically just more passages to complete, and you discuss the answers in class (the answers are in the book however).
9.
Other online materials - PR has untimed practice CBT passages online divided by subjects and topics. Useful when you know you need work on a specific subject.
10.
Class Syllabus - It sounds silly to include this, but this is actually a major reason why taking the course is helpful. Having a syllabus helps so much when you are trying to figure out how you need to study. Work a summer job and don't have 6 hours to do tons of problems? TPR (and any prep course for that matter) will help you figure out what you need to be doing to stay on track.
Overall impressions/opinions
I am very satisfied with how easy it was for me to relearn physics and general chemistry just by working hard and reading PR's Hyperlearning review books. The biggest thing that I'm noticing (feel free to think differently) is that PR's diagnostics are very similar in content and question structure to the AAMC diagnostics that I have completed *only diags 3-5 at this point. I wish I could compare specific questions from PR and Kaplan and EK but I will not due to all the copyright stuff. Basically, what I'm seeing in my limited experience with PR and with other materials is that PR attempts to be very accurate and representative of the real MCAT in their questions and passages with nothing more and nothing less. There is a blend of hard and easy in their practice materials. I'm doing the practice AAMC's right now and everything just feels like another PR diagnostic. From the way PR constructed the application to display the exam to the way the diagnostic is given and presented in terms of question wording - in my opinion, it's pretty close to what I've seen thus far on AAMC stuff. If I'm being misled in this assumption, correct me before I take this thing!.
PR offers a good amount of material to practice on, and you won't ever feel like you need more work to complete if you just take the course alone.
While the majority of PR's materials are good, some things are just disappointing considering the amount of money that you pay for the course itself, which can run around 1800-1900 dollars. There are two main things that Princeton Review could be criticized for, including
1. Their verbal reasoning strategy: let's face it, this is a common gripe about Princeton Review. The verbal workbook offers great passages and practice, but PR's verbal reasoning strategy and mantra is not beneficial to the average student. The verbal strategy takes too much practice and new memorization in a short amount of time to implement it to the fullest extent. It is a slow method if not well practiced, but it does help you be aware of certain traps and trick answers. The writing sample prep in the same book is decent, PR has good advice here.
2. Their technology and website functionality: Have a Macbook? Yeah? You're pretty cool then with Safari and all that, right? Well PR doesn't seem to think so. You can only use Firefox versions 1.5 or 2.00 (creaky old grandpa versions) and Internet explorer 6, 7, and 8 as of now. No big deal, you can use Firefox on mac or pc - the real complaint I have is that sometimes the outdated browsers will mess up and not display the full screen pop-up that is supposed to appear when you want to take an online diagnostic. It will cover most of the screen, but still have a little space inserted between the window and the side of the screen. This results in not being able to view the entire last line of text in a passage since you can't extend the window downwards. Anyways, this might be just my own personal computer issue. It has worked fine the majority of times, it just gets frustrating when you know that PR could be keeping things current with things like iPhone apps, new browsers, and cool futuristic technologies like Powerpoint so I don't have to decipher my instructors icky handwriting - but they haven't done much besides push their written materials from what I have seen.
3. The course itself
My experience with the PR Hyperlearning course in the Nashville facility is that it is useful for general review of the MCAT topics after reading what will be discussed in the class, not for learning secret tactics on how to take the MCAT or for learning any material outside of PR's review books. PR expects you to learn most of the strategies on your own time with the diagnostics and passages. When I took it, it was not specifically a question and answer course. It was a course with around 15 students and 1 instructor specialized for each of the topics of the MCAT. Verbal on Mondays, Biology on Tuesdays....etc. Basically, each class consisted of reviewing the major subjects in a chapter - for example, pressure and fluids was a chapter that took up 1 of the physics nights. The instructor started off by writing an outline of the lecture on one side of the board and would cover the main concepts and equations - we would do 1 to 2 passages in the in class compendium about the subject we were learning. The course does not review little details, and only reviews main concepts. From what I observed, the instructors had specific instructions on what to cover during each session. The instructors also offered office hours on certain days or before class.
Instructors: Obviously this is specific to each location and prep company, so I can't provide a general basis as to the qualifications of other instructors in other areas. For any MCAT prep course, the instructor is limited by their control of the subject and what their prep company expects them to teach. My instructors weren't amazing or highly qualified, but to their credit, they were friendly and respectful and laid back. I didn't feel inferior to them and they were very supportive of everyone. My instructors included classmates who were accepted into medical school and "did well" on the MCAT, including WashU, Case Western, and UofFlorida acceptances. One surprising thing, I had an instructor who never took the MCAT who taught our verbal section - she was good at it, but then again, it's PR's verbal section. After hearing all the meh reviews of PR's strategy, it was hard to take that section seriously. In reality, I mainly attended that section for the practice passages in class. Having good instructors is hit or miss. My instructors were friendly, but we had 2 classes in a row or postponed because the instructor couldn't make their section due to emergencies - which is understandable, but frustrating. The instructors have a set outline that they need to cover, so regardless of their quality, they need to at least have covered that material.
Facilities -
Okay, I can't speak to every other PR facility around the nation, but Nashville's needed a little touch up and love. The instructors used dry erase markers on whiteboards and many times wouldn't have more than 2 markers with ink still left in them. The A/C had intermittent problems, and there were times where construction was going on the building or there were weird noises coming from the pipes in the walls. So, while not ghettoish in every aspect, for 2000 dollars, I thought it was going to be a nicer facility than it was even with low expectations. It wasn't a complete disaster, it looked modern, desks and chairs and lighting were all fine. It's just that the place needed some renovations (which they were in the process of doing at the same exact time I took the course). Other PR facilities could probably be brand spanking new or dilapidated. This isn't a big deal, and shouldn't be the main reason why you decide to take the course or not.
Homework and preparation
The PR syllabus does a great job keeping you on track. You'll only be required to do around 10-15 passages each night along with reading the next day's chapter or chapters. The most I ever read in one night was 115 pages. Most chapters are around 40-60 pages (good amount of material though). That's about 3-5 hours of straight studying and reading. Study more than that, get ahead, no problem. I never was asked to turn in homework, it was just expected by the instructors that you would do it if you were paying 2000 for it. I didn't view the course as requiring too much effort mainly because I had a large amount of time to give to it. It will be problematic, however, if you are occupied with outside jobs and research. I'm of the opinion that when you decide to take a PR review course for 2000 dollars, it should be your main focus, especially if you need a complete review for the MCAT. Half-assing your studying will not get you the results and improvement you desire, obviously. I did research occasionally and was a summer resident adviser while taking the course, and didn't feel too stressed through it all besides anxiousness for the real thing.
BIG POINTS TO TAKE HOME ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE OF THE PRINCETON REVIEW
1. It's not always what materials or courses you choose to utilize for the MCAT, it's about your work ethic and commitment to successful study strategies for the MCAT. Writing a bajillion notecards with concepts and facts I often forget has helped me greatly - some might think of this as a waste of time. Choosing Kaplan/PR/EK/BR does nothing if you don't put in the effort to get something out of it. Test day performance matters as well, so while I'm running my mouth on how I think the PR has helped me feel confident, I could be totally unprepared or I could be more than ready. Take things I said with that grain of salt.
2. I wrote this thing because I wanted to provide detailed info on the Princeton Review course, which is a topic that frequents the boards. Please understand that I mean everything in this with the best intentions as just a regular person and that I do not endorse or support any test prep company over another. I see each prep company as having advantages and disadvantages to using their materials, the student needs to fill in the blanks with good stress management and study habits.
3. The Princeton Review is a solid prep option for the MCAT, if you know what to expect from them. From what their materials suggest, they are concerned with customer feedback - in which I will forward this whole essay thread to them detailing my thoughts.
4. Even though I went on and on and tried to sound like an authority and gave my opinion on this and that, I'm well aware that having a solid real MCAT score would give my subjective opinions more credence. That's everyone's real indicator of "should I use PR or not?" in my opinion. I'll update with new info if this thread isn't deleted and actually becomes useful to some people.
***So, get to the point, should I take the Princeton Review Course or just stick with buying the books and doing the work by myself?***
Let's say that my MCAT goes well and my experience was what it was -
I would not have taken the classroom course having experienced what it really entails, but I would definitely buy or find copies the Hyperlearning books and dedicate myself to understanding them. I think that having a set schedule that does not cram everything in a couple of weeks could have worked just fine. Having access to many diagnostics is very important as well. In my experience, the course was not helpful for relearning or totally going into detail about the subjects - this is something that the Hyperlearning books do well and they don't necessitate an instructor to understand hard concepts. Electricity and Magnetism, pffft, PR books make it easy.
BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT.......
My personal opinion is that if you have $2000 to spend, it wouldn't harm you to take the course, it will only help. It's not like taking the course is going to hamper your own personal studying since you would be completing the review materials anyway if you purchased everything. The diagnostics and the review books offered were excellent - if you can get these in another, legal, way then do it. Having an instructor who has been through the process and can answer questions is a reassuring thing. The quality of instructors and facilities is bound to vary though, so you should check to see what type of instructor you will have. The class only takes two and a half hours out of your schedule, so you are free to study the entire day using PR, EK, BR, Kaplan materials all you want. The question of which prep company is better is very (not completely) subjective since each offers different methods and strategies which suit different types of needs.
If anything on here makes people want to scream in my face for reasons I don't know, I'm sorry! This is just one opinion and opinions differ. Hope you all find something in here of use as you consider your options for MCAT test prep. Sorry for any obvious typohs and errars that are in here. I figured I could try and contribute my two cents! I hope we all do well on our MCAT's and achieve our dreams and go do amazing things and all that fun stuff. Take care.
Consider this a personal experience filled with my well intentioned opinions and pick info which you consider relevant and reliable (I'm trying to flame-proof this thread - I hope it works). I'm taking a break from MCAT studying to write this because I realize that the whole Kaplan vs. PR vs. EK vs. BR thread is one of the most repeated threads in SDN with little in depth detail of what a course might entail. I apologize if I'm breaking any type of forum code by posting my MCAT diagnostic scores or making good ol' PR angry or happy. Here goes, these are my experiences and opinions about PR to help you learn more about the program, take everything with a grain of salt.
I am going to talk about: 1. My background/stats and how the course has helped me 2. Quality of practice materials compared to what else I've seen and used 3. A usual day in a PR course/instructors/facilities....etc. 4. Big points to consider + my end result (will be edited in later if possible)
Only when I receive my MCAT score will I truly be able to tell if the course helped me prepare as much as possible. Having great materials will not increase your score at all if you do not utilize them properly. That being understood, I can describe my experience thus far with the PR course and my progress in several diagnostics and AAMC practice exams. Is this process completely dependent on the individual? Completely, you could have a better study strategy or just be smarter than I am. The opposite is true as well. Remember, just because you choose resources from EK, PR , BR, or Kaplan - it doesn't 100% guarantee a great score. A good MCAT score comes from natural ability, hard work with comprehensive study practices - and frankly, luck. Thus, my results thus far are MY results thus far. Someone could take PR and start off amazing or terrible and finish amazing or terrible. There is so much more to the big picture than just 1 course.
1 - My background/stats
I will be a 5th year senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology/Spanish and minoring in Chemistry and Medicine, Health, and Society. I'm taking the fifth year due to the fact that I had a poor study method (with a great work ethic) that didn't work so well for the core BCPM courses - I went from being a B/C+ student as a freshman and sophomore to being a B+ student my junior year - then I developed a new study strategy and have received straight A's my senior year. This fifth year will allow me to demonstrate to medical schools that I can handle the tougher courses such as Biochemistry and Immunology and that my past mistakes were a result of being ill-prepared in regards to study tactics rather than my actual ability to comprehend the material. I do research in a cancer lab, and I am active on campus as a Head Resident of a freshman dormitory. I was not the perfect little angel student coming into college - I came from a low end school where I breezed by with little effort and did not develop proper study methods. Combine this with me trying to do a ridiculous amount of extracurriculars during freshman and soph year and the result was that I received C's the first time I took Orgo (retaken with two A's). I have a B+/C in physics, a B+/C+ in General Chemistry, and a C+/B+ in Biology with a retake of the C+ to a B+ (Thought I was 20 points above the curve with an easy A, but the professor retracted his decision to curve - sticking me with the 88, grr) I have A's in Parasitology, Microbial Population Biology, and Cellular Neurobiology from my senior year.
Current overall stats are a school reported 3.36 cGPA (3.42 AMCAS cGPA) with a current AMCAS sGPA of 3.18. If I do well in my fifth year - I can ultimately end up with a 3.54 cGPA with a 3.38 sGPA. Not the most amazing stats, but hopefully a solid MCAT in addition to great extracurriculars and the great LORs I have been blessed with will help inch me in to some of my state schools and maybe some mid-tier OOS school acceptances. I am not a URM, and I am from IL. Everything I just said may be unimportant, I'm just giving you an understanding of the type of student I was coming into the course.
1-2: Did the course help me?
I took the Princeton Review course because I assumed that the course would teach all the material and study strategies for the MCAT. I assumed that my teachers would be qualified professors and not students. I assumed that close 1 on 1 contact with teachers was possible. I assumed that I would go from nearly crapping my pants when physics and chemistry were mentioned to standing like a champion over a defeated MCAT spitting in its face and doing funny dances over it. Did I assume right? Let's see.
A week from taking the MCAT, I feel confident. I know that I can easily do fine on the MCAT with about a 30 by just doing my thing, but I'm striving for a 35+ (and who on SDN isn't striving for the best?). Am I prepared to do it seeing that I barely understood let alone remembered Physics and Gen. Chem prior to the course? Sure, PR has definitely prepared me for everything I have seen *thus far* and in my opinion, their practice diagnostics are the closest resemblance to the practice AAMC MCATs offered online. I have used EK, Kaplan, and PR materials and all obviously have advantages/disadvantages. Once I finished reviewing using the Hyperlearning books (nothing else) and made personal notecards (over 1000 :-O), I went from receiving 24's-29's to 30+'s. I started May 10th with the course and will take the July 29th MCAT. I usually put in 5-6 hours a day outside of the course on the homework (11 a.m. to 4-6 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m.-7 p.m on weekends including diagnostics). So, with the help of PR's materials, I feel academically prepared for the MCAT - the biggest thing now is to manage the stress, realize that this "little" exam can be retaken even though evaluations by the adcomms of the retake vary, and use my time effectively when I take the MCAT. No one, including me, can see into the future and say exactly if the MCAT will go amazing, fine, or meh. I'm staying hopeful and trying to be realistic, but can I say truthfully that PR has prepared me for everything? I *think* so, but remember that I still haven't taken the real deal yet, and I will post later in detail how I felt taking the real thing and the results I achieved. I could do terrible on the real thing, but does that change my experience of PR or the quality of their materials? No, preparing for the exam requires the total package - dealing with stress, total preparation, questions given on the exam, and personal factors. I'll stop blabbing the same point over and over now.
Included below are the results of the diagnostics I have taken thus far, thus emphasizing my progress from being completely unprepared to feeling like a champion. You should view the AAMC diagnostics more closely because according to popular rumor and word of mouth from my PR instructor - PR purposely makes you take their diagnostic in the first 3 weeks of the course (you don't have to, but to be eligible for the refund I think you need to - check me on this). It's one of their medium/hard exams, but you will find it extremely difficult if you haven't studied everything or have little recollection from your core courses. Rumor is that PR scales your grade harder on the 1st diagnostic and the grading gets easier towards the latter half. I can't speak if this is true or not, diagnostics just went better with more preparation and review. I believe that PR tells you that if you don't do better on your MCAT than you did on your 1st diagnostic or are unsatisfied in any way, you can retake the course. It's a nice reminder, but when they purposely make it so that you go into the first diagnostic with little experience and knowledge, it's routine to do poorly. I can understand that they want students to gauge how much PR has helped them at the end of the course, but if they really utilize a harder scaled score in the beginning and grade easier toward the end, I find it useless as a diagnostic of your academic preparation (granted the grading rumor is true). I didn't like the idea of taking the diagnostics prior to reviewing and studying all the material, but it was good practice for getting over the "fear" of the MCAT and understanding the stamina and focus needed to do well. So, pros and cons in the way they want you to complete diagnostics, I understand their reasoning and my opinion is that you should definitely do every diagnostic possible - it would give PR a whole new goal to strive for if they could improve students scores after a complete review by providing instruction on useful test-taking strategies and providing options for basic concept review and advanced concept review, but my view is probably unrealistic :-/
Sure, the grading rumor could be true, but I've done alright thus far and every test I have taken I have improved - with few exceptions. I did the PR diagnostics all in order.
D-1 B:8 P:5 V:6
D-2 B:10 P:4 V:6
D-3 B:10 P:6 V:7
D-4 B:10 P:8 V:9
D-5 B:10 P:9 V:9
D-6 B:11 P:10 V:10 Hurray! My first diag >30!
D-7 B:11 P:12 V:11
D-8 (PR's self labeled "hard" one) B:11 P:8 V:6
(Not so good to have this ego crush before the actual exam, but it does a good job of making you feel panicked and stressed when you actually take the exam and your mind and heart race.)
D-9 B:11 P:12 V:9 (The one they offer for free on the website)
AAMC practice exams offered by PR - AAMC 3-10
AAMC 3 - I took this one before PR D-3 to see what I would actually do, and then I get all this shebang about it being the easiest one. This could be true - but some claim it's harder at the time due to lack of having reviewed anything yet) B:9 P:10 V:10
My last two practice exams (about a week before the actual MCAT having reviewed all the PR material and put in a good amount of work
AAMC 4: B:9 P:11 V:10 I was hoping for better on this one.
AAMC 5: B:12 P:13 V:11 The last diagnostic I finished. Hope the end result is like this.
*****I still have AAMC 6-10 left to do, and those are probably the most important in predicting end results, but I think you can see the improvement from just May to July.
All grading scale rumors aside, I have improved my score from a 19 to a 36 according the the diagnostics I have taken (with a strong upward trend). I feel like I know what I need to know, and time will only tell if I do well on the real thing. I am satisfied with how PR has helped me to prepare for the MCAT. This is my own opinion of the Princeton Review as a preparatory aid, not of the the class. Take it as you wish.
2. Materials
Constant debate will occur about which materials are the best to buy. I won't say that anything is the best or the worst - because it's all relative based on your abilities and needs. That said, I have used a Kaplan MCAT practice test book, the Kaplan MCAT in a box set, the EK review books, the EK 1001 Q series, and the EK Mini-MCAT collection.
Compared to preparation with materials from PR, my opinion is that -
1.
Kaplan's MCAT in a box set is of little use except for some term review, it's not the greatest tool in my opinion compared to some review books. Low on time, as in the MCAT is the next day? Then I would look at these.
2.
EK material is solid and helpful, especially the Mini-MCAT book. However, their books and practice materials have SO....MANNY.....TYPOHSS. It gets frustrating after a while and I wish they would actually realize realize that their words were duplicated in some of their questions. If the AAMC 3-5 exams are considered to be a model for the knowledge the MCAT necessitates, then it seems like the 1001 Q series does an excellent job of providing practice for concepts, even if some of the questions involve too much calculation compared to the MCAT or are more difficult than the average MCAT question.
3.
I have not used BR materials, nor did I even know such a company existed until I visited this site! I can't attest to anything they have.
*Remember, these are just my opinions, use whatever you find best to help you if you are looking at my info. I don't have enough experience with Kaplan, EK, and BR to say they would be better or worse than PR. Kaplan exams, to me, seem to include concepts that would not be on a real MCAT, which is why I have strayed from using them I guess. Back to the point, I think the majority of PR Hyperlearning materials are excellent and for the most part, very truthful to the structure of offered AAMC exams.
For people interested in the PR Hyperlearning course, here are the materials they offer and how I found them helpful or not compared to other resources that I have utilized. Remember, this is only one opinion.
1.
Online access to PR diags 1-9 and AAMC diags 3-10 (most helpful)
2.
Science workbook - this is a huge ~1000 page book they give you that contains Chem, Phys, Orgo, and Bio practice questions and passages both for personal study and homework. The explanations of answer choices for the questions are straightforward solutions and the explanations for the passages usually describe the correct answer and why the other answer choices are incorrect.
Physics - 425 standalone questions and 62 passages
General Chemistry - 92 standalone questions and 93 passages
Biology - 146 standalone questions and 87 passages
Organic Chemistry - 138 standalone questions and 45 passages.
3.
Verbal workbook - 43 passages along with 4 practice tests consisting of 7 passages each.
4.
Physical Sciences review book - this is another huge book that contains physics and general chemistry review materials. The pages and text are in black and white - but that's not a bad thing! They box out important equations and provide review sheets at the end of each chapter with the important equations. Distributed throughout the chapters are occasional questions that will test understanding - and they really help. From what I've seen, PR has covered everything described in the MCAT topics list on AAMC's website. They also included a basic math review at the end for the math that is necessary on the MCAT.
5.
Biological Sciences review book - the other huge review book styled in the same fashion as the physical sciences review book. This one has Biology and Organic Chemistry. Has a review sheet at the end of the Orgo reactions they think you should know.
6.
Verbal and Writing Review: a smaller book much along the lines of EK's verbal and math review style. They offer tips and tricks on how to do well, and as you will find out later, some are more valuable than others.
7.
Study Guide - PR gives you a 6-7 page paper booklet loaded with hundreds of questions designed to pick at your memory. They try to make you remember the basic concepts. I can't say any questions because that would be copyright infringement :0. Rest assured, they have a blend of simple and complex questions.
8.
In class compendium - this is the in-class workbook with passages for all subjects that you complete in class. It's basically just more passages to complete, and you discuss the answers in class (the answers are in the book however).
9.
Other online materials - PR has untimed practice CBT passages online divided by subjects and topics. Useful when you know you need work on a specific subject.
10.
Class Syllabus - It sounds silly to include this, but this is actually a major reason why taking the course is helpful. Having a syllabus helps so much when you are trying to figure out how you need to study. Work a summer job and don't have 6 hours to do tons of problems? TPR (and any prep course for that matter) will help you figure out what you need to be doing to stay on track.
Overall impressions/opinions
I am very satisfied with how easy it was for me to relearn physics and general chemistry just by working hard and reading PR's Hyperlearning review books. The biggest thing that I'm noticing (feel free to think differently) is that PR's diagnostics are very similar in content and question structure to the AAMC diagnostics that I have completed *only diags 3-5 at this point. I wish I could compare specific questions from PR and Kaplan and EK but I will not due to all the copyright stuff. Basically, what I'm seeing in my limited experience with PR and with other materials is that PR attempts to be very accurate and representative of the real MCAT in their questions and passages with nothing more and nothing less. There is a blend of hard and easy in their practice materials. I'm doing the practice AAMC's right now and everything just feels like another PR diagnostic. From the way PR constructed the application to display the exam to the way the diagnostic is given and presented in terms of question wording - in my opinion, it's pretty close to what I've seen thus far on AAMC stuff. If I'm being misled in this assumption, correct me before I take this thing!.
PR offers a good amount of material to practice on, and you won't ever feel like you need more work to complete if you just take the course alone.
While the majority of PR's materials are good, some things are just disappointing considering the amount of money that you pay for the course itself, which can run around 1800-1900 dollars. There are two main things that Princeton Review could be criticized for, including
1. Their verbal reasoning strategy: let's face it, this is a common gripe about Princeton Review. The verbal workbook offers great passages and practice, but PR's verbal reasoning strategy and mantra is not beneficial to the average student. The verbal strategy takes too much practice and new memorization in a short amount of time to implement it to the fullest extent. It is a slow method if not well practiced, but it does help you be aware of certain traps and trick answers. The writing sample prep in the same book is decent, PR has good advice here.
2. Their technology and website functionality: Have a Macbook? Yeah? You're pretty cool then with Safari and all that, right? Well PR doesn't seem to think so. You can only use Firefox versions 1.5 or 2.00 (creaky old grandpa versions) and Internet explorer 6, 7, and 8 as of now. No big deal, you can use Firefox on mac or pc - the real complaint I have is that sometimes the outdated browsers will mess up and not display the full screen pop-up that is supposed to appear when you want to take an online diagnostic. It will cover most of the screen, but still have a little space inserted between the window and the side of the screen. This results in not being able to view the entire last line of text in a passage since you can't extend the window downwards. Anyways, this might be just my own personal computer issue. It has worked fine the majority of times, it just gets frustrating when you know that PR could be keeping things current with things like iPhone apps, new browsers, and cool futuristic technologies like Powerpoint so I don't have to decipher my instructors icky handwriting - but they haven't done much besides push their written materials from what I have seen.
3. The course itself
My experience with the PR Hyperlearning course in the Nashville facility is that it is useful for general review of the MCAT topics after reading what will be discussed in the class, not for learning secret tactics on how to take the MCAT or for learning any material outside of PR's review books. PR expects you to learn most of the strategies on your own time with the diagnostics and passages. When I took it, it was not specifically a question and answer course. It was a course with around 15 students and 1 instructor specialized for each of the topics of the MCAT. Verbal on Mondays, Biology on Tuesdays....etc. Basically, each class consisted of reviewing the major subjects in a chapter - for example, pressure and fluids was a chapter that took up 1 of the physics nights. The instructor started off by writing an outline of the lecture on one side of the board and would cover the main concepts and equations - we would do 1 to 2 passages in the in class compendium about the subject we were learning. The course does not review little details, and only reviews main concepts. From what I observed, the instructors had specific instructions on what to cover during each session. The instructors also offered office hours on certain days or before class.
Instructors: Obviously this is specific to each location and prep company, so I can't provide a general basis as to the qualifications of other instructors in other areas. For any MCAT prep course, the instructor is limited by their control of the subject and what their prep company expects them to teach. My instructors weren't amazing or highly qualified, but to their credit, they were friendly and respectful and laid back. I didn't feel inferior to them and they were very supportive of everyone. My instructors included classmates who were accepted into medical school and "did well" on the MCAT, including WashU, Case Western, and UofFlorida acceptances. One surprising thing, I had an instructor who never took the MCAT who taught our verbal section - she was good at it, but then again, it's PR's verbal section. After hearing all the meh reviews of PR's strategy, it was hard to take that section seriously. In reality, I mainly attended that section for the practice passages in class. Having good instructors is hit or miss. My instructors were friendly, but we had 2 classes in a row or postponed because the instructor couldn't make their section due to emergencies - which is understandable, but frustrating. The instructors have a set outline that they need to cover, so regardless of their quality, they need to at least have covered that material.
Facilities -
Okay, I can't speak to every other PR facility around the nation, but Nashville's needed a little touch up and love. The instructors used dry erase markers on whiteboards and many times wouldn't have more than 2 markers with ink still left in them. The A/C had intermittent problems, and there were times where construction was going on the building or there were weird noises coming from the pipes in the walls. So, while not ghettoish in every aspect, for 2000 dollars, I thought it was going to be a nicer facility than it was even with low expectations. It wasn't a complete disaster, it looked modern, desks and chairs and lighting were all fine. It's just that the place needed some renovations (which they were in the process of doing at the same exact time I took the course). Other PR facilities could probably be brand spanking new or dilapidated. This isn't a big deal, and shouldn't be the main reason why you decide to take the course or not.
Homework and preparation
The PR syllabus does a great job keeping you on track. You'll only be required to do around 10-15 passages each night along with reading the next day's chapter or chapters. The most I ever read in one night was 115 pages. Most chapters are around 40-60 pages (good amount of material though). That's about 3-5 hours of straight studying and reading. Study more than that, get ahead, no problem. I never was asked to turn in homework, it was just expected by the instructors that you would do it if you were paying 2000 for it. I didn't view the course as requiring too much effort mainly because I had a large amount of time to give to it. It will be problematic, however, if you are occupied with outside jobs and research. I'm of the opinion that when you decide to take a PR review course for 2000 dollars, it should be your main focus, especially if you need a complete review for the MCAT. Half-assing your studying will not get you the results and improvement you desire, obviously. I did research occasionally and was a summer resident adviser while taking the course, and didn't feel too stressed through it all besides anxiousness for the real thing.
BIG POINTS TO TAKE HOME ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE OF THE PRINCETON REVIEW
1. It's not always what materials or courses you choose to utilize for the MCAT, it's about your work ethic and commitment to successful study strategies for the MCAT. Writing a bajillion notecards with concepts and facts I often forget has helped me greatly - some might think of this as a waste of time. Choosing Kaplan/PR/EK/BR does nothing if you don't put in the effort to get something out of it. Test day performance matters as well, so while I'm running my mouth on how I think the PR has helped me feel confident, I could be totally unprepared or I could be more than ready. Take things I said with that grain of salt.
2. I wrote this thing because I wanted to provide detailed info on the Princeton Review course, which is a topic that frequents the boards. Please understand that I mean everything in this with the best intentions as just a regular person and that I do not endorse or support any test prep company over another. I see each prep company as having advantages and disadvantages to using their materials, the student needs to fill in the blanks with good stress management and study habits.
3. The Princeton Review is a solid prep option for the MCAT, if you know what to expect from them. From what their materials suggest, they are concerned with customer feedback - in which I will forward this whole essay thread to them detailing my thoughts.
4. Even though I went on and on and tried to sound like an authority and gave my opinion on this and that, I'm well aware that having a solid real MCAT score would give my subjective opinions more credence. That's everyone's real indicator of "should I use PR or not?" in my opinion. I'll update with new info if this thread isn't deleted and actually becomes useful to some people.
***So, get to the point, should I take the Princeton Review Course or just stick with buying the books and doing the work by myself?***
Let's say that my MCAT goes well and my experience was what it was -
I would not have taken the classroom course having experienced what it really entails, but I would definitely buy or find copies the Hyperlearning books and dedicate myself to understanding them. I think that having a set schedule that does not cram everything in a couple of weeks could have worked just fine. Having access to many diagnostics is very important as well. In my experience, the course was not helpful for relearning or totally going into detail about the subjects - this is something that the Hyperlearning books do well and they don't necessitate an instructor to understand hard concepts. Electricity and Magnetism, pffft, PR books make it easy.
BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT.......
My personal opinion is that if you have $2000 to spend, it wouldn't harm you to take the course, it will only help. It's not like taking the course is going to hamper your own personal studying since you would be completing the review materials anyway if you purchased everything. The diagnostics and the review books offered were excellent - if you can get these in another, legal, way then do it. Having an instructor who has been through the process and can answer questions is a reassuring thing. The quality of instructors and facilities is bound to vary though, so you should check to see what type of instructor you will have. The class only takes two and a half hours out of your schedule, so you are free to study the entire day using PR, EK, BR, Kaplan materials all you want. The question of which prep company is better is very (not completely) subjective since each offers different methods and strategies which suit different types of needs.
If anything on here makes people want to scream in my face for reasons I don't know, I'm sorry! This is just one opinion and opinions differ. Hope you all find something in here of use as you consider your options for MCAT test prep. Sorry for any obvious typohs and errars that are in here. I figured I could try and contribute my two cents! I hope we all do well on our MCAT's and achieve our dreams and go do amazing things and all that fun stuff. Take care.
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