Genuine question, are these prep courses worth the 2000$+ price tag? What type of person would benefit most from them?
Genuine answer, for 33% of the population absolutely not, for 33% of the population they offer some utility, and for 33% of the population they are an absolute must. I've been teaching MCAT prep for many years and can say that ten years ago way too many people blindly took prep classes. There were basically four different companies spread across the nation (TBR, EK, TPR, and K), and all of us taught via live classroom instruction. Many students signed up for a class because they feared everyone else was getting something that they didn't want to miss out on. I felt like about half of the students in my class had no idea why they were there when they stepped in for opening day. While I believe everyone got something beneficial out of our classes, there were definitely some students that didn't need a full review course. They could have spent that time and money better.
About ten years ago, companies started offering "live on-line" classes, which was a creative way to cut costs and have hundreds of students paying a good chunk of money. It started as an alternative for people who lived many miles from a study center, but it quickly became what most companies promoted. By the time the new MCAT rolled around, the computer-based lessons were growing rapidly in popularity. They were marketed and presented in a brilliant way. They replaced the traditional live-instructor-in-a-classroom model rather quickly.
But over the last two to three years, many consumers realized that there are many resources out there, such as Khan, AK, and Chad videos. Paying over $2000 to watch someone on a computer screen doesn't make sense to most students. Traditional lecture-based live courses also took a hit. Because we have become more and more attached to our electronics and apps, live classroom instruction fell in popularity over the last three years. Nowadays there are arguably twenty-five to thirty different things you can do for MCAT preparation and many people mix and match. In my opinion though, there are now too many people choosing to not take a classroom-based program with live instruction that would have helped them.
I say this because the majority of students I see in classes now are out of school (average age is 26) and they have failed at preparing for the MCAT at least one time before. Just as students ten years ago flocked to classroom courses they may have not needed, today many students pass on courses that could have helped them. It takes a certain amount of maturity to figure out what works best for you. I still believe only a third of test-takers truly need a live classroom course, and it has to be a class with multiple experienced teachers who are experts in their subject matter.
Live instruction is still the best way to learn material, as many colleges are finding. If you learned the material well, then you should be studying on your own using books, selected videos, and AAMC materials. If you have gaps in your knowledge base or you struggle at the logic associated with test questions, then a course could potentially help a lot. I spend about a third of my time teaching lectures and about two-thirds working with students independently in office hours on questions they miss. Recognizing what they are doing wrong, how to look at things more logically, and how to think their way through questions (especially challenging ones) is what I hope they get out of class and office hours. I will say that almost 100% of the students choosing to take our class nowadays get a great deal out of it. The people today who choose to ignore the stigma of taking a prep course are ones who know with certainty they need a class, so they know how to get the most out of it.
I hope this perspective is helpful. If you don't think you need a class, then you probably don't. If you think a class fits your learning style, then you probably need one. Know yourself!
