Nonresponsive Berkeley Review customer service re online MCAT prep class

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MyOdyssey

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I read on SDN that Berkeley Review's offering its MCAT prep class online these days.

When I contacted Berkeley Review about this option, they never responded.

Does anyone know whether Berkeley Review's offering an online MCAT prep class?

Members don't see this ad.
 
I hopefully can address this. The website changed recently, so there is a chance you may have been reaching out to the outdated contact. Generally speaking, though, they are checking that one during the transition.

Six months ago we stood firmly of the opinion that live, in-person classes were the only way to conduct our course. With the pandemic hitting, though, we were forced to adjust and transition into a live, online format. On top of that, we were hit with a major tragedy behind the scenes, so we juggled chainsaws, torches, and bags of glass blindfolded while balancing on one leg.

Our Spring students were AMAZING with their unlimited positive attitude and patience as we transitioned. For two months they gave feedback and suggestions how to optimize the online presentation format. Much to our surprise, the energy of the lectures was still as powerful as ever. The chatbox offers a medium for shy students to ask questions, so we found that lectures were more engaged. The medium forced us to slow our pace a bit, which many students loved. The entire crisis and tragedy forced us to implement many long overdue changes, such as the new website and online options.

The Summer course is/was amazing. Students are/were so engaging and while we expected some attrition over the three month span of time, it ended up that we saw just the opposite. Rather than seeing some people stop attending, we instead saw several students attending select classes a second time. We saw more students in office hours. We had more extra review sessions being requested. Opposite of what we had expected online, we saw students using everything more.

So that is where we are now, as we finish the last of our Summer course and prepare for the Fall class. The lectures are honed in and modified for online. The reality we discovered is that great teachers will be great in any format you give them.

So to answer your question, yes, we have online classes. In fact, for the Fall, we will only be offering classes online. In the Spring we plan to move to a hybrid of in-person and online two locations. From this point forward, we will always offer a completely online version. We plan to keep the same class size restrictions we apply to in-person classes, because in any format, smaller class sizes equate to better learning.

The link GreenDuck posted (thank you) gives you general information about the program. If you want to know more detail, contact the office by phone. Feel free to PM me as well.
 
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I would have loved to have had the option for online. Not having to commute would have been such a huge help.
 
I would have loved to have had the option for online. Not having to commute would have been such a huge help.

I think that's a big driving force (no pun intended) for many people. An interesting observation I've made is that with in-person classes, students will either leave quickly after class to beat traffic or stay for an hour or more after class to wait out traffic. With online classes, people stay after to hear other peoples' questions without traffic stress, and you can literally feel the calmness. It's pretty cool.
 
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