PCAT Kaplan Course - Does it help? Here's your answer...

[Wan2BPharmD]

Okay, so a while I asked this very question (and a couple more related questions), but no one answered. I am assuming few people on the forum, if any, have taken the Kaplan course and then the PCAT. Afterwards, I saw that a few more people asked similar questions, with no replies. Well I took the Kaplan class, and took the PCAT today. Before I dive into what I thought of the class, I'm gonna give you my background so you know what my strengths and weaknesses were before even taking the class:

I should be finishing my BA in Biochem this coming year, God willing, so I am pretty comfortable with general chemistry, but I kinda BSed my way through Orgo. Before taking the class though, I read through an Orgo book and sort of re-taught it to myself. I've gone up to Calc III, so I have a strong math background. My bio is okay...I took Cell bio and micro, but got a crappy grade in micro. I've been told that I write really well, but my vocabulary isn't great.

Keeping all of that in mind, this is my outlook on the Kaplan course:

• Kaplan isn't really there to TEACH anything. It's a good review, but not so great if it's your first time looking at the material (in case that's what you're looking for).
• I don't think the class is necessary, unless you are really confused with stuff and don't know where/how to begin. They organize a lesson plan for you so you don't have to. Really, you could just do it yourself and study the material on your own. My instructor wasn't the best, and I felt like I knew more than he did, so maybe it also depends on your instructor.
• Kaplan DOES help your test taking skills. Because they have so many practice exams, they really help you learn to pace yourself. This also helps you to learn to stay calm during exams, so you don't freak out on test day.
• One thing Kaplan REALLY helped me with was the verbal section. They taught skills (which maybe can be found in other sources, I don't know) that really help you answer questions if you are unsure of definitions, based on context.
• Being able to do very quick calculations in your head is key, and Kaplan helps with this. Maybe it was my instructor, because his math seemed pretty good, but he taught us tricks on working fast in your head.

Verbal - Great (but you need a lot of time if you want to increase your vocab)
Bio - Horrible. They definitely do not spend enough time with it. Spend MUCH more time on micro and possibly physiology
Chem - Pretty good. They over-prepare you, so on test day everything seems way easy (although there was more chem on the exam than expected)
Reading Comp - Pretty good. They teach you little things to help you increase comprehension skills.
Math - Not bad. I had a strong math background already, so I don't know how much I can speak on this portion.

All in all, you can probably buy the Kaplan books and study off of them and get the same info (except for verbal. the verbal skills were mostly taught in class), IF you are willing to organize study slots and study effectively without having someone give you a curriculum.

The most helpful thing, in my opinion, are practice questions. Kaplan gives you many online workshops and quizzes for each subject within subjects (i.e. probability in math, or solutions in chemistry). After that, they have lots of practice tests on subjects themselves. Finally, they give you two full length PCAT practice tests. This practice is key to doing well on the PCAT. My conclusion is that it's not entirely what you know, but it's how fast you can take what you know and apply it to the test.

I don't know if $1300 is really worth it. If you get a good instructor, it might be. It's a bit borderline. Take what you can based on your background, what I said about my background and the class, and decide for yourself. If nothing else, it may give you some peace of mind knowing that you had some sort of preparation from an "official prep course."

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any specific questions. I'll try to add on to this if I remember anything else important.

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[eric4321]

I have quite a lot of PCAT prep materials so I can compare:

1st of all, the $1300 Kaplan course is a waste of money, compared to the $40 Kaplan prep book [amazon.com] or the Dr. Collins south-florida prep course. I know a guy whose wife works for Kaplan & she got all excited when she found out I was using the prep book & had a lab partner who took the expensive course. The Kaplan teacher told me that no one is allowed to teach a course without first acing the test – 100% score. This conflicts with what's been posted elsewhere.

My lab partner spent 2-3 weeks on the expensive Kaplan course, took the pcat one time [January 2007] and got a 83% composite score, got accepted to UF. Then she gave me all her printed Kaplan stuff:

-a thick purple Review book with a huge Organic section
-a thinner Lesson book with practice tests given in small doses
-a ton of Kaplan flash cards: Verbal, GenChem, OrgChem, Bio, Math

The bio & chem reviews are exhaustive, so is the bio. Other than Organic they are the same as the $40 book. The math sections of both Kaplan books are now completely obsolete. For flash cards, the bio is the best/hardest, the math is obsolete. I'm glad I spent less time on math than anything else because focusing on chem & bio for sure helped my composite on yesterday's pcat. More hours on Kaplan math would've been 75% wasted time.

Another friend gave me copies of AudioLearn pcat cd's – they are very good, should've listened to them more. GenChem is the best, you should sit in front of your stereo with your textbook and look up everything as they talk about it. Next best is the Anatomy CD – skip the first 2 sections & listen to the rest many times. Has a ton of stuff on kidneys, enzymes, hormones, and glands. There's a Bio cd and an Organic cd – okay but not as useful as the Chem and Anatomy.


I've seen some of the Collins prep materials and the most helpful part is the Chem practice tests. They don't show you how to solve for the solutions but the REA book does show many of these problem types & solutions.


I bought Flashcard Secrets for pcat, and Barron's pcat book: both were money wasted, glad I didn't spend much time on them. Bought REA Interactive Flash Cards – okay for chem, useless for math, too easy for bio, all in all it makes you overconfident. I bought an AP Calculus prep book after the pcat was over yesterday, then yet another friend – on a math scholarship – told me she would prep me for calculus & trig herself. Lessons learned? It's good to have friends, and, sometimes the best stuff is free.

For many, the biggest help to their composite score will be test-taking strategy [$40], a stopwatch, and knowing the English language. If you have a 3.8+, a lot of the real pcat will seem simple because you did the work already. Review shouldn't cost you 1300 bucks.

 

[omnione]

I heard that Kaplan prefers instructors with a 90+ in the section they want to teach. By the way, a 100 percentile is impossible to achieve on the PCAT or on any exam that uses percentiles as it implies that you did better than yourself.😉

 

[magenta1]

i bought the pcat secrets book. it had some good general test taking strategies, but overall not worth it. also it was for the old pcat and i spent time learning geometry equations etc that i didnt not realize werent on the exam anymore...

the BEST way to study is taking the classes!! i cannot stress enough how much i remembered from class. definitely review your notes to study, but learning it in class before is the best best best thing you can do, and you already need the classes to apply to pharm school, so thats basically "free" (youre paying for it anyway lol)

most important classes: inorganic and organic chem, gen bio, micro, anatomy and phys, calc

reading comp is practice practice practice and verbal is studying some words and knowing where they are trying to go with the relationship. i really would not put that much time into worrying about vocab. there were maybe 5 words i didnt know on the august pcat, and i would say i do NOT really have a good vocabulary.

 

[AmericanDesi]

I agree..I'm so glad I saved most of my notes and didn't throw them out..the more practice the better..and seeing the material from a different viewpoint other than kaplan def. helps.

Save your textbooks, too!

 

[cuedee]

I have quite a lot of PCAT prep materials so I can compare:

1st of all, the $1300 Kaplan course is a waste of money, compared to the $40 Kaplan prep book [amazon.com] or the Dr. Collins south-florida prep course. I know a guy whose wife works for Kaplan & she got all excited when she found out I was using the prep book & had a lab partner who took the expensive course. The Kaplan teacher told me that no one is allowed to teach a course without first acing the test – 100% score. This conflicts with what’s been posted elsewhere.

My lab partner spent 2-3 weeks on the expensive Kaplan course, took the pcat one time [January 2007] and got a 83% composite score, got accepted to UF. Then she gave me all her printed Kaplan stuff:

-a thick purple Review book with a huge Organic section
-a thinner Lesson book with practice tests given in small doses
-a ton of Kaplan flash cards: Verbal, GenChem, OrgChem, Bio, Math

The bio & chem reviews are exhaustive, so is the bio. Other than Organic they are the same as the $40 book. The math sections of both Kaplan books are now completely obsolete. For flash cards, the bio is the best/hardest, the math is obsolete. I’m glad I spent less time on math than anything else because focusing on chem & bio for sure helped my composite on yesterday’s pcat. More hours on Kaplan math would’ve been 75% wasted time.

Another friend gave me copies of AudioLearn pcat cd's – they are very good, should’ve listened to them more. GenChem is the best, you should sit in front of your stereo with your textbook and look up everything as they talk about it. Next best is the Anatomy CD – skip the first 2 sections & listen to the rest many times. Has a ton of stuff on kidneys, enzymes, hormones, and glands. There’s a Bio cd and an Organic cd – okay but not as useful as the Chem and Anatomy.


Same friend gave me copies of SOME of Dr. Collins south-FL course. The best is the chem practice tests – Collins plus what I learned in Organic class made the real pcat seem easy. If you want to spend hundreds of dollars, here is where to spend it. Don’t know how good their Math is - I’m sure they need to re-write it considering what we saw yesterday. Friend said she saw most of the real Verbal on Collins already so that's good.


I bought Flashcard Secrets for pcat, and Barron’s pcat book: both were money wasted, glad I didn’t spend much time on them. Bought REA Interactive Flash Cards – okay for chem, useless for math, too easy for bio, all in all it makes you overconfident. I bought an AP Calculus prep book after the pcat was over yesterday, then yet another friend – on a math scholarship – told me she would prep me for calculus & trig herself. Lessons learned? It’s good to have friends, and, sometimes the best stuff is free.

For many, the biggest help to their composite score will be test-taking strategy [$40], a stopwatch, and knowing the English language. If you have a 3.8+, a lot of the real pcat will seem simple because you did the work already. Review shouldn't cost you 1300 bucks.

Thanks for the awesome review! I stumbled across the AudioLearn yesterday at Amazon. I'll have to check out Dr. Collins' material.

 

[KiranAB]

does the purple book with the organic chemistry have a isbn ?

 

[Knickerbocker]

I wish that there were more pre-pharms at my school so that I could try to get a job teaching the course.