Princeton Review Versus Kaplan

[UrbanHibiscus]

Hello,

I am deciding on whether to take a Princeton Review or Kaplan course to prepare for the MCAT. I was a non-science major and took the prereqs for med schools a couple years ago. I am pretty rusty right now in my basic sciences and so I was wondering, should I take a TPR course or Kaplan course? I heard TPR instructors actually all teach the material you need to know for the MCAT--which would be helpful for me. But I am also concerned, how good are the teachers who teach for TPR? Or is Kaplan sufficient if I study on my own and do all the practice?

Thanks!

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[jpnmed]

I can't speak for Kaplan, but I had a mixed experience with my Princeton Review courses. I really liked the materials that we had access to including excellent review books and practice questions. You also receive access to nine full length practice test from TPR plus access to the 8 full length AAMC tests that are available. That being said. I wasn't impressed with all the instructors, especially the physics and inorganic chemistry instructors. This was especially troubling to me because these were the areas that I needed the most work on. The other instructors for bio, o-chem, and verbal were excellent. I do know that TPR has more classroom sessions than Kaplan and I think that they are still priced about the same. Overall, I am glad that I took the TPR course because I got the score of 34 that I wanted on the actual exam. I took the course because I didn't believe that I had the motivation to study on my own. In the end, I was glad that I had the books to study from and the full-length tests to practice with. To the credit of Princeton Review, they did make an effort at the end of the course to offer a special review with different physics and inorganic chemistry instructors because of the dissatisfaction that our group conveyed to our local TPR representative.

 

[SN2ed]

About the teachers, it depends on your area. Ask people around your area who took either class or, better yet, sit in on a class.

In regards to the books, TPR is better than Kaplan in all sections. The only exception would be if you don't like the detailed approach to BS that TPR takes. TPR is significantly better than Kaplan in verbal.

For online material, I think Kaplan has TPR beat. It's not as large a difference as with the books, but they're better.

 

[LaCasta]

I took the Kaplan course and I had all the TPR hyperlearning books and used them both, so I can compare the two also. The TPR physical sciences section and bio section is definitely better than the Kaplan books. TPR physics has really good explanations, and the bio book is written well and has a good amount of details (you really do need at least some details to get a good understanding of the material).

Kaplan online material was very good as well. If you can get access to Kaplan online material and find the TPR books, I think its a good combination.

 

[mavi489]

so for a non major that has forgotten all of freshman chemistry and is now a senior finishing up the last core science, kaplan would be better? i fear i have forgotten the previous courses!!