Alexander99 said:
I work for Kaplan now so you can take my opinion as biased but even before I signed on with Kaplan, I knew that the Princeton Review teachers aren't even required to take the test they're teaching. That alone would have convinced me to use Kaplan had I taken a prep course at all (which I never did.)
While it may not be required that they take an MCAT, virtually all TPR teachers have. When I took the MCAT class in Houston, all of the teachers had taken the MCAT and had scored above the 98th percentile in the section their subject belonged to. I have to admit that doing well on the MCAT does not automatically guarantee that you'll be a good teacher. I would argue that a good SAT, LSAT, or GRE verbal teacher, with the proper training, could be an excellent MCAT VR teacher. And all TPR teachers go through a fairly detailed training process that includes teaching for a guru TPR MCAT teacher. My positive experience with TPR is what inspired me to teach for them. I now teach Physics and Verbal.
I completely agree that individual teachers do a lot to define the quality of the course. Do some research. I would ask people that have taken the courses in your areas to give you feedback on the local teachers for both TPR and Kaplan.
Concerning practice MCATs: Even though Kaplan may have 10 additional MCATs for you to peruse, there's the issue of diminishing returns. I would argue that 5 practice MCATs are sufficient to get you in the mindset for taking the actual exam. In my talks with other Stanford students, all of the TPR kids were extremely satisfied and EVERY Kaplan student griped that the kaplan materials over-inflated their preparation and were easier than an actual MCAT. They also did not like the fact that they could not take their books home. I think that this detail alone makes TPR a better program.
Making it easy for kids to score 35's on their diags might improve their confidence but it's also good business for Kaplan since they don't offer a satisfaction guarantee and want to foster good feelings for their program.
Unless things have changed from last year, the word on my street is that Kaplan gives you an exaggerated sense of accomplishment in their prep course. If anything TPR, challenges you at the beginning of its course and then gives you the closest to the real thing with two AAMC exams. There is talk that 7R will be added to the TPR course once it's available in book format.
At the end of the day, your improvement will be mostly based on how assertive you are at studying. I think TPR's materials are well-organized and more importantly, well written. It's physics, chemistry, and biology materials are particularly good stand-outs. I think Orgo and Verbal could be improved a bit, though the practice passages nad problems for all of the sections are very very good. The Physics and chemistry books went through a fairly major overhaul for 2003 and are quite excellent.
Go to a TPR office and ask them to show you the materials you get in their MCAT class including the practice exams. Peruse and see what you think. Do the same for Kaplan. And to drive the point home ask around your school about people's impressions of each
and be sure you ask competent people. The *******/lazy guy will tell you he hated his prep course no matter which one he took...and if he have loved it, I would question that program's rigor.
Good Luck!
--Rager
