Pros and Cons of prep class versus studying on your own

[blankguy]

What are they? I know I ran across bits and pieces of this from various threads in this forum but I want to consolidate it into one thread and see if there anything that got missed.

The most obvious is price a con to prep courses and pro for on your own study. Commute to the class site vs on your own or library on your own time.
What else is there?

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[DMD_hopeful]

What are they? I know I ran across bits and pieces of this from various threads in this forum but I want to consolidate it into one thread and see if there anything that got missed.

The most obvious is price a con to prep courses and pro for on your own study. Commute to the class site vs on your own or library on your own time.
What else is there?

Pro: it consolodates everything you need to know into one big book. There are things you are sure to miss if you go at it alone.

Cons: depends on the course.. If it's kaplan, it doesn't cover bio and the PAT very well, so there is the need to use other sources.

Are you aware that Kaplan offers an online class? I would have taken that one if I had it to do over again.

 

[blankguy]

Pro: it consolodates everything you need to know into one big book. There are things you are sure to miss if you go at it alone.

Cons: depends on the course.. If it's kaplan, it doesn't cover bio and the PAT very well, so there is the need to use other sources.

Are you aware that Kaplan offers an online class? I would have taken that one if I had it to do over again.

Yes I am. But I am have a preference for onsite classes.

 

[eric275]

My experience:

Pro for taking Kaplan course -
1) Question bank (200-300 DAT questions each in Bio, Chem, O-chem, PAT, QR)
2) A set study schedule to keep you on track
3) 3 practice DAT's on their computers structured like the actual DAT

Cons
1) Cost
2) Depending on your instructor, class can be a waste of time
3) Bio section of the Kaplan Blue book is lacking detail in a few areas

 

[Profchaos]

It depends on the kaplan instructor and yourself if your choose to take kaplan. One thing I want to remind you is that, kaplan doesn't cover biology, PAT and general chemistry well. Too much irrelavent material on biology and too little info given on PAT. One major reason I succeed in DAT is because I did plenty of research on the material, avoiding waste of time. My friend who had a similar GPA as me, spent over 1000$ on Kaplan, taking their courses for several months, got a 19, 18, 18 on a recent DAT, he regreted so much on taking Kaplan and warned me about his mistake. I learned from his experience and studied my own outline for 3 weeks, without going too much into Kaplan and scored a 23, 22, 22 on Nov 1st. I know it's late but I pretty much pulled up my original plan one year earlier. Best wishes to everyone on tests. One thing you should know is that you should ask many people to get different oppinions.

 

[Typo]

Hmmm . . . I'm not too sure I agree with the comments on Kaplan's prep for Bio being insufficient. Kaplan was all I studied and I scored a 24 on that section, and I had never had any physiology before. Maybe I just got lucky, but I saw very few surprises on the actual biology test.

When I studied I also went through Kaplan's entire question bank for Bio along with the explanations, and I found facts in those explanations that weren't in the big blue book. It's been a little while, but I'm wondering if this is why.

 

[eric275]

One thing I want to remind you is that, kaplan doesn't cover biology, PAT and general chemistry well. Too much irrelavent material on biology and too little info given on PAT.

I agree that the Bio section is lacking material but disagree that it contains "irrelavent" information. In my opinion the Bio section is the hardest section that covers a huge amount of inforamtion. I would suggest that if you are using the Kpalan blue book that you study the bio section and supplement it with additional information.

As far as the Gchem and PAT not being covered well in the Kaplan course, how so? I felt that the Kaplan book covered the Gchem section over and above what was seen on the DAT and while the Kaplan book may not go in depth into the PAT section the Kaplan course provides 120+ PAT practice problems. I don't know of any other study book/aid that offers that kind of PAT pratice. If you know of another resource that offers that many PAT practice problems please share your information. Also what information would you say that you saw on the DAT, regarding Gchem, that was not covered in the Kaplan blue book?

 

[J2AZ]

Pros KAPLAN:
1) Focus. You are given clear direction and idea of what material will be on the DAT.
2) Question bank. You can practice the subject material over and over again. Half the battle is learning how to take the test.
3) Practice exams in test environment (8 total). 1 diagnostic, 1 midterm, 1 final, and three full length online exams. Also you are given access to subject overview tests so you can use the Kaplan material to put together an additional 2 full length exams.
4) An instructor and other students with whom you can discuss the test and strategy.

Cons:
1) The instructors are not always the best. You can not expect them to teach the material but rather guide you through it.
2) The PAT is much easier than the real exam. Use Top Score for this.
3) Cost

If you are not a great standardized test taker than I would say you may want to consider Kaplan. It will give you the chance to take and retake exams. Also it will break down your practice exams and tell you what sections are your weakest, kinetics, acid base chem etc. If you are super smart and do well on all standardized test then you may want to think hard before taking the course.

 

[Profchaos]

I agree that the Bio section is lacking material but disagree that it contains "irrelavent" information. In my opinion the Bio section is the hardest section that covers a huge amount of inforamtion. I would suggest that if you are using the Kpalan blue book that you study the bio section and supplement it with additional information.

As far as the Gchem and PAT not being covered well in the Kaplan course, how so? I felt that the Kaplan book covered the Gchem section over and above what was seen on the DAT and while the Kaplan book may not go in depth into the PAT section the Kaplan course provides 120+ PAT practice problems. I don't know of any other study book/aid that offers that kind of PAT pratice. If you know of another resource that offers that many PAT practice problems please share your information. Also what information would you say that you saw on the DAT, regarding Gchem, that was not covered in the Kaplan blue book?

Dear Eric, I didn't mean course but just the book. I haven't taken Kaplan course because of several warnings from my friends. I have to admit that "irrelavent" is not accurate. I guess any kind of question could possibily occur on the real DAT bio test, thus studying everything is not gonna hurt you. My point of view is that, kaplan covers quite a bit of material that seemed less likely will appear on the real test, but on the other hand it didn't give out enough information about some of the more likely questions, eg, Evolution, Ecology. I like the endocrine chapter of Kaplan, it saves me a lot of time, but in contrast, I am not very fond with the Genetics from Kaplan. Eric you seemed like a real good test taker. It could be because of your strong academic background. For someone like me, who took biology and chemistry two years ago as my engineering major prereq, would have to have some better study material that refresh my memory about all the good old information. General chemistry on Kaplan is good, but after a good understanding from kaplan chemistry, I still have a hard time with my chemistry text book question, which helps me a lot on the real test.(one wrong on real DAT). Organic chemistry is probably the best part in Kaplan, it could be better I say. For PAT, I would suggest Barron. Do you really think the PAT from Kaplan is difficult enough, or close to the real thing? Me and my friends could score over 24 on Kaplan but real one I only had a low 22. Congrats on your score and best luck to you and all. Speaking of the questions that I saw on the real DAT but wasn't cover in Kaplan, I can't remember(I don't even remember the questions lol), but something like Molality, was probably mentioned in one sentence in Kaplan, but is that sufficient enough for preparers to remember without a test question or two?