ankh said:
I was thinking about signing up for the test prep sessions with Kaplan but was worried if I was wasting my time and money. How much do the practice exams resemble the actual online test and is there a better way to study for the OAT without spending so much money?
I haven't taken Physics 2 yet so should I wait until I do and then sign up for the test or would be enough to learn it from Kaplan?
I took Kaplan myself and I personally thought it was good but if you can discipline yourself, then you could get the Kaplan materials from someone else and save money that way. I tried that and it didn't work so I ended up signing up for the class with a great deal. I got a 380 AA and 400 TS. There are things they tell you in class that I felt were really helpful...I wrote them down in my lesson book but I don't know if the people you'll get it from would have it in their lesson books. There's also online video class sessions in case you fell asleep in class haha. I didn't use those except for physics since physics was originally my weak point (but I ended up with a 380 in physics).
About physics...you can try to do it on your own because it's really not supposed to be that hard...they only test basics, nothing detailed like physics majors would know. Resources that helped me were sparknotes (
http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/physics/) and Princeton Review DAT/OAT book physics (probably the same as the MCAT physics). Kaplan's physics wasn't good enough for me, but their individual physics subject tests were amazing in terms of giving me good practice even though i missed them all, and explaining most of them in a way so that if I saw a similar problem in the future, I'd know how to manipulate equations next time.
Try buying ExamKracker's MCAT Physics book too. I didn't have time to use it but a lot of people, including some of my friends, have said it teaches physics much better than Kaplan or Princeton Review. I guess I didn't need to use it after all, but since you'll be learning physics anew, you may want to invest in such a book that will teach it to you from scratch.
I hope the previous threads help you compare Kaplan and the real OAT to answer that question for you. I posted all my scores from my full-length practice tests, including TopScore, and you can compare them with what I got on the real thing. However, I recommend OAT Achiever over TopScore.
Ah. I forgot to mention that Kaplan provides 3 online full-length tests in addition to the diagnostic, midterm, and final. So that's 6 full-length tests to give you more practice in speed, efficiency, and accuracy in doing things on a vertical screen. These tests will not be available from the people you purchase your Kaplan materials from if you decide to do the self-study thing, unless they took the time to take screenshots of each question and its solution...but I highly doubt anyone has that time. =P But I guess you could just buy OAT Achiever for 3 full-length tests on the computer.
