TPR, kaplan, or berkeley review?

[JaYwOo55]

what do you guys think is the best mcat prepclass for norcal?

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[TiggidyTooth]

what do you guys think is the best mcat prepclass for norcal?

TPR. My diag was a 17 and ended up with a 31 on the real thing.

Shine like my gold teeth

Tooth

 

[QofQuimica]

what do you guys think is the best mcat prepclass for norcal?

You're better off doing some research on all three courses rather than asking perfect strangers here. What works for one person may not be the best for another. I'd suggest going to each center, meeting the manager and ideally the instructor, and finding out what the course entails. No one knows what your weak areas are better than you do.

 

[ajnak182]

You're better off doing some research on all three courses rather than asking perfect strangers here. What works for one person may not be the best for another. I'd suggest going to each center, meeting the manager and ideally the instructor, and finding out what the course entails. No one knows what your weak areas are better than you do.

Dude...i have taken both courses and believe me, TPR offers everything that kaplan does and more. Their review materials are by far superior, they provide hard ass MCATs if you want them and their teachers are of good quality. TPR>>>>>Kaplan

Tooth

 

[QofQuimica]

Dude...i have taken both courses and believe me, TPR offers everything that kaplan does and more. Their review materials are by far superior, they provide hard ass MCATs if you want them and their teachers are of good quality. TPR>>>>>Kaplan

Tooth

That is YOUR experience. Here's mine: I did the Kaplan course and ended up with a 43 this past August. Again, I think that any of the courses will work if the student puts in sufficient effort, and the best course to take depends on the individual student. And since I teach for Kaplan, I certainly can't agree that the Kaplan teachers aren't as good.

 

[cozmokrmr]

That is YOUR experience. Here's mine: I did the Kaplan course and ended up with a 43 this past August. Again, I think that any of the courses will work if the student puts in sufficient effort, and the best course to take depends on the individual student. And since I teach for Kaplan, I certainly can't agree that the Kaplan teachers aren't as good.

Atleast come up with the right score if your going to lie! It's funny how no one who took the august mcat got higher than a 41.

http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/sumaug04.pdf

Disregard everything this person says!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

Atleast come up with the right score if your going to lie! It's funny how no one who took the august mcat got higher than a 41.

http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/sumaug04.pdf

Disregard everything this person says!!!!!!!!!!!

C'mon now son, that post proves nothing. The sheet says that 0% achieved a 42, 43, 44, or 45 because less than one half of one percent of total test takers recieved those scores. It's all rounded. Look at the tests of the past few years and you'll see the same thing.

 

[TiggidyTooth]

That is YOUR experience. Here's mine: I did the Kaplan course and ended up with a 43 this past August. Again, I think that any of the courses will work if the student puts in sufficient effort, and the best course to take depends on the individual student. And since I teach for Kaplan, I certainly can't agree that the Kaplan teachers aren't as good.

Right...that is my unbiased experience. I have taken both courses...did you? Are you familiar with TPR's materials or their teachers? The best course does not depend on the individual student, it depends on the course. Look, if you already have a solid foundation of the basic sciences than Kaplan will suffice. But if you require a real indepth review than TPR is the way to go. Congrats on your 43, I'm sure you sent each and everyone of your kaplan teachers a fruit basket in an attempt at thanks.

Tooth

 

[palmtree]

i took berkeley review AND tpr...

my vote is for the berkeley review. they are way more personal, more available for office hours, and they really break down what goes on with the mcat. when youre in a berkeley review class, you feel like you are a part of the program, and it is way more comfortable. in TPR, you feel like youre just in another class and the instructors arent nearly as good. its hard to explain...

on another note, berkeley review JUST does the mcat, nothing else...they devote everything to the mcat.

finally, the course materials for berkeley are way better. after taking the real thing, i can honestly say that the berkeley materials most closely resemble what the mcat is really like. the books are great...anything u need to know is in there, and they have so many passages that are similar to what you get on the real thing. after i was running low on berkeley passages, i decided to do some princeton ones...and wow were they a joke comparatively. i still did them for the extra practice, but still theres a huge difference.

for reference, i got a 33...and actually my advice is do everything the berkeley review says to do and youll get a high score

 

[Shaz]

I am telling you dude, DO BERKELEY. You will shake my hand and thank me for this advice. I am telling you again, take BERKELEY REVIEW. The previous poster was right on the money.

 

[QofQuimica]

I'm not sure what you think I'd have to gain by lying to a bunch of college kids on an anonymous pre-medical online website. But for the record, it isn't true that no one scored higher than 41. Eight people scored a 42, one other person plus myself scored a 43, and no one scored 44 or 45. You can write to the AAMC and ask them; that's how I found out.

Atleast come up with the right score if your going to lie! It's funny how no one who took the august mcat got higher than a 41.

http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/sumaug04.pdf

Disregard everything this person says!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[QofQuimica]

Right...that is my unbiased experience. I have taken both courses...did you? Are you familiar with TPR's materials or their teachers? The best course does not depend on the individual student, it depends on the course. Look, if you already have a solid foundation of the basic sciences than Kaplan will suffice. But if you require a real indepth review than TPR is the way to go. Congrats on your 43, I'm sure you sent each and everyone of your kaplan teachers a fruit basket in an attempt at thanks.

Tooth

No, I did not ever take the TPR course, nor did I ever take the Kaplan course as a student. Yes, I do know some of the TPR teachers; their center is right across the street from ours and both companies are involved with pre-med activities on campus. Again, your single experience isn't proof one way or the other about the relative merit or lack thereof of either course. One anecdote does not make a solid case. I have seen hundreds of students go through the Kaplan course (I started teaching for Kaplan in 1997) and their scores run the gamut from horrible to awesome, as do the TPR students' scores. Both companies have multiple success stories like yourself, as well as others who don't do as well. I'm glad that you did so well using TPR, but that doesn't preclude there being other people who do just as well using Kaplan or various other courses. Success depends most of all on the student.

 

[calbear15]

I have materials from all three companies and judging from the books and tests alone, I'd say Bekeley Review is far superior.

As far as the course goes, I only took Berkeley Review so I don't know about the other ones. But I know that Berkeley Review is a small company and their instructors have all been there for a long time; they've all been teaching consistently for years. The Kaplan and Princeton teachers however, tend to vary from place to place; sometimes you'll get some college student that just took the MCAT and sometimes you'll get someone that has a PhD.

Either way, I think everyone should do as many practice exams as possible.