Which Kaplan materials to use and which to ignore?

[JohnnyNU82]

I'm taking the Kaplan course pretty much for strategy tips and the massive amount of practice materials they have...I have already taken a TPR course, so I'm using those materials to study content...

My question is "What Kaplan practice materials are the best and which ones are a waste of time (i.e. unrealistically difficult, nothing like actual test, etc.)?" Subect vs. Topical tests? Practice tests?

Thanks for your help

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[Jeesing]

I took Kaplan and most of the material is pretty good. the tests are more difficult than AAMC stuff, but are curved accordingly so it will give u a generally good estimate. The only thing i found different was the Biological section. AAMC's seemed more like a verbal passage, with many question drawing from the passages completely, unless you take some more advanced courses. In Kaplan it was more detail oriented and it often had memorization questions. Most of the Topical Tests i found very hard and more helpful to test your depth of knowledge of those chapters. subject and practice tests were more reasonable in difficulty. Practice test i found the best overall, but only after i had a good understanding of the material after studying the books.

I'd skip on the subject tests if you cannot finish all the practice material.
Topical tests more for testing knowledge, because it is much more difficult than AAMC, and most kaplan material.
Practice tests for the most similarity to the MCAT.

 

[jbone]

I took the MCAT twice. The first time I took the Kaplan course and (I felt) it didn't help me that much at all. I felt the Kaplan tests were not as difficult as the actual MCAT and I my actual MCAT was about 4 points lower than my average Kaplan. Which really pissed me off as you can tell... .

However, my second attempt, I used the Kaplan study materials (books, flash-cards etc) and studied them by myself. When I had covered a large majority of the information, I purchased the AAMC tests off of their website. (actual old MCATs) and took them like the real thing (9 hrs etc. timed) in a private space in the library. You can then grade them and figure out what you missed and improve. I took about 4 tests and when I took the actual MCAT, I improved my score by 7 points . The AAMC tests were great to practice on and if I were you, I would buy the Kaplan material and study on your own (don't give those bastards a penny for their class, just their material), and when you feel ready, take the practice AAMC test. Good luck, that sob is a mutha. My score wasn't the greatest but it was good enough to get me in. Besides, I'll never take that biotch again, even if you made me.

 

[gujuDoc]

To add to the above poster, I suppose I should add that if you are in the course, there will be NO NEED to spend money for the AAMC tests because Kaplan testing centers have copies of ALL OF THE AAMC TESTS.

Note: use of capslock was for emphasis not yelling.

 

[Khanal007]

Kaplan user this past summer....subject tests are STUPID, topicals are GREAT. do all the end of chapter questions and little online quizes. Section tests are awesome, along with all the kaplan FL's, but definitely do some AAMC full lengths right before the test for a confidence boost, as Kaplan's tests are harder in my opinion (which worked out in my practice tests using Kaplan, vs. AAMC and actual MCAT score)