Which review course should I take?

[jv00927]

I plan to take the August MCAT and take a review course to prepare for it. The only choice I have where I live is to take either Kaplan or The Princeton Review. So far from doing a search on the pre-med forum, I found mixed reviews.

I'd like to know what y'all think about those review courses. Could I even go wrong with any of them? I've read that the most variable factor in each review course is the teacher. Right now, I'm leaning more toward The Princeton Review, since they have more class hours. My plan is to take the PR review course and maybe purchase access to the Kaplan QBank. I already have the EK books and the Nova physics book to supplement my studying and I'm planning on buying the AAMC test after this semester. Does this sound like a good plan? 😕

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Depakote]

The biggest varriable usually is the teacher. I took Kaplan, my friends took TPR, we were all happy. Kaplan had more practice tests (huge testbank), TPR had better teachers (on average, at least where we were) and better class hours. Your plan sounds pretty good. I don't think you can go wrong with either as long as you take one.

 

[blahhalb]

You'll be fine with either - personally I took TPR, had friends taking Kaplan, and we swapped copies of our materials, so essentially we had both. But a couple of my teachers were much better than theirs because they had really thought through the whole subject and how it relates to the MCAT. Otherwise, the teaching experience is pretty mediocre all around at both TPR and Kaplan. I thought TPR's materials were much better though.

 

[Dov]

I used princeton review.... it shot my score up 16 points (19 on the first diag, 35 on the actual mcat). There is A LOT of homework, literally it is a full time job. (about 30 hrs per week). They teach you all the material you need to know, give tons of practice tests and drills, and teach tricks onsolving passages on material you have never seen (I had a passage on the actual MCAT on some particle physics we had not learned in the review or acutal physics but I was able to do it well on the MCAT). JV is also right, I had a horrible bio teacher so i had to review a bunch myself.

BEst advice i can give... dont get freaked out by your first practice score, it is designed to motivate you. Also if you do take a course do the work... it is a ton but it works.

BEst of luck

 

[ND2005]

I plan to take the August MCAT and take a review course to prepare for it. The only choice I have where I live is to take either Kaplan or The Princeton Review. So far from doing a search on the pre-med forum, I found mixed reviews.

I'd like to know what y'all think about those review courses. Could I even go wrong with any of them? I've read that the most variable factor in each review course is the teacher. Right now, I'm leaning more toward The Princeton Review, since they have more class hours. My plan is to take the PR review course and maybe purchase access to the Kaplan QBank. I already have the EK books and the Nova physics book to supplement my studying and I'm planning on buying the AAMC test after this semester. Does this sound like a good plan? 😕

-The two things that matter in picking a review course:

-The teachers
-The resources



Here's why I recommend Kaplan (unless the teachers are known to be exceptionally poor): their resources blow TPR out of the water. More practice questions, more subject tests, more full-lengths. Review notes are nice, but having good practice and test-condition exposure is much more important. I can't speak too much to the TPR review book, but the Kaplan book was very clear and very concise (both key for MCAT review) -- plus you can buy whatever review book you want to supplement your course.

 

[Depakote]

One thing I did for Kaplan which was nice...

I took the April review course knowing I was going to take the August test.

Then, come April, I used the Higher Score Gurantee to retake the class for free. (All I had to do was attend all the classes/practice tests and do all the homework - not as easy as it sounds, but worth it). BTW my Kaplan teacher told me to do this.

Then I had a jump when I hit the summer course.

I don't know if TPR has a similar policy.

 

[Em1]

One thing I did for Kaplan which was nice...

I took the April review course knowing I was going to take the August test.

Then, come April, I used the Higher Score Gurantee to retake the class for free. (All I had to do was attend all the classes/practice tests and do all the homework - not as easy as it sounds, but worth it). BTW my Kaplan teacher told me to do this.

Then I had a jump when I hit the summer course.

I don't know if TPR has a similar policy.

I thought HSG was only for your score on the real thing. I'm a little confused as to how you qualified to take it again... could you clarify?

 

[ND2005]

I thought HSG was only for your score on the real thing. I'm a little confused as to how you qualified to take it again... could you clarify?

Another policy of the HSG is that if for any reason you do not feel ready for the test, you can retake Kaplan for free.

 

[ahumdinger]

I'm a Kaplan teacher so I thought I'd put in my two cents:

first, to clarify, there's 3 parts to the Kaplan Higher Score Guarantee--

1. Readiness-- if you personally do not feel ready by Test Day, you can repeat the course for free.

2. Satifaction-- if for any reason you were not satisfied with the course, you can repeat it for free.

3. Higher Score-- if for some reason you scored lower than your diagnostic- you can repeat it for free, or get a full tuition refund.

note that the refund is only for scenario #3. Also, to qualify for the HSG, you have to attend all classes and do all required assignments (we can tell online whether you've done your work!!).


Also, I've said this on other threads, but I'll say it again here. Kaplan is super useful if you consider yourself a "bad test-taker". We teach a lot of strategy and the review material is minimized as much as possible while still trying to maximize the score. So you learn as much as you need to do well, and no more than that. And just so you know I'm giving my honest opinion and not just advertising for Kaplan...for me, though I took Kaplan, I think I could have scored much higher if I had taken TPR. I think I'm a great test-takers, so many of the strategies taught by Kaplan were already familiar to me-- I feel I probably would have gotten a greater use out of the dense TPR material since my biggest weakness was just not having the materials down solid.

As far as resources-- Kaplan definitely trumps TPR-- and whoever said (above) that Kaplan has better review books-- you're right. My boyfriend has his set of TPR books, and I was looking through them to check something, and it was really dense and hard to follow, not to mention it had a lot of unneccesary info that won't be tested on the MCAT.

Another way to help you decide is to ask around locally. Sometimes the local centers really vary. For example-- the St. Louis TPR center/staff sucks balls and they are extremely understaffed, while the Kaplan center is AWESOME!! (okay, that was a bit of advertisement 🙂 )

 

[GA_MDhopeful]

i took kaplan and loved it. the main thing to consider, however, is your teacher. my teacher was awesome - he taught the material well AND made class interesting.

also, i loved the kaplan material (books, practice sheets, etc) because it's very easy to follow & study on your own.

honestly, i'd say the main thing that would make or break either Kaplan or TPR is the teacher....

 

[omgwtfbbq?]

In Arizona go Kaplan. DO NOT take TPR. just abysmal compared to the kaplan quality. at least, in this state

 

[anon-y-mouse]

I'm a TPR teacher (GO TPR! boo kaplan!), and I find that TPR emphasizes content a lot more than strategy (for the science sections). Yes, the TPR bio book is extremely dense, but I aced the bio section simply by knowing everything in that book. I personally advise my students to read TPR like a novel. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but Kaplan teachers teach the entire class? At TPR, teachers teach + are trained specifically for particular sections... so you'll get experts in the subject. I suppose quality varies from region to region, depending on the people who teach. If you're in a large urban center, you can't go wrong with either Kap or TPR.

Kaplan's physical science sections are amazing, I have to give the company credit for that. However, the verbal sections on almost all the full lengths and topical tests were categorically easier than the MCAT / AAMC tests... who knows why.

I find that Kap is suited more towards people who are motivated + like self-study, and are willng to go in to the Kaplan center, and take their own tests, etc. I'm really bad at this sort of motivation/initiative thing (oops med school), so I loved that I had more classtime @ TPR, where the teachers went over everything really well.

 

[ahumdinger]

I'm a TPR teacher (GO TPR! boo kaplan!), and I find that TPR emphasizes content a lot more than strategy (for the science sections). Yes, the TPR bio book is extremely dense, but I aced the bio section simply by knowing everything in that book. I personally advise my students to read TPR like a novel. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but Kaplan teachers teach the entire class? At TPR, teachers teach + are trained specifically for particular sections... so you'll get experts in the subject. I suppose quality varies from region to region, depending on the people who teach. If you're in a large urban center, you can't go wrong with either Kap or TPR.

Kaplan's physical science sections are amazing, I have to give the company credit for that. However, the verbal sections on almost all the full lengths and topical tests were categorically easier than the MCAT / AAMC tests... who knows why.

I find that Kap is suited more towards people who are motivated + like self-study, and are willng to go in to the Kaplan center, and take their own tests, etc. I'm really bad at this sort of motivation/initiative thing (oops med school), so I loved that I had more classtime @ TPR, where the teachers went over everything really well.

I think it varies regionally whether Kaplan teachers have to teach the whole thing. I have a friend in NYC and she says she has to teach the whole course but I got to pick and choose here in St. Louis. When I took the course in Chicago, I had the same teacher for everything except Physics and Strategy.

 

[Sam212]

I am currently enrolled in TPR. I think it's pretty good for someone like me who is not a science major because they make sure that you learn the stuff. The science workbook is huge. It's got all sort of questions, usually harder than the actual MCAT, that you can possibly think of. If you make sure you are at least doing 80% of the assigned homework, you are in a good shape. Make sure that you see the reason for getting a question wrong however. Otherwise it's a waste. I really think it's really better to some questions wrong in a passage than get them all right. If you happen to get alright, you tend to not look at the reasoning, however, if you get a couple wrong you will really disect the passage again and see the reasons. You'll really learn that way.

 

[LO281OK]

I chose Princeton Review because of the amt of class time. I haven't had bio in 10 years and got a 12 based on the teacher's efforts/knowledge and use of the PR books.

In the end, I felt mastery of the material was more important than MORE practice. TPR gives 5 practice exams (very good ones) and four more that you can do on your own (plus plenty of practice passages and questions). I was ready to get the D@#^ thing over with after that many and couldn't imagine taking any more practice tests w/o major burnout.

just my $0.02

 

[SuzieQ3417]

I think it varies regionally whether Kaplan teachers have to teach the whole thing. I have a friend in NYC and she says she has to teach the whole course but I got to pick and choose here in St. Louis. When I took the course in Chicago, I had the same teacher for everything except Physics and Strategy.

When I took Kaplan I had a different teacher for each section. I wonder why some areas have one person teach the entire course?
To the OP: you really can't go wrong with either course. Just pick the one that seems to fit better with your study habits. I preferred Kaplan because of all the full-length practice exams we took. I tend to get slight test anxiety in those situations, so for me this was the most beneficial part of the program. I hated giving up each Saturday for over a month, but it paid off on test day. (but you definitely have to be self motivated and do all of the materials...I got lazy and ended up falling behind and not finishing a lot of the practice questions. Makes me wonder if I could have done better on the MCAT)

 

[dom1n1c]

Here is the breakdown since I tutor students for Kaplan and Princeton.

Tests and Practice problems: Kaplan hands down. Why? Princeton test give you a false sense of security b/c alot of the questions come from the homework.Kaplan's test are more ( 13 to 5) and harder so you can practice more.Another tremendous difference is in the explanations of each problem. Princeton gives you a line and expects you to ask the teach if you are lost. Kaplan explanation are a parargraph long and teach you how to think and approach the subject.

Subjects Questions:

Physics: Kaplan by far for passages,Examcrakers for Fundamentals

Gen. Chem: Kaplan is pathetic, Princeton much better, but Examcrackers teach you better fundamentals

O-Chem:Kaplan by a landslid, with Examcrakers for Fundamentals

Verbal:Kaplan is slightly better with twice as much passages.

Biology:Examcrakers and Kaplan are even.But Examcrackers are harder while Kaplan gives you more material.


My advice is find someone thats doing Kaplan and share resources if you go to Princeton. Buy Examcrackers b/c you get 1000 examples per subject.


If you need to be spoon feed go to Princeton. If you can manage your time go to Kaplan because as the MCAT approaches you realize how much sitting in a class hurts you when people are asking questions that are on page1.

Note! If you don't do as well as you would like Princeton gives you 5 more new exams when you retake the MCAT.