Comparison
of Kaplan and
Posted January
11, 2006
So you are trying to decide on a course to take for your MCAT
preparation. The two most popular courses in our area are Kaplan and
Sincerely,
Jennifer Hendrick and
Christen Gregory
Kaplan MCAT Classroom Review by:
Jennifer Hendrick
Tuition Fee:
$1549 (we paid for ours when they were having a “sale”, so we only paid $1349), Kaplan offer a money back guarantee if your score doesn’t improve from the baseline analysis. Be cautious though, if you do not talk to them with in a certain time period (like 60 days or something like that) after the test they will not do the refund.
Texts and Supplements:
Overview:
Kaplan has two options for when the classes are offered if you are planning to take the MCAT in April. One, students can start in October and go one day a week until April with Saturday tests scattered throughout the term. Two, students can start in January and go a couple of days a week and Saturday tests. I would strongly recommend starting in October if you decide to use Kaplan. They offer an enormous amount of material for individual preparation, but the student must have the time to devote. The Saturday tests start at 8am and usually conclude around 4:30pm. They are designed to mimic the actual testing conditions. Kaplan does not use “old” released MCAT. Some people see this as a disadvantage. They do have all of the released MCATs on file, which you can come take on your own time.
Kaplan has six or seven different teachers total. All of them must have scored 11 (out of 15) or higher to be able to teach. Most of the teachers are very knowledgeable and very willing to help. We did have one teacher who had no clue what she was talking about, but she was substituting for another teacher who was sick.
One thing which should be noted about both of the prep courses is they expect you to do ALL of the studying outside of class. The class sessions basically are there to keep students on track and to answer any specific questions students have about the reviewed material. Kaplan main plus, in my opinion, is the online materials. They set you up an account with their system online so you can do some of your preparation online. They offer all the classes on video online if you miss one of the sessions. They have workshops online which take all of the four subjects back down to the very basics.
My only “words of wisdom” for students planning to take the MCAT is to start reading NOW! I hate reading with a passion and my verbal reasoning score alone brought down my score drastically. I would suggest getting copies of the publication The Economist. These articles really helped me when I was studying to re-take the test. With theses articles and a speed-reading course, I brought my verbal reasoning score up three points. Study hard and never give up.
“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
The
Tuition fee:
$1595.00, with a money-back guarantee if you don’t improve your score.
Texts:
Overview:
Class meetings were held Wednesday evening (2-3 hours) and Sunday afternoon (2-4 hours) and were taught by two Princeton Review instructors. In my opinion, both instructors were very knowledgeable in their respective subjects. Usually, the teachers gave a quick overview of the week’s lesson and usually did not go into a lot of detail regarding the subject matter. They mainly relied on students asking specific questions to go more in-depth into the material. If you take this course, you should understand that the progress you make is generally dependent upon your ability to review the course material outside of class. The course time is treated mostly as an opportunity for the instructors to answer questions as they have a lot of material to cover in the short time allotted for the course.
Most Saturdays are test days. Tests begin at 8 AM and are full-length MCATs. The Princeton Review uses released MCAT tests, so they are supposed to be comparable to the ones you will take in April/August.
The instructors were very willing to meet one-on-one (before/after class or to schedule a private appointment time) to help with questions I had.
Since taking the course in the summer of 2005, I have heard that they have revamped the course, including a new classroom location and raising tuition rates from $1495.00 to $1595.00. Therefore, I don’t know if the course description I have provided is still relevant. My biggest complaints about the course we that we were using “old” MCATs when there were newer released tests available and the location at which we met was not optimal for learning (AC problems, safety of location, etc.). I think that these conditions were probably some of the reasons the course was redesigned and relocated.
I would recommend this course to the student who has a solid understanding of the subjects that will be covered (Organic Chemistry, Physics, Biology, General Chemistry). It is not necessary to remember all of the details covered in these subjects, but the Princeton Review course should be treated as a refresher course and a place to brush up on difficult areas, not a place to learn all of these subjects for the first time. A lot of time is still required for study outside of the classroom and some students may be better served using the time they would spend inside the classroom studying alone or in a small group.