Kaplan's Classroom MCAT Course Reviewed

For pre-medicine students preparing for the Medical College Admissions Exam (MCAT), there exists a wide range of study materials from many different companies, including ExamKrackers, The Princeton Review, and so on. However, Kaplan is one of the most popular and most well-recognized names in the land of test prep, and this holds for the MCAT as well. Many pre-med students will purchase Kaplan's study materials, enroll in their classroom experience, or take the online course for MCAT preparation. I recently completed the Kaplan classroom course, and had mixed feelings about it. It's very expensive, so I hope this review will help other pre-med students decide about spending close to $2000 on Kaplan.

Kaplan's classroom experience has one going to a classroom one day a week, for 3 hours. There is also an online portion, of which certain material is required to be read, or quizzes/tests taken online. Finally, there is a large "pre-test" that students take when they start the course, in addition to the usual classroom lecture. All of the above must be completed in order for Kaplan's "Higher Score Guarantee" to be in effect.

The "Higher Score Guarantee" basically states that you are guaranteed to get a score higher than your score on their practice MCAT when you take the real thing-if you complete all the required course work, and attend every class. Bear in mind that this isn't as great as it sounds. The practice/diagnostic MCAT they give you at the beginning of the course is considered by some to be much harder than the real MCAT, thus ensuring that you will get a lower score, making a higher score on the real MCAT more probably. Also, you are only allowed to miss, at most, two lectures. These must be made up, within the time of the course, for the "Higher Score" to be in effect.