<p>My son is a sophomore and is finishing his premed required courses this spring. He would like to take MCATs at the end of summer or early September. Is it absolutely necessary to take a course like Kaplan or is it possible to study on your own. In high school he was pretty good about studying for SAT/ACT and didn't need any tutoring. But I understand that MCATs is a much more difficult test that covers a lot more material. He's good at studying by himself. But is he lowering his chances for a good score by not taking a class? Also if he starts studying at the end of May is it enough time to prepare for end of August exam?</p>
<p>it is possible to study on your own with prep books but keep in mind that medical school costs nearly 250k so what’s another 1-2k for a prep class? if your son prefers self study though then go for it</p>
<p>The thing is that it still takes a lot to prepare for MCAT even if you take a prep class. You need to spend almost full time to prepare for that. To take a MCAT at sophomore may effect his gpa, that is the more important. Most, if not all, my daughter’s “class” who are applying for med school take a gap year after college to apply for med school and MCAT. </p>
<p>Just my 2c.</p>
<p>Why would it effect his GPA? He’s planning to prep in the summer and take MCATs in late august. </p>
<p>Signed on this morning with this exact same question…. Has your son made a decision?</p>
<p>No he’s still not sure what to do. But the general consensus he’s getting from everyone is that you need to take a class. From what I’m hearing MCATS is not like SAT where you can study by yourself, take a crack at it and then get tutoring if you need. It’s sounds like MCATs is a one time thing. I called Kaplan to find out what their courses are like. They told me that in addition to weekly classes you have to study on your own for 20-25 hours a week. And you need 3 to 4 months to prepare. I was hoping to get more comments on college confidential to help him make the decision. </p>
<p>It’s a very individual thing. Some people benefit from a class, some don’t. If your son is the type who prefers to learn on his own, or likes to learn on his own, he’ll be fine studying on his own. Other people benefit from the structure imposed by a class, the schedule, the direction, and the pacing.</p>
<p>Before I took the MCAT some years back, I got an offer for a free Kaplan MCAT summer prep course (free thanks to some club I had membership in). Thought, “why the hell not?” and took it. I have always been a self-directed learner and great student, and the class was 100% thoroughly and entirely useless to me, and it cut into my actual studying time. The only good thing about it was the practice material I received (prep books and access to online material).</p>
<p>There is absolutely no “need” to take any sort of class, as it really doesn’t offer anything you can’t get on your own through prep books and study material–unless, like I said, you’re the type of person who would benefit from the structure and schedule. It’s not like they teach you new or foreign material; although the MCAT has changed somewhat since I took it in 2008, it’s still just a test of basic science knowledge and verbal skills. The only thing prep courses do is review that material and try to teach you their method and some test-taking skills. To be fair, I know people who liked the Kaplan method for approaching the test and for whom it worked, but I also know others who found it useless (like myself).</p>
<p>After long deliberation, he decided to sign up for Kaplan class. Auraobscura I know what you’re saying. He’s a very self motivated and disciplined student but I was afraid to take a chance. From what I understand MCATs is something you take once so I wanted to give him maximum chance to succeed. The class I signed him up for is only twice a week all through the summer. And the rest of the time he’ll be studying on his own using online materials. Hopefully it will work out. </p>