<p>Hey, just a quick question. I was wondering how much i could expect a kaplan or similar review course to raise my MCAT score. I understand that jumping from a 24-27 is much more likely than going from a 33-36. I am asking because i have recently taken an untimed, full-length, practice kaplan test withouth any studying and performed fairly well but want to see how much i can expect to improve. Without any specifics how likely is it to make the jump from a low/mid 30 to a mid/high 30 or more?</p>
<p>I taught for Kaplan and routinely saw jumps of 7-10 points. The largest I think I saw from a timed diagnostic to actual test day performance was like 17. On the other hand, I do know people who only saw jumps of 2 points and some people who because of nerves or whatever, didn't improve their actual test day performance (despite having seen some gains during the practice full lengths).</p>
<p>A lot of it has to do with how much effort you put in and whether you allow the Kaplan instructors to actually help you. Kaplan has a lot of test taking strategies they try to give you in order to make things easier. However some students really resist using them, because it initially makes the slower as they practice with the techniques and they end up giving up on the strategies. People that consistently used the techniques and allowed themselves to be coached, saw more consistent gains. I'm not saying that using the techniques is sufficient or necessary for a great score, just that I could never understand the people who paid nearly 1500$ just to ignore me as I was trying to help them.</p>
<p>There's no way for me to describe this without being specific - otherwise, it's a heap of adjective mumbo-jumbo.</p>
<p>I took a Kaplan course after being scared by the results of taking a free half-length prep at my university. On that test I scored 27. Once I'd started the course, I scored 30 on the diagnostic. My highest practice test score was 33, and I was very concerned that I wouldn't do any better than that. I needn't have worried, I guess - come test day, I scored 37 (12/13/12).</p>
<p>In short, meaningful jumps from low/mid-30's happened for me. However, I personally have found Kaplan's methods to be very useful, from high school until now. If you don't like Kaplan's methods, then maybe it's not such a good idea.</p>
<p>I just signed up for August MCAT and Kaplan course that goes from June through August 1. I am devoting the entire time (close to 10 weeks) just for MCAT prep. Has anyone gone through similar schedule and done well >35 ? Did you prepare one subject or multiple subjects at a time?</p>
<p>... obviously lots of people take Kaplan and score well, even by your rather high standards, and most of them found an approach that worked for them. And replicating that approach would not guarantee you similar results.</p>
<p>I just got confirmation from Kaplan and it looks like they teach different subjects concurrently during the course. I will follow thier lead. Thanks</p>