I’m pretty new to pre-med subjects and the medical school application process. My pre-med S1 just graduated a semester early from his college and is now looking for resources to prepare for the MCAT test. This is for his second MCAT test in an attempt to improve on his score. The first time he took the test, he studied by himself with the prep books and scored around 500.
The nearest in-person Kaplan test prep class location is in a larger city about an hour drive away, so he’s been looking at an online course (Kaplan and Varsity Tutors) as a convenient alternative.
Being inexperienced in this, we don’t know whether the cost of either online or in-person prep class is worth it. If either is effective, we don’t mind the cost. We just don’t have a clue as to which approach is the best option. Anyone with experience with any of these methods, I’d appreciate your thoughts.
The best thing a in-person or online class offers is structure. Regular weekly class times that set expectations on the student to have completed X exercises before the class meets to review the correct answers and the reasoning behind them. The lectures may also include some useful test-taking tips.
The other thing the courses include is access to additional full length practice MCATs. Assuming your son has already purchased and taken AMCAS’s practice exams before his first MCAT, those exams won’t be especially useful in predicting his future MCAT score because his exam results will be biased by previous exposure. Having access to additional new practice exams will help him judge his readiness to take the exam again. (HINT: he should not sit for the exam until he is routinely scoring in his target range on FL practice exams taken under as close to RL testing conditions as possible. )
If distance is an issue, consider an online class or a private tutor who works for a test prep company and has access to prep materials. (WARNING: private tutors are expensive–often $50-100/hour.)
If it’s your son’s CARS score that’s low, (Low = below 126**) I’d recommend private tutoring over a general MCAT prep class. CARS is the most difficult score to improve and general MCAT prep doesn’t spend a lot of time on CARS.
**that’s generally the minimum acceptable score for MD consideration and an auto-screener at most schools.
@WayOutWestMom
Thank you for your, as always, very helpful response. I’ll discuss the options with my son and see which direction he wants to take.
Effectiveness of prep classes (in-person or online) is really dependent on the student.
A prep class won’t help if the student isn’t putting the time (hundreds of hours) needed to master the test-taking skills/mindset needed to do well on the exam. A prep class also won’t be effective if the student has holes in their academics or knowledge of the subject matter tested.
A prep class is probably most useful for highly motivated student who needs some help with time management for MCAT study or who has some difficulty understanding the reasoning processes behind correct answers on the MCAT, but has otherwise excellent mastery of the subject material.
Disclosure: One D did take a Kaplan prep class (in-person) and didn’t think it was especially helpful, other than keeping her on-track with her content review. The other D did not take any kind of prep class, but literally spent hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of hours doing practice questions, sections and exams. Both scored high enough on their MCAT to be offered MCAT prep instructor jobs w/Kaplan.