<p>DS was wondering if there is any truth to something he has heard. Is the Princeton Review course better suited to a student that has done well in their courses? </p>
<p>I did not take Princeton Review, I took Kaplan. But here are some general thoughts:</p>
<p>1) Why does he want to take the class in the first place? Does he need the content review? Someone to hold his hand and make him study? I needed the latter, so I doubt Kaplan vs PR really mattered. I’m unsure how their content differs, but I’m sure you could find that online (eg are they mostly short quiz based? Lots of practice exams? Online lectures? Classroom lectures? Either?)</p>
<p>2) Would one be more convenient than the other? Sometimes it’s difficult to work the schedule of the review class into your regular life–school, personal, work, whatever. If one has a more flexible curriculum (perhaps a mix of classroom and online learning) or is otherwise desirable (heck it might just meet on more convenient days of the week), then I think it would be reasonable to pick the more convenient one. Studying for the MCAT is a pain in the you know what enough that you shouldn’t have to add inconvenience to it. (You could sub “Does one have a better online interface?” or “Does one have better books than the other, in your opinion?” for “more convenient”)</p>
<p>3) Does he have friends who were successful in one or the other? I don’t think it’s a huge effect, but since so much of standardized test taking is a mental game, if he has heard/believes/has friends who did great with PR, then I think that’s a fine reason to take PR. Might as well use that potential placebo effect to your benefit. Plus, if he has friends in the class, he might be more likely to go/pay attn/participate/etc.</p>
<p>4) He should also recognize that those applying to med school are a tricky bunch. If it were actually true that those who took the PR class consistently did better than those who took Kaplan, word would certainly get out and everyone would start taking Kaplan. Which is just another way of saying…PR probably is pretty similar to Kaplan.</p>
<p>5) What do you mean by “has done well in their courses”? Do you mean has done better in premed prereqs? If so I have no idea, but I would imagine students who did well in prereqs would theoretically be setting themselves up for success on the MCAT regardless of prep class. If you meant did better in XYZ other PR class, then I don’t think it would be a stretch to think that PR classes probably follow a similar strategy, so if it worked for you once then it might work for you again.</p>
<p>6) I don’t think this is something to put too much thought into. There isn’t some conspiracy out there against Kaplan users. There isn’t some secret the PR has. There’s certainly an approach to the MCAT that can be taught in a course or online or through a book, and in my opinion is is worthwhile to organize your studying based on one of these courses because it will keep you on track.</p>
<p>Thanks for your fantastic reply Kristin. DS was set to enroll in the Kaplan course. Then he was told that Kaplan is very good for non-traditional applicants or ones that did not feel very confident about their performance in the pre-req courses because the course really spent a great amount of time focusing on content. OTOH, PR was better suited for students that did well in their premed prereq courses or science majors, as it went into greater detail and exposed the student to the bread and butter questions in addition to some of the content that is less common but helps improve the score after the base content is covered. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>DS is interested in taking the class because he wants someone to hold is hand and make him study. I doesn’t want other responsibilities to eat into his prep time. He’s definitely a social learner and performs best in a face-to-face group setting. Online or self study would not be the best for him.</p>
<p>It seems Kaplan is the most well known at his university. There are about 50 classroom hours vs PR at over 100. PR adds 6+ hours on Sunday. I wonder if 12 hours of classroom time is too much? Kaplan seems to have the edge when it comes to their online material and PR gets the nod for written material. PR has a different instructor for each section of the test. Those seem to be the big differences.</p>
<p>Yes, he is probably over thinking this. Shoot, we do not even know the quality of the instruction as both companies will be preparing students for the new MCAT for the first time. And, I’m confident that the quality of the class is highly dependent on the instructor and the student’s discipline.</p>
<p>I’ll pass this along to him. Like you said, it may come down to which class is most convenient!</p>
<p>One thought–he can always buy the prep books from the company he doesn’t take the face-to-face classes with.</p>
<p>D1 took Kaplan (only classroom-based MCAT prep class available locally) but also bought and used some of the PR practice books.</p>
<p>Great idea WOWM. Seems to me that the students preparing for the new MCAT test in April can only do the best with what they know at the time. This should be interesting. </p>
<p>My gut feeling is that 6+ hr of MCAT studying on Sundays to eventually get to over 100hrs of classroom learning would be overwhelming and would make me burnt out. I guess I had approx 50hrs of classroom learning at Kaplan + I think 4 practice tests (maybe 6hrs each?) so I probably spent 75hr classroom-wise preparing for MCAT. I know I was supposed to do prep work and homework or whatever but I think I probably was not very diligent about that. He should look into how much outside the classroom work each company expects–that might be another point where they differ. If PR has more classroom hours but doesn’t require outside work, that would be enticing to me. If PR has double the classroom hours and requires outside work, I don’t know what I would choose. Good luck!</p>
<p>Someone told me what truly matters is who is teaching the class in your location. So some locations might have one or two tutors who might make all the difference irrespective of which company they work for.</p>
<p>Yep texaspg. Agreed. Now I just wish we could figure out the quality of the tutors. Geez, I have followed you all for many cycles now. It is now becoming clear to me that in some instances, you just do the best with what you know at the time. Thank goodness for all of you folks on CC. The wealth of information and support is amazing.</p>
<p>I cannot compare, not sure who could since one either took Kaplan or Prenceton, so how to evaluate our responses escapes me entirely. One thing I am aware of is that D. took Kaplan and she did fine.
She did not have unrealistic expectations and she knew her limitations (primarily with the Reading - whatever the name of the section). It happened as planned.
The score is somewhat predictable in case if anybody is interested, but of course the pre-req is a very hard work. So, if one worked very hard, then the theory goes that the MCAT score is generally 2 point below your best practice score and within 2 point of your ACT. Keep in mind, it is general, so exceptions are inevitable. However, my D. was exactly within this general rule. </p>
<p>Having reviewed the new MCAT books, PR seems to be better for Psych, Soc but their written Biochem is not as detailed. DS is not intending to take the class but he did supplement his PR materials with the Kaplan Biochem book. The good thing about that is he gets access to the practice tests materials from that one purchase. </p>