Jean-Marc L. answered • 03/20/19
Physician and Med School Professor, 96th percentile in bio/biochem
Hello!
I took the in-person Kaplan course during the last semester of my senior year (albeit at a discounted rate of $1,500) and was left a little lackluster with the results.
I began the Kaplan course without prior MCAT studying in January by taking the diagnostic exam, on which I scored a 500. I met in a class setting with the Kaplan tutor (an accepted med student at the time only one year older than myself) once weekly until May. The tutor taught the class (about 20 pre-meds) for three hours going over content that Kaplan deems high-yield. These weekly sessions would include test-taking strategies, in-class practice problems, and the aforementioned content review. Outside of the class, I was free to email my tutor with any questions I had about the test and she was always kind enough to respond within a day or two. The course provided a lot of good strategies and a lot of nonsensical strategies, but the content review was by far the most helpful. By the end of that semester I had taken three full-length exams. My score increased to 503.
503 is not an appealing score for a $1,500 ($2,700 in your case) course. I attribute that score to the lack of MCAT studying I had done that semester due to my hectic schedule. My score increased eight points in the last 3 weeks of dedicated time before the test, which was essentially self-study since the Kaplan course had ended. So, if you like what I described by all means take the course. Otherwise if you are highly internally motivated you should have no problem studying for the exam with Kaplan's self-study option. I also highly recommend purchasing the 3-month Uworld subscription for their Qbank which resembles AAMC questions much more closely than Kaplans.
If you want to talk about this more, I would be happy to discuss it with you. Best wishes on your test!
