Guest LIPOSUCTIONATOR Posted August 6, 2002 Report Share Posted August 6, 2002 I know most of you who elected to take an MCAT prep course chose either Princeton or Kaplan. I chose Richardson's Prep Course taught by Dr. Ferdinand, in false belief that I was getting my money's worth. After all this was the author of the acclaimed MCAT Gold Standard book. This full course package, 2 weekends and a week, cost me $1000, about the same I would have paid for Princeton. Was it worth it? The title of this message says it all. Dr. Ferdinand is never punctual. Today, we had to wait 45 minutes before he arrived. His excuse was being stuck in traffic. Is this acceptable for an MD? For his "problems plus" weekend, all we did was problems from the MCAT student manual on Saturday and wrote the AAMC II on Sunday. As you very well know, these materials are readily available to anyone from the AAMC website. I could go on and on, but being late for 45 minutes today was the last straw. As "compensation" his lawyer friend, John Richardson, who teaches the LSAT prep course gave one of us a $20 bill to buy coffee and donuts. Unfortunately, it's too late for me too turn back and there is no refund policy. If I have convinced at least one of you to think twice about taking Richardson in roughly a year from now, this message will have served its purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted August 6, 2002 Report Share Posted August 6, 2002 Hey there, I don't think I need to say this, but that really bites and I feel for you. Did he at least provide you with his tapes to fill in some blanks? Best of luck on the big day, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LIPOSUCTIONATOR Posted August 7, 2002 Report Share Posted August 7, 2002 Kirsteen, thank you very much for your condolences. Dr. Ferdinand did provide us with his silver bullet audio cassettes but not his silver bullet MCAT book which I had to purchase from Chapters. I say "had to" because I highly recommend the book for anyone preparing for the MCAT. When it comes to writing MCAT prep books, Dr. Ferdinand is a great author. When it comes to teaching, however, he doesn't live up to expectations. Just because someone has the title MD after their name, doesn't mean they are a "demi-god". I figured that out the hard way. The Liposuctionator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LIPOSUCTIONATOR Posted August 8, 2002 Report Share Posted August 8, 2002 Just wanted to make things clear, I have nothing personal against Dr. Ferdinand. I think he's a great guy and it's commendable that he would take time off his surgery practice to prepare students for the MCAT. Considering the low number of students enrolled, he is probably "losing money." However, I don't agree with his teaching philosophy. If you take his MCAT clinics, you are basically paying to write AAMC Practice Tests proctored by a doctor. Personally, I think by this time (9 days to go!) you should have written at least 5 of the 6 available tests at least twice to give you an intuitive feel for the types of questions the AAMC will ask on the actual MCAT. If I were Dr. Ferdinand, I would devise a few more Gold Standard exams (right now there are only 4), and only provide these "commercially unavailable" gems to people who register for my course. If you haven't already done so, purchase his MCAT Gold Standard and write the 3 exams it contains. They have a more authentic feel than either Princeton or Kaplan. Do not register for his MCAT clinics unless you know precisely what you are getting into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.