Guest Ian Wong Posted March 24, 2001 Report Share Posted March 24, 2001 Author:*Jeff S, UG2 Date:***9/8/2000 8:30 pm*PST * I've decided to take the MCAT next August instead of in April, since I'll probably be too busy then. If I'm going to take a course, I have 4 options: The Princeton Review, Kaplan, Richardson Prep, or Oxford Seminars. Does anyone have experiences with any of these test preparation companies that they can share? Thanks, Jeff UG2 (U of T) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 24, 2001 Report Share Posted March 24, 2001 Author:*Paul Date:***9/8/2000 9:33 pm*PST * I don't see what the big deal is with these courses because I don't think they would raise your score that much higher then if studying on your own, maybe they wouldn't do anything in certain cases. This is just a opinion, though I could be wrong. I just think money could be spent better then wasting time and money on courses like these. If anybody completely disagrees with me please respond. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 24, 2001 Report Share Posted March 24, 2001 Author:*Simon Chiu, UG3 Date:***9/8/2000 10:28 pm*PST * I found that a lot of the people who took the courses kept on track with studying b/c they were constantly reminded of the MCAT. For myself, I didn't take a course because I held a part-time job, a research job, volunteering, and two courses over the summer. I found that I had to motivate myself a lot and that motivation didn't really come until 1.5 months before August 19 (date of the MCAT). In terms of the quality and the amount of material covered, my friends who took Princeton Review said that the material was A LOT. If you decide to take this prep course, be warned: you will be very busy and probably won't be able to take a summer job, etc, etc. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 24, 2001 Report Share Posted March 24, 2001 Author:*Jeff S, UG2 Date:***9/9/2000 7:57 am*PST * From what I've heard so far, Kaplan's weaker in the verbal/writing area than the Princeton Review is. Also, I'm not sure whether they use real AAMC practice tests, while the Princeton Review does. And I've also heard good things about the Richardson (Gold Standard) course. However, although TPR is $200 more than Richardson, I like their schedule a bit more. It's 3 hours a day, 3 days a week in class for 8 weeks, plus 5 practice tests (for a total of 102 hours). With Richardson, you'd go for a full weekend in June, another full weekend in July, plus a full week in August just before the MCAT (80 hours total). It seems that the material is more crammed that way... at least with TPR you see the teachers more often so you have more of a chance to check on your own progress, make sure you're studying at the right pace, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 24, 2001 Report Share Posted March 24, 2001 Author:*moo, UG3 Date:***9/9/2000 9:26 am*PST * I took TPR this past summer. However, I chickened out on the MCAT. I was getting double digits on bio and physical but not doing very well on verbal (7 and 8's). Now that I know exactly what's on the MCAT, I will take it in APril (I don't have time to take the bloody course in APril anyway). Verbal just takes a lot of practice. You have to work at it day in and day out... that's the only way to get good at it. As for the course itself, I think TPR is pretty good, small classes (<10 in our class) so you can discuss pretty much everything. The instructors are OK, but I guess so are the ones in Kaplan and other review courses. The 1200 bucks that you spend on these courses will seem like NOTHING when you get into med school, and it will seem like it was all worth it, so I definitely say, if you have the time, go for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 24, 2001 Report Share Posted March 24, 2001 Author:*Ian Wong, MS2 Date:***9/9/2000 4:09 pm*PST * Hmm. I didn't take any of these courses, so I can't really comment too far. What I have heard on the internet, is that you really want to look for a review course that gives you access to representative questions and exams such as will be found on the actual MCAT. Many of the different self-study books available out there have exam questions that are ridiculously different than the actual MCAT questions. I once remember a book asking to calculate the value of Sin 49 degrees or something off-the wall like that. I guess the authors neglected to read that the MCAT disallows calculators (and no, it wasn't an easily memorized/calculatable value like Sin 30). If there's one thing I recommend to my friends taking the MCAT, it's to do as many practice exams as possible. It really helps get you into the test-taking mentality, and stresses your ability to time-manage. The worst thing in the world, and which has happened to many of my friends, is running out of time in the MCAT. That automatically, without you doing anything else, drops your score several numerical points. Taking many MCAT's helps give you an idea of how the clock is running, and how much time you can budget per question. It's also not something that you can just remind yourself once, and remember, as you usually forget to watch the clock when you are under stress, such as in the actual exam. Keep in mind that the teaching quality will probably be variable. I, and several of my classmates, considered working for one of the above companies last year. I can say that we definitely have different abilities as far as teaching goes, so that end will be luck of the draw as to whether your learning style matches with your teacher's teaching approach. Because of that, I think the advantage of the prep program is to get access to lots of practice exams. Make sure to use them. And like moo said, $1200 really is peanuts compared to the cost of applying. After you drop thousands in application fees, airplane costs, motel rooms, and spend all that time, losing an extra $1200 isn't a big deal, as long as you think it will help improve your application. Ian Can, MS2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 24, 2001 Report Share Posted March 24, 2001 Author:*Paul Date:***9/9/2000 7:14 pm*PST * Iam guessing that calculation of sin had to do with a physics question and if so, is there a lot of hard math (considering your not using a calc) or can most of the answers be either estimated? or are most qualitative not quantitative in working out and answering for the physics and chem sections? Doesn't the AAMC only give out like 3 practice exams? And if so where can I get more without taking the courses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 24, 2001 Report Share Posted March 24, 2001 Author:*Simon Chiu, UG3 Date:***9/10/2000 10:00 am*PST * The AAMC has 4 exams. I was also in the same situation, wanting to do more practise exam before the real thing. I ended up just going to the bookstore and purchasing several MCAT prep books consisting of purely exams and just practising on them after I was done with the AAMC's and the Gold Standard's (there are 3 GS MCATs in the book, 1 more GS MCAT in this addendum called "Silver Bullet") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cinnamronaolcom Posted August 20, 2001 Report Share Posted August 20, 2001 RThanks for all the info. I want to do take the self- prep strategy, b/c I have so little time, so many jobs. Has anyone gotten a tutor through PRinceton Review or elsewhere? Also, to piggy-back on the math question: Is there an exhorbitant amount fo math on the MCAT? As for getting practice tests, I hear that Kaplan offers them for free at various locations (but, to be ignored if Kaplan truly does not reflect what's ACTUALLY on the MCAt.) Does anyone have any GOOD MCAT self-taugh prep stories? I need the mental support. ~amron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest llyz Posted August 21, 2001 Report Share Posted August 21, 2001 Cinnamo..... Obviously I think you're aware that you are not allowed to use a calculator in the exam. The types of maths on the MCAT that I've seen are... * Calculation of ph with [H+] = 1 x 10(to the -7) * Calculate Ka (multiplacation of two scientific notations) * Msc Physics questions and Chemistry, atomic weights, etc - they usually make the calculations add up to easy to work with numbers like 100, 5, 20, etc. * There is more trickery than anything else. For example on Saturday I ran into a long winded passage that was comparing the effects of estrogen to those of environment pesticides. In the beginning it said that pesticides acting alone had about 1/50 the potency potential that estrogen levels had regarding cancers. Later after much confusing verbage the passage indicated that where chemicals where found in unison they could increase their potency by 1000x. Compared to estrogen what is the likelyhood of two pesticides causing cancer? a. 20x more likely b. 1000x more likely c. 20x less likely d. 1000x less likely There hasn't been anything ever that almost everyone shouldn't be able to calculate manually. Not that I've seen anyway in 3 MCAT's. Just know basic math, basic logs (they're aren't going to ask you to calculate the log of 5.43 x 10(to the -8) . Although they may give multiple choices like a. More than 8 b. Less than 8 c. equal to 8 * know basic sin, cos, tan angles like for example The right angle triangle with angles 90, 45 and 45 and corresponding sides 1, 1, and (root of 2). From this you know that the sin 45 = 1/(root of 2). You can devise the same for 60 and 30 degree angles. They are not going to ask you to calculate the sin 86.2. They may ask you a standard angle though. Hope this clarifies, the math on the exam should not be a concern for you. Even if they put one crazy question on there it would be the only one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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