Med School & MCAT Prep

[pkrutop]

I know there's a few folks in here that have completed the MCAT and a few that are getting close to taking it. I'm hoping you guys can point me in the right direction as far as study guides go. There are so many study guides and exam prep books on the market it's a bit overwhelming.

I've heard good things about Examkrackers and Kaplan but I'm pretty sure those are just the more well known books, not necessarily the best.

As far as practice tests go, there are $50 tests and $500 study guides/tests. Should I get a bunch of cheaper tests or are the more expensive ones worth the price?

Anything you guys can offer is awesome! If there's any other books or articles you guys recommend would be unreal aswell. Thanks guys!

[rjdmmfl1]

I know there's a few folks in here that have completed the MCAT and a few that are getting close to taking it. I'm hoping you guys can point me in the right direction as far as study guides go. There are so many study guides and exam prep books on the market it's a bit overwhelming.

I've heard good things about Examkrackers and Kaplan but I'm pretty sure those are just the more well known books, not necessarily the best.

As far as practice tests go, there are $50 tests and $500 study guides/tests. Should I get a bunch of cheaper tests or are the more expensive ones worth the price?

Anything you guys can offer is awesome! If there's any other books or articles you guys recommend would be unreal aswell. Thanks guys!

Ok, I will talk about Princeton Review and Kaplan for a number of reasons...

They are the most popular, they have been around the longest, and they are the two that I have had the most experience with.

The MCAT is not an impossible exam.. in fact, once you get to medical school, you'll laugh at the MCAT regarding rigor, as 2nd year of medical school is probably the most difficult academic year you will ever endure. (its just sooo much info in such a small period of time, but the work itself isn't difficult to comphrehend) On the flip side, the MCAT tests knowledge in a bit of a "second hand" fashion. I.e. the maority of questions are from passages rather than stand alone questions like you are probably used to.

But back to the best prep courses, I used Kaplan with great success, but I have undergrad classmates that were also accepted to every one of the top ten medical schools that used princeton, Kaplan, or studied on their own. So my point is, no one testing material is particularly better than the other.

From my recollection, Princeton review goes more indepth with their study sections (Biology, Physics, G Chem, O Chem) while Kaplan gives more of a to the point, high yield overview. So if you want in depth analysis and explanations, go with Princeton Review.

Bith offer a LOT of practive exams including their own exams as well as AAMC practive exams. THe AAMC practice exams are actually FORMER MCATS, so those are really the best judge of how well you're going to do on the real MCAT. Princeton Review and Kaplan's exams are just "similar" to MCATS, but neither are actual former exams (to my knowledge)

The good thing about taking a course rather than trying to study on your own, is that the course forces you to stay on task and keep a steady study pace so that you don't fall behind. I HIGHLY suggest taking a class rather than trying to study on your own. I know its expensive, but so is the entire medical school application process.

Just to apply to 10 schools, expect to spend a total of about $5,000 to $6,000 dollars. If you'd like a breakdown of why its so expensive, I'd be glad to go over that with you as well.

I've been advising students on getting into medical school for the last 8 years, I've been recruiting for Johns Hopkins for the last 8 years, I will be on the admissions committee for the 2010-2011 academic year, and am currently co-authoring a book on secrets to getting into the medical school of your choice with a Hopkins classmate of mine. I'm not bragging, I just don't want you to think you're getting information from someone that doesn't know what they're talking about! best of luck through this pain in the a$$ process and I'll be here to help at any point along the way!

[pkrutop]

Unreal post! Thanks for the info Rob!If you don't mind, I'd like to shoot you an email some time this week to pick a little bit more off of the wisdom tree. I'm pretty sure I still have your email address from when I ordered kickplates from you like a year ago. If not, I'm assuming it's in your profile.Thanks again bud.

[rjdmmfl1]

Unreal post! Thanks for the info Rob!If you don't mind, I'd like to shoot you an email some time this week to pick a little bit more off of the wisdom tree. I'm pretty sure I still have your email address from when I ordered kickplates from you like a year ago. If not, I'm assuming it's in your profile.Thanks again bud.

shoot me an info anytime, still the same... and its in my profile...

[IBCoupe]

RJ,

The major criticism I read of Kaplan and Kaplan-like courses for the LSAT is that they aim to get you an average-to-above-average score, and for those who are already pretty well off on the test, it's not really worth the money.

Are there similar concerns for the MCAT? I'm asking only out of curiosity.

[anthonyle2002]

FYI, I work for Kaplan. Not the Test Prep division, but for Kaplan nonetheless. Let me know if you need a discount.

[Micron]

Based on observations from my fiancee, I would agree with rjdmmfl1 regarding the studying materials being a personal preference. She passed Step 2 a few weeks ago, and now that applications are being accepted by residency programs we're getting ready to start traveling! She used the Kaplan books a good bit, but once she got in school she started favoring the First Aid series, as they were tuned to her particular learning style.

As for the comments regarding your first two years of med school making the MCATs look like child's play, I would agree wholeheartedly! Outside of your bio-science fundamentals, I would highly recommend snagging a study skills/research methods style capstone before you finish undergrad. If you haven't nailed both your study methods and test taking skills before med school, you're gonna struggle.

rjdmmfl1 - my future father-in-law works @ Hopkins for their IT, and two of my cousins have privies there. Did you hear about the incident @ Hopkins a few days back?!?!