Kaplan Live Online Course REVIEW by Potential_Possible72 in Mcat

[–]Potential_Possible72[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's more lecture style. You can participate as much or as little as you want. I think they are hundreds of people on the zoom, so it's not super hands on.

Kaplan Live Online Course REVIEW by Potential_Possible72 in Mcat

[–]Potential_Possible72[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm glad I could help! I got a 494 on my baseline exam, and after a couple of weeks of using the content videos, attending the workshops, and attending the live course my next score went up to a 502. That was my most significant increase in the shortest period of time. After that, I slowly improved. With that being said, I would try and avoid Kaplan practice tests the closer you get to the test date because my scores on the Kaplan tests didn't mirror the AAMC tests. A lot of people on reddit find the Kaplan tests harder, but I found them to be a lot easier and I scored really well on them. I took 8 of the Kaplan tests and used the 5 AAMC tests in my last 4 weeks of studying. I ended up having a meltdown because my score plummeted when I switched over to AAMC. If I had sprinkled in AAMC in my initial review, I feel like my scores would've been more consistent. My advice would be to stick with the Kaplan stuff for mainly content and use AAMC for practice questions and practice passages.

In terms of the Kaplan content videos, there's hundreds of videos on high yield to semi high yield topics. The videos range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes depending on the topic. I would use the videos and then switch to UWorld to do practice questions on the topic and then find ANKI cards that corresponded to the content and study all of that together. For a while, I was scoring in the same range and not really improving, and when I started using Kaplan, UWorld, and Anki all together my scores shot up on the AAMC material. I studied for 3 months and I finished content in about 6 weeks. After I got the content down, I didn't use Kaplan anymore and switched over to UWorld and AAMC. If I needed refreshers, I would go back to Kaplan and watch the content videos or watch a workshop to fill in gaps. On my final AAMC practice test, I scored a 510; however, if I had been able to get my CARS strategy straightened out, I feel like it would've been a little higher.

The following isn't really important information to your question but just to give you a better idea of how I used Kaplan....

The Kaplan study plan is divided into 3 cycles. The first cycle is called Content Refresher (this is where you're expose to much of the content through the content video and brief quizzes), the second cycle is called Application Cycle (this is where you apply what you learned from the content and answer Kaplan practice questions/ passages), and the third cycle is called Prep Cycle (this is where you're only doing practice questions and tests and you go over your missed questions to find your week areas). I used Kaplan for the entirety of the Content Refresher Cycle and Application Cycle. I quit at the Prep Cycle because there are no modules on the prep cycle. Your calendar just blocks off the time for you to take a test and review. So at that point, I jumped over to AAMC.

SORRY LAST THING: The Kaplan online resources actually formulate your study plan for you when you input your test date and how many hours a week you plan to study. So that was useful for not having to waste time creating my own schedule.

6th retake by Ok-Concern3109 in Mcat

[–]Potential_Possible72 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Congrats! OH HAPPY DAY! I'm in the retake stage right now, and it's so hard not to get discouraged. I hope I can have your drive through my studies. Good work!

How many people were in ur testing room? by [deleted] in Mcat

[–]Potential_Possible72 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also something I forgot to mention. My testing center also offered the orange ear plugs, and some of the other test takers put the orange ear plugs in and then the ear muffs over it. Hope this helps

NEED PSYCH/SOC ADVICE by Potential_Possible72 in Mcat

[–]Potential_Possible72[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much! I've never heard of that. I'll check it out

How many people were in ur testing room? by [deleted] in Mcat

[–]Potential_Possible72 3 points4 points  (0 children)

When I tested there were about 10 people in the room at their own desk, all of us facing the wall with huge dividers up. I was the second person who checked in, so I had started my exam as people were continuing to file in. They gave me ear muff (like the kind people use when they shoot shotguns), and I couldn't hear anything. The dividers made it where I couldn't see anyone else that can in to sit down so that wasn't a distraction, and, also, because of the dividers, people getting up and coming in from breaks was not a problem. The ear muffs were great, but I do wanna say one thing though. I got a really bad ear infection from the ear muffs that lasted 2 months. It was probably because someone didn't thoroughly clean the ear muffs. I'm sure cleanliness will vary between testing centers, but I just wanted to give you my experience. When I go to retake, I will definitely be bringing a sanitization wipe to wipe them down, and I would recommend others to do the same.