I recently took the Kaplan class and did well on the GRE. Now the question that must be asked is whether these two facts are coincidental or not. After some thought I feel the answer is yes.

Basically I do not recommend the Kaplan course for several reasons. The first of these is the fact that it is very expensive. To take the course, buy supplementary materials, and take time out of work for studying and class it will cost a person well over two thousand dollars.

The course is divided into three sections. They are class instruction, systematic home study and the test and tape library. I felt that the class instruction and home study parts of the class were not very helpful for the amount of money invested. The reason that the class instruction part of the program was not helpful was because of the fact that the instructors treat the students as though they are idiots and give such elementary suggestions such as "Don't waste time" and "Don't go out the night before the test." These may be quality suggestions; however, most people taking the GRE are college graduates and didn't need to spend thousands of dollars to hear this type of info. Now don't get me wrong, I was able to practice taking the actual test in class which helped, even though I could have done this just as easily from home, and I also did learn some time management keys; however, this still didn't justify the price.

The second part of the program was the home study. It is just what it says it is and therefore anyone knows that they don't need to pay the big bucks to study for a test at home. All this takes is motivation and discipline.

The third part of the program I did find to be moderately helpful. The Kaplan review tapes and manuals are representative of the test, give explanations, and are easy to understand. The only problem that I have with this part of the program is that these manuals and CD-ROM's can be bought at most book stores for around thirty dollars. This is quite a savings over what I paid for them.

Overall, I did well on the test and got accepted into most of the schools to which I applied. Certainly, I don't think that the Kaplan program hurt me any; however, I really don't think it was worth the price. If you have the motivation to study and do well this can be achieved for a lot less. If you must have a Kaplan product go buy the study guide and CD-ROM, it's worth the thirty bucks.






Recommended: No