The MCAT has been the bane of pre-meds since the beginning of time. When I decided that I would join the ranks of that generally anal-retentive group, I was determined to stay away from MCAT preparation classes. Why? I thought that classes such as those taught by The Princeton Review (TPR) or its major competitor, Kaplan, were simply designed to extort large sums of money from apprehensive pre-meds. Once it came time for me to take the MCAT, I seriously reconsidered my stance and enrolled in The Princeton Review, a decision I certainly don’t regret.

Why take a review course?

Many of my reasons for taking a review course are general – they would apply to any type of review course. However, TPR’s class structure matched my reasons for taking it. When first contemplating an approach to how I would study for the MCAT, I found that the vast amount of knowledge I was responsible for was overwhelming. Second, I knew I could get a ton of review books and study from them, but I really did not know whether I could be disciplined enough to regularly study the material, and questioned whether I would actually be covering everything I needed to review. Third, if I had a question about a particular topic, I wanted to have a person to turn to in case I could not find the answer in a review manual. Most importantly, I needed to have a strategy for how I would prepare for and how I would take the MCAT.

How did The Princeton Review Meet these Needs?

The course began on a Saturday with a diagnostic exam. It was meant to simulate a regular MCAT so that we would know what concepts we needed to review. The course began the next Monday and was taught Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the afternoon. I believe the classes were three hours long. Each class was split into two sessions, each with its own instructor. One covered physics and inorganic chemistry, while the other covered biology and organic chemistry. The biology instructor also gave us a reading comprehension exercise every day. We briefly touched on the writing sample part of the MCAT.

Over the course of a few months, we covered, step-by-step, every basic concept we needed to know for the MCAT. We did not cover extraneous material, instead, the course focused only on essentials. We had about two hours of homework for each session, and would be quizzed (orally, in front of the class) on the material the next class session. This helped with the discipline factor, as the class size was very small (about 10) – it was impossible to get away with being unprepared! My instructors were available for questions at any (reasonable) time – they gave out their home phone numbers.

The instructors also focused on test-taking strategies that I would not have thought of before taking the course, such as how to take shortcuts or how to weed out unimportant information in certain problems. They also covered things I believe everyone should already know by the time they are in high school, such as “don’t spend too much time on each question – if you don’t know it, skip it and come back, etc.” Periodically we took additional diagnostic exams to track our progress. These were great motivators; at the same time it was rewarding to see my score steadily rise.

The instructors tried to use humor in their teaching whenever they could. They both also had engaging personalities which helped hold my attention. They took what could have been extremely boring information and made it interesting (usually!)

Spreading out the MCAT preparation over a period of months helped me to treat it just like any other class I would take at school. I went the three days a week, treated the diagnostics as mid-term exams, and the MCAT as the final. I feel this is the most important factor in the improvement of my MCAT score.

Drawbacks

I wonder about the scoring of the diagnostic exams. My score improved 8 points from the first diagnostic to the last (which is great, the MCAT only has 45 possible points). However, the MCAT took place only a week after the last diagnostic, and my score improved 6 more points! Did I actually learn that much in a week or was TPR deliberately scoring the exams lower to effect some kind of response (such as greater satisfaction with their course or a stronger motivation to study)? This is only my experience and could have been a freak occurrence. I certainly don’t profess to know of any kind of pattern of deception. And if this pattern does exist, it definitely helped to motivate me to study.

The course is relatively expensive. When I took it, it cost $1,000. The price has since increased. TPR gives a limited number of scholarships, so if you are on a tight budget I’d still advise you to check it out. If even then you still can't afford it, see if someone you know has taken the class - maybe they will let you borrow their materials, or sell them to you cheaply. I gave my materials to a friend of mine and he got a 40!

Recommendation

TPR broke down a seemingly insurmountable task into easily digestible pieces. The class sessions and quizzing from instructors encouraged me to prepare over a period of time, as opposed to my usual cram-the-week-before approach. TPR effectively helped me to remember basic science details that I had forgotten and gave me useful test-taking strategies. I would take TPR again without reservation, and would recommend it to anyone.



Recommended: Yes