Dave Evangelisti By: Dave Evangelisti
Kaplan MCAT Review

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Learn about Kaplan with our Kaplan MCAT review below.

We went into the Kaplan course to help give you a better idea of what to expect. Our hope is that this helps you make an informed decision when making a purchase.

Summary: We provide you with a review of the Kaplan MCAT course. For information on other providers, read our reviews of the best MCAT online prep.

  On-Demand Course Live Online Course Tutoring + Live Online
Option 1 6 Months - $1,699 6 Months - $2,099 Basic Package - $2,799
Option 2 9 Months - $1,899 9 Months - $2,299 Premium Package - $3,999
Option 3 12 Months - $1,999 12 Months - $2,399 -
Videos 90+ 90+ 90+
Live Video Sessions No 48 Hours 48 Hours
Tutoring Included No No Yes
Practice Questions 3000+ 3000+ 3000+
Practice Tests 16 16 16
Books Included Yes Yes Yes
Guarantee Yes Yes Yes
Learn More GO!

Kaplan’s offerings can be broken down into 3 different groups – on-demand courses, live online courses, and tutoring courses. We will dive deeper into these 3 options below.

You can view screenshots and a breakdown of the features you will find within the Kaplan course below.

If you want to see how you would do on the MCAT, take our MCAT online test.

Kaplan
Kaplan logo

Score: 81

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  • Best For

  • Someone looking for practice questions
  • Teacher-led sessions
  • Different prep options

Kaplan MCAT On-Demand Course

Kaplan offers their on-demand courses in 3 different time periods:

  • 6-Month
  • 9-Month
  • 12-Month

All of these courses include the same offerings with the only difference being the amount of time you have access to the course (and price).

Students will receive the following in their Kaplan MCAT course:

  • 90+ videos
  • 7 physical textbooks
  • 3000+ practice questions
  • 16 full-length practice exams
  • Structured study plan
  • All official AAMC resources
  • Livestreamed workshops
  • Course guarantee

Bottom Line – Kaplan is a well-known provider in the test prep industry. Their on-demand course is solid for anyone looking for a complete course.

Kaplan MCAT Live Online Course

Just like the on-demand offerings, Kaplan MCAT also has 3 live online offerings:

  • 6-Months
  • 9-Months
  • 12-Months

The live online courses are nice because they also include everything that is included in the on-demand courses. In addition to the resources included in the on-demand course, you will also receive the following:

  • 24 2-hour online classes
  • Personalized homework assignments
  • Flexible scheduling

The 2-hour online classes are taught by a team of MCAT teachers and are great for anyone who enjoys learning in a classroom setting. The live online classes help hold students accountable and ensure they are putting in the proper study hours.

The personalized homework assignments are based on your individual strengths and weaknesses. This is a cool feature that our team really likes. This helps make the course less “cookie-cutter” and a lot more personalized.

Bottom Line – The live online courses include everything in the on-demand courses and are great for students who enjoy learning in more of a classroom setting. 

Kaplan Tutoring + Live Online Course

For students who want the most immersive and personalized experience, they should consider Kaplan’s tutoring + live online course option. This option comes in 2 different packages:

  • Basic package
  • Premium package

Both packages include everything that is included in both the on-demand and live online courses as well as:

  • 10, 20, 30, or 40 hours of private tutoring
  • Assignments tailored to you
  • Free extension if needed

The main difference between the basic and premium package is the premium package ensures you have a tutor who scored higher than 520 on the MCAT. You also get a 1-hour consultation with a med school admissions expert if you decide to purchase the premium package.

Bottom Line – The tutoring package from Kaplan is a good option for someone who wants a combination of tutoring and self-paced/live online learning.

A lot of the features that Kaplan offers cross over between the different products they sell. We will review those different features below and provide screenshots of what they look like below.

Want to get some practice in before making a purchase? Take our MCAT practice exams.

Study Planner

Kaplan, like most other MCAT courses online, offers a nice study planner for students to keep track of their studies. The study planner is the first thing students typically see when they login to their course.

The study planner will ask you when you plan on completing your studies and how many hours per week you plan on studying. Based on your answers, it will spit out a study plan for you to follow.

The study plan is very detailed and lists the specific lessons and modules that need to be completed. It also lists the estimated time you have remaining to study for each week – which is a feature our team really liked.

You can also refresh the schedule to update it – this is ideal if you missed a couple days of studying and need to make up for lost time. The schedule will automatically update and adjust to how much time you have left until your completion date.

Kaplan MCAT Review Study Plan 1

Activity Library

The activity library is where you will find all of your learning modules and lessons. While you can get to everything from your custom schedule, you can also navigate to everything from this portion of the course.

The activity library is nice because everything is housed in one section within the course. There are filters on the left-hand side that our team thought was a nice feature. You can filter by type or status. The status filter includes:

  • Not started
  • In progress
  • Completed
  • Tested out

You can even use the search bar and search for specific modules or lessons that you want to work on or review again.

Kaplan MCAT Review 1

Learning Materials

For the on-demand and live online courses, you will learn primarily through videos and the physical textbooks that are sent to you. If you choose the tutoring + live online option, you will have the tutoring hours as an additional way to study.

The on-demand course includes 90+ videos. These videos are typically shorter in length in an attempt to keep your attention and maximize learning.

The videos consist of a MCAT expert talking and interacting with various slides. The videos have some cool features on them like a tag cloud that you can click on to see other videos about that topic, a table of contents of topics talked about within the video, and a search feature to find information within the video quicker.

Kaplan MCAT Review 5

If you enroll in a live online course, you will have access to those 90+ videos, as well as 24 2-hour online classes. The online classes feel like you are learning in an actual classroom setting and are taught by a team of MCAT experts.

The live online classes have flexible scheduling, so it is easy to fit them into your schedule. You will also have access to unlimited workshops which are livestreamed. These workshops focus on specific topics on the MCAT – so if you want to work on something specific, see if there is a workshop available to supplement your learning.

If you prefer to learn from books, you can do so as well with Kaplan. You will receive a set of textbooks when you signup for the course. We like this option as everyone learns differently.

Practice Exams and Questions

As with any prep course, practice exams and questions are one of the most important features for many students. Kaplan includes 3 mains ways to practice:

  1. Module quizzes
  2. Question bank
  3. Full-length practice exams

The module quizzes are thrown into various learning modules and help ensure that you have a good grasp on the material.

The question bank is a portion of the course where you can build you own quizzes. You can apply a bunch of different filters like different topics, subjects, if you have answered the question correctly before or not, time limits, etc. 

Kaplan MCAT Review Qbank 1

Finally, there are 16 full-length exams included in all the courses. The full-length exams do a great job of simulating the actual exam and are great practice.

It is important to review your answers after taking the exams so you can better understand why something was correct or incorrect – we talk more about this in the next section.

Kaplan MCAT Review 3

Score Reports

The last thing we will touch on in this Kaplan MCAT review are the score reports that you will have access to. After taking quizzes or practice exams, you will have access to a score report.

You will be able to see different insights about the specific questions like:

  • Topic
  • Subtopic
  • Difficulty
  • Time spent

You will also be able to click the “review” button which will show you a detailed answer explanation. These answer explanations are very important to review and will help you increase your score as you will better understand the types of questions you will see.

Kaplan MCAT Review 4

Kaplan
Kaplan logo

Score: 81

  • Why Choose Kaplan MCAT

  • High number of practice questions
  • Well-known provider with experience in test prep industry
  • Variety of options to choose from

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Is Kaplan good for MCAT?

Yes, Kaplan is a solid choice for studying for the MCAT. However, Kaplan was not our top choice. Read our MCAT prep course comparison article for more information on our favorite courses.

Is Kaplan or Princeton Review better for MCAT prep?

Both Kaplan and Princeton Review offer solid study materials. Both courses have some different features that may be more appealing to certain students.

You can read our Kaplan vs Princeton Review MCAT comparison for more information.