Kaplan Test Prep

I used Kaplan for my bar review course and was extremely disappointed.
As a former teacher, I find it incredibly frustrating that a company that takes in SO MUCH MONEY to prepare people for ONE test hasn’t figured out a better teaching method yet. It just wasn’t effective. It wasn’t well targeted to the actual goal: passing. Instead it was targeted to teaching ALL the material and was unnecessarily scary throughout. It was not terribly helpful. In all, my MC score went up less than 10% between the diagnostic and their final practice test– after two months of studying. What a waste! A friend of mine went through the old essays and sent me one outline that was far more helpful than anything Kaplan provided.
Worse yet, there were blatant errors in the test. Like another poster said, they did a terrible job explaining why answers were wrong. But there were also just mistakes. Like one question stated the wrong standard of review for a protected class in a con law question. That was terrifying! How many things am I memorizing incorrectly WITHOUT noticing? Not okay.
And there is NO diversity at all in the videos. It’s unacceptable that I sat through two months’ worth of videos and saw two people who were female and/​or of color.
I also got pretty much no individual attention from the company. I wasn’t really sure who to ask what of, and no one ever contacted me to see how I was doing– which I hear other companies do. I just felt like I was totally on my own throughout the whole thing. I even submitted long, thoughtful feedback when requested at the midway point, but no one ever contacted me in response to my concerns.
All that said, I still think I passed, but it was no thanks to Kaplan. If this course is WAY cheaper than other courses and you’re a self-​motivated person, maybe it’s the one for you. But I can’t really recommend it. If I had it to do over, I’d probably just buy the released questions from the bar association and study on my own.

LSAT PREP:
Prepping for the LSAT in general is super annoying and overall unpleasant. I figured I needed an instructor to really make me pay attention to it, I was correct. There are a few ways to get a discount on the cost of the course. I took a practice test and got a couple hundred off, I knew a few people who were campus reps and got the course for almost nothing. Woo! It is expensive, but I’m a go big or go home type of person.
The facility is gross, like other reviewers have said. The bathrooms are disgusting. there is even a hole in one of the female restroom stalls that looks into the mens room… OR so that men can look in? Beware. **BUT the staff is reallly nice. The young lady who sits at the front desk is the most happy and pleasant person. You forgot a pencil? Shes got you. You are lost? She’ll direct you. She is always smiling.
My Instructor was Taylor Black, and he is the BEST. but he is moving away… so you probably won’t get him as an instructor. but lucky me right? He was really down to earth and helpful. He never ever made you feel stupid or like your question wasn’t important. He was ALWAYS available to talk before or after class, or any other time for that matter. He really kept the class engaged, and after speaking to others in the class we agreed, the class would have been terrible if it was not for him.
The material is good, You receive a ton of books and you have your online resources as well. I really like the Smart Reports feature because you can see your progress and areas where you and lacking a little. It also tells you what your next studying steps should be. The Higher Score guarantee was really awesome. I went up, but I didn’t feel like I went up enough, so i called and they asked no questions, just let me sign up for another course. YAY! (for free).
Overall I am pleased with my experience here. The location is great, my instructor was the best, and the materials are very useful. I feel like I did the right thing and this was the best way to prepare.
***P.S.*** this course is what you put in to it. If you just go, don’t study and don’t do homework… you probably won’t see a score increase… keep it in mind!

Stay Away. The wildly overpriced GMAT program is a total rip-​off. Nothing they taught on the materials was on the actual test. The text books and review cards were all a waste. I am serious, NOT ONE of 1000s of prep cards had anything to do with the actual exam. They do not refund your money.

Having done some preliminary research right after graduating college, I decided that this LSAT course had all of the right attributes to ensure success on test day. Here is why I was wrong:
1: Kaplan books do not contain instruction for reference. You must sit through a live or online course for that.
2: The class sessions are informative but not comprehensive. Lack of written instruction really undermines work done in class. Sessions are based on general principles. I found it hard to discern the appropriate skills from the live lectures. There is a strong emphasis on their methods. I find them somewhat useful for logic games and very helpful for logical reasoning. I think they are least useful in reading comprehension.
On the other hand…
Teachers and staff are very knowledgeable and helpful. The books that are provided have a decent amount of practice questions and corresponding answers with explanations. The explanations are very helpful. It’s always good to know and understand the reasoning behind the answers to the questions. You can retake the classes and practice tests as many times as you like until test day. They have a refund policy if you do all the work, and your score doesn’t improve.
The one valuable thing for me was the online classes. I found those extremely helpful only because of the ability to pause and rewind. I like to take lots of notes and read them after. I learn best that way, and for me online classes seem to work best.
But…

There’s a time limit on the refund/​retake. The courses are a lot of money. There are never enough logic games. I think the reading comprehension strategy is not very helpful.

I recently took the GRE Express course at the Kaplan Center in Boston (not Cambridge; although I assume they are nearly identical programs). I don’t retake the GRE until June, but I can say the GRE Express was everything it should be. It was very thorough, the instructors were amazingly knowledgeable and patient, and the information was overwhelming (of course) yet totally manageable. I can’t tell just yet if the «Kaplan Method» will be the best method, but I’m sure it will improve my scores. If anything, it helped give me a organized and complete guide to studying for this horrid exam. I would recommend the GRE Express to anyone — and worth the cost, too.

Not sure that this is the right office but I don’t care I need to slam one of them. I sat through the three day final Bar review and now am more confused then when i went in. After completing the month long Barbri class I feel I had a pretty good grasp on the MBE materials. The day before Kaplan I did a 100 Q test of the most recently released MBE questions, I got 72 out of 100 right. Confident in my skill, I went into the 200 Q simulated Kaplan test strong. Every question was ridiculous, almost all a page long, and almost all testing an exception of an exception — or some inane choice between which answer was more right.
During the two day explanation many times the lecturer could not answer our questions of why our we were wrong, nor did the written explanation book. Often when asked why «C» was wrong he would say «because it just is» …Really? thanks for stealing my $ 549!
Some of the «right» answers were straight up wrong — according to Barbri rules. Once the lecturer even said that «C» was right where it said «A» was in the answer in the book. He explained how that in his opinion «C» was more right and that is often how the practice of law works «a lot of rules lie in the gray area» –NO SHIT the PRACTICE of law but we are not studying that, we are studying for the MBE where there is 1 right answer, there is no debating a scan-​tron.
I feel like this is a scam.
I DO not recommend this AT ALL — I was better off before this class.

In short, I went from a 137 to a 163.
If you don’t know the LSAT yet, that’s the difference between NOT getting in anywhere and getting into BU, Brooklyn Law or BC.
My teacher, Jeff, was BRILLIANT, he worked our calendars out with each of us and made sure that we were studying enough and in the right ways.
He gave me strategies that worked for my abilities. Ex. I was shit at the logic games so he told me to bust my ass to get 2 games completely correct and then forget the other 2. I guessed on the others and ended up with 5 points extra. Got a perfect score on Reading Comp and pretty darn good on the other sections.
Recommend. Spend the money and do the work and it’ll work for you.

Don’t bother with their GMAT course. It’s a waste of time and money. Veritas or Manhattan are much better. Even the so called advanced course is worse than the other companies.
I wrote the following letter to their headquarters:
I am very disappointed in the quality of the Kaplan GMAT advanced class and I do not believe I am «getting my monies worth.»
While I find the instructor to be a nice individual, I have invested too much to be satisfied with an instructor who seems unable or unwilling to answer questions and delve into a topic to better prepare the students. I found it unnerving and dissatisfying when the instructor was asked questions and seemed wholly unable to provide a satisfactory explanation to the students and in fact caused greater confusion among the entire class. Kaplan instructors are billed as top-​notch instructors; I would expect such instructors to be more prepared and better than mediocre.
We are expected to review materials on the website and complete practice problems. If the class time is spent re-​reading the same materials and no time is spent reviewing the problems where issues may arise, what’s the point of the class. I can do just as well taking quizzes independently. The
As an advanced level class, I am not looking for high school level gimmicks like starting with the choice E. The materials provided focus more on silly tricks than actual information. In addition, we were provided with outdated copies of the GMAT review book. When the instructor was asked why we are using the 11^th edition instead of the current 12^th edition, no answer was provided and no remedy was offered. This class is too expensive to have outdated materials, or even the appearance of outdated materials.
I have been less than thrilled at the coordination of the Kaplan staff and website. I originally registered and paid for the advanced GMAT class listed on your website as twice weekly. Instead, I was sent materials for the regular class and not informed that in fact the advanced class meets only once weekly at a different time and had started the week prior.
This class was billed as an advanced level practice course. By rights, we are all reasonably skilled test-​takers and familiar with the GMAT exam and question type. While I understand the need to provide a refresher, spending our precious class-​time reading basic level materials instead of focusing on the advanced topics, reviewing problems and answering questions would be more beneficial and is what I expected.
The experience I have had so far does not lead me to believe that Kaplan does take its commitment to success seriously.

so here’s my update on the GRE’s.
yes, my score did go up. it was only 60 points shy of what i wanted it to be. however, overall i’m happy. i feel like the GRE course really did prepare me for the test. my score went up. the quality kaplan really is great.
highly recommended.

If you need help with the GMAT, I do not recommend this test prep course. I took it and did not have a good experience.

I took an LSAT course here and found it to be extremely helpful. My teacher (Beth) is really great and I am glad that I decided to spend so much money on this class. For those who think they can buy the books and study on their own, I wish you luck on that. For those who think their brilliant minds are enough to get them a 180 on the exam, I also wish you luck. Just remember that the exam scores form a perfect bell curve and you will be competing with students who chose Kaplan! mwah ha ha ha!