Last Updated on May 10, 2024 by Team Experts
If you are researching MCAT prep courses, you might have come across some people saying that MCAT prep courses aren’t necessary and some would suggest otherwise. Well, instead of just listening to other people’s opinion, you should understand the pros and cons of an MCAT prep course first and decide for yourself whether MCAT prep courses are necessary.
Pros
Here are some of the advantages of MCAT prep courses.
Having a support system
The first and most important advantage of an MCAT prep course is getting support from other people besides those that care about you. If you were to take live-classes online or in-person, it will feel as though you were back in college where you get to study in a classroom with other students.
Not only does the support come from other people, but you can also receive support from the tutors. There are some MCAT prep courses on the market that offer tutoring to students that require extra attention and it can be beneficial in guiding the students down the right path. Having a support system is certainly helpful to do well for the MCAT exam.
Organized schedule
If you’re someone that has a hard time organizing your study schedule, enrolling for an MCAT prep course would be a great idea. This is because MCAT prep courses usually have a set study schedule/timetable for the classes and it’s the perfect solution if you have a hard time coming up with a schedule and sticking to it.
Moreover, if you prefer to self-study but want to sign up for an MCAT prep course, you can also receive personalized study schedules from some companies. The schedules are usually quite flexible and are catered for your daily schedule so it doesn’t clash with your responsibilities.
Access to contents and resources
When you enroll for an MCAT prep course, you will be provided with all the necessary content reviews and resources for the MCAT exam. These content reviews usually come in the form of online or in-person classes, textbooks or video explanations. Most of the top MCAT prep courses have a comprehensive content review that will help you score well for the MCAT.
Besides content reviews, you will also have access to the question banks of the MCAT courses. It will usually contain practice questions and practice tests which you can do as many as you want. Some of the better prep courses also include an explanation for the answers which can be helpful in strengthening your understanding.
Cons
Here are some of the disadvantages of MCAT prep courses.
Expensive
One of the biggest downsides of courses is that they are usually very costly. It is an extra fee to pay on top of the $300 exam fee and the cost of MCAT prep courses can reach up to a little under $3,000. However, there are also cheap courses available but don’t expect to get too much from them because they will usually be lacking in certain aspects.
We wouldn’t recommend taking an MCAT course if you have a tight budget because it’s not a good idea to add on more stress than you already have. Instead, you can study for the MCAT on your own with free or cheap materials and with determination, you will do decently well for the MCAT.
No guarantee
Another disadvantage about courses is that not all of them are guaranteed to help you achieve a high score, despite paying thousands of dollars and spending hundreds of hours. Plus, not every course is made the same so there’s no guarantee that the quality of the courses are consistent.
On the bright side, there are some courses that provide a refund if you fail the exam. But at the end of the day, you still spent a significant amount of time and there’s no way to get those spent time back.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we would say that MCAT prep courses are necessary, provided you have a large enough budget to fund it. The value for money is incredible especially if you opt for the best courses and you can save yourself a great deal of time from searching for free or cheap materials.
As for people with a lower and tighter budget, MCAT prep courses are still necessary but you can opt for cheaper alternatives and also look for free or cheap materials as extra resources. At the end of the day, the pros of MCAT prep courses outweighs the cons and are necessary to help you do well for the MCAT. On a side note, our preferred prep course would be the prep course by Altius due to how well-organized their education programs are.
Read also: How to Perform well in an Online Course?
