Does Kaplan course work?

I think the Kaplan course can be a valuable tool for people who a) don't have the discipline to force themselves to sit down with several books and really study for the exam or b) have tried self-study, but need someone to explain the various concepts in greater detail than is given in books.

If you can buy study books (I used Princeton Review, Kaplan Premier and the Official Guide) and really sit down and devote yourself to spending an hour or two a night to learning - and practicing - the concepts and strategies in the books, save yourself the $1300. If you need the structure of a teacher, a classroom and homework, you'll want to make that investment.

Fortunately, for you, there is time. You can try both methods if you want: take a full-length practice test now, study study study for 3-4 weeks and then take another practice test. If you don't show significant improvement, take Kaplan's 1-month program.

whether you learn better in a classroom or through books is for you to decide. but the kaplan course uses much of the same material as the book. also the book comes with a CD that is interactive and has people "talking" to you - it is very good and helped me a lot. for $30 you can't go wrong. save your money in my opinion. you can supplement kaplan book with a number of other books or online courses (including kaplan) for much, much less.

There are several factors to consider. First you must be concrete about what you are trying to get out of the course. You must also understand that Kaplan is a business and that their prime interest is enrolment numbers and secondary your score. They would much rather raise the avg gmat score increase than one particular score. Therefore it is geared towards the average student with average or slightly above average abilities ( because as you know its far easier to go from 450 to a 550 than from a 650 to 750). If you are farther along than that you will find the classroom work to be somewhat elementary. However, I must say that the amount of online material you are given is simply incredible !!!! Thousands of questions and practice routines everything you need to score as high as you want in one place. Also they give you cool tools such as timing for each question , nice statistical breakdown of your work, ability to create custom exams focusing one each specific area and much more. So now the question becomes is it worth the money. In my opinion the package is complete as they come and you are paying more for convenience over anything else. Yes it is possible to get all the material at a cheaper price, however you won’t have the same tools nor will you be able to generate your own with the same precision as this organization. Also I believe that their structure increases efficiency of your study time thus saving you lots of headaches resulting from searching through various reference materials … like I said convenience … with all that stated I paid the money ( although I haven’t taken my real gmat yet ) I think I would do it again if given the choice