Review of Kaplan Advanced Class

Question

I'm posting this so that others might not have the same experience I had.

This may be somewhat regional, neither the local nor the national office responded to me either the initial time I sent this or during the class review. However the good folks at the DC center were helpful, the place was clean and bright and the instructor was excellent.

Ended up taking Veritas, the instructor was ten times better and the materials were actually helpful in improving my score

Good morning,

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.

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 In addition, we were provided with outdated copies of the GMAT review book.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 11th edition instead of the current 12th 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 This class is too expensive to have outdated materials, or even the appearance of outdated materials.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.

Pathfinder · Answer

If you read reviews on this forum you won't find much positive critics of this company. I don't have anything nice to say of them either. As you described, too many cheap tricks instead concepts and methods. Their books, their CDs, their prep courses... Average to poor. Skip 'em and find some other company.

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leymanj · Answer

Even more frustrating, is that by the time you've attended the first class, you've wasted any refund opportunity.

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nevergiveup · Answer

I feel your pain buddy. I have taken Kaplan advanced classroom course before. The material you get with the advanced class and regular class is virtually the same with the exception of an extra advanced workbook. You might not even know, but Kaplan is the last company out there to provide with official guide. I asked my instructor once why and he said because Kaplan makes so much money that they don't care. They only do it to react on the market trend, but never proactively thinking ahead.

I remember once I had some SC questions from the manhattan gmat book for the three C's exercise or something, my instructor said and I quote "You won't find question on the gmat that ask you to indentify the three C's so why do you care."

I remember once I had some SC questions from the manhattan gmat book for the three C's exercise or something, my instructor said and I quote "You won't find question on the gmat that ask you to indentify the three C's so why do you care."

bb · Answer

Does kaplan have any kind of guarantee? Or is that class retake only?

Posted from my mobile device

jallenmorris · Answer

They have a higher score guarantee which, even if you get a higher score, but are not satisfied, they'll let you retake the class. If you retake the class and are still not satisfied, they say they'll give you your money back. I've not known of anyone that has asked for their money back.

Some people think that by taking a class they get an "Easy Button" and they don't put as much work in outside of class as they really need to. There are tons of success stories on this forum where the people never took a class and they did great (700+). If someone takes the class and puts in the work they need to for them to learn the concepts, get familiar with the materials and truly be ready to take the test, that person will succeed. However, if that person thinks they don't really need to do much more than show up for class and maybe do a few problems, that person won't succeed regardless of which course the person chooses.

AceofSpades · Answer

I think Kaplan have become too commercial and in doing so have completely lost the plot. Thanks for warning the rest of us.

Review of Kaplan Advanced Class

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