Test Prep- Kaplan or Princeton Review

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willywonka14: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 9; Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:36 pm; Location: Mississauga

by willywonka14 » Mon Oct 08, 2007 3:50 pm

Hello,
I am currently registered in a Princeton review gmat prep course however I have read a lot of negative things about princeton review. I.E- you will only score 500 or 600 max. My ideal score on the GMAT for the schools I would like to attend is 650. Having said that, is there a difference between the Princeton Review and Kaplan? Is one better than the other?

Help!

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Re: Test Prep- Kaplan or Princeton Review

by beatthegmat » Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:57 pm

willywonka14 wrote:Hello,
I am currently registered in a Princeton review gmat prep course however I have read a lot of negative things about princeton review. I.E- you will only score 500 or 600 max. My ideal score on the GMAT for the schools I would like to attend is 650. Having said that, is there a difference between the Princeton Review and Kaplan? Is one better than the other?

Help!

I don't think this community has been arguing that you will receive a 500 to 600 score by going with PR or Kaplan--however, it's my opinion that these two companies are vying for customers who want to score in this range since they represent the largest market.

Regardless I think that both PR and Kaplan can still do a fine job of preparing you for the GMAT! I don't think that of the two, one is particularly better than the other.

Best of luck.

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bates88: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 101; Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:50 am; Thanked: 2 times

by bates88 » Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:55 am

I did a lot of reading in the different GMAT forums before I signed up for my Princeton Review online class, and I never got the impression that you would limit yourself to a 500-600 score if you took PR, or Kaplan for that matter. My practice scores are well over that, and I have gotten a lot out of my course.

Some of the other companies market themselves as elite prep for high scorers, but plenty of people get 700+ with PR or Kaplan, either with a course or by using their books. In the end, it's up to you to make the score happen. Choosing an "elite" prep option won't guarantee you anything. You have to work just as hard in one of those courses as you do with the others. My class has a LOT of work, and if I'm diligent about it, I'll do fine.

If you want to be really confident in your decision, what you really should do is go to the library and check out the different companies' books...see if you like their approach. Read through their strategies a bit, do some practice questions. You will see which method you prefer. I strongly preferred PR over Kaplan (tests are a lot more like the real ones), and I've been happy so far with my decision.

But I was very familiar with both before deciding, and if you do that as well, you won't worry as much about the subjective stuff you see in the forums. Even if you don't get a chance to do that, I really wouldn't worry. PR isn't going to hurt your prep efforts at all, and should actually help a lot.

Hope this helps!

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