For students considering graduate school, the culmination of four years of college boils down to one career-specific exam – and many have a do-or-die attitude.
“You can’t gain admittance without the exam; it’s essential,” said Craig Galanter, a senior in criminology who is preparing to take the Law School Admissions Test.
Future law school applicants are not the only students begrudging their fateful day; the Medical School Application Test is also a time-consuming exam.
“I’m taking the MCAT because its required. There’s no other reason I’d subject myself to such an awful experience,” said Scott McCarty, a junior in biology.
Even though the next MCAT is not until April 17, many students have begun enrolling in classes offered by companies such as Kaplan or Princeton Review. Students are also enrolling for the March 13 Graduate Record Exam and the June 14 LSAT.
Typical class costs range from $949 to $1,499. Along with the hefty price tag, the companies offer a satisfaction guarantee.
“If they are not happy, we will work with them again for free,” said Tony Nguyen, assistant director at Princeton Review in Columbus. “We usually see about a 10 percent comeback. The majority of the students are very happy with their initial scores.”
In May, Princeton Review will offer a free outreach program, which will help outline the exam. In this one-time class, they will disclose some of the many test-taking strategies.
“Training for a standardized exam is like training for boot camp – you can’t think outside the box. It’s all about linear thinking and understanding the nature of the test,” McCarty said. “Besides showing me how to approach it, the classes make me study.”
The Princeton Review and Kaplan classes say that an individual’s score will increase an average of 7 points on the LSAT, 210 points on the GRE or 10 points on the MCAT.
Kaplan says 79 percent of students who were accepted into medical school took its class.
Even with such claims, some students are hesitant to invest the money and time in the classes.
“I’m not taking the classes because it is too expensive. There are a lot of books and other materials to help me achieve my desired score,” Galanter said. “Without the classes, I can do the work at my pace, on my schedule. If closer to the exam I think I need it, I can sign up then.”
Princeton Review offers a free practice test for many of the exams to help the students gauge how much work they need or if they even need to enroll in any classes, Nguyen said.
Along with the exam scores, a student’s grade point average is important. Students are expected to go into the classes with an exemplary knowledge of the college courses they have taken.
“It won’t teach you the secrets of organic chemistry or anything like that, but it will teach you the secrets of the test,” McCarty said.
