prep material

linh · Rookie Joined: 24 Nov 2008 Posts: 5

hi,

i am really unsure about choosing the right preparation material. by what it sounds like o'neil and medprep are in the lead. but gamsat guru and ozimed sound also useful. can anyone who has been through this enlighten me?

39nosaj · Rookie Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 2

Hi Linh,

I've done Des' science and essay courses before and am currently doing medprep's course (the deluxe course). I think both courses have strengths but I prefer medprep by far. Here's a brief breakdown to help you make the right desision for you because each course will work for most people if used properly:

I am comparing Des platinum live course with medprep deluxe course here.

COST:
Des platinum live course costs about $1200
medprep deluxe course costs about $900

LECTURES:
Des has classroom lectures in jan and feb on three weekends. They are OK but rushed and the biology/biochem lecturer was terrible when I did his course. Its hard to ask questions when 200+ people are in the classroom. Des does not answer emailed questions after his course as far as I can tell.
Meprep lectures are available online. These are available anytime for 45 days and are recordings of 30 hrs of classroom lectures. You can listen as much as you want and my questions have been answered quickly by email. Sometimes i miss a classroom format but mostly I enjoy the self paced approach that medprep uses. [u]I think a study-buddy is essential to maintain motivation.[/u]

NOTES:
Both courses give you 1000+ of study notes that come in the post. I think that Des course is hard to figure out how to use while medprep structures everything and provides a study guide. Both sets of notes offer plenty of questions.

SCIENCE:
medprep's notes hit the fundamental science concepts that gamsat examines in a way that really provides understanding while Des goes into far too much detail without revealing concepts in an easy to grasp format. gamsat tests your ability to analyse scientific data or solve unusual problems so you need conceptual and analytic understanding and not endless detail. medprep does the job here. I think that Des questions are better than medprep but the acer questions are the closest thing to gamsat in my opinion.

ESSAYS:
Des course marks 15 essays while medprep marks 8 essays. medprep offers a really useful and detailed guide of how to structure both types of essays that gamsat uses and provides succinct and useful feedback so you can improve. I found des feedback too voluminous and vague and really needed a method rather than just advice. I think that medprep is better if you don't have a lot of time to make sense of sometimes contradictory advice but des offers more essays for marking. Both courses offer roughly the same number of model essays to learn from I believe.

HUMANITIES:
I think that both courses approach this section equally well and provide roughly the same number of practise questions. I think that Des does better with poetry questions but medprep provides more challenging poems. Both courses, in my opinion, are good here.

At the end of the day both courses are good enough if you put in the work and use the courses properly.

I hope this helps

woodie · Veteran Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 38

Hi,

Unlike 39nosaj I do not have the luxury of comparing the two formats. I undertook Des's course and have got admission. My experience with Des was that he was ALWAYS professional and ALWAYS reponded to questions regardless. He will only respond however if you pay up to do his course which is fair. The essay course was a bit confusing though as he has several evaluators and everyone has their own views on how good your practice essays are but at least you get a chance of practicing some writing.

However as 39nosaj states it is a very individual choice. Regardless of the course you need to have a lot of discipline and motivation to study by yourself.

What I might suggest is that if you can afford to, do one of the courses and try and acquire the material (especially Multiple Choice Questions) for the other course. MCQs are never enough as the more you practice the better it is.

Good luck with your decision. Sometimes it is just a gamble that may pay off like in my case.

Woodie