Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions

WOW ! I’m glad that I didn’t go by the reviews when I signed my son up for the ACT prep course in Orlando. My child is a decent /​average student. He is a HORRIBLE standardized test taker. He has been failing FCAT since 4^th grade despite being an A /​B student. He finally has passed all of those necessary to graduate, and he is preparing for his Senior year. He took the ACT in April as a baseline and didn’t do very well. I signed him up for the ACT prep couse in Orlando, and he retook the ACT in June — he improved by 3 points !! (still waiting for the writing, so it may be even more) Very please with Kaplan’s couse and he will be taking it one more time and hoping for another 3 points.
He felt more confident and prepared going into the ACT.
OH…and my child is on a 504 and has accommodations (more time) at school. He did not get that for the ACT, but it didn’t matter. The folks at Kaplan taught him how to pace himself and he finished in the given amount of time.

Oh my. This must be the absolute WORST test prep website out there. I so regret spending hundreds of dollars on a course with these guys. I have spent days communicating with the technical team (each day sitting at my desk, having made time to take the 2.5 hr exam) about just getting ACCESS to my courses online. Most of the technicians never read my response but kept telling me to do the same things over and over: «clear the cache and the cookies, use a different internet provider, is the computer personal or for business, is the wifi private or not, it’s better to be plugged in «etc etc…
Looks like they are just reading some standardized answers from a list. It is like being advised to take Tylenol if your head is aching, leg is broken or arm is missing. They have the same solution for it all.
Finally Misty helped me figure it out today so I could «access my courses» in order to take my test. So I got ready to take the test.
I accessed the course which now says: «You have reached the maximum number of credits you may attempt. «Whatever the hell that means. I haven’t attempted anything other than simply access my courses. Below it it says: Attempts Remaining: 2.
So it looks like the system is telling me I have already exhausted my two attempts at the test while below it it says I still have two attempts left — which happens to be the case since I have not been able to access my test till just now.
So once again, here I am, the fourth day in a row, with another wasted opportunity at taking a test the Kaplan website is preventing me from taking. A service I have paid for. Not cheap. And honestly I am not sure they have anyone equipped to help me.
This is beyond frustrating, time consuming, unprofessional and quite frankly ridiculous.
I think someone needs to send Kaplan’s technical team to school somewhere far far away from Kaplan in order to learn how to run a University and in order to learn how to treat customers right. Oh yeah, and they probably should also take a course or something where they can learn that if you sell something, before you accept people’s money for your services, you need to figure out how you are going to deliver the services.
There must be a book on that somewhere.

Steer clear of these guys. They have very shady business practices. My daughter signed up for a GRE review class… they cancelled it a couple of days before the class was supposed to start, and offered her a class quite a distance away. She said no, she wanted the refund instead. But they told her there was a $ 45 ‘non-​refundable’ fee for cancelling (and the agent even admitted that many people get angry over this). I took over since it was on my credit card and did get angry, threatening legal action. An hour later, miraculously I got a full refund, or at least that’s what the invoice said – I will confirm this with my credit card company when it posts.
But, the basic problem remains – poor customer service… they wait until the last minute to cancel a class, and then make money on it without delivering the service.

We got a refund. But somehow Kaplan seems to be a mess.

Kaplan are the WORST.
I signed up for a real estate course online. I didn’t start for 6 months. When I started and tried to login, they told me my account had expired and I had to buy the course again.
The 6 month time limit is listed on their T&Cs, in a link at the bottom of the site, but nowhere on the course purchase page. Dishonest scummy business practices all round at Kaplan, buy elsewhere.

I took an LSAT prep class with Kaplan SF in Spring 2013. The class went at the pace of the slowest students, and was clearly geared towards individuals who were scoring very low to begin with. We spent a ton of time going over the easiest LSAT questions, at the expense of focusing on any harder questions. I got a 165 on my first practice test, and was expecting the class to help me fine-​tune my LSAT skills and significantly increase my score. However, the attitude of the teacher was basically «that’s good enough, we’re going to focus on the other students», and she was extremely unhelpful whenever I asked questions. On the actual LSAT I ended up scoring 169, but all of the improvement came from learning and practicing a few logic game strategies. I could have gotten the same improvement from a 10 minute Youtube tutorial. The Kaplan class felt like a serious waste of $ 1000+. If you’re struggling to break 150, then I might recommend it. However, for anyone looking to get a high enough score for a top 10 school, this class is a total waste of time.

Disappointed. Went to sign up for Ca bar prep-​talked to rep over email because I had questions. I guess taking 36 hours to talk back and forth is too long, they upped the price on me! I just don’t like it. They claim the price change was clearly indicated online-​BS. It said nothing. Oh well. Going back to my original low cost plan. Google Emerson California Bar Review, awesome option!
Needed to give an update. When I complained to the rep Taylor she offered to honor the $ 1595 price, but then added in $ 300 worth of extra fees! Can you believe this?!? This deserves a report to the CA Attorney General. I suggest others do the same if applicable.

do not use kaplan lsat prep! they will cancel your prep class two days before it starts and the customer service people will act like its not a big deal. do not put your future in their hands. they messed me up by canceling my course on thursday and the class was supposed to start monday. i registered 4 month ago! i already ran out of deadline to register for other review courses in order to be prepared in time for my lsat test date. you can not trust them your future!!! terrible business. very dissapointing.

there’s always 10 – 20 students forming the CANCER-​SMOKE line outside this building and cropdusting the hundreds of people who walk by the two blocks (and smell their second hand for four blocks) MORNING, NOON & NIGHT
f8ck the smokers who do that & f8ck the administration that allows them to create a dense smog morning, noon & night for people who need to walk by
the students there often TAKE UP THE ENTIRE SIDEWALK AS IF THEY WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD (even worse than the AA students across the street as they give you space to walk through their cancer street)
if they have a right to smoke there, i have a right to hose them down with a supersoaker filled with mountain dew

How to waste your money.
I have wasted so much money with Kaplan. They are the absolute worst. I took a GMAT course with them. And their practice tests have absolutely no bearing on how you will be scored on your actual exams. Try taking a test and guessing through the whole thing. It won’t let you score less than 400. The real GMAT can score you as little as 250. If you score a 550 by Kaplan’s standards, that puts you at a 400 by Pearson’s GMAT standards.
Their tutors are nothing less than con artists. I literally had a tutor spend an HOUR of a 100 dollar priced lesson tell me to use the Khan Academy. That’s it. Just that. He browsed through my practice test and offered nothing helpful or God forbid actually tutor me.
If you want to get the best practice, purchase Pearson’s test packets through their software. These are scored and made like actual tests you’ll take at Pearson. This way, you get real Pearson stamina and know how to answer their questions. And Pearson’s questions matter because those are the actual questions you’ll be taking on test day.
Avoid Kaplan at all costs.

Kaplan bar prep — preparing a consumer complaint against them.
They took the money and did nothing. No higher score guarantee — not appeal able despite finishing 90 percent course work.
Do not do it. Do not use them. They are bad service and really out there to make a quick buck.

I took paid Kaplan several times for the same class. I never had a class repeat free of charge. When I requested a class repeat, as per the higher score guarantee, they said, «Too bad!» I enrolled in the online class, and all of the work that you do is erased right away. The course material has a clear syllabus and simple structure to follow. However, the instructors are bad, so you cannot understand what is going on in the class. Kaplan does not have people with good teaching experience. They have people who know how to memorize answers and get 180 on the LSAT. I am skeptical of the higher score guarantee, because it is a lie. I am gifted and they treated me like trash.

I am currently using the Civil Engineering PE test review seminar. This is an online review that I can (should be able to) access at any time. There are 11 different powerpoint presentations that cover the topics tested on for the civil PE. The content for the most part has been very relevant and well communicated. The problem that I have is that Kaplan decided to switch their video providers while I was mid way through the presentations without any communication. Prior to them switching over I had no problems viewing the presentations, read, NO PROBLEMS. After the switch over, I have had nothing but problems with the presentations playing. They will start but within a minute or two the voice and the slides are not connected (they are talking about a slide that hasn’t been visually presented yet). I have had many discussions with their technical support via email and phone, have followed all of their suggestions and recommendations, and I’ve spent at least 3 hours trying to solve the problem with no success. I am currently unable to use the study material that I paid good money for due to their technology changes and my exam is one week away now (it was 3 weeks when the problems began occurring). When I asked the technical specialist if I could speak with his boss or someone who has authority to help me (as he said he did not) he said no, I’m sorry my boss doesn’t speak with customers. Really??? I can’t speak with a supervisor? He said… hold on, I’ll check. And he comes back some 5 – 10 minutes later and says nope, our supervisors will not talk to customers. I am seriously dumbfounded by the lack of customer service and technical capabilities of their program. Just dumbfounded and mildly frustrated. Kaplan you need customer service boot camp!

Cancelled my class the week before it started. Taking the June LSAT 115% screwed and disgusted by Kaplan.

I don’t know why there are so many negative reviews. I had an amazing time at kaplan. I have been with kaplan for the SAT and now for the GRE. I understand how it is expensive but you can continue to take courses after your main courses is over. I took advantage of that. Also, after 90 days, you can use your guarantee for another 90 days.
I thought the receptionist was very nice. He approached me with kindness and he was resourceful.

This is a joke. You pay $ 599.00 and attend courses and get results and within two weeks of finishing, they delete all your work from the server so you no longer have access to it. So 40 hours of coursework that my son has done, is gone and he can no longer see his test results or areas for improvement for further study down the road. Oh but he can take the class again, but even if he does, what he did in the first class is still gone. What a joke. Do not use this service as your child’s test prep! They also changed the location of the class to a very inconvenient, horrible location.

Not possible to give negative stars so one will have to do. BE AWARE STAY AWAY. Complete waste of money customer service and staff are a joke a complete and utter joke. Take your money else where. Stay away from these professional con job artists.

Kaplan test prep is a paradox; horrible yet wonderful at the same time. I took the in-​person 8 session GRE class here this summer. I found the instructors for the class to vary in quality ranging from awesome (at the Kaplan in Berkley) to omg I can’t believe you are so unprepared to teach this $ 1300 class. The good things about Kaplan Test Prep:
1. The «Kaplan Method» does have some great strategies for the GRE and will prepare you well if you do all the work you’re supposed to do. Though, if you’re motivated enough and can commit to studying on your own you will be just as well off reading the Kaplan GRE test prep books on Amazon and studying on your own– you could save yourself nearly $ 1300.
2. They let you do «make up classes» with a different instructor/​location anywhere and anytime (even if you’re in another city) if you are not able to make any of the sessions your originally signed up for.
THE RIDICULOUS THINGS ABOUT KAPLAN:
1. So expensive
2. They are so unorganized and unhelpful. I show up for a session that I signed up for at the Montgomery Street location in SF and the classroom that the class is supposed to be in is being used for something else. I want to ask someone what room the class has been changed to and for over 20 minutes there is absolutely no one that works there at the front desk. I finally find someone who works there in their office. They tell me to go upstairs to a particular room and wait for the teacher because they might be late. I go upstairs and the room she sends me to is a completely different class. I go back to her and she tells me to wait for 30 minutes for the late teacher. When the teacher doesn’t show she has no idea why the teacher hasn’t showed up but cannot help me because Kaplan only provides the space and it is someone else that sends in the instructors. She says she really doesn’t know anything and can’t help me and that I should call 1−800-Kaplan. I do and on the phone they have no idea what’s going on either. They said it’s possible that the entire class was canceled but can’t confirm and if it was they never sent me a cancellation email or let me know. Then they conveniently hang up on me and when i immediatly call back they say the department that could help me is closed for the day. Bah.

So unimpressed and disappointed with Kaplan. By the first day of class, my books hadn’t arrived yet. I received an e-​mail from the teacher that he sent to all students, ONE HOUR before the first class with instructions to print out a PDF of the materials we would be going over. Thanks for the notice when I’m already sitting on MUNI for the next 45 minutes.
I get there, and they don’t even have a spare book lying around for me to use. I look on with someone next to me. Not something I would expect for paying $ 1400 for GMAT prep classes. I thought the classes would be more instructional, going over material I haven’t looked at since I was in high school. Rather, the instructor showed us how to solve one problem spending about 30 seconds on it, then for the next 15 minutes had us do 6 problems on our own, then went around the room having us describe how we solved them. Ineffective and overpriced.
The facilities are bright and clean. The instructor was very intelligent, gave great advice and when she did actually *teach* us, it was worthwhile. Sadly, not much instruction was happening.

I payed $ 1400 for their course — turned out as a complete waste of money. The instructor I had kept saying I will do great on my actual test despite my low scores when I was tested. During the entire course, the instructor kept focusing on the students with higher test scores in class and neglected the rest of us with mediocre scores.
We were given access to instructors emails and to reach out to them in case we had any questions, but he was the worst instructor when it came to respond and follow up with issues.
I did got a pretty lousy LSAT score and decided to use re-​take their class for free per their «guarantee» — nope! The clerk tells me i have to pay additional 300 something to re-​enroll in the course.
Thanks for caring about your students’ success-​rates, Kaplan! Or do you care about the money more? I think we know the answer to that…