My opinion on the Jack Westin Intensive Course.
Hey guys! I used JW’s 3 month intensive course before my MCAT, and before I did that, I scoured the internet for advice on whether or not it was good, but found nothing. So here’s my input so that in case you’re thinking about it, you can know a little more.
Score Guarantee:
The same as a lot of big name prep courses, they offer a score increase guarantee. But, if you’ve used one of those courses, you know the requirement for the “or your money back” aspect is sky high. I won’t go as far as to say impossible, but I will say that no one in the course with me (my class) actually completed enough of the coursework to qualify. There’s A LOT of assignments, readings, videos. It’s pretty much designed so you don’t meet the money back requirements (imo). I only say this because if you’re looking at the point increase as a primary driver to choose, I would advise against I unless you’re a full time studier. (I was not)
I’m also adding that they are the only course on the market (that I could find) that offers a live lecture course in such a short period. 3 months is not something often offered and you’ll mostly see 6 month courses. So if time is a factor for you, it may be worth it to consider.
Time commitment:
It was a lot. This prep course, I will not lie, stole a lot of my time. I ended up quitting a club I was active in because the scheduled class time interfered with the club meeting time, and spent a lot of my time trying to complete course work. There’s assignments for before the video classes even start, including diagnostics and regular assignments. There’s homework after every class, pre class readings with their own assignments, and other work to do in between. It’s one of those things that’s along the lines of “yes there’s a course attached, but you’re going to need to be self motivated outside of that”
I know that seems apparent, but I was going into this as a retaker, who had self- paced studied on my first exam, and was looking for more structure. While I can for certain say that it added structure to my studies, I can say that you still need that drive to do all of the assignments. Especially if you’re balancing life outside the MCAT.
Class:
In terms of the lecture, my professor was pretty good. I would say there were certainly things I didn’t like about his lecturing style, pace, etc, but not to the extent different that a professor at a university. We didn’t often get through the intended lectures in the time allotted (3 hours). This is mostly because of the time frame, it required huge topics, like metabolic cycles, to fit into one lecture period. If you have ever tried to learn metabolic cycles, I’m sure this scares you. It was moderately interactive, but imo not as good as a one on one tutor, where they can listen to your thought process and help you through. These classes are analogous to an online zoom class where everyone’s cameras are off and mics are muted and you can just type in chat. It’s better than just watching videos, but not as interactive as I had hoped. I get the impression that this is relatively new, because many of the old recorded lectures by JW seem to have allowed students to use the mics so they could read CARS passages and the professor could guide them through.
Content:
Good as you use it. They cover a lot. So, as you could assume, small details often get overlooked. The lectures cover big things like metabolism cycles, body circulation, cell development, and skip some smaller things. As most people know about JW, their strength is in CARS. I am someone who never struggled in CARS, my first MCAT putting me at a 127, but I really liked their strategy, which ended up pushing me to 130 on my retake. This being said, the strategy isn’t for everyone, so it can be frustrating because that is the way the tutors are taught to make you do, and they don’t really allow you to try other strategies. So If you’re looking to create strategies that work best for you, it may or may not be the best course. All in all the CARS strategy is good, and wasn’t something I used from JW until I got the course, and the science content could go more in depth that it is, but does cover the big picture well enough that a lot of practice questions on the smaller points may be enough.
Price:
the price is, honestly pretty steep. I can see plenty of people who would not want to do this because of the price, and that was almost me if it wasn’t for loans (yes I pulled from my student loans to pay for this course). My advice would be to do the free advisor meeting that JW offers, but PLEASE REMEMBER. Those advisors are ONLY there to sell you the course. If you’ve ever attended any of the JW free lectures before, you know how much they push those advisors. But they are not there to help you as much as sell you a course. When I met with the advisor, I had no intention of buying a course, I just wanted support, because the pre-med advising at my undergrad was questionable. HOWEVER: they offer you a discount to their courses. It’s not a lot, but it’s something, and if you’re considering the course at all, some discount is better than none.
People:
adding this in here because it deserves to be mentioned that there are a wide variety of students in this course. Almost all are retakers, but many are non-trads or are first gen. Some of us struggled most with Chem, some with CARS. JW sets up a discord so you can group study, and I met some very wonderful students on there, a couple whom I still talk to. They help remind you that this process DOES suck, IS hard, and you are not stupid or not meant to be a doctor because you’re struggling. I went from studying alone with no other premed friends to help, to having a study group, helping keep accountability, boost morale, and just to vent to about this stupid exam.
All in all, it’s not a magical course that will boost your score by 15 points just because you did it. But no course is like that. For a course that is only 3 months long, it does its best to be as thorough as it can be, but you need to be willing to give up a lot to make it work. Cost should be considered, your personal strengths should be considered, and whether or not you have the time to put in 30 hrs a week plus 2 3 hour courses should also. I can’t say I recommend this course if you have a heavy school workload or work a full time job, but if you have the time and drive, it may be for you.
Idk if this helps anyone, or if you have further questions, but I hope at least one person looks at this and it helps them make a decision on if the course is right for them.