tikibarrister
Guru
- 495
Since my last episode, I've spent some time finding a good test prep course for the life and health exam.
I started with the list provided by the state insurance commissioner. A couple I scratched off for various reasons based on reviews. Every review of Kaplan that I found said their text was overly wordy and I hate that style of writing. ExamFX also had many bad reviews.
There were others I ruled out because their prices were exorbitant or their web sites were sketchy. Finally I settled on AD Banker.
Most of these companies tier their offerings as "silver", "gold", etc. With AD Banker I went with their silver plan because the tiers above it just presented the same material in different formats.
AD Banker is all right, but exceedingly dry. The material is all narrative without tables or charts to organize it. The online portion is solely slides that are bullet points from the text. Every so many slides a woman comes out and reads the bullet points.
I think their product would work fine, though it completely lacked the kind of "test taking advice" I'd expect (e.g., areas the question writers like to target, or tricky things that are often confused, etc.)
Unfortunately, I realized later that I was wasting a valuable resource - my long commute to work - by not being able to study during that time. ADB does offer (for nearly double the price of the base course) downloadable mp3s, but they're summaries and there's no preview of what these sound like or what they contain.
I saw a demo of America's Professor on YouTube and even though they're not certified in Oregon and don't meet the state requirement, I decided to buy their national L&H.
AP is great! I love Jack's lecturing style. He's taken care to present the material in a structured, memorable way. For example, when explaining riders, he fashioned all the possibilities into one entertaining anecdote that clearly demonstrated what each rider provided. He also spends a good deal of time really focusing on what is core to the material and what to emphasize, whereas with ADB it was all present as one flat dump.
He's very easy to listen to and the chapters are coming easily. I'll still have to go through the ADB course (next, next, next) so I have something to show the state. The ADB state-specific section is just a PDF.
I wish it was possible to download America's Professor's content. They only offer streaming. I understand about copy protection and all that, but if you want to listen on your commute, you're burning data on your mobile plan.
All in all, I'm enjoying AP and then will hunker down with the ADB state manual.
I started with the list provided by the state insurance commissioner. A couple I scratched off for various reasons based on reviews. Every review of Kaplan that I found said their text was overly wordy and I hate that style of writing. ExamFX also had many bad reviews.
There were others I ruled out because their prices were exorbitant or their web sites were sketchy. Finally I settled on AD Banker.
Most of these companies tier their offerings as "silver", "gold", etc. With AD Banker I went with their silver plan because the tiers above it just presented the same material in different formats.
AD Banker is all right, but exceedingly dry. The material is all narrative without tables or charts to organize it. The online portion is solely slides that are bullet points from the text. Every so many slides a woman comes out and reads the bullet points.
I think their product would work fine, though it completely lacked the kind of "test taking advice" I'd expect (e.g., areas the question writers like to target, or tricky things that are often confused, etc.)
Unfortunately, I realized later that I was wasting a valuable resource - my long commute to work - by not being able to study during that time. ADB does offer (for nearly double the price of the base course) downloadable mp3s, but they're summaries and there's no preview of what these sound like or what they contain.
I saw a demo of America's Professor on YouTube and even though they're not certified in Oregon and don't meet the state requirement, I decided to buy their national L&H.
AP is great! I love Jack's lecturing style. He's taken care to present the material in a structured, memorable way. For example, when explaining riders, he fashioned all the possibilities into one entertaining anecdote that clearly demonstrated what each rider provided. He also spends a good deal of time really focusing on what is core to the material and what to emphasize, whereas with ADB it was all present as one flat dump.
He's very easy to listen to and the chapters are coming easily. I'll still have to go through the ADB course (next, next, next) so I have something to show the state. The ADB state-specific section is just a PDF.
I wish it was possible to download America's Professor's content. They only offer streaming. I understand about copy protection and all that, but if you want to listen on your commute, you're burning data on your mobile plan.
All in all, I'm enjoying AP and then will hunker down with the ADB state manual.
