MCAT tutor worth it?

[kit1009]

Hi-
I've taken the MCAT a number of times and am determined that this time I will actually nail it since I'm obviously getting sick of not doing that great (27 range). Does anyone have any thoughts on getting a Princeton Review or Kaplan tutor? Are either better? Are they worth it??
Please let me know ASAP so I can decide!
Thanks so much!

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[letsrun4it]

Is it worth the time? I would think so
Is it worth the money? Depends on your financial situation.

 

[Mr. Tee]

I wouldn't pay for it. Why don't you locate someone who aced the MCAT (figuratively speaking) and ask him to tutor you? If you had to pay, it would definitely be cheaper than getting a private tutor through a prep company. That and many teachers for the prep companies aren't really particularly adept at the MCAT specifically IMO.

 

[QofQuimica]

Hi-
I've taken the MCAT a number of times and am determined that this time I will actually nail it since I'm obviously getting sick of not doing that great (27 range). Does anyone have any thoughts on getting a Princeton Review or Kaplan tutor? Are either better? Are they worth it??
Please let me know ASAP so I can decide!
Thanks so much!

I am a teacher and tutor for Kaplan, and my personal feeling is that private tutoring is not a particularly good deal for most students. It is extremely expensive, on the order of $100 per hour, most of which I can tell you does NOT go to the tutor. If you would be taking the classroom course as well, then it might make more sense for you to buy tutoring, because you would get access to the classroom course for free as part of your tutoring package. It's not clear to me from your post whether you took a test prep course before or not, and if not, this may be something you'd want to consider. If you do decide that you want a tutor, ask your friends who have used a tutor to recommend someone. You should do some homework to find the best tutor you possibly can, regardless of which company that person works for. Ask about the tutor's experience with teaching and tutoring, and don't just rely on how well the tutor scored him or herself on the MCAT; we all know professors who are absolutely brilliant but can't teach. Finally, regardless of whether you decide to hire a tutor, I highly recommend that you spend some time thinking about what your weaknesses are. Do you have test anxiety? Lack of science knowledge? Difficulty with answering MCAT-style questions? Some idea of what problem you are having will give you (and your tutor if you hire one) a place to start in terms of helping you improve.

 

[emack]

Try to find someone outside of the exam prep company system. Ask around, stick some posters up around school. Make any prospective tutors show you a score report & tell you about previous tutoring/teaching experience. You can even ask them for references-- i.e. people they've already helped get through the MCAT or another course. And there's no commitment-- if you guys get together once and it's just not happening, you've only wasted a bit of money & time.
If you've already invested in a bunch of prep materials, and have a pretty good idea what you need to focus on, then it'll be a way better deal than going through a company... I'd say $25/hour is a decent starting point for negotiations.
I've tutored privately before, lured by a poster stuck on the wall at school, and it worked out great. Now I'm doing it for Kaplan, and while I'm offering almost exactly the same service, the poor students are paying way more for it.
If you explore this avenue & it doesn't work out, then you can always fall back on Kaplan or PR-- but again, with those companies, it's kind of the luck of the draw whether you get someone who's helpful to you personally.

 

[Orthodoc40]

Hi-
I've taken the MCAT a number of times and am determined that this time I will actually nail it since I'm obviously getting sick of not doing that great (27 range). Does anyone have any thoughts on getting a Princeton Review or Kaplan tutor? Are either better? Are they worth it??
Please let me know ASAP so I can decide!
Thanks so much!

Don't pay a Kaplan or Princeton tutor - it costs too much, and the tutor gets a VERY TINY percentage of what you pay. Its a rip off for both of you. I actually set up private tutoring directly with someone who was a Kaplan tutor. That is, I paid him directly, in cash - paying less than half what Kaplan would have charged me, and he got it ALL, which was more than twice what Kaplan would have paid him. So you could try to do that, or you can find a private tutor.