I took the MCAT last may May, and I was actually wondering the
exact same thing when I was starting out: trying to draw up some sort
of comprehensive study plan. A friend had recommended a local tutoring service run
by med students (he actually took a class with them) that was offering
free consultations:
http://polaristestprep.com/polaris-consultations
So it was totally free for me (although they did mention their class a
few times). The guy I met with was a first year at upenn's med school.
He was pretty easy to talk to and seemed knowledgeable about
the general process. The session was an hour long; we basically made
an MCAT study plan, and with the remaining time, I was able to ask
some questions/get his opinion on my application.
Anyways, the study plan worked very well, and I'm very happy with my
score. I really didnt want to buy a class (theirs or kaplan or princeton), but my friend swears by them (i think he said most of their instructors were former kaplan/princeton anyways, sick of having the companies taking all the money).
I'm actually applying to penn's med school now (i'm finishing
up my senior year now at penn), and was able to meet up with the guy I
spoke to a few times outside the site to talk about penn's interviews.
Didn't even bring up any kind of fee-- really nice guy.
