MCAT Private Tutor

[nanobot1]

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Does anyone know where I can find a site of private MCAT tutors?

 

[kyamh]

Before you spend what I imagine to be a ton of money on a private tutor, think hard about what you would actually like to be tutored in. Your best bet is to do some solo work and figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. If you would like a tutor to teach you to read the passages critically and how to sort out the wrong answers, that's one thing. If you expect a tutor to catch you up on the material you "need to know" and hand-hold you to a good score, I think you will be disappointed.

 

[TheShaker]

I think tutors are a waste of money most of the time. With that said, I used to do a little bit of MCAT tutoring through Wyzant.

 

[Life Sucks]

I hope your family is loaded, because after you're done with that tutor, he or she will be form the costs.

 

[dancingmate]

I used a princeton review tutor since I struggled a lot in verbal. It didn't help at all. If you are struggling with something specific, maybe a session with a tutor will help to understand the concepts, but I wouldn't depend on them for raising a score.

 

[wiloghby]

Before you spend what I imagine to be a ton of money on a private tutor, think hard about what you would actually like to be tutored in. Your best bet is to do some solo work and figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. If you would like a tutor to teach you to read the passages critically and how to sort out the wrong answers, that's one thing. If you expect a tutor to catch you up on the material you "need to know" and hand-hold you to a good score, I think you will be disappointed.

Hey now.. I've hand held my students (mostly high school and college courses, not the MCAT admittedly) through their subjects because they didn't want to study or work at all when I wasn't there. It's totally doable -- as long as those students' parents were willing to spend $500 a week for me to be there 10 hours a week to hold their hand 😉. That said, I used to plead with them to just follow my advice on how to study between appointments so they could save their parents tons of money. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't. It didn't really matter to me either way. All my students did very well... but the lazy ones (or at least, non-self-starters) would cost their parents $500 a week and the ones who were willing to work independently would cost their parents $100 a week.

To the OP:

For the MCAT, I suspect it would work the same way. Think of the MCAT as preparation for studying in med school -- when you'll be expected to come up with your own study plan and manage a ton of material. You can do it on your own! After doing your content review, you might find you have one or two topics that are always hard for you (for me: electrochemistry and buoyancy problems). That's the time when you might hire a tutor, (or find a nice genius friend who will volunteer a few hours) and have them show you a quick way to do problems of that specific type. You might ask them to throw in a lesson on POE and/or test taking time management.

The sooner you can develop an organized, independent way to study science that works for you, the better off you will be. And if you can save $5000 in the process in MCAT course or tutor fees, that's a bonus!

I wish the OP best of luck with the MCAT. As long as you did your best in the pre-reqs and didn't take any shortcuts, I'm sure you'll do well.

 

[knv2u]

Hey now.. I've hand held my students (mostly high school and college courses, not the MCAT admittedly) through their subjects because they didn't want to study or work at all when I wasn't there. It's totally doable -- as long as those students' parents were willing to spend $500 a week for me to be there 10 hours a week to hold their hand 😉.

Tutoring is that lucrative?

 

[wiloghby]

Tutoring is that lucrative?

My experience with private tutoring is thus: the hourly rate is high but the ceiling on the number of hours a week you can work steadily is low. As a tutor, your time is very valuable but your tax bracket still ends up pretty low. 😉 (I used to charge $50/hour in California and was told that in my market that was on the low end; on the East Coast I typically charge $40/hour. I typically charge half-rate for anyone close/family friends. I also charge $0/hour for anyone from my rural county who is pre-med or in nursing school.)

If you're looking for a job where you can make $40k-$50k per year, work very few hours per week, and is so fun it doesn't feel like work, tutoring is ideal. I really love tutoring and plan to continue it indefinitely even as I undertake my medical education.

 

[crimsonkid85]

Tutoring is that lucrative?

see when I say it, nobody believes me. when someone ELSE says it, nobody questions it. sheesh.

come to the UES booboo, I'll introduce you to friends who travel with wealthy families and make ~$200K/yr, food, lodging included, as well as vacations on private jets. of course, they are full time live-in tutors and are not doctors lolol.

 

[knv2u]

My experience with private tutoring is thus: the hourly rate is high but the ceiling on the number of hours a week you can work steadily is low. As a tutor, your time is very valuable but your tax bracket still ends up pretty low. 😉 (I used to charge $50/hour in California and was told that in my market that was on the low end; on the East Coast I typically charge $40/hour. I typically charge half-rate for anyone close/family friends. I also charge $0/hour for anyone from my rural county who is pre-med or in nursing school.)

If you're looking for a job where you can make $40k-$50k per year, work very few hours per week, and is so fun it doesn't feel like work, tutoring is ideal. I really love tutoring and plan to continue it indefinitely even as I undertake my medical education.

see when I say it, nobody believes me. when someone ELSE says it, nobody questions it. sheesh.

come to the UES booboo, I'll introduce you to friends who travel with wealthy families and make ~$200K/yr, food, lodging included, as well as vacations on private jets. of course, they are full time live-in tutors and are not doctors lolol.

Thanks guys!

 

[wiloghby]

see when I say it, nobody believes me. when someone ELSE says it, nobody questions it. sheesh.

come to the UES booboo, I'll introduce you to friends who travel with wealthy families and make ~$200K/yr, food, lodging included, as well as vacations on private jets. of course, they are full time live-in tutors and are not doctors lolol.

I was once paid $80/hour to tutor the child of the owner of one of the largest banks in Thailand. It was an eye-opening experience. $100-$200/hour is not unheard of on the West Coast in the right neighborhoods. That's where I was charging $50/hour because I felt that $100-$200/hr was just too much money.

As long as you live in one of the hot tutoring markets and you are great at it, you can charge almost anything you want.

If you're comfortable doing AP Chemistry problems from high school for the 30th year in a row when you're 48, or you want to start and manage a tutoring business, it's a viable primary career path. I was repulsed by both of those ideas when it came time to evaluate my long term plans, but for a few years in my early 20's it was a great option.

I like the idea of continuing to tutor, but only as a hobby / secondary source of income.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Tutoring is that lucrative?

Very lucrative here in new york. I know of several companies where rates are in the 200+/hr range.