Does anyone know a reputable mcat tutoring company or a private tutor? I'd really like to rock the mcat verbal section. I appreciate any feedback I can get on here. Has anyone out there scored really well? Any tips? Good place to get practice passages? Thanks
private MCAT verbal tutor
- Thread starter RMRwlnds
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Reputable tutoring company: Wyzant all the way. Wyzant has provided me with great tutors in many subjects. They let you email with the tutor before hiring him/her. Wyzant also honors their money back guarantee because I requested it twice and it worked! www.wyzant.com
As for an excellent VR tutor, let me know if you find one. There might be one in your area who I haven't tried. I've only hired local tutors.
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BR does not offer private tutoring packages, because there are office hours included in the course. But, there are many students using our materials that are not taking our program who inquire about tutoring. Some of our instructors do private tutoring independently, but that doesn't help people outside our few locations. If you say wyznant is good, perhaps that is who we should recommend. If you don't mind sharing semi-personal information, where (as in city) did you go for tutoring?
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I personally find it appropriate for Berkeley Review to recommend Wyzant; however, I would say that Wyzant is essentially a match-making service where you can view which tutors are available AND the tutors' profiles. The quality of the tutor you get depends on who's available and who you choose. It's definitely worth giving a Wyzant tutor a try because there's a money back guarantee for the first hour. (If I remember right, that guarantee might have a $100 limit, but still that's going to cover it for the vast majority of tutors. Each tutor sets his own price and you can see that before emailing or hiring.)
IMO, Wyzant is reputable, honest, efficient, and offers a wide variety of tutors for almost any subject imaginable. I've hired Wyzant tutors many times in multiple subjects. I'll get back to you if I find a specific VR tutor I like. www.wyzant.com
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Wyzant and Varsity Tutors are both good companies on the "agency" model. As Gauss mentions, they offer tutoring choices but no real quality control. I didn't know about Wyzant's "money back" thing for the first hour. That's certainly a good policy.
Next Step takes it a step further in that we closely manage our tutors, do evaluations and development, and are very selective about the tutors we hire. We require top scores on the exam and previous teaching and tutoring experience (unlike the big national companies).
I don't want to go on too much here lest I overstep SDN's terms of service, but feel free to reach out to me directly ([email protected]) for more information.
Next Step takes it a step further in that we closely manage our tutors, do evaluations and development, and are very selective about the tutors we hire. We require top scores on the exam and previous teaching and tutoring experience (unlike the big national companies).
I don't want to go on too much here lest I overstep SDN's terms of service, but feel free to reach out to me directly ([email protected]) for more information.
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Wow, that sounds like an excellent way to run a tutoring service. I have to tip my cap to them, because it really is a match-making process. Letting you see the tutor profile and take one or two for a test run is great for the student. On paper a tutor can seem great, but until you meet and communicate with them, it's hard to know. It's also nice that they have tutors list their own individual prices. I assume that means it's up to you and the tutor as to how many hours you work together. The tutoring package concept used by so many services is purely for the company benefit, so it's nice that Wyzant doesn't promote that. Their system sounds like it's build around student need.
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This is 100% correct and a mistake so often made, especially by parents. They get so concerned with dazzling-looking qualifications that the actual issue of good working chemistry and good teaching ability get overlooked.
When you're investigating prep options, the two most important questions to ask any company: (1) if I change my mind because things aren't going well, what is your drop/refund policy? and (2) who will *my* tutor (or teacher or whatever) be? and can I speak with this person before I pay any money?
It sounds like Wyzant solves this issue with a really generous refund policy on the first hour of tutoring. That's definitely a good policy, since it lets you find out about the tutor before diving in head-first. We adopt a "free initial consultation" approach that attempts to achieve the same thing - ensuring a good match before charging a bunch of money.
Yeah, it's completely up to the student how many (or how few) hours to purchase from the tutor. Personally, I like Wyzant a lot probably primarily because I like to know what I'm buying. I think it almost goes without saying that all tutors are by no means equal.
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Knowing what you are getting, before plopping down tons of cash, is a great idea. It seriously sounds like Wyzant has put out the ideal process for getting tutoring. I suppose the tutor pool will vary with location, but their model is the best one I've heard of for fairness to student. And it sounds like it's face-to-face tutoring, which beats online tutoring in terms of connecting with the tutor.
