With many available MCAT preparation courses, choosing which one will benefit you the most is hard. There are a lot of factors to consider, including the cost, content, and materials included in a particular package.
In this article, we will discuss one option that you might not have checked yet – from MCAT preparation courses from Varsity Tutors!
Whether you have some background or not, it will still be helpful if you join us in exploring what Varsity Tutors offers to students like you and if they are worthy of your money.
Varsity Tutors MCAT Preparation Course: Everything You Need to Know
To understand the Varsity Tutors better, here is everything you need to know regarding their programs and overall platform:
What Is Varsity Tutors?
Varsity Tutors is a platform that pairs tutors with students looking for an instructor, usually for an upcoming major entrance examination. They offer different courses, from on-demand to live classes, that cover topics necessary for the MCAT and other tests.
They also provide one-on-one in-person tutoring, which is not common among other preparation courses. Again, however, this may be limited to geographical locations.
Varsity Tutors has an MCAT prep course that lasts for ten weeks.
Within this time frame, students are taught score-improving strategies as well. Usually, each class contains 6 to 9 students depending on the number of enrollees for a 2-hour session.
Students can get personalized assistance in these classes and collaborate with others through discussions.
The course starts by preparing the students for the sections of the MCAT test. All of your existing learnings will be compounded with strategies and test-taking tips. The course's focus is the exam structure, scoring, and tested concepts.
The objective of the course is to help students understand the exam structure, its methodologies, and the ability to handle tricky questions. It is an excellent option if you like an in-class learning experience alongside other students.
What To Expect With The Varsity Tutors?
When looking for an MCAT prep course to enroll in, you should consider some factors that are most important to you, including the following:
Knowing these could help you find the one that best suits your needs. Despite having the same goal: to pass the MCAT with a good score, MCAT prep courses have different things to offer.
You can also expect immediate personalized feedback every session. That is because you work directly with a tutor who is an expert in the MCAT. They are flexible and can find ways to fit the schedule that works for all students.
Upon signing up for an MCAT tutoring in Varsity Tutors, the platform will connect you to an educator available to meet you at your chosen schedule. This gives students better guidance on their review without having to go elsewhere.
Tutoring helps enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your study sessions. The MCAT tutor will provide a customized lesson plan that targets your needs and helps you pay more attention to the areas you find challenging the most. You wouldn't get this much personalization in other MCAT prep courses.
The Varsity Tutors MCAT prep course will help you develop your general test-taking skills. For example, if you have experienced anxiety when taking a test before, your instructor can teach you how you can manage it during examinations.
Don't worry because test anxiety is typical for students taking important tests such as MCAT. Learning how to at least manage it can help bring out your potential and give you better opportunities for your academic future.
Your MCAT instructors will also help you develop your time management skills when taking a comprehensive test.
They will help you work through the sample questions and practice tests. Doing so can help make you feel more confident and relaxed on the actual day of the examination.
How Do Varsity Tutors Work?
Varsity Tutors is a large tutoring service platform, but they offer more than just that.
Aside from finding a good tutor for the MCAT, they also offer paid and free resources that you can take advantage of. They have self-study books, live online classes, one-on-one tutoring, and more.
They have two main programs for test preparations: tutoring and live prep classes. They also have offerings in which they bundle the two into one package.
Not only is it available for the MCAT, but other exams as well, like SAT, CPA, GMAT, and more.
They have courses that are ten weeks long with meetings once every week and Bootcamp styles in which you will be required to meet five days a week for a 4-hour session. You can also avail of tutoring for a certain amount of time.
The way it works is you will be required to answer a quick questionnaire on their platform first to determine your basic information. Then, you can choose from their hundreds of lists of tutors, usually starting from the people near your area.
You will see the tutors' names, experience, educational attainment, picture, and location. Remember that this only applies if you only purchase their tutoring service and not the course.
After selecting your tutor, the first session is usually for getting acquainted with them, discussing your academic goals, and assessing your strengths and weaknesses. The meetings take place via Zoom.
You will discuss your customized homework assignments and work through the challenging areas. In addition, they will help you review sets of practice problems and learn strategies for different types of questions.
You can expect live courses to have a better structure than tutoring sessions because you will work with existing lesson plans and homework.
On the other hand, tutoring provides a more targeted strategy. You can pay more attention to the topics you require a better understanding of, and your tutor will help you with that.
If you avail of the course program, you could upgrade it and add tutoring to your live class bundle. In this case, you can experience the best of both worlds.
Varsity Tutors Prep Course Pricing
The MCAT prep course for Varsity Tutors has three options:
Here's a more in-depth breakdown of what is included in each of them:
a. MCAT 5-Week Prep Class
Price: USD 799 (USD 40/hour)
Duration: 5 weeks
This 5-week program consists of 20 hours of class time divided into two weekly sessions.
You can expect to learn tips on test-taking, MCAT exam structure, concepts, and more. This course is designed to prepare the students before taking the MCAT with the skills and strategies that can help boost their scores.
b. MCAT 10-Week Prep Class
Price: USD 799 (USD 40/hour)
Duration: 10 weeks
This program has the exact cost of the 5-week program because they cover the same amount of hours in session, which is 20 hours.
The only difference is that there is only one session per week for 2 hours each class time. It provides the same curriculum, such as handling tricky questions, understanding the exam structure, and more.
c. Private Tutoring
Price: Varies
Duration: Varies
The private tutoring of Varsity Tutors is more flexible than the first two courses. The scheduling of this session depends on the student. The duration also differs depending on the MCAT. The price is based on the grade level and number of hours.
Click here for more details and an unbiased review of Varsity Tutors Tutoring ProgramsVarsity Tutors MCAT Preparation Course Pros and Cons
After understanding everything about Varsity Tutors, it's time to discuss the pros and cons of their MCAT prep course.
The Pros of Varsity Tutors MCAT Prep Courses
Varsity Tutors offer a wide variety of subjects from different kinds of tutors. You can choose which teacher to work with, and they will provide you with a personalized lesson that targets your weakest points.
Their services are also relatively cheaper than other MCAT prep courses. At ten weeks, it only costs USD 799 with 20 hours of total class time.
The in-person classes are limited to only nine students, which allows the instructors to give more attention to each individual and their academic needs.
Their digital platform is also worth noting. All aspects you will need for your review are easily accessible on their site.
For those who chose tutoring sessions, the schedule is flexible. As a result, you and your instructor can devise a system that works best for both of you.
The Cons of Varsity Tutors MCAT Prep Courses
One of the main issues that you will encounter upon signing up with Varsity Tutors is that the most popular instructors book up fast. Therefore, even if you have a particular person in mind that you want to work with based on what you have seen on their list, there is no guarantee that you can get to work with them.
You should also know that not all tutors on the platform undergo training compared to other companies. However, they can still help you find someone that matches your learning style and needs.
Varsity Tutors' live classes do not go into discussing the MCAT subjects as deeply as other prep courses available online.
MCAT is also not the platform's main focus, so you cannot expect them to have the same level of comprehensiveness and intensive teachings as Blueprint, Magoosh, Kaplan, and The Princeton Review.Varsity Tutors MCAT Preparation Course Users' Experience
In this part, we will show what Varsity Tutors' current previous students have to say about their services:
Trustpilot Reviews
Varsity Tutors has a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars in Trustpilot. The users are satisfied with the quality of teaching of their instructors. Here are some of the reviews from the platform:
G2 Reviews
Varsity Tutors has a rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, with 13 reviews on G2. Most reviews contain praise for the program, but some express dislike for some of its characters.
One user said that you might get a less reliable tutor, which can be inconvenient and stressful. Here are some of the reviews on the platform:
Verdict: Is Varsity Tutors MCAT Preparation Course Worth it?
If you prefer an MCAT prep course that provides one-on-one tutoring, you should try enrolling with Varsity Tutors. They have a good set of instructors to help you achieve your goals. You can also take advantage of their flexible system and design your schedule.
The live prep classes are also great. If you are into structured systems, then this one's for you.
You can still get personalized attention and direct feedback from your teachers while improving your knowledge alongside other students.
There are other alternatives for students looking for more affordable alternative prep courses from experienced MCAT mentors and experts.
We know because we were premed students ourselves. Today we’re in or on our way to med-school, and understand the struggles of the journey.
This is why we launched MCAT Mastery Tutoring - a more affordable option for MCAT tutoring.
Providing expertise and assistance to pre-med students on a low budget, MCAT Mastery has helped many students study and prepare for the MCAT since we started in 2016.
We recommend you check out our tutoring page to see if this is something that makes sense for you. You can also see our TrustPilot reviews here.
Generally we always tell our students: you shouldn’t pay a lot for content review because that can be free from places like Khan Academy. The only thing that deserves an investment is learning the strategy of HOW to study for an exam like the MCAT.
For example, practice is a great investment that helps with the ‘how to study’ or getting a tutor is another example of a high yield approach to maximizing your MCAT score (as opposed to paying for content review).
Suggestion: Before dropping a lot of money into a prep course, consider running the idea by a tutor (if you’re going to get a tutor anyway). They can diagnose your situation and provide you with a better plan moving forward.
Once you have your content figured out, we also have MCAT strategy specific courses to help you achieve your goal MCAT score - all created from top MCAT scorers, who’ve been through the journey.
To help you achieve your goal MCAT score, we take turns hosting these 
