Best for: students who want an established brand and a traditional classroom-style relationship
VS
MedLife Mastery
8.1/10
Best for: students who know the content and are losing points to strategy, timing and passage approach. Tutoring from $547, or the 6-week live course at $1,800
Our call, and we are one of the two
The Princeton Review has more materials, more formats and a bigger brand. It will also not tell you what tutoring costs until you have had a sales conversation. If that asymmetry does not bother you and you want a traditional classroom experience, they are a reasonable choice.
Who each one is built for
The Princeton Review is built for students who want a traditional classroom experience from a long-established brand.
We built the live course for students who know the content and need someone to change how they work a passage under time.
That distinction is doing most of the work on this page. Two programmes can both be good and still
be wrong for you, because they are solving different problems. Before comparing features, work out
which of the two descriptions above is actually yours.
Where The Princeton Review beats us
The Princeton Review offers 17 full-length exams, 500+ video lessons and the widest set of formats of
anyone here, including in-person options we do not have. It also offers a 14-day free trial on its
self-paced product, which is more than we offer, and a money-back guarantee on the 515+ tier.
We have left those rows in the table above rather than quietly dropping them. A comparison that shows
one company winning every row is an advertisement, and you should treat it as one.
Free quiz
The Unbiased MCAT Prep Course Decision Quiz
Three different problems stall an MCAT score, and buying the wrong fix costs
months. Six questions sort out which one is yours and what to spend on it. We name competitors and
free resources when they beat us, and say so when the answer is spend nothing.
No email required. Your plan appears on screen.
Transparency, before you start. We sell MCAT tutoring and courses, so here are
the rules this quiz follows.
Zero budget, nothing paid. Free resources only, and we say so.
Content gap, buy content first. From whoever does it best, which is usually not us.
Our tutoring comes up only as an optional add-on for a big gap.
Competitors named and linked when they beat us: UWorld, Kaplan, Blueprint,
ExamKrackers, Khan Academy.
We appear only where we fit, with the budget to match, and always beside a
cheaper option.
Our free MCAT resources show up wherever they fit, and they ask for nothing.
How to decide between them
Use their free trial first. Fourteen days will tell you whether the teaching style suits you, and it
costs nothing to find out.
Then decide how you feel about buying without a published price. They will quote you after a
conversation. We put $1,800 on the page. Neither approach is dishonest, but only one of them lets you
compare before you talk to a salesperson, and you should know which you are choosing.
How MedLife Mastery and The Princeton Review compare, row by row
The Princeton Review's one-to-one tutoring against MedLife Mastery 1:1 tutoring. Like for like: this compares tutoring to tutoring, not tutoring to a course. A check marks whichever has the advantage on that row.
The Princeton Review
MedLife Mastery 1:1 Tutoring
Cost
Published price for tutoring
Not published. Quoted after an enquiry
$547 for 5 sessions up to $2,097 for 30. Published on the page
Cost per hour
Not published
$99/hour at the 10-session package ($997), our own published figure
Compare before you buy
Requires a sales conversation first
Price and per-hour figure are both on the page
Who teaches you
Tutor standard
Large instructor pool, standards vary by tier
515+ scorer matched to your goal score and strongest in your weakest section
How you are matched
Assigned by the enrolment team
Personalised mentor matching within 24 hours
Recency on the exam
Many instructors sat the MCAT years ago
Mentors recently sat the current exam
In the sessions
Session recordings
Not published as a standard feature
AI-enhanced session recordings, used to target weak areas
Teaching focus
Content-led curriculum
Strategy-first: how you work a passage, triage and manage the clock
Extras and risk
Free trial
14-day free trial on the self-paced product
No free trial, no sample session and no consultation calls
Group help included
Depends on the format bought
Unlimited weekly 90-minute office hours Q&A included
Switching tutors
Through support
Free tutor switching at any time, for any reason
If you do not use the hours
Access ends with the enrolment
Sessions never expire; unused ones transfer to med-school application coaching
Materials library
17 full-lengths, 500+ video lessons
AAMC and UWorld recommended rather than replaced
Brand and scale
Decades-old brand, very large
Founded 2014. 374 Trustpilot reviews at 4.88
Tally on the rows above: MedLife 11, The Princeton Review 3, 0 even. We wrote the table, so read it as our argument rather than a neutral audit, and the rows we lose are left in.
If you are comparing courses instead
The Princeton Review also sells a course, so here is that side by side with our 6-Week Live MCAT Accelerator. Buy from the table that matches what you are actually shopping for.
The Princeton Review
MedLife 6-Week Live Accelerator
Cost
Published price
Not published. Quoted on enquiry
$1,800, or $650/mo x3. Published on the page
What you get
Live class time
Live online and in-person formats
12 live classes, two hours each, twice a week
1:1 time included
Depends on the format bought
Seven 60-minute 1:1 sessions included in the seat
Class size
Classroom sized
One cohort a month, capped at 20 to 25 students
Free trial
14-day free trial on self-paced
No free trial
Flexibility and risk
Guarantee
Money-back guarantee on the 515+ tier
Score Growth Commitment on every seat, at every price
After it ends
Access ends with the enrolment
A year of support afterwards; unused sessions transfer to application coaching
Materials library
17 full-lengths, 500+ video lessons
AAMC and UWorld recommended rather than replaced
Tally on the rows above: MedLife 4, The Princeton Review 3, 1 even. We wrote the table, so read it as our argument rather than a neutral audit, and the rows we lose are left in.
What students who tried both told us
★★★★★5.0 out of 5
After maxing out at 513 with months of content review and practice questions done, I reached out to MedLife for an MCAT tutor and selected Anna as my personal 1:1 tutor. Anna supported me through consistent constructive feedback delivered in a personable way that never made me feel down on myself, even when I wasn’t improving at first.
Martin Koch
★★★★★5.0 out of 5
I came into tutoring feeling very unconfident, and I was stuck in the 500 range. After working with Maryann over the last few months, she not only helped me improve my score across all sections, but she also helped me gain the confidence to approach the exam. I am thankful for the time she spent helping me.
Gabby B
Verified reviews from students who used The Princeton Review before working with us. See all 370+ on our student reviews page.
The Princeton Review MCAT course: common questions
Is MedLife Mastery better than The Princeton Review?
For a student whose score has stalled despite knowing the content, we think so, and that is the case we built for. For a student with genuine content gaps who has never learned the material properly, The Princeton Review may well be the better fit. We have tried to make the table above honest enough that you can tell which of those you are.
How much does The Princeton Review cost compared to MedLife Mastery?
Our live course is $1,800, or $650 a month over three months, and that price is on the page. The Princeton Review is covered in the comparison above with whatever it publishes. Where a company does not publish pricing we say so rather than guessing, because we will not print a figure we could not verify at source.
Can I trust a comparison written by one of the two companies?
Not blindly, and you should not. We wrote this table, we chose the rows, and we score ourselves highest. What we have tried to do instead of pretending to neutrality is leave in the rows we lose, name our own limitations, and tell you when a competitor is the better answer. Read it as our argument and check it against the company itself.
What are MedLife Mastery’s weaknesses?
We have no free trial and no sample session, we discontinued sales calls in 2026, and we are a much smaller brand than most of the names we compare against. Our answer to the first is free tutor switching at any time, for any reason, with sessions that never expire. If a free trial is what would make the decision for you, that is a real point against us.
What does the MedLife live course include?
A seat is $1,800 and includes 12 live classes, seven 60-minute 1:1 sessions usable from the day you enroll, every self-paced strategy course, weekly office hours, a study buddy and 24/7 Q&A. Cohorts run about one a month and are capped at 20 to 25 students. Unused sessions never expire and transfer to med-school application coaching.
