A big brand that will not tell you the price
The Princeton Review runs the widest range of MCAT formats of anyone in this cluster: Self-Paced, Self-Paced LiveOnline, Fundamentals, Ultimate, 510+, and a 515+ Immersion available live online and in person. The 515+ tier carries a money-back score guarantee, and there is a 14-day free trial on Self-Paced.
Pricing is not published. You contact enrolment and they quote you. That places The Princeton Review alongside Altius, Varsity Tutors and MedSchoolCoach on transparency, and it is the main reason it scores where it does on value for money. We cannot assess value against a price we are not shown, and neither can you.
Materials and format, in quantity
17 full-length exams and 500+ video lessons across the range, plus live instruction on the classroom formats. The materials are extensive and the instruction is the most traditional on this page, which suits some students very well.
The recurring criticisms are production quality on the video content and a thin flashcard offering. Neither is disqualifying on its own. Both matter more at a four-figure price than they would at a lower one.
The 14-day free trial is the most useful thing the company offers a prospective student, because it lets you judge the teaching before you are on a call discussing money.
What hundreds of students told us about The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review comes up in hundreds of conversations students have started with us, and in a meaningful share of them the score had stalled after completing a full classroom course.
The same caution applies as everywhere on this page: these are co-occurrences in inbound support mail, not measured outcomes, from a population that self-selects for difficulty. But the shape matches what we see with every content-led programme. Sitting through a complete curriculum, attentively, does not by itself change how you work a passage against the clock.
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.
Where it makes sense, and where it does not
Use the free trial before anything else. Fourteen days is enough to know whether the teaching style works for you, and it costs nothing.
The 515+ guarantee is the real differentiator if you are already close to that range. Read what it requires of you, because guarantees at this level generally demand full attendance and completion.
Decide your number before the call. Because pricing is quoted rather than published, walk in with a ceiling you have already set and compare it against providers who publish. Blueprint and Kaplan will both give you a figure without a phone call.
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