MCAT Help

The medical school application process poses an immense challenge and obstacle to aspiring doctors. Acceptance into a medical program requires exceptional performance in undergraduate coursework, remarkable dedication to extracurriculars and volunteer work, exposure to research, and a superior performance on the Medical College Admissions Test. The MCAT is designed to give admissions boards a snapshot of your academic profile, highlighting your potential to succeed in the highly competitive and challenging environment of medical education. Students who face the MCAT have likely already distinguished themselves as superb academics and devotees to the pursuit of a medical profession; as such, competition on the exam can be intense. Every person in attendance has the same goals: achieve a high score in order to merit an elusive medical school acceptance letter. The inherent competition of the exam itself adds a tremendous level of stress, compounding any natural test anxiety students may have when facing a standardized test. Whether you need top MCAT tutors in New York, MCAT tutors in Chicago, or top MCAT tutors in Los Angeles, working with a pro may take your studies to the next level.

Recent revisions to the MCAT exam have served to add new topics and increase the exam’s comprehensiveness and complexity. Though the essay portion of the exam was discontinued in 2013, test-takers must now master concepts taught in the first year of instruction for biochemistry, psychology, and sociology. The introduction of social sciences is particularly stymieing for undergraduates. Though biochemistry is tangentially linked to the original biology and organic chemistry content on the exam, topics in psychology and sociology are entirely novel to most pre-medical curricula. Varsity Tutors also offers resources like free MCAT Diagnostic Tests to help with your self-paced study, or you may want to consider an MCAT tutor.

Scoring well on the MCAT requires more than rote memorization and mastery of conceptual material. The unique question format on the exam creates a grueling testing experience for most students. Though verbal reasoning and critical analysis questions are passage-based on a variety of standardized exams, the MCAT requires test-takers to address passage-based biology, chemistry, and physics questions as well. This format is drastically different from that of most classroom examinations, as well as other standardized science tests like AP exams or SAT Subject Tests. It is critical that students prepare for the inferential thinking and analytical mindset necessitated by this format. Many passages will present new information that is only tangentially related to the topics that students are advised to study in preparation for the exam. Questions will then require students to combine the new high-level information from the passage with their core science knowledge in order to arrive at the correct answer. As such, knowing the tested content simply isn’t sufficient; you must practice passage interpretation and applying your knowledge to a variety of scenarios. In addition to the MCAT Help Section and MCAT tutoring, you may also want to consider using some of our MCAT flashcards.

The MCAT is regarded as one of the most challenging graduate admissions exams. The incredible breadth of the content tested, combined with the unique testing format, can be enough to give even the most qualified medical school applicants pause. Adequate and effective preparation for this exam is essential, but is not always easy to find. With the revisions to the test and the complex format, many resources do not provide the most up-to-date or effective review. In order to test your knowledge and identify areas that could use a bit of extra work, Varsity Tutors offers a wide range of online practice materials. From diagnostic exams to flashcards, our questions are designed to help you organize your study time and address those critical areas. You can choose practice tests that focus on specific subjects, or randomized exams that cover a wide range of material. Each question even offers a comprehensive explanation to help you better understand any concepts with which you may struggle. If you are looking for MCAT help, the Varsity Tutors Learning Tools database may be the way to go!