I didnt like always hearing about the basic questions that everyone should understand. Nothing drives me more mad than being at the mercy of the slowest kid in a review at school. I paid for altius to provide structure, keep me motivated (aka i saw my 2,600 as an investment in my future), and because of the 1 on 1 personal attention it would give me. He pointed out so many trends in passages and questions that by the time I took my test, i felt like I not only knew the topics for PS, and BS, but that i knew the MCAT.Īt school my GPA was very high and I figured i could study on my own and do well enough. When that happened my tutor was phenomenal at simplifying the concepts and helping me understand things from a different perspective. That being said, there were times when I couldn't properly conceptualize or understand a topic.
When I would make a stupid mistake, my tutor would catch it and help me understand how to prevent it in the future.
My tutor and I spent most of my time going over MCAT passages and questions and analyzing my test taking strategies. You can know all the rules of the game, but if you dont practice in person, you will never get better. Instead tutor session was more like a practice for a sports team. Tutor sessions were not times to be taught the material (thats what youtube is for!). They also frequently told us "for the MCAT what you know <<<< How you think." I took all that to heart and dedicated tons of time to mastering the material on my own so that I could develop strategies to do well on the 80%. One day my tutor Trevor told me that the difference between a 33 and a 39 was eliminating "stupid mistakes," and thinking "conceptually." Altius also said that 80% of the MCAT was Conceptual and 20% memorized facts and equations. They keep you honest and actually, one time, my tutor refused to meet with me because I was not doing all that I needed to get a 35+. He was right, Altius is not for people who want to cram and be slackers and still get into medical school. My tutor asked me what I would do/pay for a top score and i said "anything" then he told me we were gonna work harder than I had ever done before. It hurt paying the $2,600 dollars (back then) for the course, but I QUICKLY made that up in the form of 10 interviews and a quick acceptance to a CU, a top school for primary care. The other students I studied with really kept me motivated a long time. After all, aren't you going to be studying your butt off for the next 10 years of your life?
I loved being completely dedicated to MCAT for the entire summer, people worry about "burn out" but i didnt experience any of that. Here is my review, hopefully it is more helpful than what you deemed made me "look like a fool." Better a fool than a cyberbully? Click to expand.I saw the same question on multiple threads and decided to answer it.