Your first session focuses on assessment and strategy planning. A tutor will review your diagnostic test scores, identify your strongest and weakest content areas, and discuss your timeline and target score. This conversation helps create a personalized study plan that prioritizes the sections where you'll see the biggest score gains, so you're not wasting time on material you've already mastered.

Pacing is one of the most common challenges on the MCAT, and tutors have specific strategies to address it. They can teach you how to quickly identify high-yield questions versus time-consuming ones, practice triage techniques to maximize your score, and work through full-length sections under timed conditions to build your stamina and confidence. Regular practice with feedback helps you internalize pacing patterns so you're not rushing through passages or getting stuck on difficult questions.

The best approach combines both, and a tutor helps you balance them based on your needs. If you're scoring below your target, content gaps are usually the priority—you need to understand biochemistry pathways, physics concepts, or psychological principles before strategy matters. Once your foundation is solid, strategy becomes critical: learning how to read MCAT passages efficiently, eliminate wrong answers, and manage your time across four sections. A tutor assesses where you stand and adjusts the focus accordingly.

Full-length practice tests are essential—they're the closest simulation to test day and reveal patterns in your performance that shorter practice sets can't. You should take them regularly (typically every 1-2 weeks in the final 8-12 weeks before test day) and review them thoroughly to understand not just what you got wrong, but why. A tutor can help you analyze your practice test results to spot trends: Are you running out of time on certain sections? Missing specific question types? Struggling with particular content areas? This data-driven approach makes your remaining study time much more efficient.

Test anxiety often stems from feeling unprepared or uncertain about your approach, and personalized tutoring directly addresses both. Working through challenging questions with a tutor, building a clear study strategy, and practicing under realistic conditions all build genuine confidence—not false reassurance, but earned confidence from knowing you've prepared thoroughly. Many students also benefit from learning specific anxiety-management techniques and having someone to talk through their concerns as test day approaches.

Look for tutors with strong MCAT scores (typically 510+), medical school acceptance, or extensive tutoring experience helping students reach their target scores. Ideally, they should be familiar with the current MCAT format, understand the specific challenges of each section, and have a track record of helping students improve. Varsity Tutors connects you with expert tutors who meet these standards and can provide personalized instruction tailored to your goals and learning style.

Most students benefit from 3-6 months of preparation, though the right timeline depends on your starting score, target score, and how much time you can dedicate each week. A typical schedule might involve 8-12 hours of tutoring spread across your prep period, combined with independent study and practice tests. A tutor can help you create a realistic timeline based on your baseline performance and build a study schedule that fits your medical school application timeline.