Interested in private tutoring for the MCAT? Read about me, what I can do, and if you’re interested, sign up for a free, no strings attached 30 minute consultation!
About Me: My name is Nate, I have taken the MCAT twice, the first time a long time ago before the pandemic (which has since expired), and another time in 2023 to prepare for medical school applications, on both occasions scoring in the 99th percentile. Both times I tried as many different strategies as I could to find what worked best for me, and learned just how many different ways to be successful on the MCAT there are. Over the last two years, I have worked as an instructor of MCAT courses and have privately tutored over 50 different students in their path towards the MCAT and, eventually, medical school. My goal, both in forming this website as well as continuing with private tutoring, is to share every single thing I know with you.
Testimonials from Nate’s Former Students
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“I tutored with Nate for several months leading up to my exam and I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled upon him. He’s remarkably intelligent, patient, and he’s genuine when he says he wants to help you find the best advice, strategy, or explanation that works for you. If you’re looking for a tutor, he’s the first person I would ask!”
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“I was a bit stuck as far as how to improve my MCAT score, and after trying a few different tutors, Nate was by far my best find. He had many different ways to explain the content I was struggling with, and had lots of advice that helped me get out of a funk. He’s very upfront and honest with his advice, which was a bit of a breath of fresh air that I needed.”
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“I wasn’t able to meet with Nate much, but if I were to take the MCAT again, I would meet with him as much as I could. There were several different topics within Physics and General Chemistry that I didn’t understand throughout my undergrad or MCAT Prep course, and it wasn’t until I met with him that I finally understood those things. He’s awesome, and I would recommend him to anyone willing to give tutoring a try.”
My Rate?
$65/hour, but negotiable!
I offer an entirely free, no-strings-attached 30 minute consultation to see if we’d be a good fit, as well as if I can adjust my pricing. Sign up below so we can talk!
Additionally, I offer the first hour (after the 30-minute consult) half-off to make your decision less of a financial burden if you are unsure!
Why should I pick you?
Very fair question! I’ll break this up into two sections:
Why choose a private tutor?
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Some larger prep companies put limitations on what you can say, how you can say it, and the advice that you can give. Private/independent tutors have no such restrictions and therefore can give you the most honest and authentic advice for how to do best on the MCAT.
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Most tutoring websites and prep companies take a pretty large chunk of the hourly wage you are paying them for a variety of reasons (of which they have the right to do), such as for large-scale advertising, maintaining an operations team, etc.
By individually picking a private tutor, you can help us avoid losing anywhere from 30-70% of the hourly wage we list ourselves at. This allows us to lower our rates, making it more affordable for you, without losing a significant sum of our wages.
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Private tutors have their own rules with how they choose to do their operations, which means that you can have more freedom in your scheduling with them as well as the ability to request a wider range of needs for your MCAT preparations.
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Most, if not all other MCAT private tutors I’ve encountered only offer pay-as-you-go lesson scheduling, meaning you only have to pay for one session at a time. Most prep companies offer packs of, for example, 10 hours of tutoring for X amount of dollars. In my experience private tutoring, many students did not want to make such a large up front payment without knowing what they were getting, so by paying by the hour and per session, you can get a guarantee that you’ll find the right tutor for you without putting down a huge deposit.
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While the degree of which may change from tutor to tutor, many tutors are willing to slightly change their hours or pricing in order to accommodate their students, a flexibility that allows students to have more say in the role their tutor plays in their studying.
Why choose you specifically?
Another great question! Scroll down to find out what I specifically offer!
What ways can I help you?
Everyone is different, and I hope to use the many different studying and test taking strategies, as well as my deepening knowledge of the content for the MCAT, to make sure that I’m doing everything in my power to get you to where you want to be. Click through to see what specifically I can offer!
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Feel like you understand the content but are still missing questions? No problem! I’ll work with you to see where the issues are, whether they be with your understanding of the passage, the content, or an error in the answer choices. I can provide different tactics to avoid those mistakes in the future, as well as general advice that may help you rethink your approach to answering questions on the MCAT.
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Struggling with a certain topic and you’re not sure why? Continually missing questions in CARS and you need a diagnostic? Let me know! A big part of my job is making sure you know where things are going awry, as well as how to avoid those mistakes in the future.
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One of the best bits of advice that any pre-med can give to MCAT takers is to make sure you’re studying the questions in your practice sessions, regardless of whether you got them right or wrong. It’s important to make sure you know why you’ve made mistakes, as well as how to fix them.
However, what if you don’t know why you missed a question? One of the common ways that I have been asked to help my tutoring students is to help them review the most difficult questions on their exam to help them understand where their logic went wrong, as well as how to better avoid those same mistakes in the future.
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Still haven’t found the explanation that makes sense to you? Not a problem at all. I’ve found that in order to understand any concept, it often just takes hearing it in a way that resonates with how your brain works. I can provide several different explanations and visualizations of MCAT conceptual topics to ensure you have the proper understanding you need for the MCAT.
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Struggling to know where to start, how to get out of a funk, or the best way to immediately improve your score? Ask away! I can give you all of the advice and guidance I have in my brain, listing everything I know, not just the things that worked for me. You and I are very different people, so I will ensure that I’m finding a way to help you that resonates with you.
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While I promise that by accountability I’m not saying you’re paying $65/hour for me to just remind you to study, some people have found that by meeting with me on a regular basis and having me reach out in between sessions to check on them, they’ve received enough accountability and external social pressure to stay on top of their own studying. If you need help making sure you’re working as hard as you feel you should be, I can help, in addition to everything else I can do above!
I pride myself on honesty. Please read the following to make sure we’re both on the same page!
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CARS is obviously a huge request for tutoring help, and I’m more than happy to help you identify strategies to help you out or other places in which your processes may be leading you awry.
The one thing I will say about CARS is that I typically ask my students that, if we’re going to work on CARS, we either use passages that I have already read and and familiar with (and will give you access to), or you give me 5ish minutes at the start of every session to read through the passage so I can accurately give you advice.
The main reason for this is my time, roughly 70% of my students ask me for help on CARS at some point in their time tutoring with me, and if they were to all ask me to read through a passage before we met that they wanted to ask questions on, I would sometimes spend hours a week just reading CARS passages outside of tutoring sessions just making sure I had seen everyone’s request and wasn’t wasting their time reading during the session.
This is why I try to run CARS tutoring the way I do, it significantly eases the work burden on my end and limits my prep to a much more reasonable role, as well as ensuring that the largest amount of time possible during your tutoring session is dedicated to helping you out, rather than you just sitting and watching me read. The latter is obviously not preferable for either of us, but if you need me to read through a passage for some advice, I’ll more than willingly do so, I just can never guarantee I can get it done before we meet.
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There are many prep companies that “guarantee” a certain score. I will never do such a thing. There are two reasons for this:
First- I know first hand that the guarantee many companies provide has many strings attached. There is hidden text that made me feel like a “guarantee” wasn’t actually that.
Second- The amount of time you spend with me is relatively insignificant to the amount of time that you’re studying and practicing on your own. I have had many students achieve scores they are more than happy with, I have also had a few students who haven’t scored the way they’ve wanted (again, honesty is important to me!), and the common denominator between the two was how willing to work hard and improve they were. It’s not fair to me to blame myself for someone not working hard outside of their meetings with me, it’s also not fair to someone else to not get the credit they deserve whenever they earn that amazing score they’ve been looking for.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m confident in my ability to help, but think of me like a navigation system, not a car. I’ll help you get there, and am going to do every single thing in my power to make sure of it, but I can’t do the work for you. I (and other tutors) are most efficient when we work with you, not for you.
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While this is currently my job, my main priority is to ensure that the resources and advice you need for the MCAT are as accessible and widely available as possible. If during our consultation it seems as if your main concerns can largely be remedied by either general advice or any free resource that is already available, whether it’s on my website or elsewhere, I will always try to direct you there before we begin our paid tutoring sessions.
Ultimately, the decision is entirely up to you! If you think that what you’re needing goes beyond some text on a screen or a video, then absolutely I will help you. If you just need some guidance, then absolutely I will help you. I simply just know how expensive this entire process can be and will be open with my recommendations to try out free resources first if it seems most fit.
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You do not have to sign up for any other paid appointments, you do not have to buy a pack of tutoring sessions, simply sign up for whatever you feel you need.
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Trust me, I’ve been there. Had something with classes pop up? No problem, we can reschedule or cancel. Need to go walk your dog? Not a problem. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Let’s meet at a time when you’re feeling more up to it!
I entirely understand how nearly dehumanizing studying for the MCAT can be. You’re going to sometimes feel like a robot, and I want to make sure you understand that it’s entirely ok to have a change of plans. This is a very stressful exam, and I do not want our tutoring sessions to add to your stress.
Because of this, I’ve set up the payment collection to only charge you whenever the meeting starts. If you cancel right before the start of the meeting, you will not be charged. You do not need to explain why you cancelled, I don’t want you to feel like you’re skipping class. I’m here for you!
With that being said, I ask that you do aim to be respectful with my time as well. If there becomes a habitual pattern to where you are now taking away my time from other students as well on a more consistent basis, I may begin to require either a deposit or an up-front payment.
Finally, of course I’m a human as well and occasionally have things up, but as this is essentially my “9-5”, I’ll always show up unless there’s some sort of emergency on my end. Things do happen but I have rarely cancelled or rescheduled my students, and may be inclined to offer a discount on your next session if need be (but that is entirely up to my discretion based on the circumstance). I’ve asked you to be respectful of my time, I’m just guaranteeing that I’ll be respectful of yours!
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My typical rate has been $65 an hour, but that doesn’t mean that my rate isn’t negotiable. If you’d like to request a different rate, please contact me! I cannot guarantee any accommodations based on my availability, but I promise I’ll do my best and if I can’t help, I’ll offer a response to at least point you in the right direction.
Because a decent portion of my work week is dedicated to unpaid labor creating other free content and resources for the MCAT, in addition to working on med school applications amongst other things, my current rate allows me to still cover all of my expenses while still giving me the time to do other those other things to provide free MCAT resources. I entirely understand if you would like to offer a different rate, so let me know!
