The Institute for Higher Learning

MCAT Tutoring

Medical Schools take the MCAT Seriously. Serious MCAT Takers Work With IHL.

If your goal is to attend a prestigious medical school, a higher MCAT score may be the single most important factor that can help make your dream a reality.

Overview of MCAT Program

At IHL, we have helped countless students dramatically increase their MCAT scores since we began offering MCAT tutoring in 2002. Our MCAT program was developed over many years via the collaboration of brilliant medical students, residents, practicing physicians and researchers at programs including Yale, Michigan, Johns Hopkins and others. In addition to offering expert instruction in the biological and physical sciences, our unique approach emphasizes the Verbal Reasoning section, providing crucial guidance for students whose previous academic focus has been weighted toward the sciences. IHL employs a number of Verbal Reasoning specialists who utilize a variety of teaching materials and sources beyond sample MCAT passages.

Our program is effective, comprehensive and custom-tailored to your specific needs. We use in house-materials, officially released MCAT exams as well as an ever-evolving list of third-party sources that we view to be the best for a particular topic or subject matter. Since we do not rely exclusively on proprietary materials, we are able to cherry-pick the best materials from as many sources as possible to augment our curriculum.

Our Tutors

Our tutors are the some of the best and brightest in the industry. They are not just smart "study-buddies"—they are passionate, experienced and dedicated instructors who motivate their students to achieve. All of our MCAT tutors have scored in at least the 97th percentile on the exam, and the majority attend top medical schools or residency programs. Their expertise goes beyond the test itself.

While all tutors are fluent in IHL's proven teaching methodologies, they are also flexible, dynamic educators who are able to adapt to a wide variety of individual learning styles. During the preparation process, you may work with multiple tutors who specialize on particular sections of the exam. Our students benefit from IHL's team-based approach: Mayssoun Bydon (IHL's Founder/Managing Partner) and Chad Biggert (IHL's Executive Director) take great care in matching students with tutors; Chad also oversees each student's file on an ongoing basis and tracks progress regularly.

The Preparation Process

We advise students to dedicate at least three to four months to the preparation process. Your process will most likely begin with a diagnostic exam, allowing us to assess your individual strengths and weaknesses. Along with these diagnostic test results, we also consider factors such as learning style, learning disabilities, age, budget, strengths / weaknesses on particular sections, as well as interests and goals before matching you with the tutor or tutors best suited to your needs. Over the course of their preparation with us, our students often work with multiple tutors who may specialize on particular sections and/or teach different strategies/approaches. Outside of tutoring sessions, you will dedicate a significant amount of time to session review, homework, practice exams and other drills. We expect a lot from our students, but the IHL team is there to offer guidance and support every step of the way.

Given the nature of the MCAT exam and the breadth of the subject matter in the sciences, many of our MCAT students use IHL as a supplement alongside mass-market preparation courses. Many students come to us to fill gaps in knowledge, focus on specific science topics, augment their verbal score, and/or fine-tune their test-taking strategies. Whether you want to hone your understanding of certain topics, take and review practice exams or simply pick the brain of a brilliant medical student/resident, IHL can accommodate your needs.

MCAT tutoring is available wherever you are – in-person at one of our offices or remotely via Skype, WizIQ or other videoconferencing platforms. We have worked with many students remotely and have found it to be as effective as in-person consultation.

Practice Exams

When you take part in our MCAT program, you have the opportunity to take practice exams in our offices. These exams offer you the important opportunity to practice your test-taking skills in a real-life setting, complete with other students, ambient noise, time pressure and other factors. Practice exams help us track your performance and provide valuable feedback to your tutors, who are then able to identify problem areas, introduce new test-taking strategies and address gaps in knowledge.

Other Medical School-Related Services

 If you are interested in learning more about our MCAT tutoring program, or any of our other services, please do not hesitate to reach out to us by phone at (212) 889-8378 or (734) 623-8378. To enroll, please click here.