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| Frequenty Asked Questions Below are a few of the most commonly asked questions about our program. For questions regarding pricing, or a list of services included in the program price, please click the "Pricing" link on the navigation bar. For questions about how we compare to other popular MCAT prep programs, click here. A: The Altius Complete Dual-Focus MCAT Program is a combination of intense one-on-one tutoring sessions and interactive classroom sessions. Each student who signs up for the program receives 20 credits redeemable for twenty one-hour, 1-on-1 tutoring sessions. The student meets with their assigned tutor and designs a personalized plan for their own MCAT study. The tutor and student agree upon a regular meeting time. Most students meet with their tutor once or twice each week, but any schedule is available as long as both you and your tutor agree upon it. During these sessions, you and your tutor work thru 19 Altius MCAT Lessons covering all of the material tested by the MCAT. In most cases, you will cover one lesson per session, leaving you two additional tutoring sessions to utilize for material that is particularly difficult for you, or to go back and review at the end. In addition to this tutoring (which alone would cost you $150/hr. or about $3,000 from our competitors), you also receive access to 32 different classroom sessions. These classroom sessions are held anywhere from twice to several times each week, depending on the number of students enrolled at your school. During these classroom sessions you will have the opportunity to apply the knowledge you are learning in your lessons to real AAMC MCAT questions. Students first attempt one or two real AAMC passages. The tutor then leads the group in an extremely careful analysis of each question. In addition to meeting regularly with your tutor and attending the classroom sessions, you have FREE 24-hour access to your tutor for questions. As you near the end of your preparation, we also provide you with FREE admissions advice and FREE personal essay editing.
Q: When do classes start? A: Although it may seem difficult to comprehend for students used to a traditional MCAT course, there are no pre-determined start or end dates for the Altius program. Because tutoring is entirely one-on-one and the classroom sessions are offered multiple times each year, you may begin any time you wish. All that is required is to meet with your assigned tutor and agree upon a regular meeting schedule that works for both of you. You can then examine the list of available classroom sessions and attend those that will allow you to complete the course according to your desired time frame. If you meet with your tutor twice each week, you could complete the program in as little as nine weeks. However, we believe the 2-3 months most students spend in preparation for the MCAT is quite insufficient; we recommend a minimum of 5-6 months. The best case scenario is to begin meeting with your tutor the fall before a May test date. This will allow you to attend one tutoring session and one classroom session each week, take most holidays and breaks off, and still finish a month or two prior to your exam. We encourage all students to finish their tutoring sessions at least one month prior to their test date. This allows time for taking full-length practice exams and making final preparations. It is imperative that you NOT feel rushed to finish the material as your test date approaches. It is also worthwhile to give serious consideration to taking a very LIGHT course load during the semester prior to your MCAT test date. Taking a full load and preping for the MCAT adequately is a near impossibility. Of course, we recognize that some students feel they cannot do anything to increase the amount of time they have available, and in these cases we are more than willing to meet with you as frequenlty as needed to help you finsih the program and reach your MCAT goals.
A: Tutoring session are held on or near campus at a location convenient to both you and your tutor. Most tutors have a quiet study area or other location designated on campus where most of their students meet them. However, our tutors also try to be flexible and are willing to consider meeting you at another location. The classroom sessions are usually held during the evenings in an on-campus classroom that we rent from the university.
A: Each student receives twenty tutoring sessions as part of the purchase price of the program. There are nineteen Altius MCAT lessons that must be covered during these twenty meetings, meaning you will usually cover one lesson per session. You can use the one remaining tutoring session to cover subjects that are particularly difficult for you. A few students finish the 19 lessons in fewer than 19 meetings and use the remaining sessions to go back and review. The typical tutoring session is run something like this: 1) Prior to the session, the student is expected to review the entire lesson carefully. Each student should attempt to master the material in the lesson outline to the best of his or her ability. The outlines are designed to be interactive, with several conceptual questions for you to research and answer as you study, and 'fill-in-the-blanks' that you can easily complete using Wikipedia or a similar resource. Students take thorough notes on what they learn and highlight subjects they don't understand. Students are encouraged to make notecards for anything they did not already have mastered before starting the lesson. 2) The student meets together with his or her tutor. The tutor will ask you to pull out your annotated lesson outline and the two of you will specifically review each principle in the outline. Note that this will be the second time you are exposed to the information. The tutor will begin by asking you a few questions to test your knowledge of the first principle in the outline. If you know the principle well, no time is wasted on that principle, and you move on. This approach maximizes the value of your time with the tutor, ensuring that you spend the most time on subjects you need the most help with, and no time on subjects you have already mastered. As the tutor clarifies concepts for you, you will be expected to make additional notecards to ensure that you retain this information long-term. 3) The student is expceted to review the lesson for a third time within 24-hours of the tutoring session, making any additional note cards as necessary. The student will then attend one or two classroom sessions that week and finish the week with a thorough review of his or her notecards. If you have any questions after your lesson, your tutors are available to you via cell phone.
A: The classroom session component of the Altius course is completely different than the classes offered by other MCAT prep companies. Research has indicated time and time again that lecturing is among the least effective of all possible teaching methods. With this in mind, we have designed our classroom sessions to be a highly interactive learning environment that takes advantage of several proven principles of science (for an excellent article on how learning and memory research has been integrated into the Altius course, click here). Classes begin with a short review of one of the key Altius MCAT Strategies. Students are given access beforehand to a brief on-line article outlining that session's strategy and are asked to review it before coming to class. The tutor answers any questions regarding the strategy and presents a brief review of the material that will be covered during the session. Students then take a short, timed examination featuring one or two real AAMC MCAT passages. Next, the tutor reviews each passage and question with the group. Students take turns leading the discussion and explaining to the group how they reasoned thru the problem, what Altius strategies they employed, etc. The tutor carefully monitors the approach, skills and reasoning used for each problem and helps students to make necessary adjustments. The goal of this review process is to help students go well beyond understanding the correct answer. Students are taught how to recognize commonalities in the way MCAT authors design, structure and deliver questions. Each time a topic is tested, the tutor presents examples of similar ways the MCAT has in the past, or might in the future, test the same subject. Incorrect answer choices are given as much or more attention than correct answer choices because they are windows into the thinking of the MCAT authors. As a result of this dynamic process, students who have been in our program for only a few weeks begin to develop a sound understanding of how the MCAT does and does not test science. Eventually, they become fully capable of writing their own AAMC-style questions and use this knowledge to help them study the material in the same way in which they will be tested on it. This process of timed practice and subsequent analysis is repeated until all of the materials designated for that session have been covered. There are 32 different sessions, each covering different AAMC materials. Three to four full-length AAMC exams are intentionally NOT covered during these sessions to allow for accurate diagnostic practice tests just prior taking the exam. Access to all 8 full-length CBT AAMC Practice Tests is included in the program price.
A: Unlike every other MCAT prep program of which we are aware (which all utilize various amounts of lecture-only classroom sessions), the entire Altius program has been designed around scientifically-proven principles of learning and memory. For any student considering our program, we highly recommend reading an article written by our founder, Lauren Curtis. In the article, he reviews some of the most important advances in memory and learning science over the past century, and how those principles have been integrated into the Altius program. Click here to access the article. | |
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