How Does Prept Compare to MCAT Prep Courses

Choosing an MCAT Prep Course: What Works, What Doesn't, and How Prept Combines the Best

When you're preparing for the MCAT, the sheer number of prep options can be overwhelming. Broadly, they fall into three categories. First, there are the legacy courses like Kaplan and Princeton Review, which many students use. Second, there are boutique courses from companies like Blueprint and MCAT Self Prep, built around their own materials. Third, there are tutor-matching sites like Wyzant and Varsity Tutors.

Each option has its own upsides and downsides. Prept takes what works from each, packages it together, and leaves out what doesn't.

Legacy courses

The main advantage of legacy courses is that they're tried and true. Thousands of pre-med students have used these materials to prepare for the MCAT. The downside is that they're generic and sometimes outdated. It's like eating dinner at Applebee's: it's definitely not the best meal you could get for the price, but you know what to expect.

Boutique courses

Boutique courses tend to be a bit better. Their teams are smaller and more focused, and their tutors are often more qualified. However, they can be pricey without delivering much extra value for the cost. Many of these companies sell their own practice questions, practice tests, and content materials. Honestly, there's no real reason to buy more practice material. Between the AAMC materials and UWorld, you shouldn't run out of practice questions on any reasonable MCAT timeline. And since AAMC and UWorld should come before every other resource anyway, paying for extra questions doesn't make much sense.

Individual tutors

Finally, hiring an individual tutor can help. If you find a tutor who scored well, knows how to teach, and helps you build a study schedule, you're in luck, because that kind of support can make a big difference. Unfortunately, tutors like that are rare. Many people who scored well on the MCAT don't know how to teach. They may struggle to explain the content and strategy you'd need to reach the score they did.

The Prept approach

At Prept, we combine the best of all three and skip what you don't need.

First, every MCAT package includes discounted UWorld access. Our Standard and Premium packages include the UWorld Comprehensive Course, which also includes the AAMC materials. That gives you all the practice questions and tests you'll ever need. The Comprehensive Course also teaches the content well, so it works as an all-in-one resource.

Second, every package includes hours of 1:1 tutoring. Unlike platforms like Wyzant, we hand-pick every tutor on our packages. We only choose tutors who truly master the content, teach well, and are committed to giving their students their full effort.

Visit our Packages page to browse MCAT packages and pick the one that best fits your prep needs.