Kaplan MCAT Tutor Review: Pros, Cons, and Real Student Results

If you’ve ever looked at an MCAT practice exam and thought, I am never going to survive this, you are not alone. I had that moment too. Twice. The first time, I tried solo studying with some old books and random YouTube videos. The second time, I accepted reality—I needed help. That’s when I started researching MCAT tutoring.

Kaplan popped up everywhere I looked. Ads, pre-med forums, TikTok study tip videos—Kaplan was there. But clever marketing doesn’t mean it’s worth the money. So I talked to students, tried it myself, and took notes. This review is exactly what I wish I’d read seven months ago—real pros, real cons, and what students actually walk away with.

What Kaplan MCAT Tutoring Actually Is

A lot of people think MCAT tutoring is just someone explaining a few practice questions to you, maybe once a week. Kaplan’s version is bigger.

When you sign up, you get:

• One-on-one tutoring with a handpicked tutor who has scored in the top 10% on the MCAT (90th percentile or higher).

• The full Kaplan MCAT prep course—live or on-demand classes, thick review books, a huge question bank (3,000+ practice problems), and multiple full-length practice tests.

• Access to over 100 content review videos and a bunch of interactive learning tools.

Your tutoring hours are scheduled based on your availability—you can do scattered sessions over months or an intense crash course. You decide how to use the hours: content review, test-taking strategy, passage dissection, or just accountability check-ins.

It’s not just showing up and saying, “Help me.” They customize the plan around your strengths, weaknesses, and schedule—although how personalized it really feels depends heavily on your tutor (more on that later).

What a Typical Tutoring Session Feels Like

I’ll use my first session as an example. I logged in via Zoom, expecting a dry lecture on biochemistry. Instead, my tutor, Alex, immediately pulled up my practice exam breakdown—color-coded charts showing where I bombed and where I did okay. It was both horrifying and reassuring.

We spent the first 30 minutes targeting my worst section (CARS, obviously—it’s everyone’s nightmare), going through timed passages and then breaking down why I got certain questions wrong. No judgment, just patterns: misreading, second-guessing, spending too long on certain question types.

The second hour was content drilling. Not a generic PowerPoint—Alex asked me to explain concepts out loud while he poked holes in my understanding. Both frustrating and extremely effective.

The Pros

1. They hire really strong tutors.
Every Kaplan MCAT tutor I’ve met—my own and others from student stories—knew the exam in a way that goes beyond memorizing facts. They had done it themselves, scored high, and practiced explaining tricky topics in 10 different ways. That matters for an exam where strategy is as important as content.

2. It keeps you accountable.
It’s one thing to tell yourself you’ll do a 60-question set tonight. It’s another thing knowing a tutor will ask you about it tomorrow. For people with procrastination tendencies (me, hi), this structure is gold.

3. The resources are massive.
The QBank alone is enough to keep you busy for months. And those full-length practice tests? Brutal—but in a good way. They’re harder than the real MCAT, which means the actual exam will feel just a little less terrifying.

4. The combo of live teaching + materials.
Many tutoring services are just paid Zoom calls. Kaplan throws in their entire MCAT prep course, which you can use between sessions to reinforce what you learned.

5. Techniques you won’t find in free content.
For example, my tutor taught me how to spot “researcher bias” in data heavy passages within seconds—a trick I hadn’t seen in free YouTube videos or Reddit threads.

The Cons

1. It’s expensive.
Let’s address the glaring one. The 10-hour tutoring package starts around $3,300. If you go for 40 hours, you’re looking at $6,900+. That’s a semester’s tuition at some colleges.

2. Limited access window.
You typically get about six months of access to the resources. If you’re the type who wants a year-long, slow-and-steady study plan, you might feel rushed toward the end.

3. Not for complete beginners.
Kaplan focuses on test performance. They assume you have at least a decent foundation in the sciences. If you’ve forgotten half of your undergrad biology, you might feel overwhelmed.

4. Your experience depends on your tutor.
Most are excellent, but personalities matter. Some students clicked with their tutor instantly, while others requested a change after a session or two. Kaplan does allow tutor changes, but you lose time in the switch.

5. The mobile app still feels clunky.
Several students—including me—gave up trying to do QBank sets on the app. It works fine for reviewing flashcards, but for full questions, it’s frustrating.

What Real Students Said

I spoke with three other people who used Kaplan’s MCAT tutoring:

• Emily (Score: 496 ➡ 512): “My tutor broke down CARS like nobody else. I hated it less by the end but still didn’t love it. My jump in science sections came from better time management.”

• Davidson (Score: 508 ➡ 516): “The money hurt, but I was juggling work and school. Having someone guide my schedule saved me. The hardest part was keeping energy for self-study between sessions.”

• Jenna (Score: 487 ➡ 503): “Improved, yes, but wished I’d had more time with the QBank. Felt like I was speed-running through it before my access expired.”

Not everyone saw jaw-dropping improvements, but all three agreed tutoring made them more disciplined and focused their study—removing hours of aimless “I guess I’ll read Chapter 7 again” moments.

Is It Worth It?

It depends on who you are and how you work. Kaplan’s MCAT tutoring is best for:

• Students with a decent starting point who need help optimizing, not starting from scratch.

• People who want both strategy and accountability.

• Those who can afford to invest heavily in their prep and want maximum resource access.

It’s probably not the best fit if:

• You’re on a very tight budget (you can find excellent, cheaper independent tutors).

• You’re still learning the basics of chemistry, biology, and physics from scratch.

• You want total flexibility and a study window longer than six months.

My Final Take

If you have the money, some base knowledge, and you want to walk into test day feeling like you’ve seen it all before, Kaplan’s MCAT tutoring delivers. The premium price gets you access to high-caliber tutors, a ridiculous amount of practice material, and a structured plan that keeps you from spiraling into procrastination.