How Do They Guarantee a 90th Percentile Score?
Altius is a world leader in the development of quality MCAT prep courses because of its comprehensive training programs, which include both in-person and online classes. One of their greatest features is how well they organize their educational programs, including their extensive practice examinations and guaranteed 90th percentile scores for all students. Take a look at this honest review on MCAT prep course online before you decide whether or not to enroll in their course.
About Altius MCAT Prep Program
Founded in 2005, Altius has worked hard to update the methods used to prepare for the Altius MCAT Prep Course. Their promise is that students will either end up in the 90th percentile, or will continue to work with them until you meet that goal (for free). They achieve this goal through a unique (and demanding of) course approach where students are pushed to think conceptually rather than memorize.
This appears to be taken from the MCAT that is proposed after 2015, and one of the things students like the most, but it is also one of the most commonly heard complaints from people who do not believe in it. Although their courses are difficult, they have been set up in a way to ensure that you perform to the best of your ability.
Altius claims a significantly higher student-test performance score than its peers. One out of every five Altius students saw their MCAT score rise by 20 points in 2019. (or more).
The college offers a number of class options, which is apparent because the majority of the current college students want to have their resources readily available and hence provide their online platform with all of their in-person sessions.
3 levels of admissions guidance are available to a surcharge, providing the student with an additional level of advice.
Our in-depth evaluation and review of the MCAT prep course from Altius Test Prep
While Altius Test Prep is something of a newbie to the Altius MCAT Prep Course, they are the only organization on the market that has the remarkable statistic of an average student score of 516 on the Altius. While these programs don’t promise a 90th percentile or better score, several of their packages claim that the majority of their students will receive such a result.
In order to make a real impact on the Altius MCAT Prep Course market, Altius Test Prep has created a unique methodology that utilizes the skills of the top 5% of scorer mentees and extensive MCAT-review sessions. This guide gives you an in-depth overview of their practice questions, mentorship program, pricing, and all of their study resources, with the aim of giving you a fair and honest assessment.
Our Evaluation of the Altius MCAT Prep
When you join the Altius MCAT Prep Course, you immediately notice something important: they are different from other prep courses. Altius is by far the best Altius MCAT Prep Course out there, which is why I have tried and evaluated over a dozen of them to date. Because they concentrate more on personalized one-on-one mentorship and small group study sessions, rather than standard lectures and streamable video lessons, their courses focus on various academic challenges instead of “rounds.”
Their advice to students on Altius MCAT Prep Course and their view on test preparation in general is that students perform better and remember the content when they have a mentor to guide them. And it isn’t just any teacher who can achieve this – someone who has done well enough to be included in the 95th percentile or better.
They swear by this method as the most effective way of learning, and after having completed their program, I can admit that it may be right. By providing opportunities for mentoring, feedback, and supervision, real value is added to the overall structure and experience of your mentoring program.
You see your mentor on a regular basis to go through your performance on practice tests, point out your weak points, and formulate a strategy to tackle the specific problem types you struggle with. Yes, with other educational institutions, like Kaplan and Princeton Review, you have access to your course professors, but this is something different. You supposedly have constant access to your mentor at all times, via email, phone, or text with Altius.
Now, I think it’s safe to say that it’s completely unlikely that you’ll be able to text an organic chemistry question at 3:30am and receive a response, but now that I’ve completed this course, I concur with you that these mentors dig deeper than even a traditional teacher. I really believe they care about my growth and success, and they aren’t just there to help me when I ask questions.
I had a lot of fun with my mentor who was assigned to me. Before deciding to return to the medical school, he was already an Altius alumnus, and after having an Altius MCAT score of 96th percentile, Altius approached him to be a mentor for the year after his gap year. In actuality, Altius has an enormous number of mentors to find, according to what I hear, as they have former students that learnt their method and who completely conquered the Altius MCAT test prep.
Regardless, I had a phenomenal experience, and I felt as though I truly bonded with my mentor. Even though he had clearly mastered the subject matter forwards and backwards, his input was particularly useful when examining practice tests. Much to my surprise, he began telling me his opinions and ideas about where I went wrong and how I handled particular topics. This advice was much needed and truly valuable.
Above and beyond the mentoring, Altius focuses on small group education, full length practice tests (including AAMC practice materials), and additional resources. As far as I’m concerned, their mcat practice tests and simulated questions are astonishingly amazing, but I’ve got more information on those in the next paragraph. Because of the wide range of activities you are expected to perform, the majority of your class time will be spent in small group settings. You may also look into next step full length Blueprint MCAT practice test if you are interested.
In addition, when I say “small,” I’m referring to my group which only had eight pupils in it. Additionally, this could be different in all of their study groups in study hall sessions, but I have heard that they only allow a small number of people per group in order to provide more one-on-one interaction time for students and instructors. And to conclude, I will only remark that I really enjoyed this restriction on group size. I really liked the mastery sessions in study hall sessions since it felt like I was getting to know my classmates better, and I felt closer to my classmates because of it.
Whether you like it or not, these smaller-group activities are cool.” You use material review and sample questions from the CDS along with one or two Altius MCAT test prep professionals to assist with lead selection. Most of your time is spent working full length practice tests and having discussions with one another in a kind of a Socratic dialogue. Instructor words aren’t just a monologue.
You’ll actively participate in class discussion as well as actively contribute to and elaborate on question responses. It’s an effective method for people who have issues with shyness, but it’s challenging for those who are shy. You will find yourself truly thinking on your feet as you will on the Altius MCAT test prep, because this is what you are required to do.
The range of time that you may expect for the small group mastery sessions (the amount of time you will have each week) depends on whatever package you select. On the other hand, while mentorship time is excellent, in my opinion, the value of these small-group study sessions is more significant. At that degree of immersion and meticulous scrutiny, finding that information is nearly impossible. That’s where you’ll conduct most of your studying.
In short, I’m quite happy with the Altius MCAT prep courses format and the way the coursework is laid out. Honestly, I am a bit surprised (and annoyed) that I did not know about them sooner. Overall, they have an excellent mcat mentoring program in concept and delivery. In essence, you’re getting personal tutor/tutor-in-residence with teaching that is supported by online small, in-person classroom sessions. To put it another way, in addition, their instructional materials impressed me greatly (more on this below).
Pricing & Course Options
While Altius provides many different course options, from a relatively simple Elite Course in the $2,500 price bracket to a $10,000 summer immersion program, its specialty is in-depth courses with over 20 hours of instruction. While the popularity of their course seems to bear that out, their most popular offering appears to be their Gold package, which costs $5,000. There are only two problems with Altius: their pricing is a bit on the high side, and their training just isn’t affordable.
One thing that should be noted, though, is that though more expensive than other prep providers, it is somewhat understandable because their prep course is centered around mentorship and tutoring, which they obviously have to pay for a lot.
Altius Exams Practice Test
The surprising thing is that Altius’ practice tests are some of the best in the industry. And here, this is for a specific cause. The Altius MCAT test prep program’s design and Altius’ decision to apply the same software employed by the FBI to track trends in illicit cyber activity were both examples of smart innovation on the part of Altius. After carefully observing their past practice tests, they re-engineered the practice exams to make them mirror the actual Altius MCAT prep as closely as possible based on question structures, length, difficulty, content, and weight of appearance. Out of the ordinary. As a result, they argue that their in-house practice tests are the closest representation of the real AAMC materials in terms of word count, passage density, and other factors.
In any case, it demonstrates. I have taken more practice MCAT tests than I want to admit at this point, and I discovered that their questions were nearly identical to the ones on the actual exam. From the question structure, to the usage of visuals and exhibits, it was very well executed in terms of realism for the actual Altius MCAT prep. Altius receives a very high grade in this category, in my opinion.
Furthermore, the test interface and software was similarly effective, especially with regard to how it emulated the genuine MCAT. Even so, I do not believe that this is something new or unusual; practically every MCAT prep course offers a version of an interface that serves as a near-real-life representation of the MCAT. In my perspective, while mimicking the genuine thing is commendable, imitating the real thing is more of a check-the-box type of item. While I’m on the subject, I feel compelled to say that I believe their exercise problem solution explanations are of the highest quality. The information is informative, intelligent, and presented in a straightforward manner. In tandem with their mentorship program, which enables them to collect outcomes and review them, I found this combination to be extremely successful.
Altius’ Mentorship Program
While I mentioned above the Altius MCAT course is where you get a great return on your investment in mentorship, I’d want to touch on that a bit further. You can reach out to your MCAT mentor, whether during the day or late at night, whenever you choose and chat with them about anything that is on your mind. However, I must stress that these coaching sessions are strictly time-limited and require the purchase of a package. For example, you’ll receive fifteen, twenty-five, or forty one-on-one sessions with a mentor, depending on whatever mentor-based package you sign up for.
As I’ve said, my recommendation is not to rely on them excessively. Analyze their different applications to create a strategy to make the most use of them, then refine their uses based on areas where they are the most beneficial for you. This might include going over past examinations and review questions, developing study strategies, or reviewing material a second time. I still believe, at least in my viewpoint, that using your mentor’s time for reviewing practice exams and questions is the best use of that person’s time.
Even though the cost of these mentorship packages is high, they are well worth it. Altius has implemented an excellent support structure, making the success of these mentors even more predictable. It is therefore not a total shock that they are willing to offer guaranteed 90th percentile results.
Small Group Instruction & Mastery Sessions
Although mentorship is offered in addition to Altius’ extensive live class sessions, these sessions constitute a significant value in and of itself. It is typical for this to be done in small groups and sessions are scheduled often. When you choose to join Altius, you select a “track” for when you would like to enroll in the course (spring, summer, fall, or winter) and how quickly you would like the material to be presented. On the longest tracks, you only see a teammate around once every three weeks, while on the shortest tracks, you see each other numerous times every week.
There are numerous factors to take into consideration, but regardless of which track you pick, like the mentorship, how many hours of live class sessions you have to attend directly affects your ability to get the relevant package. Either 120 hours or 200 hours, I appreciated these classes where we did hands-on learning in the actual world.
They act as if they are an extension of your mentoring. When lessons are small, you may speak with the instructor, and you can also get customized comments. One of the key takeaways with Altius is that when you do the mentoring sessions and small group instruction together, you’re continually surrounded by a supportive community of really talented MCAT test takers, and you can always just raise your hand. This is significantly different from what you’ll find in a self-paced, exam preparation course from a test preparation behemoth like Kaplan or Blueprint.
Conclusion
Altius does provide MCAT prep courses, but such courses are very expensive, and the other components that we liked the most were their intensive mentorship program, highly realistic practice materials, and group review sessions. Customized 1-on-1 tutoring is at the heart of their program, which gives them a clear advantage over their competition when it comes to the support and education of students.
When coupled with the small group study sessions, you really feel involved in MCAT prep with someone helping you every step of the way, and you’re able to ask questions basically whenever you’d want. And to top it all off, they offer some of the most realistic practice tests that I have encountered to date, with outstanding written problem explanations. Notably, with exceptional materials like these learning sessions and effective practice tools, there’s nothing lacking in the MCAT study materials and the Altius team had to offer Altius MCAT preparation rather than exceptional scores.
FAQ
Is Altius worth it?
Altius is a course that is incredibly demanding and expensive. Also, you will have to be dedicated on the time you put into the program. If those are not part of the consideration, Altius is a proven course and it is definitely worth the money you pay and the time you spent to be a top MCAT scorer.