Answers to FAQs provided by Seth Herway, MD.

Q. How does the Ace course compare to other commercially available MCAT or DAT prep courses?

A. We have a very specific regimen that we put you through to prepare you for your test. Surprisingly, this is very different from what many other test prep companies do. Many offer a lot of practice tests, lectures, and study materials but then just tell you to study them hard and do your best. They may even offer tutoring sessions and lectures at specific intervals but these are not designed to develop a student who's knowledge is peaking for the test. On the other hand, we tell you what concepts to review and when and how to review them, what tests to take and when to take them, what chapters to read and when and how to read them etc. etc. This regimen has been fine tuned over many years and thousands upon thousands of students to yield incredible results. Just like a trainer wouldn't give an athlete some weights and running shoes and say, 'good luck', we don't simply hand you some books and a bunch of practice tests and tell you to attend some lectures and then tell you 'good luck'. And just like trainers using programs to prepare athletes for events, our program has some flexibility so that it can be tweaked to meet the individual's circumstances and strengths. You will find that this a sharp contrast to almost all other companies that will advertise with pride the volume of materials they are going to give you, but in the end they are just going to hand you a large textbook and a ton of practice test questions, tutorials, lectures, tutoring etc. and say, 'go for it'.

Another advantage of Ace is the quality of preparation we provide. Ace focuses on insuring that the textbook, instruction, and practice tests the students are provided are the highest quality available. Ace reviews the quality of textbooks available on the market each year, and each year a decision is made regarding continuing with the previous year's text or switching to a textbook from another company that is deemed to be superior. Ace's online lectures are all provided by teachers that scored above the 99th percentile and that have been teaching MCAT or DAT for over 5 years. The workbook that accompanies the lectures and the material that is presented is reviewed each year to reflect trends or recent changes in the tests. And finally, the practice tests provided to students are reviewed each year and are assessed as to whether these tests are still the best available.

Comparing this with other companies, most companies are confined to presenting only their own practice tests and their own textbooks. This precludes them from providing the best materials available, no matter what the source. Additionally, most of these other companies charge hundreds and hundreds dollars more in order to provide thousands of additional questions that not only will the average student not get to, but should actually NOT take in order to avoid the paradoxical results of broad-based, high volume superficial studying described below.

Q. I see you offer unlimited online tutoring, but I think I might be someone that needs a real person to sit down with me and explain things. Will I be well prepared with online lectures and tutoring?

For several years, we were preparing hundreds of students each year in our live courses to take the MCAT. During these years, we offered personal tutoring as well for an additional cost ($20/hr). Most years, there wasn't a single student that requested or even seemed to need any additional tutoring. Occasionally, we would have one or two students ask for it for some clarification on topics. I can't remember a year where we even had as many as three students request tutoring and I know it wasn't because the tutoring was bad because I was doing it myself and as an MCAT and DAT teacher for almost a decade and a physician who has been through every medical admissions and licensing test there is, I think I'm pretty good at it. It was because of this that we began focusing more on providing online instruction. We wanted to streamline our course and have students only pay for what they needed; and after years of experience, we have determined that what is found in our online course is what students need. Our students in the online course do every bit as good as our live courses. Taking our MCAT data as an example, our online students are still averaging between a 32 and 34 on the test; and if you look at average MCAT scores for matriculated medical students, that average is phenomenal. With online classes we knew we could guarantee the quality of instruction and tutoring by doing it ourselves. There are always problems with unsatisfactory teachers and/or tutors in live classes; we deal with this and so do all of the other companies that hire people to teach and tutor. In online classes we know all of our instruction is always the highest quality and that based on our experience only 1% of our class or less would be needing tutoring. We find we can meet this need very effectively with online tutoring. It is important to be careful what you pay for MCAT or DAT instruction. Tutoring is extremely profitable for test prep companies because they can charge the student $30/hr, pay the tutor $15/hr and walk away with the rest. You will be paying $20-30/hr for tutoring either explicitly or as a built in portion of the course and its a terrible waste of money if you don't need it. And its even worse if you are assigned a tutor that just took the test last year and managed to score well, but is not invested in your performance or understanding, has only been providing MCAT/DAT instruction for a few months, is not familiar with the trends in the test over the last several years, and is just collecting the $15/hr to earn some cash before starting medical or dental school in a few months.

Tutoring is only helpful for a certain subset of students and those students almost always know who they are. The MCAT and DAT test concepts that are covered in basic science courses - freshman level Gen Chem, O-Chem, Bio etc. During our lectures we teach you how to apply these concepts to MCAT and DAT questions. If you spent a lot of time in the TA's office during these courses and had a hard time grasping the concepts and even at the end of the course, still didn't feel confident you understood the material, then tutoring is probably for you. The only aspect of your preparation that should require any tutoring is for comprehension of these basic science concepts. You don't need tutoring on strategy for the test itself, test taking and performance strategies for the test can be explained very simply by a good instructor and this will happen during our basic lectures. If you are someone who was able to understand most of the concepts from your basic science courses by reading and attending lectures and would only very occasionally need to meet with the TA to explain a few concepts, then tutoring is not for you. A good textbook, good lectures with good teachers, and a way to get questions answered (which we provide with online tutoring) will be more than adequate for you. This is why this is exactly what we provide. I am not trying to push any one in any direction, if you know you are a student who needs tutoring, then go for it. I just want to make it clear that after years and years of experience with hundreds and hundreds of students, the overwhelming majority of students do not require it and the ones that do know who they are based on their performance in their undergraduate courses. In many ways, the MCAT and DAT are self-selecting. We have found that students who are smart enough to think they have a shot at getting into medical or dental school, are usually smart enough to understand basic science concepts from a lecture and textbook and don't need someone sitting right next to them to walk them through it. It is for this reason, that, despite its profitability, we have disbanded our national network of tutors and now only offer online tutoring.

Q. What is the best way to prepare for the MCAT/DAT?

A. There are three main components of test preparation for general knowledge tests like the MCAT and DAT. 1) A good review book that contains the information you will be tested on. 2) Instruction to assist in your understanding of this information and how it needs to be applied to the test. 3) Practice tests that simulate the actual exam and test your knowledge of the information you are expected to know and provide practice on the way in which you will be tested.

BY FAR, the most common error that students make in preparing for the MCAT or DAT is acquiring too many books and practice materials. Rather than knowing one review book extremely well (or I think sometimes reading 2 books is ok), they purchase 3 or 4 review books and scramble to read through all of the material rather than taking time to understand all the information in one book. Rather than having 2-3,000 practice questions that they take, study, learn from, and understand extremely well, they scramble to get through 5-6,000 practice questions and in the rush don't have the time to thoroughly understand the concepts they are being tested on. It is this broad-based, high volume superficial studying that needs to be avoided. Our minds are just not as well suited to retain the information covered in multiple different formats over 6,000 questions (or 3 review books) as they are to retain the same exact information presented over 3,000 questions (or 1 review book) that we become intimately familiar with.

I have had experience with both good and bad studying in my medical career. Ace focused my studying on high-yield textbooks and practice questions and I scored extremely well on both the MCAT and the DAT. For Step 1 of my medical licensing exams, I purchased 3 review books and did over 8,000 practice questions from three different sources in an attempt to be extremely well prepared. I began studying over a year in advance to be sure that I could get through all of this material by the time the test came. Paradoxically, I didn't do nearly as well on this test as I had done on the MCAT and DAT despite increased study time. For Steps 2 and 3 of my medical licensing exams, I went back to proven study methods and studied from one textbook that was extremely well rated. I did about 3,000 practice questions from one extremely well rated question bank. Not surprisingly, my scores on these tests returned back into the elite levels.

Q. What courses do I need prior to taking the MCAT/DAT?

A. You need a basic college level biology, organic chemistry, and general chemistry courses. For the MCAT you also need a basic college level physics course. Nothing beyond that. Once you have taken those you will have an adequate knowledge base to be able to begin prepping for the MCAT/DAT. None of these are required for the MCAT/DAT, but it is very difficult to prepare for the test without these basic courses. Keep in mind that the courses that help you prepare for the MCAT/DAT and those that are required for school admissions are very different. You need to contact the schools you are planning to apply to in order to find out their admissions requirements.

Q. Can I take one of the basic MCAT/DAT pre-req courses while I take the prep course?

A. Yes. We have had hundreds of students take one of the basic college courses while taking our course and they have done very well. In fact, many of these students have found that taking our prep course while completing one the basic college courses necessary for their test made studying for the test easier because the information was fresh in their mind. However, attempting to take more than one basic course while studying for the MCAT/DAT can be overwhelming.

Q. I am trying to decide between taking a genetics/physiology/molecular biology/etc course this semester to help me get ready for the MCAT/DAT or just using the time I would have spent studying for that course on additional test prep. What should I do?

A. The courses you need for your test really are just basic introductory level biology, o-chem, g-chem, and for the MCAT - physics. You don’t need anything more than that. Biology seems to be the subject in which students feel an urge to take additional courses. Most basic biology courses should cover molecular biology, physiology, genetics, metabolism etc. A basic knowledge of these is sufficient. You can then build on this knowledge during your test prep. In fact, you would be better off spending the time you would be spending studying for an additional college course studying for the MCAT/DAT. For example, if you decided to take a genetics course to help you get ready for the MCAT/DAT, about 5% of the material you study in the class will be applicable to the test. The other 95% wastes a lot of your time studying information you don’t need to know. That’s time you could spend arming yourself with knowledge specific for your test. We cover all of the genetics you need to know for the MCAT and DAT in an hour. With another few hours reviewing that information you will be good to go on genetics.

If you need to fill your schedule with another college course and want it to be as relevant to the MCAT/DAT as possible, we recommend a general physiology course. Beyond the basic courses listed above, a human physiology course will have the most relevance to these tests.

Q. What is your privacy policy?

A. Its long and boring. Basically, we do everything you expect of a professional organization to secure your personal information, financial information, and score information. We do appreciate being notified of your scores after your test so we can gauge our effectiveness. If you would like to submit a testimonial of any sort, we publish them with first name and last initial, your score, and undergrad institution and/or medical school. Our privacy policy is below.

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