When I was studying for the NAPLEX last year, I’m not going to lie: I started to have some serious anxiety and depression leading up to the exam. I felt like I wasn’t retaining enough information at the speed that I needed too. So instead of withering in my misery, I took a chance and got a NAPLEX tutor with Varsity Tutors. A lot of people having been wanting to know my experience with the platform since my Instagram reel talking about NAPLEX study tips went live. So, in today’s post I’m going to be sharing the long-awaited Varsity Tutors review!
What is Varsity Tutors?
Varsity Tutors is an online platform that offers private and group tutoring for thousands of subjects at different education levels. It can be used for the kiddos in kindergarten up to professional licensure exams. I obviously choose it because it offered tutoring for the NAPLEX exam, but you can even use it for the NCLEX, PANCE, MCAT, and etc. The cool part about the platform is that it connects you with tutors that specialize in whatever topic that you need. You don’t have to worry about not having an amazing tutor that doesn’t understand where you are in your studies.
Why You May Need a Tutor for the NAPLEX
Tutoring has such a negative connotation around it, but let’s clear the air: if you need a tutor, it does not mean that you are not equipped, smart, or qualified enough to be a pharmacist. Even if you think that you’re learning enough with studying on your own, there’s always room for improvement and a tutor can give you that extra boost that you need to make sure you pass the NAPLEX. Here are 3 reasons why you may need a tutor:
1. You aren’t confident in your knowledge base
You could be the smartest student in your pharmacy class, but if you don’t have confidence in yourself, then the world will never know. While that may sound a little cliché, it really is true. Confidence in your knowledge base allows you to focus, concentrate, and recall the information necessary to answer questions correctly on the exam. It also reduces your anxiety because you’re confident in your abilities. As you start to study for the NAPLEX, I implore you to practice building confidence in yourself.
2. You feel like you’re spending so much time studying and not retaining enough
Are you the student that studies for 8 to 12 hours a day and still feels like it’s not enough? I understand your pain and frustration because I’ve been there. Just because you study more and for longer doesn’t mean that it’s a good quality study session. Your tutor can help you focus on what’s important and give you the encouragement that you need to take a break. Go enjoy a few relaxing days in between your study sessions.
3. Your studying materials don’t match your learning style
I’ve mentioned this before, but everyone has a different learning style, which may not be compatible with the study materials that are out there. You may not be the student that learns from reading a textbook or watching a long video. Whatever your learning style is, your tutor can work with you to find a study method that’ll help you retain and understand the material required to pass the NAPLEX.
Common Questions about Varsity Tutors
It wouldn’t be a complete Varsity Tutors review if I didn’t share the most asked questions that I’ve gotten since I posted that reel. I wanted to do this review mainly to give my honest experience using the platform because when I was reaching about it last year, there were barely any reviews from a student’s perspective out there. Hopefully this Varsity Tutors review can shed some light on it and answer your questions. If I didn’t answer your question in this blog post, feel free to email or DM me!
Who are the tutors on Varsity Tutors?
Depending on what course or exam you’re studying for, your tutors are people like you who have already been through the exam itself or has a lot of experience in the subject matter. For the NAPLEX, the tutors are licensed pharmacists who have passed the NAPLEX exam themselves. This is such an amazing bonus to the tutors on Varsity Tutors because you get to have someone who understands exactly what you are going through.
How does the platform work?
After you pay for your sessions, you take a mini quiz so that Varsity Tutors can match you with a tutor that best fits your needs. Once you’re on the website and matched with a tutor, you can schedule your sessions, based on the availability of your tutor. The online platform is pretty easy to use, and they give you a tour of it so you can learn more about it. I love the fact that you can add documents or take pictures to update to your virtual worksheet that you and your tutor can see. It makes it super easy to go over practice problems or concepts that you need help on.
What if I don’t like my tutor?
After a session or two, you can always switch tutors if the tutor you were originally matched with doesn’t fit what you need. I didn’t have to use this option since my tutor was amazing and was always willing to do whatever I needed to learn.
How much does it cost?
The way that Varsity Tutors works is that you buy your tutoring sessions in packages. They are different packages depending on how many lessons that you want and your time frame. The packages are as follows:
I personally did the 12 hour package, and I spaced out my sessions over a six week time period, which ending up being one lesson a week typically.
How often are the sessions?
The number of sessions that you have are determined on your package as well as your time frame. It’s honestly up to you how you want to space them out. You could do two sessions a week for three weeks if you only have three to four weeks before your exam. Or you can easily schedule them like myself and do one session a week up to your exam. Think hard about how much tutoring that you need and what you want to focus on in your sessions.
What happens if I don’t pass the NAPLEX after using Varsity Tutors?
What I love about Varsity Tutors is their guarantee pass policy. This basically means that if you fail the exam after using their tutoring services and being active in your studying, then you’ll get a full refund! Having that guarantee policy to fall back on made me feel so much better about spending that kind of money on tutoring. Which by the way if it isn’t clear already, I highly recommend getting a NAPLEX tutor.
My Varsity Tutors Review
How My Tutor Helped Me Pass the NAPLEX Exam
The main reason why I got a NAPLEX tutor is because I quickly realized that I was spending a lot of time studying, but it felt like I was barely retaining anything. No matter how long I made myself stay focused and glued to the textbook, I couldn’t remember as much as I had hoped afterwards. So I decided that I would invest in a tutor to help me with the more difficult subjects and to hopefully help me improve my study techniques. While I went into tutoring with an idea of what I wanted and needed, my tutor went above and beyond and really pushed me to use my time more strategically.
Work with me on the topics that I found difficult
If you are currently studying for the NAPLEX, then you can probably already pinpoint the topics that you find more difficult than others. Mine was always oncology, infectious diseases, and HIV because those chapters are pretty dense and can be quite difficult to memorize everything that is necessary. In my tutoring sessions, we focused on the chapters that I knew were difficult for me as well as ones that I just generally wanted to cover.
Gave me plenty of practice problems and worked through them with me
One of the study techniques that works for me is by answering practice problems. My tutor would either find practice questions from her materials or she would make her own for me to use. Both options were really helpful on dialing in on areas I needed to focus as well as what information was the most important to memorize from each chapter. We would also work through them so that I could understand why the answer was correct and the other options were incorrect.
Gave me the confidence that I needed
Confidence is a big component when it comes to taking a test, standardized or not. Feeling anxious comes from feeling like you’re unprepared and that you aren’t confident in your own abilities. My tutor inspired me and gave me my confidence back that I had lost when I got overwhelmed by the whole process.
Provided study and memorization tricks
You can never have enough study tips and memorization tricks, especially when it comes to a mentally and physically draining exam like the NAPLEX. During our sessions, my tutor made sure to give me memorization tricks on the different topics that we covered. These tips were so good and easy that I was able to recall them on the exam a month later.
Was my accountability partner
Since I had a session each week, I always wanted to make sure that I was covering the topics that we would be going over in our sessions. She kept me accountable and made sure that I stayed on track with my study plan. She would also keep up to see what chapters I had covered, which made me want to make sure I was keeping up.
My Final Thoughts – Varsity Tutors Review
While the Varsity Tutors isn’t a cheap endeavor, retaking the NAPLEX exam and delaying your first post grad job or residency is also expensive. Getting a tutor with Varsity Tutors was the best decision that I could’ve made when it came to studying for the NAPLEX exam. I can’t recommend it enough! It not only provided me the tools to master the difficult subjects, but it also gave me back my confidence that I needed to push through.
After reading this Varsity Tutors review, are you considering adding a tutor to your study plan?
