CARS Compass

We specialize in helping students navigate the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) section of the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) and guide them towards a better score.

Passage Analysis Skills

  • Teaches students strategies to break down and analyze complex reading passages, focusing on key ideas, arguments, and rhetorical devices.

  • Helps students identify the author's tone, main point, and assumptions.

Question Strategy

  • Guides students through the types of questions commonly asked in the CARS section, including those that assess understanding of the passage, inference skills, and the ability to evaluate arguments.

  • Helps students develop a systematic approach to answering questions accurately and efficiently, including how to eliminate wrong answers.

Time Management

  • Help students improve their ability to manage time effectively during the CARS section, which is a significant challenge due to the dense and complex nature of the passages.

Reading Comprehension Practice

  • Assigns practice passages and helps students practice under timed conditions to simulate the real test environment.

  • Provides detailed feedback on areas where the student can improve, including reading speed, comprehension, and accuracy.

Critical Thinking and Logic

  • Encourages the development of critical thinking skills and logical reasoning, teaching students to spot flawed arguments and analyze the structure of the author's argumentation.

Tailored Instruction

  • Identifies individual strengths and weaknesses in a student's reading and reasoning abilities, then creates personalized study plans to target areas that need improvement.

Building Confidence

  • Helps students overcome anxiety or fear of difficult reading material, especially if they struggle with humanities or social sciences, which are often the focus of CARS passages.

“Incredible resource and amazing person”

Justina is truly an incredible tutor in addition to being an incredible person. Not only is she funny, approachable, and encouraging, but she is someone I trusted emphatically with my development.  I worked with Justina for help on my CARS section in the MCAT, and I can say with confidence that the sessions I had with her made all of the difference. Starting right off the bat, consistent practice and technique building pushed me to learn from my previous mistakes. I became comfortable and confident in the section very quickly, and soon came to rely on the section score. In the end, Justina guided me to achieve a six-point increase on my CARS score.  Although she likes to remind me that I put in the hard work to achieve the score, I can confidently say that I wouldn't have gotten as high as I did without her guidance. 

Colin

Great Tutor!!”

Justina is great! She was very helpful, positive, and encouraging when I was studying to take my second MCAT. She had great tips and resources to help assess my problem areas, and improve my test taking skills. She helped increase my score the second time around. If you really need a verbal tutor, I highly recommend Justina!

Tori

Outstanding tutor and resource”

Justina worked with my daughter this summer on reading skills in preparation for the MCAT. My daughter has worked with other tutors in the past, but Justina was by far the most knowledgeable, insightful and confidence-boosting coach she had ever had. She clearly diagnosed the active reading skills that needed to be developed, and worked with her on a step by step approach that has improved her mastery of both the main ideas and details of the passages. In addition, my daughter genuinely looked forward to her sessions with Justina, and commented frequently on how much fun they were able to have, while connecting on challenging material. We could not recommend a tutor more highly!! Thank you Justina -- you are a special talent and we look forward to keeping our connection with you.

Laurie & Jennifer

Excellent tutor”

I want to thank Justina for the excellent work that she did with both of my children. She helped my son prepare for the verbal section of the MCAT and he received an excellent score. Justina offers hard work and immediate feedback, and this is exactly what my son needed. She also helped my daughter with college application essays, resulting in excellent pieces, that outline her personality in a very accurate way. I am very glad that my children had the opportunity to work with her. Thank you, Justina.

Darius

Contact Us

Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!