Hey, I’m Gabe Ladd
Since 2016, I’ve been tutoring students in the CARS section of the MCAT.
Here’s how it started:
In 2016, I took the MCAT and got a perfect score on the CARS section (and a 526 overall).
And this started to make me curious…can I teach someone to approach CARS like I did?
So I started working with a few students, and they started to make some pretty significant improvements. Over time I honed my CARS teaching methods with more students and they started to leave reviews saying things like:
“Gabe’s strategy finally pointed me in the right direction. With him CARS passages AND question stems made so much more sense afterwards. I went from getting 2/5, 4/7, 3/6 questions right per passage to missing 0-1 questions per passage on average.”
Since then I’ve been teaching CARS full time. I’ve worked with hundreds of students, both one-on-one and through the self-paced course that I teach.
And I’m able to get great results for my students–even people who have been stuck on CARS for what feels like forever. Many of my students have taken the MCAT multiple times, done tons of CARS passages, and even taken other courses devoted specifically to CARS. When we work together, they’re finally able to improve.
There’s this conventional wisdom that CARS is almost like an innate skill – you’ve either got it or you don’t. People talk like the only way to get better at CARS is to go back in time to when you were a child and start reading the Economist every day for hours.
But I haven’t found that to be true at all!
You can make a huge improvement in how well you do on CARS in a couple months.
Now…when I say that, I feel like I have to be clear about something: I’m NOT claiming that I can make you into a perfect-scorer like me.
There’s no magic secret for CARS. There’s no silver bullet strategy.
But if you’re willing to put in the work, you’ll see the results. If you want to see what other students have said, you should check out my Reviews page.
Why I’m able to get these results for students
I want to give you three reasons why I think I’ve become really effective at teaching CARS.
#1 — I’ve worked individually with hundreds of students. I’ve been doing this full time since 2017 (I make strange life choices…I know), so I’ve been I’ve been able to test out tons of different strategies, methods of teaching, etc. And I have a deep understanding of the psychology behind the test. I know all the typical traps students fall into with CARS.
#2 — I know the AAMC material waaaay too well. Seriously…I’ve gone through some of these AAMC CARS passages hundreds of times. I know all the questions they ask, the wording they like to use, and the logic behind all their answers.
#3 — I read tons of research on this stuff. There’s a whole treasure trove of research out there dedicated to the science of reading comprehension and standardized testing. I typically spend a couple hours each week keeping up on it, and I try to apply it as much as possible to how I teach.
What Redwood MCAT is
Redwood MCAT is not really a test-prep company like those other big name companies you might be thinking of.
First of all, Redwood MCAT is pretty much just me. I do the writing, I design the curriculum, and I do all the teaching. (Although I do have a few very talented freelancers who help me with some projects, so I have to give credit to them too!)
Secondly, the only section I teach is the CARS section. I do sometimes write about the science sections on the blog, but my tutoring and course are entirely devoted to CARS.
I’m always available by email at gabe@redwoodmcat.com. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email. I answer pretty much every email I get (so feel free to use that information to your advantage).
How to get started
Currently my main offering is my self-paced CARS Course. The course goes into my strategy in depth and is also significantly more affordable than most MCAT courses. I offer a portion of it online for free if you'd like to try it out.
If you’re just looking to browse a bit more and read some advice, then check out the Blog. I regularly put up new articles on CARS and the MCAT in general.