In this paper, we introduce an improved variational iteration method (VIM) for nonlinear second-order boundary value problems. The main advantage of this modification is that it can avoid additional computation in determining the unknown parameters in initial approximation when solving boundary value problems using the conventional VIM. Also, iterative sequences obtained using the improved VIM do satisfy the boundary conditions while iterative sequences obtained using conventional VIM may not, in general, satisfy the boundary conditions. Numerical results reveal that the improved method is accurate and efficient.