How to Study for the MCAT: A Three Month Plan

Three months is a common amount of time to prepare for the MCAT, split into content review, practice questions and full length practice exams. Do a little critical reading every day the whole way through, and spend the last month taking and reviewing practice exams.

The AAMC lists four sections: Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems, Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills, Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems, and Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior. The content alone takes 6 hours and 15 minutes, and the AAMC puts the whole seated day at about 7 hours and 30 minutes.

Week 1: Take a diagnostic and plan the content

Take a full length diagnostic exam before you review anything. The score is only a starting point. What matters is the list of topics where you lost the most points.

Use that list to order your content review. Topics you have never seen, or forgot completely, go first.

Weeks 2 to 6: Review content and make flashcards as you go

Work through one or two topics a day across biology, biochemistry, general and organic chemistry, physics, psychology and sociology. After each topic, make flashcards for the terms, equations and pathways, and do a short set of practice questions on it.

Review your flashcards every day. The deck grows each week, so a few minutes daily beats one long session on the weekend.

Every day: Read one critical reasoning passage

Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills has no content to memorize, and it improves slowly with practice. Do at least one timed passage a day from the first week to the last, and read the explanation for every question you got wrong.

Weeks 7 to 9: Practice by section

Switch from content to practice questions grouped by section. Time every set. For each question you miss, write down why: you did not know the content, you misread the passage, or you ran out of time.

The content misses go back into your flashcards. The reading and timing misses tell you what to practice in your passages.

Weeks 10 to 12: Take full length practice exams

Take a full length practice exam every week, timed, in one sitting, ideally the official AAMC practice exams. Spend the day after each one reviewing every question, including the ones you got right by guessing.

Take the last practice exam about a week before test day, then spend the final days on light review and sleep.

Practice questions

Try these before you look at the answers.

1. A ball is dropped from rest and falls for 2 seconds. Ignoring air resistance and using 10 m/s² for gravity, how fast is it moving?
2. Which of the standard amino acids has no chiral alpha carbon?
3. In Pavlov's experiment, the dogs learn to salivate when they hear a bell. After training, what is the bell?

Answers: 1. 20 m/s, because speed is gravity times time. 2. Glycine, because its side chain is a second hydrogen. 3. The conditioned stimulus.