MCAT Study Tips

Updated October 4, 2020

Brief Overview of the MCAT:

MCAT stands for Medical College Admissions Test. Like the SAT for college, MCAT scores serve as an indicator for academic achievement for medical schools and allows them to compare students from different undergraduate institutions.

The test is split into four sections: Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems (C/P), Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS), Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems (B/B), and Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior (P/S). Except for CARS, each section has 59 multiple choice questions that you need to answer in 95 minutes. For CARS, there are 53 multiple choice questions that you need to answer in 90 minutes. There are some questions that you answer based on a passage while others are freestanding. Each of the four sections are scored from 118 to 132. The scores for each section are then totalled and that is your overall score. The whole exam takes 7.5 hours with optional 10 minute breaks between sections 1 and 3 and a 30 minute lunch break after section 2.

MCAT Tips:

It’s no secret that the MCAT is one of the most important factors that determines the success of your application cycle. But it’s also no secret that the MCAT is a challenging exam. Besides the difficult design of the test that not only tests your knowledge and your reasoning, among many other skills, it can also be overwhelming to try to figure out how to study for the test. With this article, I hope to help you out by giving you a few study tips that I worked for me, as well as many of my friends and students.

1. Do what works for YOU.

With so much variability in how you can study for the MCAT, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed and stuck dwelling on strategies that may have worked for your friends and peers. But you have to remember that what works for others, might not be what is best for you. It’s a good idea to talk to others to try to see what tips and tricks they might have up their sleeve or what advice they have to offer. But, it is important to take these pieces of advice with a grain of salt. Everyone is different in the way that they study and learn best and you have to have the confidence in yourself and your abilities to believe that you will find what works for you individually.

2. learn the why.

I can’t stress this enough. The MCAT has a lot of content in it, and even if you manage to memorize all of the content, you still are not guaranteed a great score. That’s because the AAMC writers focus very heavily on reasoning skills. Medicine is a developing field. It changes every day. And because of this, we have to understand that what we learn in medical school may be completed outdated by the time we finish residency. The MCAT writers understand this, and want the test to reflect this as well. Therefore, they want you to go beyond what you are taught, and use what you know to understand the complex passages and learn to draw your own conclusions from material you have never read or seen before. Every concept has a “why” behind it. For example, why does electronegativity increase from left to right on the periodic table? Stop focusing on the “what” and just cramming the material--instead focus on the “why” and start learning the material.

3. do practice questions

This is so incredibly important. You can read the material as many times as you like, but you will see the biggest jump in both your knowledge and your score when you start doing practice questions. When you reread material, often you are just relearning what you already know and skimming over what you don’t know. Doing practice questions really allows you to identify those concepts that you might be weak in so you can focus your energy on those. When doing practice questions, it is ESSENTIAL to properly review them. It should take you as long as (or even longer than) it took you to do the questions in the first place when you review them. There is no point in figuring out your weak spots if you don’t strengthen them. So if you’re going to put in the work to do the practice questions, make sure that you go all the way and thoroughly review them as well by going back to the books, google, or whatever resources you choose to learn the concepts from the basics again.

4. Get into a routine.

The MCAT test day is stressful for everyone. In order to reduce the variables that might affect your performance, it is a good idea to treat every practice exam like the real test. This can mean that, since everyone takes the MCAT at 8:00 AM in their local time zone, you should start your practice exams at 8:00 as well. Additionally, this would be the time to experiment and figure out what you will need on the day of the test. For example, some people find that they perform better when they drink coffee while others feel like they get too anxious. By understanding what works for you, you will be able to optimize your performance on test day. Finally, it is important to practice only taking breaks when you would be able to during the real test and not taking longer breaks. With the exam being over 7 hours, many students can feel burned out towards the end of the exam. By building up your endurance, you can prevent that from happening.

5. Focus on the big picture.

When studying for the MCAT, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed and stressed out. You need to remember: this test does not at all define you in any way, shape, or form. And getting a higher score does not make you a better or worse person. Remember who you are and what’s important to you. Remember to take breaks to spend time with those people who are important in your life and to do the things you love to do. Make sure to remember that this is just another test--one of many more to come during your training. Remember that there is much more to life than getting a high score on the MCAT.

6. Trust your training.

Confidence on test day is essential. Your adrenaline will undoubtedly be pumping on test day and this can either help you or hurt you. The goal is to channel this adrenaline into focus to help you be able to better concentrate on the problems in front of you. But you can only channel this adrenaline in this positive way if you have confidence. Remember to trust yourself. The test is meant to freak you out. If there’s one thing I can guarantee about your specific test, it is that you will see material you’ve never seen before. It’s natural to panic at this. But you have to take a deep breath and remember that this is a scaled test. You have to trust your training and have the confidence in yourself that you worked as hard as you could, and that if you see a term that you don’t know, chances are that no one else in the room knows it either. You have to believe in yourself.

Ruple jairath

Hometown: Newburgh, IN

Medical School:
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Year: M1

Jenny Ji

Hometown: Irvine, CA

Medical School:
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Year: M1