Welcome to the MCAT test prep series!
The Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®) evaluates your understanding of key natural and social science principles, as well as your critical thinking and scientific problem–solving abilities essential for commencing medical studies.
This course is designed to guide you through every aspect of the MCAT. Each chapter is dedicated to an exam section, with the content you will need to master for the exam, along with applicable strategies. You’ll also find a wealth of practice questions that test your comprehension and recall of exam content and provide application practice like that needed for the actual test. By working through these sections, you’ll get hands-on experience with the types of questions you’ll face and learn tips for approaching each one strategically.
You are eligible to take the MCAT exam if you are planning to apply to a health professions school, which includes:
When you register, you will be required to agree to a statement verifying your intention to apply to a health professions school.
The exam consists of 4 sections, all multiple-choice questions. All sections are scored equally. Only the CARS section is completely passage-based, with no external knowledge needed, and includes 53 questions. All other sections (Psychology and Sociology, Chemistry and Physics, and Biology and Biochemistry) include 15 independent questions and 44 passage-based questions which require integrating external knowledge in the subject area.
The exam duration is 7.5 hours.
There is not a set passing score but rather a target school based on the admissions criteria of the schools you tend to apply to.
CARS - The Critical Analysis and Reasoning Section is drawn from various areas of humanities and social sciences. All questions are answerable using only information presented in the passages and accompanying questions, so there is no content to learn. The key is being able to comprehend from the text both literally and abstractly, and being able to think beyond the text to apply externally-provided information to the text at hand.
Psych/Soc - The Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior Section includes passages that provide some of the information needed to answer questions, combined with your own external knowledge from the following subject areas:
Chem/Phys - The Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems Section includes passages and occasional discrete questions based on these topics:
Bio/Biochem - The Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems Section includes passages and occasional discrete questions based on these topics:
Achievable’s MCAT course is structured around the AAMC’s official content category framework. The table below outlines how each of our chapters aligns with the corresponding AAMC categories, providing a clear roadmap for targeted and efficient studying.
AAMC content category | Achievable chapter(s) |
---|---|
1A: Structure and function of proteins and their constituent amino acids | |
1B: Transmission of genetic information from the gene to the protein | |
1C: Transmission of heritable information from generation to generation and the processes that increase genetic diversity | |
1D: Principles of bioenergetics and fuel molecule metabolism | |
2A: Assemblies of molecules, cells, and groups of cells within single cellular and multicellular organisms | |
2B: The structure, growth, physiology, and genetics of prokaryotes and viruses | |
2C: Processes of cell division, differentiation, and specialization | |
3A: Structure and functions of the nervous and endocrine systems and ways in which these systems coordinate the organ systems | |
3B: Structure and integrative functions of the main organ systems | |
4A: Translational motion, forces, work, energy, and equilibrium in living systems | |
4B: Importance of fluids for the circulation of blood, gas movement, and gas exchange | |
4C: Electrochemistry and electrical circuits and their elements | |
4D: How light and sound interact with matter | |
4E: Atoms, nuclear decay, electronic structure, and atomic chemical behavior | |
5A: Unique nature of water and its solutions | |
5B: Nature of molecules and intermolecular interaction | |
5C: Separation and purification methods | |
5D: Structure, function, and reactivity of biologically-relevant molecules | |
5E: Principles of chemical thermodynamics and kinetics | |
6A: Sensing the environment | |
6B: Making sense of the environment | • Attention • Cognition, cognitive development and issues • Intelligence/intellectual ability • Consciousness and sleep • Conscious-altering drugs and drug addiction • Memory and processing, sensory and short-term memory • Working and long-term memory, forgetting • Memory dysfunction, neural networks and plasticity • Language |
6C: Responding to the world | |
7A: Individual influences on behavior | |
7B: Social processes that influence human behavior | |
7C: Attitude and behavior change | |
8A: Self-Identity | |
8B: Social thinking | |
8C: Social interactions | |
9A: Understanding social structure | |
9B: Demographic characteristics | |
10A: Social inequality |
The textbook’s wrapping-up portion contains more details about taking the MCAT exam, including how to register, exam cost, and test-taking options.
Feel free to explore this course at your own pace and work on the exam sections in order of personal priority. Make use of the quiz items built into each chapter to build your recall and application skills. We’re here to help you succeed, and we’re excited to see all that you’ll achieve. Welcome again to the Achievable MCAT Online Course!