How Much Should You Study for the MCAT? The AAMC
The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit organization based in Washington, DC, and established in 1876. The AAMC administers the Medical College Admission Test and operates the American Medical College Application Service and the Electronic Residency …
There are other popular MCAT prep companies that offer MCAT study schedules for 3 months up to 8 months, but most do require that you purchase their MCAT course to access it. That said, here are a few places to start:
How Much Should You Study for the MCAT? The AAMC recommends studying for 300-350 hours before taking the MCAT with some institutions recommending up to 500 hours. For our MCAT study schedule recommendations, we’re assuming minimum of 500-800 hours for adequate preparation, and this can be used to figure out when to take the MCAT.
During this 8-week period, we will: Study your diagnostic exam results to create an individualized day-to-day schedule that works around your schedule—school, work, extracurriculars—while building in sufficient MCAT prep for you to succeed on the exam.
Creating a study schedule is the single most important piece of the MCAT puzzle that you will complete at the beginning of your test prep as it serves as a roadmap, friend, and accountability tracker throughout your entire MCAT journey.
Most people need 10–15 hours per week to study for the MCAT over a period of at least four to six months . In total, you should aim for at least 200 to 300 hours of MCAT study time.
The MCAT is a beast. Most students hate it. It's going to take a lot more work usually than you expect it to. So you don't want to be taking those 28 credit hours and study less for the MCAT.
Define—and limit—the length of your review period Alternatively, if you plan to have a dedicated study period with few outside obligations, six to 10 weeks of intense study may yield positive results while minimizing the chance of burnout.
As the official MCAT prep of the AMSA, Kaplan recommends that you spend 300-350 hours studying so you can be above average. If you're planning on taking the MCAT in two months, you'll need to put aside a significant amount of study time each week for in order to be able to score competitively.
According to Carrie Thomas, a research associate professor in the College of Sciences and director of undergraduate programs, about 17–18 credit hours is typically the maximum amount students are willing to take. Most do not want to subject themselves to the added stress of 21 or more credit hours.
12 weeks, or 3 months, is generally sufficient time to spend studying for the MCAT at about 20 hours per week. This can be compressed or extended based on your schedule.
[12:00] Hitting 506-509 to 510 and Above Then when you get to the 506-509 range, there's a significant jump in the acceptance rate at 46.2%. So, now you're well above the national average for MCAT scores, and that's likely to be accepted. And then there's an enormous jump once you get to the 510-513 mark at 60.3%.
For those students, 2.5-3 months is usually sufficient to become completely ready. But many other premeds must balance work or college coursework with their studies, and in that case, more time is often required.
For me, my weekday study schedule was:Wake up 10 AM, get breakfast.Work until my boss is happy with my progress (~3 PM including lunch).Study concepts or do practice problems or review.Run from 6 PM to 6:40 PM. Shower. Dinner at ~7 PM.Study from 8 to 11 PM.Be unproductive until 12:30 AM.Sleep.Repeat.
Top tips for preparation If possible, take some time to dedicate to only studying for the MCAT® exam. Multitasking while studying for the exam is really hard. Give yourself enough time to study, at least 4-5 weeks full time.
You will find that 90 days is long enough to thoroughly master the tested content, yet it is short enough to keep you motivated and not burn out. To review, the first month of your preparation period should be dedicated to thoroughly learning the material.
10 weeks dedicated is plenty. Take a full day off each week.
Most high MCAT scorers who went into MCAT prep with a solid amount of content knowledge required ~400-500 hours and others between 600-800 hours.
There are other popular MCAT prep companies that offer MCAT study schedules for 3 months up to 8 months, but most do require that you purchase their MCAT course to access it. That said, here are a few places to start:
MCAT Self Prep offers super affordable MCAT study plans that are customizable based on your diagnostic test scores and your timeline.
Because of this, I suggest utilizing the MCAT Self Prep Create-Your-Own-Study-Plan course which is only $9.99 and includes their MCAT video course.
When you make your MCAT study schedule with the Build-Your-Study-Schedule course, you will actually input all of the scores you received on each section of the MCAT diagnostic (or real test) as well as your goal scores per section. The study schedule will then calculate how many hours you’ll need to devote per section in order to reach your goal score.
The 4 month MCAT study sample above had been made for a student whose 3 weakest content areas were Physics 1, Physics 2, and Chemistry 1 (in that order). Each content module should be completed before starting the next.
CARS Question Pack 1 and 2: You’ll need to purchase these Official AAMC CARS Question Packs ($15 each). They’re also included in your AAMC bundle, if you already own that.
I said earlier on average, a top scorer will put in 400 hrs of MCAT prep. Although this will fluctuate depending on where they start.
But you MUST always be practicing MCAT thinking, so at least 20 hours will mostly be test and question review.
So let’s break down the nitty-gritty on how long you should spend studying:
If you start at 500, and you want a 515, a fair guess is that it will take you about 15 weeks (just under 4 months). If you start at 485, it will take twice as long. However, please note this formula is NOT Linear. You will have periods of big jumps, and periods of no movement.
Students often get caught up preparing for the content on the MCAT. Many worry especially about their Physics.
There are subtle things such as which company you used for your first practice test, which subsections are high/low, and how much stress you feel about taking the first test that factor in.
In general, you should spend at least 300-350 total hours studying for the MCAT. This includes content review, taking practice tests, reviewing the practice tests, and studying what you miss. The number of hours may slightly vary based on how long it has been since you completed the courses, your major, and/or your comfort with certain topics.
If you have six months to study for the MCAT, our Top Scorer Plan (60 hours of live tutoring) for 1:1 MCAT tutoring will help ensure that you leave no stone unturned. During these 6 months, we will help you:
At an absolute minimum, you should take the five AAMC full-length practice exams in addition to all of the AAMC practice resources. In most cases, a diagnostic exam plus two to three more full-lengths from a test prep company is sufficient, in addition to the AAMC materials. If you are studying over a prolonged period of time, it is not uncommon for students to take over ten full-length exams. However, taking additional exams will not help you significantly if you are not spending a lot of time reviewing these exams and studying the information that you miss.
MQL stands for “Missed Questions Log,” and this is the personal document or excel sheet you use to track every single question you’ve missed throughout the course of your MCAT studying. The MQL should include enough information for you to get the question right the next time around.
Building the right study schedule is key to acing the MCAT.
You can think of an MCAT study schedule as two distinct phases. The first phase is content heavy with a little bit of practice. This means 70% of your time should be spent studying content while 30% should be practice-based. The second phase of studying is practice-heavy with a little bit of content.
If you think of medical school admission as a tiered evaluation process, the MCAT falls in the top tier of what admissions committees look at when they evaluate an applicant, in addition to your GPA and personal statement.
You’ll need at least one year with labs of biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics.
The answers to these two questions will also vary per student, but the AAMC says that on average, pre-meds will spend 240 hours over 12 weeks studying for the MCAT. But of course, you want to be an above-average test-taker.
That said, a prep course is a… course. To get the most out of your MCAT prep course, you’ll spend time attending class, watching science tutorials, and practicing. One of the benefits of a prep course, beyond having all your study resources in one place, is that you won’t waste time learning anything that won’t be on the MCAT.
You already know you can’t cram for the MCAT (we hope) but beyond that, how do you learn and absorb information best? Do you like to study in shorter bursts every day or will your schedule require you to fit your prep into fewer, longer chunks? More caveats:
And remember, your baseline score is just that. It’s your starting-off point, not a determinant of where you’ll be in 3-6 months.
In response to concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the AAMC has cancelled all administrations of the MCAT through at least May 21. They will be waiving all rescheduling fees for people who signed up for MCAT exams that were cancelled.