A great MCAT score is achieved with determination and smart planning.
Consider when you wish to apply to Medical School.
You need to make sure your scores will be available to you when you begin your medical school application process.
Scores usually take about 5-6 weeks to be released following the exam. It’s important to register for your MCAT exam as soon as the AAMC releases the MCAT exam schedule in September.
Seats are reserved fast so we recommend registering immediately to avoid commuting to an unknown city which increases stress on MCAT test day.
Make sure your other commitments during the season you choose to MCAT Prep, which should be allotted to the prior 9-12 weeks before your MCAT test day, is flexible enough for you to prioritize MCAT studying.
A 9-12 week MCAT course, whether Live Online or Pre-recorded, is always best taken in the 9-12 weeks before your MCAT test day.
For the best results take your Official MCAT Exam in the 1-3 weeks after your MCAT course is complete. If you follow our Full Length MCAT Practice Exam schedule, your MCAT score will consistently increase during MCAT Prep and you will see the same results on MCAT test day.
We do not recommend cramming multiple Full Length MCAT Exams back-to-back in the immediate days before your official MCAT test day.
The MCAT is not a marathon, it is a sprint.
The most successful MCAT prep we’ve seen has been constrained to 9-12 weeks of intense focus.
While it is true that all students have different learning styles, on average the six month long MCAT plan increases the chances of student burnout.
Length MCAT preps also decrease student motivation to to get a high MCAT score and ability to remember MCAT science for test day.
The exception to this rule is the non-tradition student with learning gaps in specific subjects. This student may not have taken a specific science in more than 5 years or may have gotten poor grades in that subject in college.
The average MCAT study session for reading and reviewing should be no longer than 50 minutes long, followed by an hour active break in-between study sessions.
It’s important for students to make the most out of their MCAT study time by stopping their studying after they lose focus.
The average person loses their focus after 50 minutes. Studying for the MCAT will feel a lot easier and shorter with healthy time management.
The best time to take your first Full Length MCAT Practice Exam is before you begin any MCAT content review. That’s right. Prior to any MCAT content review, you should take a Full Length MCAT Practice Exam.
It’s human nature for most students to avoid taking their first Full Length MCAT Practice Exam because seeing their results makes them anxious.
We do not recommend waiting until you’ve completed more reading before testing yourself. Almost all first-time MCAT test scores are very low.
This low MCAT score isn’t only a reflection of their science knowledge, but also of their inexperience with MCAT passages and sitting for a timed 7.5 hour exam.
It’s important for all students to get an immediate assessment of their current MCAT score in order to devise a strategy for their target MCAT score. It’s also important for them to acclimate to timed test conditions which can only improve through gradual conditioning.
Half-diagnostic MCAT exams are also unreliable due to their unrealistic timed conditions which change student performance per passage, often resulting in an inaccurate score.