As medical students, we've been in your shoes before. A big test with even bigger implications for your success in applying for medical school, how do you cope with the stress? And just as importantly, how do you strategize your success on the MCAT without burning yourself out? As your official East Lansing and Grand Rapids MCAT tutors, we're here to help ease your stress on the big day through this simple guide to your test prep.
Step 1: Cement Your MCAT Test Date
The day you schedule your test is the day you're taking it, full stop. No changing it because you're nervous, no last minute cancellations because you're too tired. This thing costs a lot of money to both schedule and cancel (find out how much here), so saving yourself some of the trouble not only saves you a buck but saves you undue stress as well. Having a hardline date to take the test actually boosts willingness to stick to a study plan and can help you manage your stress as the day approaches.
The only thing that should change your test date is genuine sickness or awful life events, the types of things that can truly alter your thinking on a fundamental level. Otherwise stick to the plan, you'll do better than your nerves may tell you, trust us.
Reference our post on the 2025 MCAT Testing Dates for more information on scheduling.
Step 2: Setting the Timeline
Regardless of your general testing ability, you should aim to start studying between 2-6 months before your test. The average amount of time students take is 3 months, but the amount of time may be longer depending on how much time you'll need to review.
You'll want to reserve the beginning portions of your study plan to foundational review through the four sections covered on the MCAT. The middle study blocks should be mixed foundational review and practice questions. The third, later, and final portion of your study plan should be mostly practice questions or tests with a small amount of review intermixed.
With a strong study plan and a concrete test date you can accurately predict how the trajectory of your score will go, and more importantly you'll be able to bolster any weaker areas with built-in flexible study days, which we will go through next.
Step 4: How To Actually Set It Up
Now you've got your timeline, how do you actually fill in the days? You can't just go on a "Feels like Physics" basis, because you'll end up unbalanced and weak in a variety of areas. Using foundational review resources such as the free Khan Academy's MCAT Courses or the books from Kaplan, separating your weakest topics from your strongest topics to start.
Dedicate roughly 1.5x as much time towards your weakest topics, and schedule the specific subjects in each topic you'll study. Say on Monday you'll go through chapters on kinetics in the morning and early childhood psychological development in the evening, and schedule in that fashion throughout all of the time you've allotted to studying.
You'll want to plan to be finished with your foundational review by the middle of your study schedule, if not sooner, so plan accordingly! Put it all together on a calendar, we typically recommend a paper or additional app calendar as it can overfill your traditional phone calendar, so that you can keep track of the subjects easily.
At the midpoint you'll want to start heavily doing practice questions, either from Khan Academy again or from (our recommendation) UWorld. Doing at least 40 questions per day is the recommendation, as the qbanks can be quite expansive, with a plan to finish them all by at most 5-7 days before your test. Nucleus Tutoring provides access to the UWorld qbanks & AAMC practice tests with our MCAT Tutoring should you want to avoid multiple purchases at multiple places.
Step 4: Flexible Study Days
Not every day in your study schedule should be dedicated to a specific subject. Scary as that sounds, some days you'll need to recoup and spend a little extra time on harder subjects. Good in physics but hate organic chemistry? Use that day to become more comfortable with orgo and dabble a bit into general chemistry as well.
If you're looking at the schedule and your studies thinking "There genuinely isn't anything I feel weak on" then CARS is your answer. Very few people can say with certainty that they've mastered CARS, and even fewer we actually believe to have done it. CARS is a workhorse subject, one you just have to do as many questions as possible in to be proficient, and these flexible days offer a good opportunity to do so if you're able to.
We recommend one day per week be dedicated to flexible days, typically it's Sunday.
Step 5: Break Days
You're going to need breaks. This isn't some general test or Final that you can hunker down for a week stock-full on energy drinks and power through, it needs a meticulous approach to succeed well in. You need breaks during your study weeks so you don't burn out, because burnout will hurt your score if left unchecked.
Don't get us wrong, burnout will happen at some point, it's just a fact of the MCAT, the most important thing you can do is prep for it in advance and mitigate how deep the burnout may affect you. Break days are vital in preventing this.
Break days are just that: Breaks you take in your schedule. One day a week for you to either do nothing related to the MCAT or do very very little studying for it, typically it's a Friday. Take these days to run errands or just kick back and relax, decompress a bit. You'll thank yourself later.
Step 6: Practice Tests
Now the big question: When do you take the practice tests? We strongly recommend taking all of the official AAMC practice tests before taking the real MCAT, and our recommendations for taking them are uniform. Take the free MCAT Practice Test before starting your study plan to get a good measure of what to start studying, but the rest of them should be taken in the middle to final weeks of your schedule, at a pace of around once per week. There are 6 total tests, the last one should be taken within the week of your real MCAT for best results.
Taking the tests helps build your stamina and points out weak points in your understanding. Stamina is half the battle of this test, as you've likely never had an 8 hour test before the MCAT, and it can wreak havoc on your focusing ability. Practicing these tests in the exact same standards as the real one (quiet room, one break for lunch/snacks, no phones) is the best and most preparatory way to take them.
Additionally, our MCAT Tutoring packages come with all of the AAMC Practice tests with the UWorld question bank included, if you'd like to get all of your prep in one place. Feel free to check us out today!
Step 7: Start!!
You've built your schedule with flexibility and breaks, and you've got all the resources you'll need in the form of review, qbanks, tests, and tutors, now it's time to start! The most important thing you can do from here is to stay consistent. Don't skip days because you're tired, keep on the track as best you can, your score will reflect your dedication.
Don't worry. Stick to the guide and your plan and you'll do great. If you think you'd benefit from assistance through tutoring feel free to learn more about Nucleus Tutoring's MCAT offerings here! Otherwise, feel free to subscribe or check out our other posts below.
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