It was the beginning of the Fall semester and I was sitting in Microbiology Lab with my new lab buddies when one of them started talking about the MCAT. The MCAT was the last thing on my mind at this point, so I wasn’t really paying too much attention. I figured that the MCAT was months away for me and that I would just study for just a single month before...
After spending hours editing my personal statement, drafting secondary essays, and waiting an excruciatingly long amount of time, I was fortunate to receive several medical school interview invites! I was ecstatic at the news, but I didn’t know the best way to prepare or what these interviews entailed. Here, I’ll describe the 7 major pieces of advice I...
For many students, mental math can be one of the most frustrating parts of the MCAT. The bad news is that you will undoubtedly need to do some math on test day. The good news is that you don’t need to be a world-class mathematician to get the right answers! Here are some tips for approaching mental math on test day. Come prepared As part of your...
Thanks to MCAT Self Prep I was able to earn a 518 on my official MCAT that I took in April, 2022! I originally looked into MCAT Self Prep after browsing MCAT services online, but all the services I was coming across were extremely expensive and did not allow for as much freedom as MCAT Self Prep. After discussing with...
Studying for the MCAT can be a daunting task, especially when you have no idea where to start or how to structure your studying. I spent a few days online trying to research the best ways to study for the exam, and I was super overwhelmed by the endless suggestions I found through Reddit users and other study plan advertisements. Getting Started I stumbled...
Every pre-med student starting their junior year knows what intimidating, stress-inducing exam is looming right around the corner: the MCAT. I remember winter break of my junior year; so many hours were spent googling random questions about this huge test that would seemingly dictate the rest of my future. When should I take my MCAT? How long should I...
It can feel very daunting when an MCAT question asks you to draw a conclusion from a figure. Whether it is deducing if a gene is dominant or recessive from a table or determining the relationship between the independent and dependent variables in a graph, a figure can make science passage questions tricky. However, these few tips can help you confidently...
As you already know, test day is stressful. Not only are you nervous about arriving early enough to the testing center, finishing each section on time, and being able to sit for long periods of time, but also thoughts about how the MCAT could affect the medical school that you attend in the future are also circulating in your mind. Although breathing...
Not sure which secondary essays to prewrite for medical school applications? I found that prewriting certain secondary applications made the entire process a lot less stressful. After a busy application cycle, I received 9 interview invites! With the next cycle quickly approaching, I believe that following this advice will ensure that your secondary...
I spent four years of college working my butt off to get good grades, get involved with extra-curriculars, and I even took a 7-hour exam all to “get my application ready”. But the truth is, I had no idea what the application actually entailed. With a lot more hurdles than expected, I didn’t get my application in nearly as early as I would have liked. My...
Sometimes a ‘gap year’ isn’t a year at all. Sometimes it’s more than one year; sometimes it’s less. No matter the case, the period of time between your graduation from college and the time you begin med school can offer a ton of value. The idea of a gap year sounds great on paper, doesn’t it? A year reprieve following a grueling and competitive four years...
Each lesson of the eCourse contains links to 1 to 5 Khan Academy science passages for the purpose of providing you with non-AAMC material to practice your science passage reading skills on. By completing all the linked passages within every lesson, you will have finished all the freely available Khan Academy science passages.
To match up the Khan Academy Science Passages with the eCourse lessons, we carefully examined the passage and question content of each one. Then we decided which lesson of the eCourse best correlated with that content. You may notice that some passages don’t match up perfectly with the current lesson. If they don’t match up with the current lesson, they should match up with one of the previous lessons in the module. We did this carefully so that you could practice your science passage reading skills on passages that contain the content you’ve already learned.
We recommend practicing CARS by reading non-AAMC CARS passages but not doing the associated practice problems. The reason we don’t recommend doing the practice problems is because the MCAT is written by the AAMC. They have a very unique style in which they write CARS practice questions that third-party companies (try as they might) are unable to replicate. When students spend time on non-AAMC CARS practice problems, they get familiar with the wrong style of questioning, leading them to overthink and incorrectly respond to the questions written by the AAMC. Thus, it is in your best interest to solely practice on AAMC CARS practice questions.
That said, we highly recommend practicing your reading skills on non-AAMC CARS passages. In our Ultimate CARS Strategy Course, we provide you with 1,000 free CARS passages and 100+ homework assignments, giving you ample material to practice on. Reading countless passages while practicing the proper reading habits and strategies will prepare you well to conquer the CARS section as it was written by the AAMC.
The books we use in each lesson are linked below. We plan to stick with these older editions of the books since very little has changed and the older editions are much more affordable:
First Edition of the Kaplan 7-book Series
First Edition of the Princeton 7-book Series
The Kaplan Books, Princeton Books, and Khan Academy Videos were all produced by different authors. For this reason, there are some chapters in the Kaplan Book or Princeton Book that are not even found in the Khan Academy Videos and vice versa. For instance, the Kaplan and Princeton Books have chapters that cover certain experimental procedures that the Khan Academy Videos do not cover.
Our goal in matching up the books with the videos was to correlate the content as best as possible while also covering ALL the content from every resource. For this reason, when nothing in the Kaplan Books matched up with one of the video playlists, instead of leaving the reading assignment for Kaplan blank, we inserted material that did not fit in anywhere else (i.e. one of those chapters on an experimental procedure that was not covered by Khan Academy). So, when the assignment doesn’t appear to match up right, please know that this was intentional.
*If you follow the reading assignments outlined, you will finish the entire Kaplan 7-book series and/or Princeton 7-book series by the time you finish all 10 content modules.
If the sections assigned in our eCourse do not match up with the sections contained in your content review book, you may have a different edition. The sections should still match up the large majority of the time, but in the rare instance that they don’t, I’d recommend simply reading sections that do match up and saving the ones that do not for a future lesson.
Before jumping into our free eCourse, you’ll need to complete orientation by watching MCAT Launchpad. During this free 35-minute intro session with Head Tutor Andrew, you’ll learn 6 Keys to Earning a Top MCAT Score, the 5 Essential Elements of an Effective Study Plan, 12 Tips for Taking the Best MCAT Study Notes, and more! Andrew will also provide you with a detailed overview of the Free MCAT Prep Course, teaching you how to get started.
You will forfeit your 30% off coupon by continuing with Free Forever.