The Most High-Yield MCAT Topics

Are some concepts more important than others? 

Learning every single MCAT concept perfectly would take someone hundreds of years. Think about it, people spend entire Ph.D. programs studying a single enzyme! Since you don’t have hundreds of years to prepare for the MCAT, you are going to need to prioritize your studying of certain concepts over others. These topics, as well as building the perfect study schedule will help maximize the hours ahead.

How can I find out which concepts are the most important? 

The AAMC acknowledges that not every concept is created equal, and has released a website that outlines their content in a hierarchical nature. Now, to thoroughly read through this entire website would take up hours and hours of your precious study time. If you want even more in-depth explanations of every concept, consider checking out mcat-review.org! At the start, we recommend using MCAT prep books or Khan Academy videos to work through all of the content and create flashcards for self-testing. For this reason, you should just look at a brief overview of each section. An important part to pay attention to is the section breakdown, which tells you what percent of each subject category you should expect to see in that section. For instance, in the Biology/Biochemistry section, you should only expect to see a few organic chemistry questions because they only constitute 5 percent of that section. Therefore, it might not be the best use of your time to study organic chemistry for Biology/Biochemistry and instead focus on concepts that appear often like Michaelis-Menten kinetics. I’ve actually created an entire course and Quizlet set devoted to only the highest-yield MCAT topics. These topics would be perfect to review in the weeks leading up to your exam.

Consider starting with an overview of other concepts that we have written about in other study tips:

  1. How to Memorize Equations for the MCAT
  2. 4 Things to do to Conquer Behavioral Sciences
  3. 3 Essential Classes to Take For the MCAT
  4. MCAT Equations – Should I Memorize Them?
  5. How to Remember MCAT Material
  6. The Most High-yield MCAT Topics
  7. What to Memorize for the MCAT
  8. What Topics Does the MCAT Cover?

What else can I do to better prioritize my study time? 

The best thing you can do to help yourself stay focused on what is most important is to study with someone who has already done extremely well on the MCAT. Our 97th percentile tutors can help you make a study plan that is extremely focused and personalized, allowing you to make the most of every minute of study time. They will also follow up with you periodically to help you fine-tune your study skills and study plan. Don’t wait to schedule your first tutoring session!

Warm regards,

Andrew George

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How we Matched up the Khan Academy Passages with the eCourse Lessons

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.

Why we don’t recommend non-AAMC CARS practice questions

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.

Which books do the lessons match up with?

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

Do the chapters match up perfectly?

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.

Do the sections match up perfectly?

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.

MCAT Launchpad Required!

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.

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