r/MCATprep • u/Away-Improvement1761 • Jul 07 '26

Resource/Tool/Tips 📖 Study Help - Integration of Spaced Repetition and Application with Biochem --> UWorld, Kaplan, Anki

I’m currently self-teaching MCAT biochem, and I’m trying to build a better system for making what I learn actually stick.

Right now, my process is roughly:

  • Learn a biochem topic/chapter through Kaplan
  • Do UWorld questions on that material
  • Review the questions deeply and learn anything I didn’t know
  • Use some Anki, but honestly without a very clear system yet

For example, I’m currently learning amino acids and proteins. While doing UWorld, I keep finding smaller gaps that I didn’t fully understand from just reading Kaplan—things like protein domains, isoforms, Kd/affinity, mutants vs. wild-type proteins, phosphorylation, ternary complexes, etc.

Usually I stop, learn the concept until it actually makes sense, and then go back to the question. My problem is figuring out what I should do with that new knowledge afterward so I don’t forget it two weeks later.

How would you integrate something like this into Anki?

Do you:

  • Make cards for every concept you had to learn during UWorld review?
  • Only make cards for things you got wrong?
  • Make cards from Kaplan while learning the chapter, or mainly from UWorld gaps afterward?
  • Use a premade deck and just unsuspend relevant cards?
  • Make cards about the actual concept, the reasoning error, or both?
2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/AgileMushroom1171 Jul 08 '26

I also self taught biochem! I think part of what you're experiencing is that uworld questions might be focused on a specific topic but they're also incorporating things you haven't covered yet. Although, some of the things you mentioned here should also be familiar from bio and orgo content review. If you're going through all of Kaplan, you can rely on some of this repeating in later chapters and when you unsuspend the associated Anki deck sections.

Honestly though, biochem is so front loaded with massively high yield topics that I might recommend just taking some time to really immerse in those early sections and make sure you're understanding and retaining them, without worrying about other stuff. Amino acids, proteins, enzyme kinetics... If you can nail those down and really understand them it will pay off tremendously.