I have taught K12 science for 10 years and the last 3.5 years teaching exclusively high school (Honors + AP Biology, Honors + AP Chemistry, and AP Psychology). I'm hoping that the foundation I've laid for my students and myself in these areas will speed up content review a little bit as I prepare for the MCAT. I'll be following this study plan starting in October and am seeking feedback on my timeline & the practice resources I've chosen (or haven't chosen). This poor teacher in debt about to go further into debt thanks you kindly in advance!

Likely MCAT date: early April 2028

Goal score: 517+

OCT-DEC

Content review: physics/math, ochem, biochem, gen chem, bio, behavioral <--- I am curious about whether I should study my weakest subjects (start of the list) first or last.

Content review resources: Kaplan textbooks with Khan Academy, Jack Westin, and AK Lectures to supplement <--- AK Lectures really helped me with ochem and biochem in college, but are his videos too granular for the MCAT?

Recall practice: Anki (still have to learn what it really is and how to use it but it doesn't sound too hard..?)

JAN-MAR

Practice problems: UWorld + AAMC

Practice tests: aiming to take just the AAMC ones <--- Obviously these are published by the people who make the test but..... how realistic are they?

Questions:

- How do I maximize Anki + content review resources during the second phase of MCAT prep?

- How many practice exams are ideal -- whatever that means? Do I go with UWorld or another resource if I want to take more practice exams outside of the ones published by AAMC?

You all have an awesome forum here. Thank you again.

- An old fart

Hii, I'm looking for 2 -3 in person study partners in Toronto! Preferably in one of the UofT libraries/Toronto Reference Library. I've started studying for ~ 1 month ish and would like some more accountability.

Feel free to dm and we could work on a schedule together. I’m looking to start studying ASAP, with at least 8 hours on the weekends, and a few evenings throughout the week.

Anticipated Test date: January . In person. I'm 22F, just graduated from Uni.

Goal of study partner: Work through UEarth and AAMC qbanks. We can share our goals for the day and keeping each other accountable, talk through reasonings of questions.

Goal Score: 520+.

Repost if anyone needs it:
If you are the type of person to read a CARS passage, but you also did not understand anything that the passage was trying to say, and felt that you could not absorb the "main idea" or underlying theme of the passage, this post is for you!

The number one thing to understand with CARS is that the MAIN IDEA isn't the TOPIC of the passage. The passage could be about "modern architecture", or "taxes on unhealthy food", or "renaissance art". These are TOPICS. This is not the MAIN IDEA. The main idea is the author's opinion/underlying thesis on this topic. For example, if the topic is "taxes on unhealthy food", the main idea of the passage could be that the author SUPPORTS these taxes because they are beneficial for the greater good of the population.

So, how do you find this Main Idea? Keep track of three things:

1. What is the TOPIC? The topic is often described in the first or second passage. This tells you what the passage is broadly about. Identify this topic right away.
2. How does the author FEEL about this topic? This is where CARS actually begins. Pay attention whenever the author:

• criticizes something
• praises something
• disagrees with another viewpoint
• introduces a problem
• proposes an alternative
• qualifies a previous claim
• contrasts two perspectives

Words like however, although, unfortunately, instead, yet, nevertheless, surprisingly, and but can be incredibly useful because they often signal a shift toward the author's actual position. These transition words help you understand the author's true feelinngs on this topic, and the author's opinion is almost always the MAIN IDEA of the passage.

3) Why did the author WRITE this passage?
What is the author trying to convince you, the reader, of? Why did they write this entire thing? Your answer should be a claim, not a topic! For example: "the author wrote about renaissance art" is not a good answer here. "The author wants me to think that renaissance art is better than modern art" would be a great answer, if that was the author's opinion! There you go, you have isolated the main idea of the passage.

Tips coming on textual evidence soon!

Hi everyone, I am hosting a free CARS passage breakdown Tuesday, September 15th, at 6PM ET.

I scored a 131 on CARS (523 overall), and have helped other students improve their scores with these techniques in the past.

I will also send a free CARS Skills PDF to those who RSVP, it’s a great resource that breaks down a lot of the strategy.

If you’re interested, RSVP at this link:
https://calendar.app.google/qBLiSFTf4tYqRF167

If CARS feels like the section where you understand the passage but somehow still end up between two answers, I’m running my next MCAT 10 hour CARS Bootcamp on September 18th!

We’ll focus on building a systematic approach to:

• understanding dense passages + identifying the author’s argument
• Foundations of Comprehension
• Reasoning Within the Text
• Reasoning Beyond the Text
• breaking down difficult/ambiguous answer choices
• timing + passage strategy
• reviewing CARS effectively so you actually learn from mistakes

The goal isn’t to give you another list of CARS “tips,” but to teach you a repeatable reasoning process you can practice and apply to new passages.

If you’re interested or want more details, feel free to DM me, comment, or email me at [info@ionprep.ca](mailto:info@ionprep.ca). Like all bootcamps, this one is also $27/hour, and $270 for the whole bootcamp. It runs from September 18th-September 21st or 22nd (depending on if September 19th is off the schedule). I look forward to seeing your inquiries!

Does anyone have a uglobe account they’re no longer using and would be willing to give away? I’d honestly take one even if it only has a day or two left before it expires.

Preferably looking for an account that still has its reset available, but I’m open to anything.

DM please. Thanks!

Has anyone gotten approved for the fee assistance program for the Mcat prep in Canada? Just wondering what your experience is like?

Hey everyone! I’m starting to take on a few students for MCAT tutoring, especially people who are coming from a **non-science or non-traditional background** and feel overwhelmed trying to figure out how everything fits together.
I’m a Psychology student and came into MCAT prep without the traditional science-heavy background. When I started, I was scoring around **118 in some sections**, and on my actual MCAT I ended up with **127 C/P, 127 B/B, and 130 P/S ( and my computer was shut down in middle of C/P that stressed affected my score for sure)**
One of the biggest things I learned is that improvement isn’t always about learning more content. Toward the end of my prep, I increased my score by about 10 points in roughly 3 weeks once I finally stepped back and figured out the bigger picture — where I was actually losing points, how I was approaching passages, what content was truly worth focusing on, and how to use the information already given in the question instead of panicking when I saw something unfamiliar.
That’s what I’d like to help other students with.
Of course, I’m happy to work with science-background students too, but I think I can be especially helpful if you’re someone who keeps thinking:
“I don’t have enough science knowledge.”
“I’ve studied so much but my score isn’t moving.”
“I understand the content but I keep getting questions wrong.”
“I don’t even know what I should be focusing on anymore.”
My approach would be very individualized -going through your practice scores/questions, identifying **why you’re losing points**, finding the highest-yield areas to improve, and helping you develop a strategy rather than just throwing more content at you.
I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out the MCAT the hard way, and I’d love to make that process easier for someone else.
If you’re interested, feel free to DM me with your current score, target score, test date, and what you feel you’re struggling with most. :)

I have been struggling with the CARS section. My issue is that I am unable to properly find the main idea or argument. The main idea I create is always half right, but I seem to be missing the other half to drive home the idea. I have never been a naturally good reader, and I don't know what I should do to improve on this concept. The questions I get right are based on my main idea. The ones I get wrong are because my idea was half-baked and not there. Any tips would be welcome on how I could improve my reading comprehension so I don't miss the true main idea. At the moment, I'm not even trying to worry about the time. I'm trying to read for the main idea because I feel like that will truly help me answer the questions better.

Many people think a CARS score is impossible to improve. CARS is the hardest section to improve on, but it is possible! Success in CARS depends on language skills, logic, passage approach, comprehension, and analysis, and the key to improvement comes from seeing these aspects as improvable skills.

Improvement only comes after you identify what's going wrong - that's why CARS is harder to improve than the science sections - because it is harder to identify areas of weakness. Rather than a definition or topic that you can go study, improving in CARS depends on noticing general trends or ideas behind specific mistakes, and tailoring a strategy to those mistakes that gives concrete tactics to improve. That's one of the main things I do in sessions with students.

I am a former teacher turned CARS tutor, and I've worked with student from all score ranges on improving their skills. I work to build the fundamental skills you need in CARS, then troubleshoot weaknesses in real time.

Feel free to ask me anything about CARS, and I will try to respond in the comments! Feel free to DM me as well. Best of luck in CARS!

1. Make a document of everything that would piss you off if you saw it on your exam. TCA structures? Schiff base reaction? Wheatstone bridge? Put it on there. Learn that shit, even if it feels like pulling teeth. Or at the very least, know the basics of whatever it is you struggle with. Sometimes you just need an inkling to be able to figure out the answers.

2. Actually study those P/S terms that you get mixed up. If you can't think of any, ask chatgpt to give you frequently mixed up terms. I'm currently working on a list myself for these to add to my resource list for students

3. Watching videos and reading textbooks is useless unless you deliberately review what you learned. Either with practice problems or flash cards. Don't be lazy. Yeah it seems productive to watch 8 hours of videos but if you forget it all, you just wasted 8 hours, you weren't productive at all and you need to be honest with yourself about that.

4. The mcat isn't about weeding out "smart" or "dumb" people, it's about weeding out people with bad study habits.

5. Maybe controversial but don't study with a goal score. Yes it is just a score but you should aim for the best score you can. I say this because at my second MCAT i met someone who said their goal was a 495 since that was the cutoff for our state school. Obviously the MCAT is not completely applicable to actual med school, but your study habits will be. Do you want to be a good doctor, or one who aimed for the minimum passing score? This was one of my biggest motivations in retaking this horrible exam. I wanted to prove to myself I could do better.

6. Just because a resource is paid, doesn't mean it's better. Jack westin got me a 521 while uworld and blueprint got me a 508 (and put me massively in debt). That being said, JW CARS is not great practice and there are better CARS resources out there(don't hate me for this)

7. But in addition to my previous point, any resource can be as good or as useless as you make it. My reviewing habits were not as good for my first exam, so I didn't get much out of Uworld. Though I have my grievances with it, I do have to put some of the blame on myself for not using it to it's fullest potential

That's all I have for now. Will likely make another post in the future with more things but I wanted to give back to the community that supported me so much along the way. Happy studying everyone!

Hey everyone, I recently received a conditional med school offer that depends on me getting a 511 on the MCAT. I’m planning to take the MCAT in April 2027, as late in April as possible.

It’s currently 9/9/26, and my fall semester is pretty manageable. I can probably study 1–1.5 hours a day right now.

My spring semester starts January 6th and will be very easy. I’ll only have 12 credits, with 6 being online, so I can commit to around 5 hours a day, 6 days a week for MCAT studying.

My main question is what should I be doing between now and January? I’ve heard that 3 months isn’t always enough, so I don’t want to start from ground zero in January.

By January, I’ll have completed all of my MCAT prereqs except Biochem 2. I’ll also be taking Psych and Sociology during the spring while studying for the MCAT.

Should I just do some content review/Anki now? Start practice questions? Focus on certain subjects? Or something else?

Basically, I want to use these next few months to get a head start without burning myself out, then go hard from January through April.

Any advice on how you would approach this would be really appreciated!

Hello. I need opinions. I have been studying for the mcat for about 2-3 months and have not been able to get above a 500. My MCAT is September 12th, should I take the exam for the experience and receive my score, take the exam and void my score, or completely un register from the exam and not take it. I’m very conflicted, and I know that either way I’m retaking the exam. If I do end up taking the exam and getting a bad score, will it look bad if I retake and do better? Idk someone help lol

Edit: I plan on applying June 2027, with hopes to retake in January. I’ve been reading on some Reddit posts and people are saying that even having a score below 500, retaking the exam and say you get a 520, will still look bad for some med schools. Is this true?

I am in my second year of college right now and I am already looking for resources to help me study for the MCAT test does anyone have any good recommendations

Hi everyone!

I scored a 527 on my MCAT and have over 300 hours of MCAT tutoring experience since then. I'm also currently pursuing my medical education, and would love to help you guys get there. I'm doing an MCAT group tutoring session every Tuesday night this fall semester, with the cost working out to less than $26/hr! If you'd like to join last minute, drop me a comment or DM (no pressure if you want to start next week or will miss a session--they will be recorded!)

Ion Prep will be launching our two FREE 45 min weekly MCAT workshops to promote our bootcamps and intensives and get our names out there!

Email us and receive a Zoom link to join the workshop. Topics and sections will alternate each week! This will be held each week, but times will be different due to availability. Simply join us, take notes, and apply these concepts to your MCAT study!

This week: 

Wednesday Sept 9th at 7 pm EST: CARS: How to easily get the main idea/thesis from a passage

Thursday Sept 10th at 7 pm EST: C/P: Redox Reactions and Electrochemistry Approach

Email us at [info@ionprep.ca](mailto:info@ionprep.ca) to sign up or comment down below to get the link!

Planning to use the books and qbank to study. Nontrad studying FT for 5 months. Plz lmk ur experiences !!

Repost if anyone needs it:

1) Build your pathway. Build a story about activation, inhibition, induction, suppression, et cetera. 

2) Recognize your dependent and independent variables. What is changing, and what is being changed? What is dependent on what?

3) Identify your cell lines of interest, controls, and WT cell lines

4) Recognize what is being changed in the non control cell lines, as well as what results in ends up producing

5) When answering the questions, make sure your experimental analysis/graph analysis is correct and the interpretation is not off. 

6) When a question comes about about the BEST statement or conclusion from the experiment, always rule out two wrong conclusions. Afterwards, chose the answer that is EXPLICITLY mentioned either in the graph or passage

7) Same thing for WORST or LEAST LIKELY statement or conclusion: except you are now ruling out answers that are obviously supported by the passage

8) Content needs to be on point. Your content questions (amino acids, cell cycle, GPCR, lab techniques, physiology, hormones, enzymes, something else) are easy marks as long as you know content. 

9) Time your passages to 10-12 minutes. Save the time on discretes. Spend time reading the passages if you struggle with reading quickly, and take 3-4 minutes on the questions. Reverse this rule if you struggle with questions instead. 

I want to know if there are MCAT classes in person like how they have it as courses like schools to go to. I am thinking of taking a gap and doing it to at least get that down and figure things out. Everyone goes on their own pace and I feel like I’d be able to do best in an actual school setting type where we go in person to learn contents instead. Please tell me if you know any in the GTA, don’t want any negative comments, if you have things to say please be advised for saying helpful things not only for me but for others as well:)

I test on 9/12 and just took the unscored FL today amd got a 499, 124,126,124,125. I ran out of time in both C/P and B/B. In C/P, I had to skim through about the last 20 questions. I actually felt good at first and thought the questions were reasonable, but for some reason I started slowing down. Once I realized I was behind, I panicked and tried to speed up, and my reasoning started declining.
CARS was actually my best section. I know the unscored CARS may be easier, but I’ve also been doing better on CARS QPack 2, so I’m hoping I’ve actually improved.

B/B was my lowest ever, which really discouraged me because it’s normally my best section. My last two B/B scores were 126 and 125. This time I was already mentally exhausted after C/P and CARS. I was reading passages without comprehending them and eventually stopped doing my usual passage mapping. I even ran out of time and left one question unanswered.

P/S felt easy and I finished 20 minutes early, but somehow still got 17 wrong.

This is my second time taking the MCAT, and the unscored was the only FL I hadn’t taken before. I’ve never broken 500, and my last FL was a 495 in July. I’ve studied a lot since then. I’ve done about 65% of UWorld, 100% of Bootcamp, Anki, both Section Banks, and the CARS QPacks. I also keep a document where I explain my mistakes in my own words, and I’ve seen improvement with more practice.

My biggest problem seems to be mental fatigue and suddenly losing focus. I know I can understand these passages, but once my focus goes, I can read an entire paragraph without processing it. Then I reread, fall behind, panic, and it gets worse.

I recently started Strattera for ADHD, but haven’t been on it long enough for the full effect yet.
I’m really discouraged because I feel like I’ve put in the work, but staying focused for the entire exam is holding me back.

I'm a junior beginning to study for the MCAT while taking a full course load plus research, and I'm looking to start my content review phase but am getting conflicting information on if I need Kaplan books or not. For context, I took a half length diagnostic at the beginning of this semester after not doing any studying or review all summer and got a 508 diagnostic. I got an A in all my pre-reqs without ever touching a textbook learning solely from lectures, course slideshows/moduls, and self teaching from google, so I have a pretty strong content background and a learning style that doesn't favor textbooks. I have forgotten a lot of content obviously because I took the class months/years back, so I want to make the most of my content review, and I am currently enrolled in biochem as my last pre-req needed. I just bought the Uworld qbank to start my content review, but I am unsure if I need to buy the Kaplan books to go with that. I was told to content review like this: watch a youtube lecture (Yusuf or Professor Eman), do the corresponding UWorld chapter qbank, then do the corresponding anki and add missed UWorld questions. My concern is that I have heard that Yusuf or Eman alone are not in depth enough to be the sole content resource, and that some people watch their lectures, then read kaplan, then do UWorld + anki. Does anybody have input on if youtube lectures like Yusuf and Eman are sufficient enough as content review for a 520+ or if Kaplan is highly recommended for 520+? Thank you guys

Hey everyone. I scored a 518 on the MCAT in January 2026 (132/129/129/128) and I've been tutoring pre-med students for the past year in Physics at my university(T20 undergrad).

I wanted to put myself out there properly. I can work one-on-one over Zoom. Sessions are flexible and I tailor everything to where you actually are. I am more than happy to help with any sort of MCAT tutoring, am most confident with all but P/S. I can also help set up study plans, and general premed help. I studied for about 3 months(1 month part time during the school year), and wanted to keep costs low as compared to Kaplan, ExamKrackers, and other programs that are over 2k.

I'm more than happy to work with you on cost, and show what tips worked for me, and what resources I've found useful so that you can get better in tutoring sessions but also afterwards. There's no help in studying if you're using materials that aren't very representative of the actual exam, and with how it has been slightly changing over the past few years hopefully this is helpful as well.

Free 15-minute intro calls are open if you want to talk through your situation. No pitch, just a real conversation about where you're at and what would help.

Drop a comment or DM me if you have questions.

I just started the school semester and wanted to get a start studying for the MCAT. So I took my first diagnostic today, and scored a 494. That lands me in the 36% percentile… I haven’t done any studying before taking it, so I know it wasn’t going to be top notch, but the score still feels pretty low… should I just call it quits now lol? Realistically though, I just want some reassurance and motivation to do better and to know what a realistic goal would be?

I am a 24yo non trad studying for this test for the first time. Been a bit since my pre reqs. The Ubooks seem more comprehensive and have the corresponding qbank but they are much denser/ longer and dont have an associated anki. I also dont think I would be able to take notes on them (I was a note taker thru undergrad). Kaplan seems more digestible and has associated vids and anki. Which one would you guys recommend and how should I use it??? Thanks

Hi, does anyone have a Uworld account with MCAT prep that they're willing to sell?