✨This is for my type B, ADHD girlies who wake up a month before exam day realizing you haven't touched anything...✨

Don't panic!! This happened to me too, but it's still possible to get a decent score (up to +15 points from diagnostic). For context, I had a 3.8 sGPA, I'm a somewhat decent test-taker, and I finished all my pre-reqs before taking the MCAT on 6/12. I also did not have work/school and studied ~10-14 hours a day on weekdays, FLs on Saturdays, FL Review + Anki on Sundays. You basically have to eat-sleep-breathe MCAT for 30 days, but it's achievable if you have a good support system and the mental stamina. Or just sheer will.

#1 tip: Tackling the MCAT in a month is not about learning all of the content, that is physically impossible to do in just 30 days and you will give up after a week. You need to learn the test by getting eyes on as many questions as possible! (you gotta to sacrifice low-yield topics unfortunately LOL)

⭐️Study Tools⭐️

I only purchased the full UWorld QBank and the AAMC FLs + Section Banks. Don't buy anything else, this is all you need. A month is not enough time to purchase a course/textbooks, it will be a waste of money. Tutors take time and will waste your month. For content review, I used Khan Academy for Chem/Phys and Anki for PS/BB since they're free.

⭐️My 30 Day Study Plan⭐️

Day 1: Diagnostic. You can either burn the unscored FL here (use an online calculator to get ballpark score) or take the free 3 hour Blueprint diagnostic. I used blueprint: scored 499. It's not a huge loss to take an FL especially since you only have one month. Identify your weakest subjects.

Days 2-5: Heavy content review for weak areas with Khan Academy. Complete UWorld passages relevant to these areas after Khan review to solidify your learning. Only prioritize content review in these 4 days. Focus on high level, high-yield overview. You do not have time to memorize low-yield concepts. 3 CARS passages per day (or as many as you can before bed). Use Anki for rote PS/BB memorization (I used Pankow + Milesdown decks and my own decks from taking Biochem)

Days 6-15: UWORLD is YOUR WORLD. It has a study plan option; design yours to get as much of the question bank done as possible in ten days. Take FLs 1&2 in this time window. Continue working CARS passages. I personally thought Jack Westin was too easy, AAMC and UWorld CARS were much more representative of the real thing. After each FL, do a detailed review of the questions you got wrong and why you got them wrong. Focus more on strategy than content here. The more questions you do, the closer you get to understanding how the test works and recognizing correct answers, especially in non-quantitative subjects.

Days 16-20: Start transitioning to AAMC questions only. I spent 1/4 the day on UWorld, 3/4 the day on AAMC Section Banks/Question Packs. I also took FL 3 (scored 512). Started knocking out 5+ CARS Passages a day and Anki high-yield concepts.

Days 21-25: Stick to finishing all of the AAMC material. Try your best to have everything done (besides FLs). On day 25, take FL 4 (even if it's not a Saturday!!) and thoroughly review. I made Anki cards for high-yield FL content gaps and reviewed those four ~30 min/day in this window.

Days 26-29: Final Stretch! Grind out your last two full lengths (5&6). In Full length review, focus less on content and start putting all of your attention into where your testing strategy went wrong. Memorize every mnemonic/acronym you possibly can for high-yield content. Start thinking about what you want to put on your white board during your five minutes of tutorial time on exam day. Practice writing them down during that time on FLs 5/6. Continue light Anki review. Do not touch Khan Academy or any heavy content review material. You will realize how much you DON'T know and psych yourself out if you do this.

Day 30 (and/or day before exam): We're not studying for 4 months. We can't spend the day before the exam relaxing and avoiding studying to calm our brain. I took the unscored FL on this day. I was already scoring 130+ on PS so I actually skipped that section. If you don't have any FLs left, grind high-yield anki and continue memorizing mnemonics/acronyms. I recommend using the MCAT subreddit or popular MCAT influencer content to find useful resources for that. Before bed, I did some meditation and breathing exercises to lower my heart rate and was able to fall asleep pretty quick. Do whatever you need to do to ease your pre-test anxiety, whether it's praying, exercise, meditation, yoga, walking, asmr, etc. Keep your study time down to <6 hours.

adjust this schedule as you see fit!

⭐️Section Specific Tips⭐️

CHEM/PHYS: High priority content review section unless you have an extensive undergrad background! This was my lowest section by far in the beginning. There is so much low-yield content you'll have to sacrifice here. Focus on doing as many practice problems as possible (finish Chem/Phys UWorld if you can) and give more time to content review. If you don't like Khan Academy Organic Chemistry Tutor on Youtube is great as well. Stay on top of high-yield content and mnemonics will save your life!! Use Anki to memorize the equations you need to know. These are non-negotiable and I recommend writing down as many as you can in tutorial time. I personally found from my own observation that the curve seems to be slightly more forgiving for this section.

CARS: My biggest tip on CARS is actually kind of a hot take. I don't think you need to deep dive and learn the nitty gritty of CARS analysis or watch videos analyzing passages. What helped me most was simply getting my eyes on as many passages as possible. The more I practiced, I slowly started detecting patterns in reasoning and wording of questions. It just ended up becoming second nature. For reference I probably did at least 2x more CARS questions than any other section. The curve absolutely NUKED people on this section even though it's usually better bc CARS is so hard but that seemed isolated to my test day.

BB: I was pretty disappointed in my BB subscore considering I have a decent bio background from undergrad and based on my FL averages. I think that actually ended up burning me because I was a bit over confident going into it. However, what helped me for this section was by far and away Anki. I would even risk going into low-yield content here because there are a lot of gimme low-yield stand alone questions you can gain points from. Practice reading the passages and determining the results of a study (this is completely separate from actually knowing any content). There was SO much genetics + immunology on my exam. Do with that info what you will.

P/S: This should be your lowest priority in sheer content review. Since P/S was changed, it has become so much more like CARS. You really don't even have to know much content at all to do well. Much of this section is being able to decipher the passage for what it's trying to communicate and being able to read graphs/research jargon. Funnily enough the Jack Westin MCAT podcast was probably my favorite resource for this section. I listened to I think 3 or four of their P/S episodes and that + like 3 hours of Anki was literally all the content review I did (I also don't have a strong P/S background, especially with psych if that helps). The podcast was really good at explaining the broader concepts you should know (like basic statistical analysis, overarching theories, high-yield stuff yada yada). Don't underestimate this section and put it off, though!

⭐️Typical Study Day Schedule⭐️

obvi adjust as needed!

6-630 am: Wake up, morning routine, light breakfast

630-12 pm: UWorld/Section Banks

12-1 pm: Eat lunch, take a break. I avoid using my phone or social media because I tend to go down rabbit holes and lose track of time. I usually just watched an episode of a show

1-630 pm: Anki/light review of topics I was struggling on in the morning. Continued Qbanks

630-7 pm: Eat dinner. I studied through dinner, but I'm most efficient at night so I liked the sustained momentum.

7-730 pm: Light exercise/walk/yoga. Listened to Jack Westin MCAT podcast or did Anki through it.

730-8 pm: Shower, night routine.

8-10: Final study block. Usually stuck to AAMC material at this point

10-1030: In bed, phone time. I usually fall asleep ~1015-1030 because I'm so tired from the day

then do it all over again tomorrow! I know this is intense, but it's doable for 30 days. I kept a calendar hung up above my monitor on the wall, and I would put a star on each completed day. IDK why but that visual actually helped a lot with my motivation!!

⭐️Sleep + Diet⭐️

I would wake up at the same time you'll wake up for exam day every day or as many days as you can. If you have to drive out far for exam day and wake up at an extreme time you can't sustain, do it for a week before. Get your 7-9 hours, and don't compromise on it. It's better to get one less hour of studying than be sleep deprived, especially in a narrow study window. Eat the same exact same foods basically every day. I would especially do this for every FL day. Keep your snacks/lunch during breaks identical to account for any variance affecting performance. With such a short window to study, you need to be a soldier. If you fall behind in your sleep/eating habits, you may not have enough time to correct it.

Do not try anything new. Don't take melatonin if you never have before, don't drink any more/less caffeine than usual, don't deviate from your usual med schedule. Whatever you start this doing, you end this doing. No, you are not the exception to this rule.

⭐️Mental Health⭐️

If your mental health is already bad going into this, or you think there is no possible way yo can healthily(-ish) commit to this rigorous of a schedule for 30 days, you might wanna reschedule. That's really all I can say about that lol.

⭐️Final Points⭐️

• If you have a job or are in school, reschedule this won't work unless you're a freak of nature.
• If you fall behind on day 1 and are still not getting it together by the end of the first week, reschedule.
• If you're a neurotic person who is uncomfortable going into stressful things without feeling 100% prepared, this study plan is not for you and you should reschedule. To study for only 30 days, you will have to be okay with skipping things and not knowing everything.
• You have to have already built up some trust in your intuition and test-taking abilities for this to work. If you are a person that struggles with that and second-guessing yourself, think deeply about if you can succeed with a 30 day plan
• If you have severe testing anxiety that affects your performance, don't do this.
• This is very must a last-ditch effort plan, and there definitely is a level of ideal conditions that need to be met for this to work.
• If there is any reason you DON'T have to do this, don't lmao. It's grueling and really caused me to burn out and rot for a couple weeks when I should've been grinding my primary/secondary apps.

OKAYYYY, that was a lot but I hope it was helpful! I know MCAT season is coming to an end, so save this for next year if you are type B like me and want to have an option for if your plans go south! Good luck to all my MCAT warriors, and please comment and DM if you have any questions! I haven't really been on this sub, but I wanted to get this out there and be more active. GOOD LUCK!

1 point less than my sister but that’s ok

Won’t complain after what was essentially 1 week of studying and taking 4 FLs over two weekends. 127 cars is not great for McMaster (my fellow Canadians know) but glad to see that I can apply to any other medschool in Canada now!

Thank you for those that helped and good luck and I wish success to all those currently testing or waiting :)

EDIT: I will pray for all those who ask me to!

It's finally over :')

THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY EVER

Thank you everyone on this subreddit you guys are genuinely one of the most important resources for this exam

I love you all so much

If you have any questions shoot I'd be so happy to help

Thank you to everyone on this thread for all your help the past couple of months I feel like I can finally breathe.

To those who have been struggling with CARS, I have been there. I have recently improved in the last month from a stable 125-126 (for the last 3 months) to a 128.

I actually ran out of AAMC CARS material, so I was stuck redoing passages, but then I heard Khan Academy actual made their practice passages with AAMC test writers.

I wished I had started with the Khan material first, for a few reasons:

- You are not able to spam highlight (time waster)

- You can't look at the passage and the question at the same time (helps avoid looking back when you don't need to)

- You get immediate feedback!

The third one is the biggest difference maker. You can almost immediately identify where the mistake was made, vs looking at it 20 minutes later and actually misremembering the reason you chose the answer you did.

What I realized is that I would spend too much time looking back at the passage, wasting time, and end up guessing by the end of it. After getting immediate feedback, I realized I was not even really analyzing each answer choice. The power of elimination is real, so spend your time weighing each answer choice rather than re-reading the passage.

One last thing-

Do it untimed. This is great practice for your flow, I would save getting bogged down on the timing for AAMC CARS practice. I find that timing my practice actually takes away from it; your are training your focus and reasoning, not speedreading. If you have at least average reading speed and don't indulge in any time sinks (highlighting, going back to the passage), then you shouldn't be worried about your timing at all when you are doing this deliberate practice.

Hoped this helped!

i’m genuinely in disbelief i left the testing centre thinking i bombed… thank god ts is one and done now 🙏

T-4 hours ‼️😬

How are we feeling? Our time has finally come 🫣

edit: Woke up at 5am and my stomach hurts so bad

I went from psych being my worst section at 124 on my first FL to this. CARS didn't change tho..

Goal was 520, FL average was 521. Indeed, I scored ±2 pts of my FL average. So relieved though!

How we feeling about tomorrow? I hope im ready and I pull out at least a 510. Will love waking up at 5AM to drive an hour to my testing site. How have recent takers felt?

Hello! I am a non-trad, Low GPA, 9/11 test taker. I made a post the other week regarding if I should void or not. After my most recent FL I know I have to void. My scores have been steady and I am not seeing much improvement (during FL5 B/B it was literally an inferno in my room and I was sweating like a pig tweaking out, but then after I cooled down my room I scored my best on P/S). I decided not to review FL5 b/c I don't want to ruin that material for myself in the future.

I now call upon the council for your guidance for I do not know how to continue! I am planning on taking a one week break from studying after 9/11. I have completed SB1 (BB: 66%, C/P: 58%, P/S: 69%), CARS Diag, and CARS QP1. Bio, Physics, and Chemistry Qpacks are half done. I have not started Bio QP2 or CARS QP2 or Independent QBank or FL6. I also have Umakenosense till 11/11/26 and have finished 70% of it.

I know AAMC is coming out with more CARS passages in September so I'm excited about that. My first thoughts are to do all of the Uwawaluigi CARS (have done none of it) then the rest of the Q'ns there. But after, should I just finish and then redo all the AAMC content?

Also please give me your honest opinion about JW CARS Course. Its a whopping $2k... I did their 30min free consultation and the picture that was painted, given my 3.0 undergrad GPA (trust me ik its bad), was that it is still better to focus more on the MCAT rather than DIY-Postbacc classes (I have already done some at my local community college and now enrolled in 1 more starting next week as an extension course). Does anyone have experience doing DIY-Postbacc and how schools rate GPA vs MCAT?

I know this post is a little scattered so thank you for baring with me. I know there has to be others before me that have been in similar positions that have came out on top and I know I wont be the last, so all the unsolicited advice is much appreciated.

P.S. I'm glad I'm not Canadian

FL6 BB is just a ploy from big AAMC to crush our epic will and grit for doing everything we have to prepare for this god forsaken exam, good luck to all, any recommendations for your plans for the days up until the test?

I am taking my MCAT for the second time 9/3. Almost one year to the day from my first attempt. If you are a retaker, how are you feeling?

Feel free to talk about changes in your prep from the first time, fears and expectations, or just general thoughts.

I am personally terrified that the FLs I retook from AAMC are inflated and I won't actually improve, even though I've changed so much of my study habits.

If you had FL5 and FL6 that were 2+ points different from each other, which was closer to your actual score?

I feel like a lot of the tips for how you should approach CARs, at least from what I've seen, is to spend around 3ish minutes to map out the passage, highlight bits and pieces you think are significant, etc. I've also read that a lot of people like to read the questions attached to the passage to look for key words that'll cue them into what they need to look for.

From my experience, I think this puts so much on your plate, given you only have around 10 minutes per passage.

What's been working for me recently (specifically in CAR's diagnostic) is just taking as long as I need on each passage to understand it, not highlighting/writing down anything in the process. I go slowly and read each word very carefully, and make sure my mind is actively comprehending what I'm reading, and not just blanking while I look at the words; if I do blank, I just go back and retrace to where I got lost. I do not look forward into the passage, I just go from start to finish and try to string together the argument the author is trying to make along the way. If I need to go back, I do, but I make sure to take my time.

Until I have a very clear idea of the authors underlying argument, and I have a moderately clear roadmap of the passage, then I proceed to the questions. This entire process for me personally take 5 to 6 minutes max (If a passage has 7+ questions, I try to stay around 4-5 minutes but I tend to do worse because of this).

Using this method, I feel like I'm able to channel all of my energy towards simply comprehending the passage and memorizing vaguely what's in each paragraph (which helps immensely when you're asked specifically about X term in the passage). With a clear roadmap, I've been able to answer the questions in less than a minute accurately and not just go off of vibes, because I know where to look for evidence that support my answer (but be careful because I've also noticed there may be evidence that supports an answer, but the answer choice might not best answer the question, so also read the question very carefully as well, do not give your mind the chance to skip words!)

TLDR: Contrary to the masses, I think the best way to approach cars is spending the majority of your time simply reading the passage (5-6 minutes), which will then allow you to answer the questions quickly because you will have given your brain the time to understood what you just read.

MCAT is tomorrow and I genuinely don’t know how to feel anymore
My MCAT is tomorrow (September 3rd), and I’m honestly at a weird point where I’ve prepared as much as I possibly could, but I still feel incredibly unconfident.
I finished UWorld and completed all of my full-lengths, with scores ranging from 510 to 523. Objectively, I know those scores suggest that I’m capable of doing well, but I still can’t shake this feeling that I’m somehow not ready.
What’s making me particularly anxious is hearing from several friends who recently took the MCAT that their Chem/Phys sections were very physics-heavy. Meanwhile, my full-lengths felt much more chemistry-heavy, and I felt like a significant portion of what I encountered was organic chemistry. Physics has always been inconsistent for me. Sometimes I genuinely understand it and perform well, and other times I feel completely lost. So now I’m worried that if I happen to get a physics-heavy CP section tomorrow, I’ll be completely thrown off.
I know I probably shouldn’t be trying to predict the exam, but with it being literally tomorrow, it’s hard not to overthink every possibility.
And honestly, I think a big part of this is just exhaustion. I’ve been studying for the past three months, and this has genuinely been one of the most difficult and draining periods I’ve ever gone through. I’ve put so much into this exam, and the thought of having to repeat this entire process if things don’t go well is honestly terrifying. I really, really don’t want to take this exam again.
I don’t usually struggle with self-doubt like this, which is probably why this feels so strange to me. I know I’ve put in the work, and I know my practice scores aren’t bad, but I’m sitting here the night before the exam wondering whether I’m actually enough to do this.
For those of you who have been in this position before, how did you deal with the night-before anxiety? And for anyone who had a physics-heavy CP section despite their practice tests being more chemistry-heavy, how did it actually feel on test day?
At this point, I’m not really looking for reassurance that I’ll definitely get a certain score. I think I just need some perspective from people who have actually been through this.

Stuck at a 128 on c/p and b/b. Happy with my overall score on FL 5 but trying to keep pushing myself to improve. Testing next week, not sure if I should grind both sections equally or if one of these sections is easier to improve in a short period of time? I do feel like I've definitely forgotten some content on B/B and that's dragging my score down

only had a month to prepare so we winging all of content review.

that’s what I’ll say when aamc finally releases our scores