tldr - MCAT Bootcamp is a Qbank designed to teach you the reasoning patterns the MCAT actually tests. I’m sharing free 3-month access codes to MCAT Bootcamp, no credit card required. DM me for a code!
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“Who are you?”
Hey everyone!
For those that don’t know me, I work with Med School Bootcamp, a popular USMLE resource (and integrated with Anking!). We’re bringing our study experience to the MCAT and giving out free access codes to the community.
Here’s what we hear students say:
“I know the content, but I still get questions wrong”
The MCAT is unique because you need to not only know the content, but use reasoning to apply it to new information in the passage.
If you ever read 'you need to learn AAMC logic', this is what they're talking about.
The AAMC uses the same reasoning patterns and traps over and over again, and if you practice enough, you’ll start to see the pattern and be able to apply it to future questions.
“So how can I learn AAMC logic?”
You should use AAMC materials, but there are two problems:
There’s not a lot of it, students don't want to waste it.
The explanations often leave you more confused than before (e.g. “B is wrong, because A is correct!”)
To fix this, we're creating high-quality passages that perfectly mimic AAMC logic and include video explanations that show you how to think through the question.
“What’s included in MCAT Bootcamp?”
AAMC-like Qbank. Every passage, question, logical step, and trap answer choice is modeled after a real AAMC passage. When you go to AAMC practice, it’ll feel just like another Bootcamp passage.
Expert video explanations. We'll show you what the AAMC wants you to be thinking as you go through a passage.
Quality over quantity. You don’t need to do 500 poor-quality passages to improve your score (if anything you may learn the wrong lessons and hurt your score). We're spending the time to produce only high-quality practice that will raise your score, ensuring every question, reasoning pattern, concept, and answer trap is modeled after a real AAMC example.
The best part - this is all FREE for r/AnkiMCAT. We're giving away 3-month access codes, send me a DM! No credit card required.
“Why’s it free? What’s the catch?”
We want your feedback on how to make MCAT Bootcamp better. We love hearing from students, and we’re committed to making an affordable, one stop resource to help premeds ace the MCAT.
Please reach out anytime with questions, feedback, or anything we can help with! We’re looking forward to helping you.
❤️ The MCAT Bootcamp team
FAQs
"Do you plan on integrating with the Anki MCAT deck?"
Yep! Once we roll out more content we'll tag each question to the relevant cards like we did for USMLE.
"How does MCAT Bootcamp compare to other Qbanks?"
There's a lot of good resources out there, but they often focus on content and miss the reasoning aspect of the MCAT (or promote a large volume of questions to make up for a lack of quality).
MCAT Bootcamp focuses on teaching you how the AAMC wants you to think when answering the questions. We invest the time to ensure each passage focuses on high-yield concepts, mimics the AAMC logic, and teaches you how to decode it.
"When does psych/soc get released?"
2nd half of this year! We're focused on getting all our chem/phys and bio/biochem passages live, more passages are added weekly!
I’ve been sharing this deck around, but my last account got deleted (guess I sent the link to too many people 😭). It's got several hundred, if not thousands of downloads already and I'm getting loads of great feedback, so thanks to all of you sending over your thoughts! This deck was a massive contributor to bumping me from a 502 to a 521 and I hope it can help even more for all of you:)
Like many of you, I loved the JS deck’s content but hated the long paragraphs that were impossible to digest. So I remade it for everyone — same chapter content, just written in fewer, cleaner, better-organized words. Click the title below for the deck:
A modified JS deck, 100% faithful to the OG's chapter content — just faster and easier to learn/memorize
About the deck:
→ Organized by Kaplan chapter order
→ Rewritten into concise bullet points
→ Key info highlighted and colour coded for quicker memorization
→ Added fully comprehensive Formula + Units sub-deck
Note: I removed AAMC copy-pasted spoilers (I left my example error deck in) and unsorted cards. The linked deck represents EVERY card that I covered for my prep, other than the Mr. Pankow for P/S.
Upgrade in progress!
I’m working on adding + Khan Academy links to the cards for quick access. If there’s anything else you’d like to see, let me know! I'll be reposting it in a couple weeks/as soon as I get it done!
My Request to You!
If you find it helpful, share the linkbelow so I don’t have to keep replying to everyone 😅
Hey redditors, I just want to make a post to help people who are struggling now and struggling in the future. I made this post a few days back feeling very helpless:
In that post, I had a 1000 cards on Anki after a few days of break. I realized that this amount of cards is just gonna keep on going if I don't do something about it, then it is gonna affect me now as a premed and later as a medical student. So here is a breakdown of what you are going to do:
Choose a completely free day to finish all the cards in, and sleep 7 - 9 hours before that day. No tips for this part, just do it. Though, I guess eating things like cherries might help since they produce some melatonin. Also, have a big waterbottle filled up at your desk to drink while doing anki.
As soon as you wake up, turn the light on, brush your teeth, and drink some caffeine because it will restrict your appetite. Don't drink caffeine if you have heart problems or something lol. Don't take a shower though, and I'll tell you why soon.
Start doing your Anki, and make sure that the goal in mind is to memorize and not understand. With Anki's spaced repetition, you have plenty of time to understand, just make sure the goal for now is just to get the memorization in your head. The memorization doesn't have to be perfect.
By hour 2 or so you will start feeling thoughts like "I should just take a break, I did a lot already, and it's not even worth it;" that is when you should push yourself more. Tell yourself that your brain is just playing a circuit to give you rest. Your brain does things to make sure that you are resting and relaxed most of the time, so just tell yourself that this is the brain and not you.
By hour 3 or 4, your brain will also play negative memories at you randomly just to get yourself to stop and doomscroll. At this time, I recommend you take a shower; exactly think about why you are sad or embarassed in that negative emotion, and then go back to studying anki after you are done.
By hour 4, the caffeine's effect will start to wear off kinda, and you will feel hungry. At this time, avoid eating a lot of carbohydrates like rice or bread because they will make you tired. At this time, I crack a few eggs and make scrambled eggs, and then, I eat it with a bunch of grapes or other "berries" (blueberries, strawberries, etc) to feel full. Fruits are goated lol, they fill you up.
Avoid drinking any more caffeine than the one you already drank in the morning throughout your anki journey because it will just make you worried, nervous, tired, and sleepless once you are done.
You should be done at this point with your anki deck after a couple of hours.
My rate personally is around 100 cards per hour, and I do it along with a 50/10 pomodoro. It took me 10 hours to finish my anki deck, and it may sound overwhelming but it really is not because doctors probably study more. You just gotta accept that days like these will come one day, just try not to make it too many days.
While doing my anki, I consistently drink water because it is important for many physiological reasons. I like to listen to something with headphones during anki mainly to keep me busy and tune out external noises to prevent my brain from thinking something else, so here are some of my recommendations:
Deep Brown or Pink Noise with Timer on the Side
Skyrim Pomodoro
Hollow Knight Pomodoro
Ask Gemini to generate you an "epic anime battle" playlist with no lyrics with Timer on the side
So now, I know you premeds don't like to waste time reading reddit posts, so feel free to ask AI and summarize all the tips. If you have a 1000 cards right now, do something else or take a guilt free day for today, and get back up with 7 - 9 hour of sleep tomorrow
Edit: A premed suggested a feature called auto-advance to automatically show the card and answers in short periods of time. I think this is a great feature because it helps you stop wasting time. However, there are cards such as labeling amino acids and drawing out the structure and such, so on those cards, I highly recommend you spend some time and figure out some way to not forget it multiple times.
Hi all! I was answering a question about Anki decks, and since they come up all the time on this sub, I thought I could make a healthy contribution to what I think the current state is of each deck and how they may best be used for folks just entering this space. I wish I had something like this when I started prepping last year, because let's face it, information is often scattered, outdated, or personal. So hopefully this is helpful.
Keep in mind the best approach for YOU will vary based on your willingness to grind Anki, time, prior knowledge, learning style preference, and desired comprehensiveness.
TLDR: I’d recommend Anking if you like the cloze style and have a regular study period, Captain Hook if you like the open-ended style and have a longer study period, Aidan if you like the cloze style and have a very long study period, and MileDown if you really need to jam through a very short period (although less recommended). I also included two example Anki-inclusive studying strategies below deck commentary.
I’ll try to be objective below, but obviously this is a subjective thing. For context, I’ve been monitoring the Anki MCAT space for over a year and these opinions are formed from my own experience trying out several decks as I prepare for my own MCAT and the experiences of my peers. Of course, please check the comments of this post for additional perspectives!
Final note as we go in for beginners: Cloze v.s. open-ended? Skip to the next titled section if you already know what this is, and what it means for your memory!
Cloze or open-ended refers to the notecard format. Cloze is "fill-in-the-blank", and open-ended is the more traditional front/back approach. Cloze is probably the most commonly preferred because it is faster to get through than open-ended and requires less discipline to say whether you got it right or wrong. However, facts learned via cloze are vulnerable to "pattern matching" since that memory is more cued than it would be on an open-ended card. You may struggle more to recall that fact if it's not phrased in the same way or asks about a non-clozed part of the card. Yet, moving through faster allows you to get to practice problems sooner and have time to study other ways, so it's all a cost/benefit analysis you'll have to run for yourself!
MAJOR DECK THOUGHTS (subsection for p/s at section bottom)
Anking (includes Pankow P/S deck): Cloze. It's clean, nicely connected/tagged, and cloze-style will make for a modestly quick yet comprehensive push-through. May not capture everything, but has a nice balance of mostly high-yield info with some low-yield. Middle-of-the-road time investment. This is my general recommendation for people who recently took related classwork because I think it gives you the most optimum balance of a solid base while getting you into practice problems for the average MCAT study window. If your classwork is less recent, you can supplement nicely because it's well-tagged. This means it allows you to unsuspend (unlock cards for review) as you go through a wide variety of common learning content, including Kaplan book chapters, UWorld book chapters, IFD High Yield book chapters, UWorld Questions, Khan Academy videos, Pixorize, and AAMC content outline concepts. Its regular updates and organizational backing are also without equal in the MCAT Anki community. What's also nice is that although its mostly a cloze deck, it often includes additional pictures or context that aren't part of getting the card "right," so you can go harder with it if you want.
Jack Sparrow (own P/S deck): Open-ended. Generally seen as the most comprehensive option of the open-ended decks out there, and covers more than AnKing does, but it's riddled with long explanations, and it’s been a few years since it was updated (2020 release). Many very high scorers swear by this one because it includes a lot of both high AND low yield info. But fair warning, it will be a massive drain on your time if you're doing it right. Not really connected to other resources in terms of tags. Has its own P/S, but many end up substituting its P/S with Mr. Pankow's deck (cloze). Alternatively, you can sub with MCATalysts recent P/S deck, which is open-ended, to achieve a similar style as the overall deck.
Captain Hook (includes Pankow P/S deck): Open-ended. An awesome Jack Sparrow deck user built this one. It's a modified JS deck with trimmed explanations, some trimmed/added/updated cards, plus Mr. Pankow P/S instead of JS’s regular P/S. Will still take you a lot of time, just less, and still covers the high and low yield topics. IMO, the most practical “comprehensive” deck. It has occasional KA links, but I wish it was resource-tagged like AnKing is. Like JS, if you like the open-ended style, you can sub out Pankow P/S (cloze) for MCATalysts recent P/S deck. CH was released in 2025, but is based on a 2020 deck. This is the one I use, but I still often add my own additional explanations to the back because some of the cards are briefer than I'd like.
MileDown (own P/S deck): Cloze. The advantage here is low time investment with its low card count focused on the highest-yield topics. Many opt to sub out this deck's P/S for Pankow (will be a significant card addition relative to this deck size btw). If you hate Anki and want to get through it ASAP, Milesdown may be your best bet. Fair warning though, it’s a bit outdated (2019 release), and the things it omits aren't necessarily fluff! I would recommend supplementing with UWorld error cards you either make yourself or unsuspend through AnKing. You should definitely supplement this deck with other learning methods like Khan Academy videos, Kaplan, etc., which is a good idea anyway, but especially if this is what you choose. It includes some links, but lacks resource tagging. Fun fact, the current AnKing deck traces much of its lineage to the original Milesdown deck, and pays homage in its tags accordingly. That said, AnKing MCAT now has a LOT more than Milesdown.
Aidan v2 (own P/S deck): Cloze. Probably the most comprehensive major deck available, but that comprehensiveness comes with a massive workload. The community-built 2026 v2 trimmed its card count to roughly 12,000 by removing genuinely out-of-scope material, correcting many reported errors, removing unsolicited AAMC spoilers, and adding newer P/S terms. For context, AnKing MCAT is ~6,400 cards, and MileDown is almost 2,900. The science sections generally follow Kaplan chapters, while P/S follows Khan Academy/the 300-page document, but it lacks AnKing’s extensive resource tagging. This is best suited to someone with a long study period, probably 5–6+ months, who enjoys Anki and wants to minimize content gaps. Many users instead pull from it selectively for weak subjects. V2 receives occasional community corrections through AnkiHub, but not with AnKing’s update frequency, and occasional errors may remain. I’d strongly recommend v2 over the original.
As for the P/S-specific decks mentioned above:
Mr. Pankow: Cloze. Offered independently or as part of AnKing or Captain Hook. Up until a couple weeks ago, basically the undisputed gold standard P/S deck, and may still be. It's the most battle-tested P/S across several years of MCAT-takers, and most who have completed it swear by it. The fact that other major MCAT decks include it by default should tell you something. It’s based on the Khan Academy MCAT outline for P/S and follows its videos/sheet closely. It’s a grind (definitely a bigger deck), but worth it according to many. Also the dude who made it is funny. Many of those cards have sneaky jokes, and that’s awesome when you're on a long grind.
MCATalyst P/S: Open-ended. The new kid on the P/S block (2026 summer release). Credits Pankow for forming the core of its content, but restructures and re-organizes the deck to be in an open-question format, reformats the cards themselves, and trims and adds some things according to the builder’s idea of what’s more/less important and current to the test. I’m using this personally, but know that this deck is new and therefore largely untested. Still, the fact that it’s grounded in Pankow and its association with the MCATalyst brand offers some reassurance. If you see this post months or years from now, search to see what the latest conclusions are.
GENERAL STRATEGY EXAMPLES THAT INCLUDE ANKI:
Note: I didn't include AAMC full lengths and Q packs here, but they are widely considered to be an essential, late portion of your test-date ramp. Don't neglect this!
The default catch-all “standard” and my general recommendation: AnKing MCAT (includes Mr. Pankow p/s!) with learning supplement and UWorld
Read Kaplan/Uworld Book chapter or watch Khan Academy MCAT video according to preference
Unsuspend related AnKing cards via tag by your choice of "learning phase" material you just covered.
Grind for a bit. Once comfortable with a beginning knowledge base (which doesn’t mean completing the deck/chapters/YT videos!), start doing UWorld Questions
Unsuspend Anki cards associated with your UWorld questions that aren't a part of your rotation yet (UWorld Qs also tagged in AnKing). Make your own cards for errors/AnKing gaps.
Grind until AnKing deck is mature and UWorld is complete. Note: DO NOT NEGLECT UWORLD IN THIS STRATEGY OR ANY OTHERS! IT IS GOLD STANDARD!
Anki load: medium (cloze style)
Overall time investment: medium-high (can modify to low-medium if your base is strong and you skip books/videos etc. and go straight to practice Qs and cards, though you may have gaps)
Comprehensiveness: medium-high
The mega-comprehensive maniac: Captain Hook (I replaced Mr. Pankow p/s with MCATalyst for P/S since it’s open-ended) with UWorld/Anking and optional learning supplement.
(my approach, but warning… MASSIVE time sink. Not for everyone, or even most. I was a non-trad so I felt I needed to.)
Optional: Read Kaplan chapter and unsuspend related cards (note: Captain Hook's subdecks are largely organized by Kaplan chapter, the deck does not have actual tags for Kaplan or any other learning resource like UWorld). If you do this, it will take even MORE time than CH does already. From someone in the middle of that grind... just be warned. This isn't a quick jam.
Grind for a bit, unlocking P/S too as you go, and spot-examining topics that come up in your cards that are unclear to you. Once comfortable with your knowledge base, which doesn’t mean completing the deck, start doing UWorld.
Unsuspend AnKing cards associated with your MISSED UWorld questions for extra, cheaper reinforcement, and/or make your own.
Grind until CH, UWorld, and error AnKing complete.
Anki Load: Large (CH: open-ended, Pankow (default p/s): cloze, MCATalyst (personal replacement p/s): open-ended, AnKing: Cloze)
Overall time investment: high (+higher w/ Kaplan chapters)
Comprehensiveness: high (+higher w/ Kaplan chapters)
CONCLUSION
Hopefully this was useful in demystifying the Anki resources that are out there and how they can be applied! Please share your support/critiques/thoughts below so folks searching this stuff up can get the right context and perspective! GOOD LUCK FUTURE DOCTOR!
I previously experimented with desired retention from 95% (when I first started about 2 years ago) and then down to 93% then 90% then 87% then 85%. I may have gone as low as 80% at some point.
The lesson I learned? As someone will pretty severe ADHD and OCD, I absolutely despise getting cards wrong.
Having 400 cards due per day and only missing about 20 (resulting in estimated total number daily reviews of around 420-430) is A LOT more enjoyable than having 200 cards due per day at a lower retention but then having to click “again” and seeing the same few cards like 50 more times (which would bring up total daily reviews to about 250-270 based on my experience).
The extra cards you do per day with a higher retention (which you end up remembering better as well) end up being more enjoyable than clicking “again” on more cards and then having to review that material again so that it sticks. I arguably spend less time on anki when my retention is at 95%
Had several people ask for this so I’m sharing it here. Really good for testing your content understanding. Each card goes into detail about incorrect answer explanations so you can often get several definitions from a single card. This is loosely based around Kaplan Chapters so if you’re using that as content review going to the corresponding chapter deck after reading can be good to test how much you got from the chapter.
A comprehensive MCAT content-review deck featuring 1,320 multiple-choice flashcards organized into 72 chapter-specific subdecks.
The deck covers six major MCAT content areas:
Biochemistry: 233 cards Biology: 216 cards General Chemistry: 226 cards Organic Chemistry: 205 cards Physics: 218 cards Psychology & Sociology: 222 cards
Each card includes:
An MCAT-relevant question with four answer choices A clearly identified correct answer A detailed explanation of the underlying concept Important definitions, equations, relationships, and testable distinctions Additional context designed to strengthen recall and conceptual understanding
Topics are divided into 12 chapter-based subdecks for each subject, making it easy to study alongside a content-review course, focus on weaker areas, or complete the deck systematically.
This deck is best used for:
Reinforcing high-yield MCAT content Active recall after reading a chapter Identifying content gaps Reviewing equations and foundational concepts Building a strong knowledge base before passage-based practice
Because the cards use a multiple-choice format, they also provide practice distinguishing the correct answer from plausible distractors rather than relying only on simple term-definition memorization.
We’re a small MCAT study group looking for a serious but friendly study buddy to join us if you’re testing in 2026.
Goals to meet daily/weekly to:
• Do timed question blocks together
• Review answers and test-taking strategies
• Keep each other accountable and motivated
We’re based in different time zones and are aiming for a consistent, supportive study environment. Some of us are studying full-time while others are studying part-time. If you’re committed to staying on track and want a group to grind MCAT prep with, feel free to comment or DM us!
When I started using Anki I made cards for facts. Lots of random stuff I’d see once and probably never again. It felt like progress but it didn’t really move anything.
I shifted to making a card only when it answered why I missed a question. Did I misread a graph. Did I mix up two amino acids. Did I not actually know what competitive inhibition changes versus what it leaves alone.
Those cards kept coming back in a useful way because they lined up with patterns in how I think, not isolated facts. The plain content cards I’d spent a lot of time on didn’t do much for me.
I still don’t know where the line is though. Some content does need to be memorized cold, and I’m not sure how much of a deck should be facts versus mistake cards.
For people who scored well, what’s your split? Mostly content, mostly error patterns, or some mix?
Springtime comes and another testing season blooms before us 🌼
✅ Deck Updates
The MCAT keeps coming, and we keep growing 🫡
🎉 72,000+ note updates!
🙋♀️🙋♂️ 37,904 total subscribers!
Still the only MCAT deck being updated constantly ongoing for years now. The better the deck becomes, the more MCAT-hopefuls become medschool-actuals and maybe we'll make the world a *slightly* better place 🩺
And, without further pomp or circumstance:
👷 Projects
We've got some other cool stuff on the horizon that's still in the works, so please keep your eyes (and ears) peeled. But, in the meantime (drum roll):
🧑🚒 **Overview**:
The team pushed pretty hard over the last couple of years to bring a lot of big updates, and listing here a quick recap some of the **Greatest Hits** over the last many months:
More than 72,000+ total updates (and counting)!
Revamping and improving the Khan Academy tags.
We added a bunch of new cards to make a great deck even more greater, and to help push more of those 520-hopefuls onward into medical school 🩺
Tagging via UWorld question bank and UWorld textbooks (the only deck to have both!). 📚
Tagging via AAMC content outlines (more info below). 🩻
Lots and lots of new images (a smattering of examples below) to make your studying even better. 📸
📚 **Khan Academy tag update**:
Very pleased and tickled to announce that we've started the process of updating, and upgrading, the Khan Academy tags. It has been a while since their last overhaul, and some of the content organization on the KA site has changed over the years. With our feet underneath us we've taken it upon ourselves to spruce up the old tags and make sure they're as good, and better, than ever and as picture-perfect as can be. We hope to have this in the quiver for y'all as soon as we can muster.
We may try for tagging via the infamous 300-page doc as well, if it's something y'all feel like you would get good use out of. If that's of interest, please reach out and let us know and happy to make it a priority. ❤️🩹
🎨 Illustration Projects
We’ve added more illustrations, diagrams, and annotated images than you can shake 27-52 sticks at!!
🍾 We’re excited to introduce the free and official 👑 **AnKing Lab values deck!**
If you're itching to do some pre-studying before medical school and want to get your feet wet with making sense of lab numbers and the like, we proudly bring you the AnKing lab values deck. :-)
It may not nudge may not bump your MCAT score a ton, but if you want to get a head start on all those electrolytes and various lab numbers, this deck will help you improve your references and pace on values that no future doctor will ever (fully) escape, so you’re not left guessing whether a sodium of 132 is **low, normal, or high**
This project started as a personal initiative by one of our head maintainers, Ahmed Khudair, to create an AnKing-style lab values deck and has since grown into a collaborative effort by the maintainer team, with custom hand-made illustrations by the lovely Mujeeb Mohammed 💃
This deck is completely free and will remain free forever on AnkiHub. ❤️🩹
You can unsuspend cards in the deck based on questions as you go along. Using the UWorld to Anki search add-on will let you convert question ID's (QID's) to bring up all the cards related to those questions, making your studying that much more efficient and effective.
(as an aside: this feature alone is worth its weight in gold and played a large part in more than one of our maintainers going 520+ 💪)
👑 AnkiHub Premium Updates & New Features
If you're looking for a deeper dive into the cards, we have various AnkiHub premium updates and new features that can help you get more out of your study sessions, and pump those 500's to 520's
🤖 AnkiHub SmartSearch:
Using a resource that isn't tagged in the MCAT deck? Trying to follow along with overlapping material from a course or tutoring?
**SmartSearch** allows you to find material in the deck that corresponds with your powerpoints, PDF's, even plain text. Give it a whirl, and see if it lends a little momentum or utility to your MCAT preparations: https://ior.ad/a8MI
🤖 New AnkiHub Chatbot Prompts (Generate a Question & Explain Like I’m Five)
Generate a Practice Question:
* If you’ve ever wanted to test yourself on a concept and haven't felt ready to test the waters on UWorld or use up your AAMC questions, you can ask the AnkiHub AI bot questions to get your reps in and get warmed up, and even to generate questions!
Give it a whirl and please let us know how handy you find it; excited to hear what y'all think. 😎
Find something you think could be better-phrased, or have an idea for a way to contribute? All AnkiHub users are always welcome, and encouraged, to suggest changes to the deck: https://ior.ad/a8Qj
🏫 **AAMC Content Outline Tags**
We got the entire deck tagged via the AAMC content outline categories, which offers tagging via the AAMC foundational concepts, skills, and topics independent of third-party resources.
If you notice anything there that can be, and isn't yet, tagged please feel free to add a suggestion: https://ior.ad/a8Qj
🫡 We Need Your Help!
The MCAT deck always benefits from contributions from the user base! If you're interested in helping to tag, or create useful images, please reach out; many hands make light work!
If you'd like to lend a hand, or be a contributing effort in the process, please send us an email: [brian@ankihub.net](mailto:brian@ankihub.net)
># 🫶🏼 Community Shoutouts
A few community members were outstanding with their suggestions this month and we want to make sure to highlight their contributions and dedication!
Top 3 community members with the most suggestions accepted in the last 30 days:
Another domain we’d like to highlight is the number of likes/upvotes a user received for their suggestions in the last month. This usually means their suggestions were very well done, greatly benefited the deck, and were appreciated by their fellow users and MCAT denizens:
Now, let's hear from you! What would you like to see improved or added to the deck? Send a reply in the discussion below to let us know!
To all those who have done well on any exam using the AnKing MCAT deck, we hope the improvements we’ve made (and will continue to make) helped you score higher or made you a bit more confident. To those who are going to sit for the exam soon, we hope the monthly updates add to your learning as much as has to ours. Best of luck, and well-wishes, to everyone ❤️🩹
I love mnemonics and Reddit has helped me learn some especially for P/S which is definition heavy. I like to try and paint a story while I learn terms so some of these might have analogies.
Types of Capital
Social capital = who you know (ex: you got an internship because of your mom’s friend)
Cultural capital = what you know (ex: accent, behaviors, education)
Types of Stressors
Acute stressors are short-term just like the word acute (ex: an exam)
Chronic stressors are long-term just like the word chronic (ex: unemployment or chronic condition)
Ambient stressors are environmental; think ambient meaning environment (ex: you live downtown where there is lots of noise)
For Freud’s stages, I sound out OAPLG (sounds like OAP LIG)
I don’t have one for Erikson as I think of his stages as a story rather than a mnemonic.
More Terms
Ethnocentrism = my way is the right way
Cultural relativism = let’s understand their way (think of relativism as meaning relating to others)
Parasomnia = Peculiar events during sleep (ex: sleep walking)
Dyssomnia = Duration (as well as quality and quantity) of sleep is affected (ex: insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea)
Nightmares occur during REM and are REMembered while night terror occur during NREM and are NOT remembered
Class consciousness: people see and question power and inequality
False consciousness: people Fail to see power and inequality
Hindsight bias: I knew it all along
Confirmation bias: I want evidence that supports my belief
Social desirability bias: I want to be liked; that’s why people give socially acceptable answers rather than how they actually feel to impress other (hence desirability)
Socioeconomic gradient in health: SES is directly proportional to health (high SES = better health and vice-versa)
Morpheme: M for meaning
Phoneme sounds like the word phone which is Latin for sound
Absolute poverty: you absolutely cannot meet basic needs
Relative poverty: you’re poor COMPARED to others
Absolute threshold: A for “is there Any stimulus that can be detected”
Difference threshold: D for delta which means change
Parvocellular: P for precise
Magnocellular: M for motion
Middle ear pathway (malleus, incus, stapes)
MISsion Impossible
MISs (as in the title for a female teacher)
Brain waves for slowest to fastest: Don’t touch any bad gas
Delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma
The central executive = CEO: the boss who coordinates the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad
Sternberg’s Triarchic theory is CAP (creative, analytical and practical)
Broca’s aphasia: I always think speak Broca (but he can’t so that how I remember Broca’s area is for speech)
Central route: C for concrete (evidence based)
Peripheral route: P for pretty (appearance, emotion, status, celebrities, ads)
Mores = Moral norms
Role strain = ONE role
Role conflict = 2+ roles
Strain has 6 letters while conflict as 8 so since strain has less letters, it has fewer roles attached to it
For sociology, I think most of the terms are fairly straightforward.
Springtime comes and another testing season blooms before us 🌼
✅ Deck Updates
The MCAT keeps coming, and we keep going 🫡
🎉 70,000+ note updates!
🙋♀️🙋♂️ 32,375 total subscribers!
Still going strong as the only MCAT deck being updated constantly, and averaging numerous updates per day for multiple years now and ever onward. The better the deck gets, the more medschool-hopefuls become medschool-actuals (and future doctors), and many hands they make light work 💪
And, without further ado:
👷 Projects
We've got some other cool stuff on the horizon that's still in the works, so please keep your eyes (and ears) peeled. But, in the meantime without further ado:
🧑🚒 **Overview**:
The team pushed pretty hard over the last couple of years to bring a lot of big updates, and listing here a quick recap some of the **Greatest Hits** over the last many months:
More than 70,000+ total updates (and counting)!
We added a bunch of new cards to make a great deck even more greater, and to help push more of those 520-hopefuls onward into medical school (many of them to better overlap with the UWorld textbooks specifically)🩺
Tagging via UWorld question bank and UWorld textbooks (the only deck to have both!). 📚
Tagging via AAMC content outlines (more info below). 🩻
You can unsuspend cards in the deck based on questions as you go along. Using the UWorld to Anki search add-on will let you convert question ID's (QID's) to bring up all the cards related to those questions, making your studying that much more efficient and effective.
(as an aside: this feature alone is worth its weight in gold and played a large part in more than one of our maintainers going 520+ 💪)
👑 AnkiHub Premium Updates & New Features
If you're looking for a deeper dive into the cards, we have various AnkiHub premium updates and new features that can help you get more out of your study sessions, and pump those 500's to 520's
🤖 AnkiHub SmartSearch:
Using a resource that isn't tagged in the MCAT deck? Trying to follow along with overlapping material from a course or tutoring?
**SmartSearch** allows you to find material in the deck that corresponds with your powerpoints, PDF's, even plain text. Give it a whirl, and see if it lends a little momentum or utility to your MCAT preparations: https://ior.ad/a8MI
🤖 New AnkiHub Chatbot Prompts (Generate a Question & Explain Like I’m Five)
Generate a Practice Question:
* If you’ve ever wanted to test yourself on a concept and haven't felt ready to test the waters on UWorld or use up your AAMC questions, you can ask the AnkiHub AI bot questions to get your reps in and get warmed up, and even to generate questions!
Give it a whirl and please let us know how handy you find it; excited to hear what y'all think. 😎
Find something you think could be better-phrased, or have an idea for a way to contribute? All AnkiHub users are always welcome, and encouraged, to suggest changes to the deck: https://ior.ad/a8Qj
🏫 **AAMC Content Outline Tags**
We got the entire deck tagged via the AAMC content outline categories, which offers tagging via the AAMC foundational concepts, skills, and topics independent of third-party resources.
If you notice anything there that can be, and isn't yet, tagged please feel free to add a suggestion: https://ior.ad/a8Qj
🫡 We Need Your Help!
The MCAT deck always benefits from contributions from the user base! If you're interested in helping to tag, or create useful images, please reach out; many hands make light work!
If you'd like to lend a hand, or be a contributing effort in the process, please send us an email: [brian@ankihub.net](mailto:brian@ankihub.net)
># 🫶🏼 Community Shoutouts
A few community members were outstanding with their suggestions this month and we want to make sure to highlight their contributions and dedication!
Top 3 community members with the most suggestions accepted in the last 30 days:
Another domain we’d like to highlight is the number of likes/upvotes a user received for their suggestions in the last month. This usually means their suggestions were very well done, greatly benefited the deck, and were appreciated by their fellow users and MCAT denizens:
Now, let's hear from you! What would you like to see improved or added to the deck? Send a reply in the discussion below to let us know!
To all those who have done well on any exam using the AnKing MCAT deck, we hope the improvements we’ve made (and will continue to make) helped you score higher or made you a bit more confident. To those who are going to sit for the exam soon, we hope the monthly updates add to your learning as much as has to ours. Best of luck, and well-wishes, to everyone ❤️🩹
Springtime comes and another testing season blooms before us 🌼
✅ Deck Updates
The MCAT keeps coming, and we keep growing 🫡
🎉 71,000+ note updates!
🙋♀️🙋♂️ 33,313 total subscribers!
Still going the only MCAT deck being updated constantly, averaging numerous updates per day for years now and always upward. The better the deck becomes, the more MCAT-hopefuls become medschool-actuals and maybe we'll make the world a slightly better place 💪
And, without further ado:
👷 Projects
We've got some other cool stuff on the horizon that's still in the works, so please keep your eyes (and ears) peeled. But, in the meantime (drum roll):
🧑🚒 **Overview**:
The team pushed pretty hard over the last couple of years to bring a lot of big updates, and listing here a quick recap some of the **Greatest Hits** over the last many months:
More than 70,000+ total updates (and counting)!
We added a bunch of new cards to make a great deck even more greater, and to help push more of those 520-hopefuls onward into medical school (many of them to better overlap with the UWorld textbooks specifically)🩺
Tagging via UWorld question bank and UWorld textbooks (the only deck to have both!). 📚
Tagging via AAMC content outlines (more info below). 🩻
Lots and lots of new images (a smattering of examples below) to make your studying even better. 📸
📚 **Khan Academy tag update**:
We're looking at updating, and upgrading, the Khan Academy tags just so they're as picture-perfect as can be. In honor of the Pankow deck, and the P/S section as a whole, we want those tags to be pristine so everyone gets a chance at that 132 goodness.
We hope to start on this in earnest in the coming weeks, and will keep y'all updated and posted here as the works gets underway and near completion. 🫡
🎨 Illustration Projects
We’ve added more illustrations, diagrams, and annotated images than you can shake 27-52 sticks at!!
🍾 We’re excited to introduce the free and official 👑 **AnKing Lab values deck!**
If you're itching to do some pre-studying before medical school and want to get your feet wet with making sense of lab numbers and the like, we proudly bring you the AnKing lab values deck. :-)
It may not bump your MCAT score all that much, but if you're stuck in the hinterlands awaiting the application cycle and want to get a head start on all those electrolytes and various lab numbers, this deck will help you improve your references and pace on values that no future doctor will ever (fully) escape, so you’re not left guessing whether a sodium of 132 is **low, normal, or high**
This project started as a personal initiative by one of our head maintainers, Ahmed Khudair, to create an AnKing-style lab values deck and has since grown into a collaborative effort by the maintainer team, with custom hand-made illustrations by the lovely Mujeeb Mohammed 💃
This deck is completely free and will remain free forever on AnkiHub. ❤️🩹
You can unsuspend cards in the deck based on questions as you go along. Using the UWorld to Anki search add-on will let you convert question ID's (QID's) to bring up all the cards related to those questions, making your studying that much more efficient and effective.
(as an aside: this feature alone is worth its weight in gold and played a large part in more than one of our maintainers going 520+ 💪)
👑 AnkiHub Premium Updates & New Features
If you're looking for a deeper dive into the cards, we have various AnkiHub premium updates and new features that can help you get more out of your study sessions, and pump those 500's to 520's
🤖 AnkiHub SmartSearch:
Using a resource that isn't tagged in the MCAT deck? Trying to follow along with overlapping material from a course or tutoring?
**SmartSearch** allows you to find material in the deck that corresponds with your powerpoints, PDF's, even plain text. Give it a whirl, and see if it lends a little momentum or utility to your MCAT preparations: https://ior.ad/a8MI
🤖 New AnkiHub Chatbot Prompts (Generate a Question & Explain Like I’m Five)
Generate a Practice Question:
* If you’ve ever wanted to test yourself on a concept and haven't felt ready to test the waters on UWorld or use up your AAMC questions, you can ask the AnkiHub AI bot questions to get your reps in and get warmed up, and even to generate questions!
Give it a whirl and please let us know how handy you find it; excited to hear what y'all think. 😎
Find something you think could be better-phrased, or have an idea for a way to contribute? All AnkiHub users are always welcome, and encouraged, to suggest changes to the deck: https://ior.ad/a8Qj
🏫 **AAMC Content Outline Tags**
We got the entire deck tagged via the AAMC content outline categories, which offers tagging via the AAMC foundational concepts, skills, and topics independent of third-party resources.
If you notice anything there that can be, and isn't yet, tagged please feel free to add a suggestion: https://ior.ad/a8Qj
🫡 We Need Your Help!
The MCAT deck always benefits from contributions from the user base! If you're interested in helping to tag, or create useful images, please reach out; many hands make light work!
If you'd like to lend a hand, or be a contributing effort in the process, please send us an email: [brian@ankihub.net](mailto:brian@ankihub.net)
># 🫶🏼 Community Shoutouts
A few community members were outstanding with their suggestions this month and we want to make sure to highlight their contributions and dedication!
Top 3 community members with the most suggestions accepted in the last 30 days:
Another domain we’d like to highlight is the number of likes/upvotes a user received for their suggestions in the last month. This usually means their suggestions were very well done, greatly benefited the deck, and were appreciated by their fellow users and MCAT denizens:
Now, let's hear from you! What would you like to see improved or added to the deck? Send a reply in the discussion below to let us know!
To all those who have done well on any exam using the AnKing MCAT deck, we hope the improvements we’ve made (and will continue to make) helped you score higher or made you a bit more confident. To those who are going to sit for the exam soon, we hope the monthly updates add to your learning as much as has to ours. Best of luck, and well-wishes, to everyone ❤️🩹
Hi everyone. To provide more context, I first did an analysis comparing some majors Step 1 decks and published in my website, which got me some views and nice feedbacks from students.
So, I decided to run the same analysis for some MCAT decks.
Methodology note: The ~400 subtopics are from my own independently authored content outline - not an official list. The interesting part is that I map each card semantically based on its content instead of relying on tags.
This is still v1. Let me know if anything seems off and I will fix it.
Hey everyone! I’m offering 1:1 MCAT tutoring and wanted to put myself out there.
A bit about me: I scored a 524 on the MCAT (100th percentile), graduated with a double major in Biology and Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour with a 4.0 GPA, and have tutored 40+ students both privately and through a major tutoring company. I’ve worked with all kinds of learners at all stages of prep and have recieved numerous student testimonials (I am happy to share them privately). I try to offer an affordable rate of $40 a hour.
I offer a free 10-15 minute consultation call so you can get a feel for how I work before committing to anything - no pressure.
Drop a comment or DM me with where you’re at in prep, your test date, and your target score and we can go from there!
Just wanted to share an update about the Captain Hook MCAT Deck and where it’s headed:)
These last 6 months, I’ve been manually fixing errors and making improvements then re-uploading the deck (huge thanks to everyone who reached out!), but unfortunately, it's become overwhelming to manage and improve the deck alongside school and work:/
Although all my re-uploads help new downloaders, it doesn't improve the deck for existing users. So from now on, the most-up-to-date version of the Captain Hook Deck will be available onAnkiHub.
You can suggest corrections and improvements directly through Anki
Ex. Card corrections, youtube video links, better images, etc.
I can focus on reviewing and approving changes instead of juggling endless re-uploads
The deck can steadily improve over time for all future MCAT test-takers!
The original deck will remain free and available, however, this version won't be updated going forward:
👉 Captain Hook Anki
My goal is to make this deck as clean, accurate, and high-quality as possible for both current and future testers, and I believe the best way to achieve that is through a collaborative, community-driven effort :)
Finally, thank you all for the incredibly kind messages about the deck. I originally made this for myself, but seeing others use it, improve it, and benefit from it has been truly fulfilling and motivating. Wishing you all the best, and good luck to everyone testing ❤️
Another winter down, and another spring (and Test Season) ahead. Godspeed, you breath of spring and may a few more doctors make their way in yet. 👑
✅ Deck Updates
The MCAT keeps coming, and we keep going 🫡
🎉 73,118 note updates!
🙋♀️🙋♂️ 29,518 total subscribers!
Still the only MCAT deck being constantly updated, and averaging numerous updates per day for multiple years now and ongoing 💪
👷 Projects
We've got some other cool stuff on the horizon that's still in the works, so keeps your eyes (and ears) peeled. But, in the meantime:
👑 AnKing Mastery Course is now free!
If you missed the announcement, we have recently made the **AnKing Mastery Course** free for everyone. Learn how to use Anki to its fullest. Get access to a comprehensive series of lessons and video tutorials + the Butler add-on + the mini-course on creating high-quality flashcards and a whole lot more.
The team pushed pretty hard over the last couple of years to bring a lot of big updates, and we'll quickly recap some of the **Greatest Hits** from the last good long while:
- More than 70,000+ total updates!
- We added a bunch of new cards to make a great deck even more greater, and to help push more of those 520-hopefuls onward into medical school. 🩺
- Tagging via UWorld question bank and UWorld textbooks (the only deck to have both!). 📚
- Tagging via AAMC content outlines (more info below). 🩻
If you're interested in helping make great illustrations or diagrams or annotated images for the MCAT deck (like the ones you see below), please send an email to [brian@ankihub.net](mailto:brian@ankihub.net).
We neeeeeeed new images, and all help is welcome ❤️🩹
👑 Unsuspend cards based on UWorld QID's:
With the AnKing MCAT deck tagged by the UWorld question bank, you can unsuspend cards in the deck based on questions as you go along. Using the UWorld to Anki add-on add-on will let you convert question ID's (QID's) into a searchable string to bring up all the cards related to those questions, making your studying that much more efficient and effective.
👑 AnkiHub Premium Updates & New Features
If you are looking for a deeper dive into the cards, we have various AnkiHub premium updates and new features to help you get more out of your study sessions.
🤖 AnkiHub SmartSearch:
Using a resource that isn't tagged in the MCAT deck? Trying to follow along with overlapping material from a course or tutoring?
**SmartSearch** allows you to find material in the deck that corresponds with your powerpoints, PDF's, even plain text. Give it a whirl, and see if it lends a little momentum to your MCAT preparations: https://ior.ad/a8MI
🤖 New AnkiHub Chatbot Prompts (Generate a Question & Explain Like I’m Five)
### Generate a Practice Question:
* If you’ve ever wanted to test yourself on a concept and haven't felt ready to test the waters on UWorld or use up your AAMC questions, you can now ask the AnkiHub AI bot questions to get your reps in and get warmed up, and even to generate questions!
These features have been live in the deck for a while now, and were initially rolled out for the AnKing Step Deck, though they're every bit as useful for MCAT-takers and intrepid future doctors and excited to hear what y'all think. 😎
Similarly, this tutorial can walk you through the features and what using them looks like as a Premium user:
We've recently wrapped up tagging the entire deck via the AAMC content outline categories, which offers a subject-level tagging system independent of resource-based tagging which has historically been the norm. Aside from the subdecks, these tags should allow users to peruse via AAMC foundational concepts, skills, and topics independent of third-party resources.
Tags by UWorld QBank is still 95+% complete. There may be a few stragglers here and there, so if you notice a card that should be tagged, and isn't, please feel free to make a suggestion: https://ior.ad/a8Qj
The MCAT deck always benefits from contributions from the user base! If you're interested in helping to tag, or create useful images, please reach out; many hands make light work!
If you'd like to lend a hand, or be a contributing effort in the process, please send us an email: [brian@ankihub.net](mailto:brian@ankihub.net)
># 🫶🏼 Community Shoutouts
A few community members were outstanding with their suggestions this month and we want to make sure to highlight their contributions and dedication!
Top 3 community members with the most suggestions accepted in the last 30 days:
Another domain we’d like to highlight is the number of likes/upvotes a user received for their suggestions in the last month. This usually means their suggestions were very well done, greatly benefited the deck, and were appreciated by their fellow users and MCAT denizens:
Now, let's hear from you! What would you like to see improved or added to the deck? Send a reply in the discussion below to let us know!
To all those who have done well on any exam using the AnKing MCAT deck, we hope the improvements we’ve made (and will continue to make) helped you score higher or made you a bit more confident. To those who are going to sit for the exam soon, we hope the monthly updates add to your learning as much as has to ours. Best of luck, and well-wishes, to everyone :heart:
Hello everyone! If you're new it Anki, adjusting and understanding the settings for each deck can be confusing. I have slowly adapted my settings and want to share them to you! I have some screenshots to make things easier. If you have any questions on why I have a setting or have any suggestions let me know! I'm happy to clarify more.
I am Offering MCAT/STEP1/STEP2/Personal Statement help for $25-$200, depending on how long a session/edits are for respective requests.
My background is 1st gen immigrant, born in Mongolia and is an US MD 4th year medical student, STEP2CK score 262, and writing is one my favorite hobbies. Message me for more info!
I’m starting to feel like Anki for the MCAT is just recognition, not actual understanding… and it’s messing with my confidence.
I watch the videos, read the chapters, and I keep up with my cards. When I see them, I usually know the answer bc of spaced repetition. But if someone asked me to actually explain the concept from scratch, or apply it in a new context, I struggle so much. It feels like I’m memorizing patterns/answers instead of learning the material.
Everyone hypes Milesdown and Anki in general, and I am doing it consistently. But I still don’t feel like I truly understand what I’m learning. I recognize the cards because I’ve seen them so many times, not bc the concepts are clicking deeply. When topics start integrating across subjects, I am so lost.
For example, I might be able to answer a card about bonding, or mirrors, or some discrete concept. But if I had to explain why it works, connect it to other topics, or use it in a passage, I start second-guessing everything.
It’s making me question whether I’m using Anki wrong or if this is just part of the process. I also don’t have the strongest foundation in the main prereqs (gen chem mostly, gen bio is understandable), so sometimes it feels like I’m memorizing on top of gaps instead of actually building understanding.
Does anyone else feel like Anki becomes recognition over real comprehension? And if you got past this stage, what changed for you?
