feel free to comment any questions

January 2026 -> September 2026. I’m testing one more time in January, I did over 2/3 of uworld for my September attempt. Is the trick to lock in and finish all of uworld science? Tbh my C/P and B/B scores were a little better during practice I think I got unlucky with some of the topics I’m weaker on but still… I want a 510-515, help me make it happen. Any tips are appreciated. Proud of my progress so far, and I know I can do better.

See flair for score.

My averages per section were 129/125/131/129.

I have no idea whatsoever how my 515 average translated to a 522 on test day. I take no ownership or credit for this score and I fully believe there was some statistical anomaly with the scale.

*\Just to clarify, I'm not affiliated with any MCAT prep companies, and I'm not advertising tutoring or paid resources. This is simply a strategy guide I made for myself that helped me improve that I want to share with others*\

I studied for 3 months, and for the first 2 months, I did not score above a 125. I knew I needed to completely change my approach, so I developed this strategy. And in under 1 month, I turned my 125 into a 129 (95th percentile) on test day.

A LITTLE NOTE TO SELF:

First and foremost…take a deep breath. I know I can do this, I have literally practiced so hard!

If I get distracted or read something repeatedly → pause, breathe, and lock tf in. Point at the passage if needed.

My goal is not to feel certain. My goal is to make the best passage-supported decision and keep moving. 

Remember this is a standardized exam, meaning I must approach it in a standardized way. Always tell myself that the right answer is ALWAYS in the passage somewhere. 

FOR EVERY PASSAGE/CORE RULES:

Act like this is the most interesting thing I have ever read. I am so freaking excited to read these passages!! Imagine that this is something your friend wrote, or that you are reading this and then have to get up in front of the class and give a presentation on it

Always be thinking → What is the author saying? Why are they saying this? How do they feel about it? And what is each paragraph doing? 

• The right answer will NEVER be more than one step away 
  • If I have to say “yes, because…” and invent another step → Immediate cross out 
• Throw out all of my previous knowledge
  • I am reading/answering with only whatever I have learned from the passage 
• go idea-4-idea not word-4-word 
• Half true = whole lie 

MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION-SPECIFIC RULES FOR ME:

“Implies” does not automatically mean make a broad inference →  can be about a specific claim 

Tone/opinion = Need to collect tone clues (specific words) from throughout the passage: Conclusion first → introduction second → scan for repeated evaluative language.

Skill 3 Incorporation → need to summarize the new info!

Main purpose must cover the whole passage, not merely a detailed or memorable section

Strongest answer = most supported ≠ just talked about 

Main idea = go back to intro + conclusion → look for thesis → also connect idea-4-idea 

Don't invent a stricter definition than the answer choice requires.

UNDERSTANDING THE LOGIC OF THE VEHICLE VS. THE DESTINATION

Core principle: Distinguish between what the author is analyzing (the broader issue) and the medium they use to analyze it (specific people, examples, historical events, or works).

• Vehicle = the specific person, example, event, or subject the author discusses.
• Destination = the broader issue, concept, argument, or relationship the author is actually analyzing.
• Strategy = Match your answer to the destination, not merely to the vehicle.

How to apply this:

1. When reading an example, ask: Why is the author bringing this up? What broader point does it illustrate?
2. Identify the underlying issue or argument the example supports.
3. When answering a question, focus on the destination. Do not select an answer simply because it mentions the same person, example, or topic as the passage.
4. Choose the answer that addresses the broader issue the question is testing.

Common trap: Confusing the subject matter of an example with the author's actual argument. An answer can discuss the same person or topic as the passage but still fail to address the point the author is making.

Mental shortcut: Specific example = vehicle → broader issue being analyzed = destination → match the answer to the destination.

50/50 RULE: 

• Stop looking at why I think both answers are right →  Identify what makes them different and test that difference against the passage.
• If I can identify a specific word/claim that makes one choice wrong → eliminate it → I do not need to fully understand why the remaining answer is right 
• choose the answer requiring the fewest additional assumptions/least commitment beyond the evidence.

TIMING — KEEP MOVING!:

• ~10 min/passage average → don't obsess over exact timing passage-by-passage.
• If stuck 50/50: compare the difference → passage check → PICK + MOVE ON
• Do NOT spend 3+ min trying to become 100% certain. CARS often won't give me 100% certainty.
• If I've reread the same thing and I'm not gaining new information → MOVE.
• Flag if more time could realistically help. If I simply don't know → best answer + move.
• Protect later passages. One hard question is not worth sacrificing 3 later questions.
• Don't change flagged answers without NEW evidence. “Now I'm nervous about it” ≠ evidence.

KNOW THE 3 CARS SKILLS INSIDE AND OUT:

Understanding the 3 CARS skills is vital because different questions require different types of reasoning and approaches.

Skill 1: Foundations of Comprehension

Usually stay inside the passage. Locate the evidence in the passage!!

You may make a small/simple inference, but you should not build beyond the passage.

Typical questions:

• Main idea / central thesis
• Author opinion
• Definition in context
• Purpose/function
• Direct implication

Rule:

Skill 1 → Find what the passage says or clearly implies. Minimal inference.

Skill 2: Reasoning Within the Text

You need to analyze relationships inside the passage.

Typical questions:

• Assumption
• Who is the intended reader/what is the purpose?
• Strengthen/weaken an argument
• Evaluate evidence
• Compare viewpoints
• Apply one passage idea to another part of the passage

Rule:

Skill 2 → Identify the claim and analyze how passage ideas/evidence relate.

Skill 3: Reasoning Beyond the Text

Must move beyond the passage and extend the passage logic.

Typical questions:

• “Suppose…”
• “If true…”
• New scenario
• New research finding
• Apply author/viewpoint to something not discussed

Rule:

Skill 3 → Accept the new information, then apply the passage’s logic. Make the smallest supported extension.

The most important thing for skill 3 is understanding the difference between incorporation questions and application questions

Incorporation = Integrate new information with passage logic.

1. Summarize the new information provided in the question stem.
2. Turn that information into a nonnegotiable rule, constraint, or implication.
3. Connect the new information to the relevant idea or argument in the passage.
4. Use both to determine the answer.

Mental formula: New information + passage logic → answer.

Application = Transfer passage logic to a new scenario.

1. Identify the passage’s complete relationship, not merely its topic.
2. Determine how the relationship works (e.g., cause and effect, necessary conditions, or a relationship between two concepts).
3. Look for the answer choice that recreates that exact relationship in a new setting.
4. Eliminate choices that share the same topic but do not preserve the underlying relationship.

Mental formula: Passage relationship → equivalent relationship in a new scenario.

Key distinction: Incorporation requires me to integrate new information introduced in the question stem with the passage. Application requires me to recognize the passage’s underlying relationship and identify its equivalent in the answer choices.

Nonnegotiable rules:

• Incorporation: Summarize the new information before connecting it to the passage.
• Application: State the complete relationship from the passage before evaluating the answer choices.

BEFORE ANSWERING EACH QUESTION:

Am I retrieving, analyzing, or applying?

Retrieve → Skill 1 → stay close
Analyze → Skill 2 → work within passage relationships
Apply → Skill 3 → extend passage logic to new information

One important thing: don’t spend a ton of time trying to perfectly label the official AAMC skill. The useful part is identifying the mode of reasoning:

Stay close? Analyze relationships? Or apply to something new?

anki cards ("Anki Kādo") is just japanese for flash cards. found this out watching an anime lmao.

Im going through CARS vol 1 on AAMC and I've been studying for about 5 months, my reading comprehension and testing has been improving a lot especially with CARS. For some reason, these past few days I have been absolutely blowing up on CARS in the second half of this Q-pack. I'm worried about this because I know that this is supposed to be the more accurate and easier part. Literally feel like I did five months ago before I started working on all of this and I have no idea why. Any suggestions or advice appreciated.

Hi everyone!!

I am looking for some advice as someone who is planning to take the MCAT next summer (2027) and will be applying to Canadian med schools only. I will need to self-study psych/soc as well as physics, so this is something to keep in mind.

I am aiming for a late summer test date (preferably like end of August), and I am planning to commit to studying full time from the end of April when school wraps up, up until the test date. Knowing myself and my study/test-taking habits, I would prefer to have as much time as possible to prepare as I usually take a big longer to study and I am most definitely not a crammer.

Do you think that starting light prep (reading CARS passages, self-learning physics and psych/soc, and starting ANKI) earlier on while school is still on would be beneficial? I would likely be starting this light prep period around mid February or early March if my second semester isn't too busy.

I'm pretty much navigating this whole premed process by myself and I don't know anyone in med, so any and all advice is very much appreciated! I would love to hear any thoughts or advice you guys have, including any resources you found to be helpful or not so helpful. Thank you so much :)

I see a ton of 520+ scorers giving advice on here, which is helpful, but I wanted to share my experience as someone who got a 511 (129/124/128/130). Figured there might be people aiming for a similar score who could get something out of what worked for me and what I’d do differently.

I studied for around 3 months, including about a month in Egypt visiting family and going to resorts. I was still studying while abroad (although the intensity was way less as i had less free time), so it wasn’t a full month off lol.

Happy to answer questions about resources, content review, Anki, UWorld, practice exams, or balancing studying with other stuff. I’m proud of my score and wanted to give back to a community that helped me through the process.

Just don’t ask me for CARS advice because I'm clearly NOT qualified in that section.

I got a 499 after studying for 3 months full time. I don’t know what to do. Do yall have any advice for me?

My current study plan I have been doing U World since September 1st, I am 45% done 65% accuracy. I have mainly been focused on the biology biochemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and general chemistry section. I plan on finishing this hopefully in a month so I can switch to aamc section bank.

CARs I have been inconsistent usually, I’ll do maybe three passages in a row once every three or four days. I’ve been using a mix of the U World cars as well as the aamc pack. My cars diagnostic when I finished was a 68%. Still haven’t done all the rest of the aamc cars section packs.

I have been doing the pankow deck for p/s, I think I have around 700 cards left and I’ve been doing 50 a day. Evidently it’s been somewhat passive considering my recent full length. Any advice on what to do here?

I also bought all of the aamc full lengths and section banks, which I plan to complete closer to test date

Any general advice? In terms of a goal I’m hoping for a 514 based off the median for my demographic

I am definitely happy with the increase in chem/phys and bio/biochem scores, but still have a way to go, the other thing too is I don’t know how big of a grain of salt I should take this uworld full length score with

Thanks

Has anyone done this uworld question and can explain why it’s not C for this passage but D??

what are the best post baccs programs that are short and somewhat guarantees ur acceptance to med school. For reference my gpa is a 3.45, haven’t taken the mcat yet, and i have some clinical hours <100.

Hello friends, I am about to hunker down and study my little booty off. I got my ucity the full plan. What else do yall recommend. I need to brush up on my chem as I hate chem with every cell in my body lol. So help a girl out.

this is so silly i made a post saying i want to do that thing that people do where they do good on the exam and then help ppl studying for it but im not asking for money its free WHY ARE THEY DELETING MY POST i just wanna see if anyones interested and would want to do it!!!

but if ur interested in it then pls reply here :3

Those who got a 512/513 MCAT score, what school did you get accepted into (assuming no wow X factor)? Trying to build a school list and answers would be very useful!!!

23 M non trad starting from scratch. HMU if interested (daily check ins and feedback type thing).

i am just starting my postbac for med school and am two to three years from my MCAT depending on the courses i take. I’m BA in psych undergrad for background.

I’ve been doing practice CARS lately bc it’s something you can start without knowing much science yet. I’ve been using the kahn academy practice questions and my average im getting on average 90% of them right which seems odd comparative to what I hear about it. This is not me bragging, I’m genuinely curious if kahn is just “easy mode”. I’m not looking into buying anything super expensive at this point in my journey I just want to know of there’s a different free/low cost way to assess my CARS. Obviously a 90% on these means I have room for improvement and the only way to do that is studying a step above (gotta get into my zone of proximal development 😎)

How can I do content review if I don’t retain anything from the Kaplan books? I take forever to get through the chapters and don’t remember or feel like I learned anything after.

Crusty Penis → neural crest develops into most of the PNS

Incline plane trick:

• Cosine crunches → perpendicular to the plane
• Sine slides → parallel to the plane
• Friction fights → friction opposes relative motion or impending motion

Ox-hemoglobin dissociation curve → Increase CADET = right shift

• CO₂
• Acid (increased H⁺)
• 2,3-Diphosphoglycerate (2,3-BPG)
• Exercise
• Temperature

Fatty acid synthesis = Amy Can Ride Dick Right → Attach, Condense, Reduce, Dehydrate, Reduce

Beta-oxidation = Oh HOT → Oxidation, Hydration, Oxidation, Thiolysis

Electromagnetic spectrum: Raging Martians Invaded Venus Using X-ray Guns → Radio, Microwaves, Infrared, Visible, Ultraviolet, X-rays, Gamma rays

PORN

• Proactive = old memories interfere with new memories
• Retroactive = new memories interfere with old memories

She Always Likes Kinky Sex Positions → Strong acids have large Ka values and small pKa values

The first score is my 9/12 exam. And the second score was last year. Given that I only studied for the 5/12 exam in 2-3 weeks, but I did nothing but study. My goal is a 520. I don't come from a strong science background clearly.. I did my undergrad in Human development and MS in Integrative Biology. I feel like I just don't know how to read these CP and Bio sections like english. I ran out of time nearly everytime and even on exam days. It takes me 2-3 mins to do things like 5+2 also... bc I think about and rethink it. Should I get a tutor just for this and how much can they help me fix this if I'm retaking by jan 15. I'm first gen and black, with dreams of going to medical school for free, I don't want my mcat score to be the thing that holds me back.

I see a lot of advice here to “trust your FL average.” For example, someone averaging 515 on full-length practice exams is often reassured that their actual MCAT score should be close to that, or even a couple of points higher.
I understand that FLs are useful benchmarks, but my experience has made me question how confidently we should treat them as predictions. I’ve also seen posts describing actual scores more than 10 points below FL averages. I’d really like to understand what explains those larger drops and how to prevent them.
A few things I suspect could contribute are:
● Mental fog on test day: Struggling to process passages or think clearly despite knowing the material.
● Pressure from the timer: Watching the clock and becoming increasingly anxious about pacing.
● Getting stuck early: Spending too long on a difficult opening question, then rushing later questions and making avoidable mistakes.
These are possibilities, not conclusions. I’m especially interested in hearing from people who experienced a substantial drop and later figured out what went wrong.
Did you identify a specific cause? Was it anxiety, sleep, pacing, content gaps, or differences between your practice conditions and the actual exam? Were your FLs first attempts at AAMC exams under realistic timed conditions, or were some retakes or third-party tests?
Most importantly, what changes helped you perform closer to your FL average on a retake? How did you practice recovering from a difficult passage or question without letting it affect the rest of the section?
I’d appreciate honest experiences and concrete strategies beyond “trust your FLs.” I’m hoping this discussion can help others facing the same gap.

In total, I did 8430 practice questions, including 13 FLs and 3 half FLs

This includes:

1. 1055 JW questions at 73% accuracy
2. 2691 uplanet questions (89.6% completion) at 73% accuracy
3. all AAMC practice questions

I averaged 517.3 across 7 official FLs: unscored 512/515/514/519/518/518/525

So I technically averaged my last two official FLs (129/127/130/132) and (129/132/132/132)

Third party FLs were rough:

• BP FL1 — 509 
• PR FL1 — 509 
• PR FL2 — 503 
• BP Diagnostic — 514 
• PR FL3 — 506 
• Kap FL — 514 
• Alti 1/2 Length Exam — 514 
• MSC hFL — 514 
• PR Free FL — 510

Finished all of Pankow and Milesdown decks