How To Make Money While Studying For Mcat

Is the MCAT really that hard? Learn why the MCAT is so hard and strategies top scorers use to ace the MCAT

Part 1: Introduction

You've no doubt been asked by your premed advisor and friends, "Have you taken the MCAT yet?" Their voices probably convey an optimism that you have already taken—and aced—the exam mixed with the fear that it still lies ahead of you. Meanwhile, you've also certainly heard horror stories about how hard the MCAT is.

Adding to the pressure, the MCAT plays a huge role in what medical schools look for in an applicant. For the 2021–2022 academic year, the average MCAT score for medical school applicants was 505.9, whereas the average MCAT score for medical school matriculants was 511.9. The numbers show that being ahead of the pack greatly influences your odds of getting into medical school.

(Suggested reading: What MCAT Score Do You Need to Get Into Medical School?)

How hard is it to get a 511 on the MCAT?

Scoring well on the MCAT is hard if you do not study properly. Conversely, if you master high-yield content, take lots of test-like practice problems in test-like conditions, and study exactly what you miss, you can score very well on the MCAT and increase your chances of getting into your dream medical school.

To those who have not yet begun studying for the exam, the MCAT has a mysterious aura. It's one of the last obstacles that you must face on your premed journey—and it's notoriously difficult. Some people have even asked, "Is the MCAT too difficult?"

While the exam is challenging, the short answer to that question is "no." Each and every year, plenty of students do well on the MCAT, making them even stronger candidates for medical school.

Nevertheless, it's time we take a deeper dive and answer the following common question: exactly how hard is the MCAT?

We wrote this guide to break down the reasons why students find the MCAT challenging. Plus, we've included study strategies you can use to solve those challenges and achieve your dream MCAT score.

Part 2: How hard is the MCAT?

The MCAT is a hard test, but it's manageable if you approach it diligently and efficiently. In other words, you'll need to work hard and smart. Let's look at what makes the exam more challenging than other tests you might have taken or heard of.

**Challenge #1: The MCAT is long.**

The MCAT's testing time is 6 hours and 15 minutes while the total seated time is just over 7.5 hours. This makes the exam much longer than its standardized testing counterparts.

For comparison, let's look at the length of other popular standardized tests:

Standardized Test	Length
MCAT	7.5 hours
SAT	3 hours
ACT	3.5 hours
LSAT	3.5 hours
DAT	4.25 hours
GRE	3.75 hours
GMAT	3.75 hours

Challenge #2: The MCAT tests your knowledge of many different subjects.

The MCAT contains 230 total questions that cover many different subjects, including:

General chemistry
Organic chemistry
Physics
Reading comprehension
Biology
Biochemistry
Psychology and sociology

From this list, you can see that some of the subjects are quite different. For example, you will have to study differently for sociology than you would for organic chemistry. As a result, your MCAT study approach should be different from your approach to other exams. Specifically, you must master many subjects, not just one.

For the MCAT, however, mastery does not mean knowing every small detail about every small fact in a biology textbook. Yes, you will need to know some important details, but more importantly, you will need to apply your knowledge about biology to information that the MCAT introduces in a passage. That brings us to the next reason why the MCAT is a harder-than-average exam.

How long does it take to prepare for the MCAT?

Your goal in prepping for the MCAT should be to get somewhere between 300–400 hours of study time, depending on your academic foundation, skill with standardized tests, and other factors. We encourage you to review our guide on developing the ideal MCAT study schedule for a detailed breakdown.

Challenge #3: The MCAT is a passage-based exam.

The MCAT's passage-based format means that almost all questions on the exam will be associated with a six- to seven-paragraph passage. This adds a layer of complexity to the exam—you won't be able to simply recall facts that you have memorized in order to answer questions correctly.

Instead, you will need to synthesize information from the passage and interpret graphs in the context of your background knowledge. The MCAT will require you to know a biological process (e.g., glycolysis), understand a passage, and answer a question that draws on both outside knowledge and information from the passage. As a result, reading comprehension and the ability to quickly analyze graphs will make a huge difference in your score, and this explains why even students with a 3.9 GPA are not guaranteed success on the MCAT.

Is the MCAT curved?

The MCAT is not curved, but it is standardized. In other words, the scoring of the exam is normalized based on how everyone performs in order to account for slight variations in difficulty between different exams. For example, if a July exam is slightly more difficult than a May exam, a student taking the July exam might be able to miss a few more questions and still achieve the same score as a student who took the exam in May.

Challenge #4: The MCAT is timed.

Because the MCAT asks a lot of questions in a relatively short period of time, students often struggle to finish some sections of the exam (e.g., Chem/Phys and CARS) in the allotted time, which leaves points that they could have earned on the table.

Now that we've covered why the MCAT is hard, we'll provide strategies proven to combat those difficulties, make the exam easier over time, and help you earn the score you deserve.

Part 3: How to ace the MCAT

Challenge #1: The MCAT is long.

Solution: Take many simulated full-length practice exams.

The length of the MCAT makes it mentally and physically draining. During the course of your test preparation, you should take at least five full-length exams under test-like conditions. Start the exam right at 8 a.m., take each of your breaks as you would on the real test, and treat each question and passage as if you were taking your real MCAT. Come test day, you will be more than ready and the test will fly by!

Challenge #2: The MCAT tests your knowledge of many different subjects.

Solution: Choose the most effective study strategy for each specific subject.

Let's look at an example: Jeremiah is struggling on two MCAT subjects: organic chemistry and CARS passages on humanities. Will Jeremiah be able to study CARS the same way he studies organic chemistry? Of course not!

For organic chemistry, Jeremiah should write down important functional groups, memorize their structures, and learn how those structures are important for the different chemical reactivities of the functional groups. For example, Jeremiah should write down what a carboxylic acid is, memorize the structure, and understand that the carbonyl carbon is electrophilic because the oxygen pulls away electron density. As a result, a nucleophile can attack the carbonyl carbon and cause the hydroxyl (-OH) group to leave.

Without "memorizing" a specific mechanism, Jeremiah just reasoned through nucleophilic acyl substitution. He should repeat this process for the other highly tested organic chemistry functional groups to improve his performance on the Chem/Phys section of the exam.

What's the most effective study strategy for Jeremiah to improve his CARS score? He won't be able to draw out reactions or memorize functional groups for CARS. Instead, Jeremiah should focus on finding and taking as many CARS humanities passages as he can. After each passage, he should do an intense review of what he missed and why he missed it in order to identify patterns in his wrong answer choices.

As you can see, the most effective way to study for CARS is very different from studying for organic chemistry.

How hard will the MCAT be for me?

In addition to the general factors we discussed in this article that make the MCAT a difficult exam, there are other individual-specific factors that might make the MCAT easier or more difficult for any given person. Here are some of these factors (disclaimer: every single one of these factors can be overcome based on how you study for the exam, and there are counterexamples for each one we have listed!):

Undergraduate major: An English major may perform better on the CARS section while a Biochemistry major may perform better on the Bio/Biochem section
Other time commitments while studying: A student who is just studying for the MCAT will have more time to devote to the exam than a student who is in school, volunteering, and studying for the MCAT at the same time
Method of preparation: A student who prepares efficiently by prioritizing high-yield practice over rote memorization of small details will likely perform better on the exam
Preparation time: A student who prepares for the recommended 300-400 hours will likely perform better than a student who prepares for 75 hours

Challenge #3: The MCAT is a passage-based exam.

Solution: Understand whether the test-writers at the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) want you to find the answer in the passage, use outside knowledge to the answer the question, or utilize a combination of the two approaches.

For the Chemistry/Physics, Biology/Biochemistry, and Psychology/Sociology sections of the exam, you will need to ask yourself where the AAMC wants you to find the answer. By taking practice problems and thoroughly reviewing them afterwards, you will begin to understand what the AAMC expects of you on any given question. As a general rule of thumb, if can't figure out the answer to a question, return to the passage to make sure you didn't miss a key detail.

For the CARS section, you do not need to know outside information, meaning the answer choice must be somewhere in the passage. Use this to your advantage—in order to choose an answer choice in CARS, there must be a piece of text evidence that directly supports the question.

Can I take the MCAT without studying?

It is not uncommon to hear students who want to take the MCAT without studying because they have performed well in their science classes. These students say that if they do poorly, they will study and take it again, but in the backs of their minds, they believe that they are prepared to perform well on an exam that they have not yet studied for.

The problem with this approach is that knowing science is not enough to score well on the MCAT. Scoring well on the MCAT requires practice with the test's format and an understanding of the way the AAMC likes to ask questions. Why risk sending a low score to medical schools for the sake of not studying?

Cost-wise, signing up for a full-price MCAT exam is actually more expensive than purchasing all of the online AAMC practice materials. So, it is in your best interest to buy the AAMC practice materials and take the exam only one time instead of 1) spending more money on two full-price MCAT exams and 2) sending medical schools a score below your target.

Challenge #4: The MCAT is timed.

Solution: Develop and rigorously practice a timing strategy.

For the Chemistry/Physics, Biology/Biochemistry, and Psychology/Sociology sections of the MCAT, you should aim to spend 8 minutes per passage on the 10 passages and 1 minute per standalone question on the 15 standalone questions.

For the CARS section, you should aim to spend 10 minutes per passage on the 9 passages.

We have broken this down for you here:

MCAT Section	Question type	Recommended time
Chemistry/Physics	Standalone Passage-based	1 minute/question 8 minutes/question
CARS	Passage-based	10 minutes/passage
Biology/Biochemistry	Standalone Passage-based	1 minute/question 8 minutes/passage
Psychology/Sociology	Standalone Passage-based	1 minute/question 8 minutes/passage

You should practice this timing strategy whenever you take a practice passage in order to become familiar with the time constraints you will see on the MCAT. By the time you are in your seat on test day, you will be an expert at quickly navigating passages and pacing yourself through the exam.