Sections of the MCAT

Okay so I'm just going to break down each section of the MCAT and how I studied for each:

Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems 

Relevant courses: Physics 6A, 6B, 6C. Chemistry 14A, 14B, 14C, 14D. Biochemistry 153A. LS2, LS3

This is probably the section that most resembles the old MCAT. It's nice because UCLA classes cover most of the material you see in here. For this section I mostly did all of the modules online and skimmed the book and it turned out okay. 

• Physics: 
• There are a LOT of different physics topics they could cover but only about 2-3 physics passages on the actual test. I took this as a good excuse to not focus on physics as much that as much. That being said, I hate Physics and never really wanted to study for it anyways. I pretty much bombed every physics question on the test but did very well in Chem so my score balanced out. I really do regret not practicing physics a lot more though because I definitely could have gotten a few more points from it.
• You have to know physics equations. Sorry bout it. The day before my test I sat down and wrote every equation about 3 times just to absorb it. I didn't really end up needing them on the actual test but it's good to know for your confidence's sake.
• The questions definitely focus on physics relating to physiology though. There was a lot of material about the heart as an electrical circuit, lenses in the eyes, sound waves in the ear etc. So if you want to focus on certain topics it would be those. 
• Chemistry: 
• Something to note about the new MCAT is that Biochem is everything! Even in the Chemistry section Biochem is everywhere! 
• Topics that appeared A TON were Acids and Bases and Thermodynamics. I watched a ton of Khan Academy to relearn a lot of this stuff. 
• Lavelle and Tienson are your homies. Take those classes and take good notes.
• O-Chem
• Not much to say here. There were just a couple Orgo questions on the test. Testing companies tell you to expect mechanisms and stuff but I wouldn't freak out about it.
• Probably the biggest thing to learn is types of reagents that are good for certain reactions but thats about it. If anything 14C material appears on the test moreso than 14D.

Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills 

CARS section is the section that you either love or you absolutely hate. This was always either my best or my worst section. This is just like the SAT critical reading portion but way more intense. You have 130 minutes to finish 9 passages of 5-7 questions each (AKA 10 minutes per passage). 

• There really isn't anything you need to study to help your prep for this part because the sections vary anywhere from Descartes & theory of the mind to the history of Asian pottery. If anything, taking Philosophy GEs will help you out because you will have experience reading an analyzing hard concepts. Even just reading the New York Times regularly will help you out with this type of critical analysis. 
• I always took about 3-4 minutes to read the passage and 6-7 minutes to answer the questions. I would use the highlighting feature by right clicking and dragging over important ideas. Some people like to preview all the questions but it takes a lot of time trying to click from page to page so I would just read the passage first.
• It really helps identifying the question types as well. There are inference, new information, structure, main idea, weaken/strengthen questions etc. After each test I took I would go back and see what kinds of questions I got wrong, and I saw that I was really bad at the inference questions. That way I knew what kinds of questions to devote my time to.
• I tried to do a passage every night and timed myself before I went to bed. Just 10 minutes of my day. The more you do the more confidence you have coming into this section which tbh is more important than actual skill. You just can't afford to waste time second guessing yourself.
• Don't be afraid to skip around passages. SAVE THE PHILOSOPHY SECTIONS FOR LAST! Really. If you start with a hard passage and it takes a ton of time you're already losing time and it just kills your vibe and makes your confidence drop for the rest of the section. Start with the easy ones and save the hard ones for last. 
• Practice and timing is everything! On my actual test I lost a lot of points because I took too much time on a section and only had 12 minutes for my last 2 passages. I ended up guessing a lot on those two and it totally could have been avoided if I paid attention to the time. 

Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems 

Relevant courses: LS2, LS3, LS4, Biochem 153A

This section may seem really difficult because they throw really complicated science journal articles at you (like binding of CPFX and BSA?!) and expect you to be able to figure out what's going on, but just keep in mind that its designed for you to be able to figure out how to answer the questions without having background knowledge of the science behind it. It's okay to feel like you're not going  to know everything because there is no way you're going to remember every single little detail. You can figure it out.

• Biochemistry:
• DO NOT EVEN THINK OF TAKING THIS SECTION WITHOUT TAKING BIOCHEM 153A FIRST. I will forever thank Heather Tienson for prepping me so hard for this section. Biochem is everything.
• Memorize the amino acids. All of them. Letters and abbreviations and structures. Memorize all the different types of enzymes. Memorize it all.
• Memorize all of the processes relating to metabolism: glycolysis, TCA, Amino Acid synthesis, gluconeogenesis, pentose phosphate pathway, ketogenesis everything. You don't have to know every single intermediate but definitely the rate determining steps is important. 
• The day before my test I sat down and practiced writing out all of the amino acids, hormones and steps in TCA cycle. It really did make me feel prepared
• Let me repeat myself: 153A is life. Don't take it too early before your MCAT or else you'll forget everything.
• Biology:


• Go over a lot of the bodily systems especially cardiovascular, renal, nervous, endocrine systems. Memorize all the hormones. I mean this stuff isn't that hard to study it just takes a long time.
• Khan academy is awesome. I would go watch videos after I read the book and it really helped me understand the body systems more. 
• Go over all of that protein synthesis DNA replication molecular biology stuff from LS3.
• LS4 really isn't all the necessary tbh except for maybe Meiosis
  
  

Psychological, Social and Biological Foundations of Behavior 

You really don't need to take any psychology or sociology courses before this because this stuff isn't hard to learn at all. If anything, what helped me most were classes from my major like Society and Genetics 5 which discussed a lot of the common topics that showed up. This is my favorite section because the material is so interesting, but I know a lot of people who really didn't like it too. I always finished 40 minutes early. You don't really need to read the passage most of the time to answer the questions. 

• The online courses that Princeton provides is alright. It didn't help too much. The thing that helped me the most was sitting down with the book, getting 4 different colored highlighters and highlighting every single freaking vocabulary word. When correcting my test every question that I got wrong was because I didn't know the vocabulary word. 
• There really isn't too much material for this part. I saw some of the same questions/topics appear every single time I took a test. You do need to memorize all of the different theories and all of the different mental illnesses though, but it's fun.
• The tesing companies haven't really covered all of the material that appears in this section since it is so new. However, Khan Academy covers everything and more! I really wish I started using it earlier on to help me out in this section because there were definitely some vocab that Princeton didn't cover that showed up. 
• https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat