Post on 05-Mar-2023
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This guide explains how you should use AAMC practice materials for your MCAT studying,
including which tests to use and when, how to best use questions in different study periods,
and what order you should take the practice tests in.
Introduction
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Absolutely! These are all questions from previous MCAT exams. As such, students should be
following the AAMC timing:
The questions unfortunately do not come in exact sets of 59 or 53. To determine the number
of minutes for each set of questions, for Science questions, take the number of questions
and multiply by 95 minutes, then divide by 59 questions. For CARS, take the number of
questions and multiply by 90 minutes, then divide by 53 questions.
How should students use the AAMC practice materials?
Should students time themselves while completing these questions?
Ÿ 90 minutes/53 questions for the CARS section
For example, if a student is going to complete 61 questions in the Physics question pack,
they should set a timer for (61*95)/59 = 98 minutes.
How should students emulate test-taking conditions?
Ÿ Wake up early – Rise at 7AM every morning (or whenever you plan on getting up on test
day.) Start practice questions at 8AM. Do your best to get your brain used to working on
practice questions at the same time of the day you'll be taking the MCAT. This can be
tough if a student is working full-time or has classes. In these situations, the student
may have no choice but to complete the questions when they have time. On practice test
days, there should be no exceptions.
AAMC materials can be classified as practice passages/questions and full-length practice
tests. There are six practice tests: one is a half-length, and the other five are full-length.
Students should pick six dates on their calendar to complete these practice tests. Between
these practice tests, students will complete the other AAMC practice passages/questions.
All practice questions come from previous MCAT exams. Students should follow these
best practices:
Ÿ 95 minutes/59 questions for the science sections
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Ÿ Time yourself – See previous question: “Should students time themselves while
completing these questions?”
Ÿ Have the right tools – Get a computer mouse. When you take the MCAT, you won't be
using a laptop, so you also won't be using a trackpad. It's a minor difference, but students
should get used to using a mouse because it is a different experience.
Ÿ Take breaks – On practice test days, follow exact timing for breaks (e.g., after
Chem/Phys, take a 10-minute break). Don't give yourself extra time (e.g., take a 1-hour
lunch break instead of 30 minutes). There are students that even make themselves the
same sandwich to eat on practice test days as what they are going to have on test day!
Exam taking can be easier if you're comfortable with your routine.
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Ÿ Practice Tests:
Ÿ AAMC Sample Test – This is the first full-length practice test released by the
AAMC. Unfortunately, this test does not provide students a scaled score
(e.g., it will say that you got X questions correct, but not provide a score
between 118-132).
Ÿ AAMC Practice Exams 2 – Full-length practice test with scaled scores.
Ÿ AAMC Practice Exams 3 – Full-length practice test with scaled scores.
Ÿ AAMC Practice Exams 4 – Full-length practice test with scaled scores.
They are not all the same. Below is a list of all the released AAMC questions, and
descriptions for each:
Ÿ AAMC Practice Exam 1 – Full-length practice test with scaled scores.
Students that have not taken the MCAT yet will take this as a diagnostic test
to establish their baseline score. They will have to retake this test when they get
to Phase 2: Targeted Review of their studies. The second time they take the test,
their score won't be as meaningful, but it's still good practice. Also, rarely will a
student get a perfect score the second time they take the test, so it's
interesting for the student to see what questions they are still missing.
Ÿ AAMC Official Guide Questions – This is technically not a full-length exam.
This item has 30 questions for each of the four sections of the exam and is
effectively a half-length exam. We treat this as the first practice test students
will take (asides from AAMC Practice Test 1 as the diagnostic exam if they have
not taken the MCAT before). It's a nice way to start off practice tests without
doing a full-length.
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Is there a difference between all the AAMC questions,
or are they all the same?
After completing the question packs, students will likely miss a larger
percentage of the questions with the section banks. This will concern some
students, but they should know this is normal. It's also good for them to know
that they will see questions on the MCAT at the level of difficulty as the section
banks, but their entire exam will not be that hard. They will get easy
questions/passages as well.
Ÿ AAMC Section Banks: This item has 100 questions for each of the three science
sections of the exam (i.e., Chem/Phys, Bio/Biochem, Psych/Soc). Similar to the
question packs, students should break the section banks into two halves of
about 50 questions. The questions in the section banks are particularly hard.
Ÿ Practice Passages
The section banks do not include any CARS questions, so it's good for students
to keep some CARS questions to complete later. These question packs come in
sets of 120 questions. That would take over three hours for students to
complete, and we do not want students to do three hours of physics in a row, as
that is not what they will have do on the MCAT. Instead, they will break each of
the question packs into two halves and complete approximately 60 questions
at a time. This is great because it's about the length of a section of the exam.
Ÿ AAMC Question Packs (Biology Volume 1 and 2, CARS Volume 1 and 2, Physics, Chemistry:
These are among the first questions that the AAMC released for students to
prepare for the MCAT when the exam changed in 2015. Unfortunately, they are all
recycled questions from the practice exams for the old MCAT. As a result, there
are few biochemistry questions and zero psychology or sociology questions.
The passage style is also different from what students have been seeing on the
current exam. However, the content in these questions are still relevant for the
current exam and are still questions that students need to complete. Students
will complete all of these questions before moving on to the section banks. The
only exception is with the CARS Volume 2 question pack.
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How much time should students give themselves to complete the AAMC
practice questions (AKA Phase 2: Targeted Review)?
How much time students need to complete these questions depend on the student's
schedule. We generally recommend 5-7 weeks. At seven weeks, it's approximately 20 hours
of studying, which is reasonable for busy pre-medical students. Five weeks is also doable.
Four weeks starts to become stressful, and anything less is not recommended. We've
included a table below to illustrate.
There is a total of 2,290 AAMC practice questions. Following AAMC pacing, this would take
about 138 hours to complete. However, students will also need to spend time to review the
questions and solutions. This will take at least as much time as it takes to complete the
questions and often more time. At a minimum, students can expect to spend 138 hours
completing and reviewing the AAMC questions.
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Number of Questions
Type of Questions
AAMC Minutes
Review Minutes
Total Minutes
Question Packs:
Biology 1 120 Science 193 193 386
Biology 2 120 Science 193 193 386
Chemistry 120 Science 193 193 386
Physics 120 Science 193 193 386
CARS 1 120 CARS 204 204 408
CARS 2 120 CARS 204 204 408
Section Bank:
Chem/Phys 100 Science 161 161 322
Bio/Biochem 100 Science 161 161 322
Psych/Soc 100 Science 161 161 322
Official Guide Questions
120 Test 225 225 450
Sample Test 230 Test 450 450 900
Practice Exam 1 230 Test 450 450 900
Practice Exam 2 230 Test 450 450 900
Practice Exam 3 230 Test 450 450 900
Practice Exam 4 230 Test 450 450 900
Total Minutes 2,290 4,138 4,138 8,276
Total Hours 69 69 138
AAMC Practice Questions Study Time
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Students will pick six dates to complete the practice tests and will use the rest of the days
to complete the question packs and section banks. The good news for students is that
we've already put together the optimal order to complete the questions:
What order should students complete AAMC questions?
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7-Week Schedule Example
1/1/2019 Tue Biology QP 1A and Chemistry QP 1A
1/2/2019 Wed Review Day
1/3/2019 Thu CARS QP 1A and Biology QP 1B
1/4/2019 Fri Review Day
1/5/2019 Sat Review Day
1/6/2019 Sun Physics QP 1A and CARS QP 1B
WEEK 1
1/7/2019 Mon Review Day
1/12/2019 Sat Chemistry QP 1B and Physics QP 1B
1/8/2019 Tue Biology QP 2A
1/13/2019 Sun Review Day
1/11/2019 Fri Review Day
1/9/2019 Wed Review Day
1/10/2019 Thu Mini Test 120 Official Guide Questions
WEEK 2
1/14/2019 Mon Review Day
1/15/2019 Tue AAMC Sample Test
1/16/2019 Wed Review Day
1/17/2019 Thu Review Day
1/18/2019 Fri Review Day
1/19/2019 Sat Biology QP 2B
1/20/2019 Sun Review Day
WEEK 3
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1/24/2019 Thu Review Day
1/23/2019 Wed Psych/Soc Section Bank A and CARS
QP 2A
1/26/2019 Sat AAMC Practice Test
1/25/2019 Fri Review Day
11/27/2019 Sun Review Day
1/21/2019 Mon Chem/Phys Section Bank A and
Bio/Biochem Section Bank A
1/22/2019 Tue Review Day
WEEK 4
1/28/2019 Mon Review Day
2/1/2019 Fri Psych/Soc Section Bank B and CARS
QP 2B
2/3/2019 Sun Review Day
1/31/2019 Thu Review Day
1/30/2019 Wed Chem/Phys Section Bank B and
Bio/Biochem Section Bank B
1/29/2019 Tue Review Day
2/2/2019 Sat Review Day
WEEK 5
2/5/2019 Tue AAMC Practice Test
22/6/2019 Wed Review Day
2/4/2019 Mon Review Day
2/9/2019 Sat AAMC Practice Test
2/8/2019 Fri Review Day
2/7/2019 Thu Review Day
32/10/2019 Sun Review Day
WEEK 6
2/12/2019 Tue Review Day
2/14/2019 Thu Review Day
2/15/2019 Fri Review Day
2/13/2019 Wed AAMC Practice Exam 4
2/16/2019 Sat Review Day
2/17/2019 Sun Rest Day
2/18/2019 Mon Test Day
2/11/2019 Mon Review Day
WEEK 7
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Question Numbers Number of Questions Number of Minutes
Assignment Order
Biology QP 1A 1-59 59 95
Chemistry QP 1A 1-59 59 95
CARS QP 1A 1-60 60 102
Biology QP 1B 60-120 61 98
Physics QP 1A 1-61 61 98
CARS QP 1B 61-120 60 102
Biology QP 2A 1-60 60 97
Official Guide Questions Half-Length Practice Test:
48 minutes for Chem/Phys, Bio/Biochem, and Psych/Soc; 51 minutes for CARS
Chemistry QP 1B 60-120 61 98
Physics QP 1B 62-120 59 95
AAMC Sample Test Full Length Practice Test
Biology QP 2B 61-120 60 97
Chem/Phys Section Bank A 1-50 50 81
Bio/Biochem Section Bank A 1-51 51 82
Psych/Soc Section Bank A 1-50 50 81
CARS QP 2A 1-60 60 102
AAMC Practice Exam 1 Full Length Practice Test
Chem/Phys Section Bank B 51-100 50 81
Bio/Biochem Section Bank B 52-100 49 79
Psych/Soc Section Bank B 51-100 50 81
CARS QP 2B 61-120 60 102
AAMC Practice Exam 2 Full Length Practice Test
AAMC Practice Exam 3 Full Length Practice Test
AAMC Practice Exam 4 FL Practice Test
Timing for AAMC Practice Items
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Ÿ 51 minutes for the CARS section – (30*90)/59
Ÿ 48 minutes for each of the three science sections – (30*95)/59
The Official Guide Questions do not present the sections of the exam in the correct
order of the MCAT. This is not a big deal for their first practice test, but is something
students should be aware of.
Practice Test Instructions
Ÿ For all practice tests, students should try their best to simulate test day conditions.
This includes following all the correct timing for the sections and breaks.
Ÿ For the Official Guide Questions, which is effectively a half test, the timing is
different. Students should give themselves:
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NOTES
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