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What resources are available for MCAT preparation?

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The most basic step of preparation for the MCAT is one you may already have completed, or may be working on now: the basic pre-medicine curriculum at your college or university. The MCAT will test your recall of the information you learned in biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry and physics, and the corresponding lab classes. It will also test critical thinking, verbal reasoning, and problem-solving skills which, hopefully, you have been developing through all of your college coursework. The AAMC also cites reading science journals and working in a research laboratory as helpful activities to train your mind for the MCAT -- and for medical school and medical practice.

The AAMC offers its own MCAT preparation materials for purchase, including access to online practice tests. The AAMC has said that it does not consider a review course with an outside company necessary or even helpful; yet the national test preparation specialists claim that their courses improve students’ scores by as many as ten points (Princeton Review). About half of prospective medical students take an MCAT preparation course.

The Princeton Review offers MCAT preparation classroom courses taught by a team of expert instructors. The course includes five practice MCATs, 41 class sessions and loads of materials, and costs $1699. It meets four or five times a week for about three months before the test. Princeton Review also has private MCAT tutoring packages of 16 hours covering two subjects ($2000) or 48 hours covering all subjects ($6000).

Kaplan's MCAT preparation course is also well acclaimed. During the three months before the test, the class meets most Tuesdays and Thursdays, and some Saturdays. There are 18 three-hour classroom sessions and five full-length practice MCATs, in addition to a diagnostic MCAT at the beginning, which helps Kaplan to respond to your own personal study needs. The class costs of $1549. Like the Princeton Review class, the Kaplan class gives you access to thousands of practice MCAT questions, in paper format and online. Kaplan also offers free online make-up classes; and an entirely online course is available for $1399. One-on-one tutoring packages with Kaplan range from 35 hours for $3999 to 15 hours for $2299.

As an added perk, both Kaplan and Princeton Review provide trial subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal (six months from Kaplan and nine months from Princeton Review); Princeton Review also gives you a six-month trial subscription to TIME Magazine.

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