How Hard is the MCAT? The Honest Truth
/Is the MCAT really that hard? Learn why the MCAT is so hard and strategies top scorers use to ace the MCAT
(Note: This resource also appears in our MCAT Ultimate Guide.)
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Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: How hard is the MCAT?
Part 3: How to ace the MCAT
Part 4: How difficult is the MCAT for my situation?
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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 2023–2024 academic year, the average MCAT score for medical school applicants was 506.3, whereas the average MCAT score for medical school matriculants was 511.7. 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?)
If you haven’t 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. We routinely get asked “Why is the MCAT so hard?” and even hear questions like “Is the MCAT too difficult?”
While the exam is challenging, the short answer to that question is “no.” Each and every year, plenty of our 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.
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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 |
|---|---|
As you can see, the MCAT is more than twice as long as the GRE and GMAT. Even when compared to the most similar test in this list, the dental admission test (DAT), the MCAT lasts a full 56% longer. Suffice to say, taking the MCAT is a marathon, not a sprint. The amount of information you’ll be tested on is clearly extensive.
Challenge #2: The MCAT tests your knowledge of many different subjects.
If you’re wondering how many questions are on The MCAT, it contains 230 total questions that cover many different subjects, including:
From this list, you can see that some of the subjects are quite different. For example, the methods you use to study for sociology will have to change for organic chemistry. As a result, your MCAT study approach should be different from your approach to other exams. Specifically, you must master many varied subjects, not just one.
For the MCAT, however, mastery does not mean knowing every minor 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.
Challenge #3: The format of the MCAT.
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. For example, the MCAT will require you to know not only a biological process such as glycolysis, but at the same time understand a passage and answer a question that draws on both outside knowledge and information from the passage.
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. 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.
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.
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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.
Make sure you take this exercise seriously and mimic the conditions of test day as closely as possible. Set up your scratch paper and pencils, do everything you can to create a quiet environment and even think about how you’ll get to the testing center. If you know you’ll need to drive there, make the drive part of your practice test as well. You’ll have an opportunity to make the commute and pay attention to traffic and parking conditions so that you won’t have any surprises during the real thing.
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 would be wise to 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 attempting 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 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.
Suggested reading: (MCAT CARS Practice Questions and Explanations)
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 you 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
Passage-based |
8 minutes/question |
|
Passage-based |
8 minutes/passage |
|
Passage-based |
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.
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Part 4: How difficult is the MCAT for my situation?
As briefly mentioned above, each test-takers’ individual situation will be a factor in how difficult the MCAT is for a med school aspirant. This can both increase and decrease the difficulty depending on how you approach handling your preparation and manage your stress regarding the exam.
How difficult is taking the MCAT as a non-traditional student?
Like many aspects of the medical school admissions process as a non-traditional student, taking the MCAT in this situation poses some unique hurdles that can increase the difficulty of achieving a high score.
For one, non-traditional students have often been away from academic life for some time and may need more time to refresh gaps in their knowledge and test-taking skills. Spending time focusing on core MCAT subjects such as biology, chemistry, and physics may be necessary to a degree that it might not be for a traditional applicant who has just recently finished those courses.
Furthermore, non-traditional applicants tend to have more responsibilities to manage around their study time. Familial, financial, work, and extracurricular obligations can all eat into a non-traditional applicant’s MCAT preparation time.
While these issues make acing the MCAT harder, they’re not insurmountable obstacles. Following a proper study plan and ensuring you set aside time each day to hit the books will translate into success on test day.
How difficult is the MCAT psychologically?
The sheer amount of information you’ll need to retain as well as the degree of persistent incremental progress involved in preparing for the exam adds to the psychological stress many students experience. These factors can increase the perceived difficulty of the MCAT.
While psychological factors are ultimately subjective, there are ways to manage the stress and anxiety that preparing for the MCAT can cause.
Intensive study over an extended period of time can cause a lot of mental strain. It’s important to follow a study plan that builds in downtime to give your brain a break so it can properly absorb the information. You may also want to study in short, targeted bursts to help you maintain concentration and achieve better results. For example, using the Pomodoro technique is a good way to organize your study time for maximum benefit.
Taking care of your physical health will also support your psychological health and help you better prepare for the MCAT. It’s important to remember to eat right and exercise as this is a well-documented reliever of stress. You may also want to incorporate mindfulness practices into your daily routine to help keep you grounded.
Furthermore, maintaining a positive mindset is key. Remind yourself that while the MCAT is important, it’s only one part of the medical school admissions process. Your score on this test alone will not be the sole determinant of your success in getting into medical school, so don’t let the stress overwhelm you!
Also, keep track of your progress. When you finish a deep dive into a difficult subject, mark it off your list with a smile. When you take practice tests, keep a record of the questions you missed and where your score improves. Being able to look back at how far you’ve come can help banish negative thoughts from your mind about the MCAT’s difficulty.
Final thoughts
It shouldn’t be sugarcoated—the MCAT is a notoriously difficult exam. However, with the right kind of concerted effort and a well-thought-out plan, achieving your highest score is absolutely within reach!
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
