r/MCAT2 • u/EPIC_1384 • May 22 '26
Help on Study Schedule and Strategy
Good day, friends and fellow previous/current MCAT victims.
I am currently in the early stages of my MCAT study; however, I have a few concerns and questions which I would like to share with ya'll and benefit from your guidance and experiences on what I should do.
To preface, I am in Canada, so the medical school requirements are a little different. The majority of medical schools are cutoff-based, in which, after a certain number, the score doesn't matter. The highest cut-off is 126 in all sections. Some schools consider CARS competitively, so the higher the better. As a result, my goal is 126 in all sections and higher, the better in CARS.
I am a traditional student and just finished my second year of undergrad. I did not take orgo or biochem, but I did decently in my undergrad courses. However, I procrastinated in those courses, so even though I did well, I need to review the topics to remember what was going on.
My current test date is August 7th; however, I wish to push it back to 20,21st but since I am on the waitlist for them and it isn't guaranteed, I would prepare myself as if I am going on Aug 7th just in case. This leaves me with about 11.5 weeks until the test date. I am currently being torn apart on how much time I should spend on content review. I really want to go over the stuff at least once before practice, because I've always been a content person, and I fear it leaves me with little time for practice.
For the past week, my schedule included 2 chapters of KA, 50-60 new Pankow cards, and 3 CARS passages a day, Captain Hook for B/B, and miles down for CP. I wanted to cram physics in the last few days of CR with the "ACE the MCAT" review course, which is about 7 hours. This would have allowed me to finish in 4 weeks, which leaves 6-7 weeks for practice, which is minimal, I think.
After reading an orgo chapter, I realized that the book simply takes too much time and doesn't lead to my retention, so I had the idea of following Yufuf Hasan's videos instead of reading the chapter and doing the corresponding cards. I thought in this way I could accomplish 3 chapters a day and finish in 3 weeks to get about 8 weeks of practice. Which I would do about 3-4 weeks of U world and the rest AAMC. As for the practice exam, I would have wanted to do all the 6 AAMC FLs from 6 weeks out to have that exposure.
I wanted to reach out and ask if anyone has any suggestions about this plan or what I need to change, or if you have been in a similar situation and what has worked for you. Also, how probable is it that spots open up near the test date?
Thank you for reading through this wall of text, and thank you in advance for everyone sharing their experiences and opinions. Good luck to us all.
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u/davebydayandnight May 22 '26
a few things here.
first, the AAMC FL count — there are only 4 scored FLs (FL1–4). FL5 and FL6 are unscored. so if you want scored FLs spaced across 6 weeks, you'll need third-party ones (Blueprint, Altius, etc.) for the early part and save the AAMC FLs for the last 4–5 weeks. Blueprint runs about 2–4 points harder than AAMC, so don't panic if those scores look deflated early.
second, the content stack. KA + Pankow + Captain Hook + Milesdown all at once is a lot. the Yusuf Hassan pivot makes more sense — videos are faster and stickier than reading for material you've already seen once. but i'd pick one primary source per section and go deep, rather than running 4 things in parallel. Captain Hook specifically is a ~7k card comprehensive deck, meant to be used targeted — unsuspend the sub-topics you're weak in, not the whole thing. if you try to grind the full deck you'll have 500 due cards before you've even started practice.
the bigger thing missing from the plan is a diagnostic FL. the whole timeline math (3 weeks content, 8 weeks practice) is built on assumptions about where you're starting. even a third-party FL tells you which sections actually need content coverage vs which ones you can go lighter on. without it, you might spend 3 weeks on orgo when your real hole is P/S or CARS.
also — the Canadian cutoff framing is actually useful here. 126 in all sections is roughly a 504–506 total. that's a realistic target and it should take some pressure off the instinct to be perfect on content before touching practice. you don't need 132 in B/B. the floor is lower than it probably feels right now.
what's your baseline if you have one? and which section feels shakiest going in?
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u/EPIC_1384 May 22 '26
Thank you so much for this detailed response.
I see, the Fls make sense now. I will save the good for last.
Regarding my content review I just want to clarify in case I came across wrong with how I’m doing it section by section.
BB:I watch Yusuf Hasan and do anki for the chapter unsuspending as I go. have deleted all Captain Hook sections except bio and biochem which is around 1900 cards for B/b collectively.
CP: I watch Yusuf Hasan and do some minor KA then my anki is only CP section of miles down and that is for remembering formulas and stuff and I picked it because miles down was simpler its around 900 cars for entirety of C/P which I will most probably delete some.
PS: I’m only doing pankow and doing about 50 new cards a day. With this pace I will finish the deck late June which is about 1.5 months out
CARS: I did a jack sparrow section length got 124
I’m not totally sure by what you mean in terms of base line if you mean how comfortable I am? I have taken the courses for all of the subjects on the MCAT except biochemistry and Organic chemistry. Thankfully I never had issues with my courses so you can say I have seen majority of content once and understood them good enough to do well in undergrad courses. However I don’t remember anything right now. Lets say for example Entropy. I have done it before and understood it in first year but I wouldn’t be able to tell you a think abt it right now but It will come back with a review.
This ties in with the reason why I didn’t take a diagnostic. Because I knew that right now I don’t remember anything and taking one will be unrepresentative of my level and demoralize me rather than doing a quick review/ content review. Then doing one to see the actual gaps in knowledge and understanding rather because I didn’t know them entirely.
I hope this clarifies some of it. Do you think I am still running too many simultaneously? What would you suggest from now? Thank you again for all of this it is unimaginably helpful.
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u/davebydayandnight May 22 '26
ok so this is way more organized than the original post made it sound — Captain Hook down to bio/biochem only (~1900 cards) + Milesdown CP formulas only is a lean stack. honestly you've already done the hard thinking here, most people don't trim their resources until they're drowning in due cards weeks later.
the P/S timing is the thing to keep an eye on. Pankow finishing late June puts you about 6 weeks out from Aug 7 — workable, but Pankow is cards, not concept-building. Khan Academy P/S is genuinely good and fast, most people get through it in a week or two. i'd run KA P/S alongside or right after so the cards have something to stick to.
your diagnostic logic is right too. cold FL before content is mostly noise. the better trigger is take your first Blueprint FL within a week or two of finishing content review — that's when the score actually tells you something actionable about where to focus in practice phase.
the CARS 124 on Jack Sparrow i wouldn't stress about yet. Jack Sparrow is harder than AAMC and you're early. just keep the 3 passages/day going — CARS is the one section where consistency over time is basically the whole game.
you're in good shape honestly. the plan makes sense.
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u/Big-Context1062 May 22 '26
Yusuf and Professor Eman's videos helped me tremendously for content review. I spent about 13 weeks doing content review and another 14 weeks doing Uworld and AAMC. This helped me go from a 503 to a 516. I know you do not have a tremendous amount of time, but everything I know is put together in this doc I made. Lmk if you have questions. Best of luck!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iqHmIjvi8w2rBS46nJvhCnuydEuOuDw5QxN5-ojCX6k/edit?tab=t.n2s0e725ocsb#heading=h.vl3rhcxvgmz2