MCAT Chem/Phys study guide
MCAT Chem/Phys · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) is the standardized exam that the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) provides for prospective medical students; the AAMC reports that roughly 95,000 people take it each year. The Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems section - commonly called Chem/Phys - is the portion of the exam that tests scientific reasoning combining general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, introductory physics, and introductory biology in biologically relevant contexts. The MCAT Chem/Phys study guide has 5 sections and about 1,538 words.
01General Chemistry: Bookkeeping, Equilibrium, and Energy
General chemistry rewards clean bookkeeping: convert every quantity to moles, then track mass, charge, and energy. Be fluent with stoichiometry and limiting-reagent logic, gas laws, solution concentration (molarity vs molality), colligative properties, and periodic trends (atomic radius, ionization energy, electronegativity, electron affinity).
336 words, about 2 min02Biochemistry: Proteins, Enzymes, and Metabolic Flux
Biochemistry clusters into four areas. First, amino acids and protein structure: side-chain chemistry (charged, polar, hydrophobic), pKa values of ionizable groups, the peptide bond, and the four levels of structure, plus what denaturants do to each.
314 words, about 2 min03Introductory Physics: Conservation Laws and Sign Sense
Physics here is applied reasoning rather than derivation. Expect one- and two-dimensional kinematics, Newton's laws with friction and inclines, circular motion, work–energy, impulse–momentum, fluids (density, pressure, buoyancy, continuity, Bernoulli, Poiseuille), gas behavior and thermodynamics, electrostatics and circuits, magnetism, waves and sound (Doppler, beats, standing waves), geometric optics (Snell's law, thin lenses, mirrors), and a light touch of atomic and nuclear physics.
307 words, about 2 min04Organic Chemistry: Mechanisms and Stereochemistry
Organic questions are pattern recognition. Know hybridization and geometry, resonance delocalization, aromaticity (Hückel: cyclic, planar, fully conjugated, 4n+2 π electrons), and acid–base trends driven by induction, resonance, hybridization, and size.
290 words, about 1 min05Introductory Biology: Systems, Genetics, and Populations
Biology questions test causal reasoning across systems. Core areas: membrane structure and transport (simple versus facilitated diffusion, active transport, osmosis and tonicity), cell signaling and the cell cycle, the central dogma with mutation consequences, Mendelian and non-Mendelian genetics with probability, population genetics (Hardy–Weinberg), evolution (selection types, drift, speciation), and organ-system physiology - nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, digestive, immune, and reproductive - plus basic development.
291 words, about 1 min