[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-201748-en":3,"doc-seo-201748-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":95},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":11,"language":21,"language_code":22,"site_id":23,"html_lang":22,"table_of_contents":24,"faqs":25,"seo_title":26,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},201748,687208528416,"Cipher","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc",4,"Exam","How Long It Takes to Study for the MCAT","A time-based study plan estimates how long full-time students need to prepare for the MCAT, breaking preparation into CARS, reading, studying with electronic flashcards, solving problems, and completing practice tests. The guide provides approximate hours for each component—20 minutes daily for one CARS passage, 76 hours of reading, 168 hours for spaced flashcard review across months, 72 hours solving problems, and practice tests counted as full-day work. Summed together, total time reaches about 418 hours, translating to just under 12 weeks on a 35-hour-per-week schedule, excluding tutoring time.","How long does it take to study for the  \nMCAT?  \nI am going to estimate how long a student might take to study for the MCAT test using the books I recommend for my students under the premise that someone is studying full time. This is an estimate, but I think it paints a decent picture of what a fulltime MCAT student can expect. For part time students, they would spread this over a longer period (I hope) .  \nCARS  \nI recommend my students do one passage every day. Including reviewing it, this takes about 20 minutes on average. So, 6 days a week, that’s 2 hours per week. Additionally, I will give them entire MCAT test practice sections probably about 5- 6 times over the course of their studying. All totaled, I would guess that about 30 hours are spent on verbal over the whole study period.  \nReading  \nBased on using the Berkeley Review Materials with a Kaplan Biochemistry book for MCAT test preparation, my students typically experience the following time commitment by type of material  \nThis comes to 76 hours of reading. While I am categorizing this as reading, students might also be looking at you tube videos or using other sources, but these are decent estimates for the time commitment.  \nStudying  \nMany of my students start learning the MCAT test under the impression that reading the chapters and doing the problems is enough to do well: I do my best to disabuse them of this notion as fast as possible. Unfortunately, we tend to forget things we read rather quickly if we do not review them. If one wants to remember something, one of the best ways to do so is to practice retrieving it from memory. I generally push my students to use electronic flashcards that take advantage of the Spacing Effect to improve one’s memory. I have had enough students at this point who have consented to my sharing their flashcard decks that I have almost a full collection of flashcards that I give to my new students starting out, so I know they have about 5,000 cards to learn. If they spend 30 seconds to learn each card initially, and 10 seconds to review it each time thereafter (generous, most students take less) . The spacing pattern I recommend to my students will have them review each card 8 times over the next few months. This comes to 110 seconds per card, or 168 hours for all cards.  \nDoing problems  \nPolling some current and former students, below is the general breakdown of how long each type of problem set takes my students.  \nThis comes to 72 hours of time spent solving problems total.  \nDoing practice tests  \nThese days, my students who score well tend to do approximately 9 practice MCATtests. Each one takes the whole day to do and review, so I count that as 8 hours for 72 hours spent taking practice tests.  \nTotal Time  \nThe full amount is summarized in the table below.  \nAltogether, this is 418 hours of studying for the MCAT test, which if you assume someone is studying full time (35 hours/week), can be done in just under 12 weeks. I don’t consider time spent being tutored in this, which would be about 2-4 hours per week for a full-time studying. This is about as intense a schedule as I advise my students to have, and multiple students have cleared the  \n95th percentile using it.  \nAbout the author:  \n[Henry graduated with a B.A. in](Henry graduated with a B.A. in) biology with Latin honors from Columbia. He performed wet lab neuroendocrinology research and clinical neurosurgery research. During college, Henry rekindled his love of sports as the first male synchronized swimmer in the Ivy League. Henry also became interested in health policy during college and volunteered doing tobacco control political advocacy.  \nHenry has tutored students of all ages in math and science, while also tutoring highschool students in the SAT subject tests in chemistry and physics. He was also an MCAT tutor for a different firm where he designed their MCAT curriculum.  \nHenry recently moved back to New York to attend the Columbia University College of Phy","cbCaisaIA4Exf9WW","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisaIA4Exf9WW","pdf",725082,1,"English","en",105,"# MCAT Study Time Estimates\n## CARS\n## Reading\n## Studying\n## Doing Problems\n## Doing Practice Tests\n## Total Time\n## About the Author\n## Contact","[{\"question\":\"How long should a full-time student spend on CARS each week?\",\"answer\":\"The plan recommends one passage per day with reviewing, averaging about 20 minutes. Doing this six days per week equals about 2 hours per week, plus full practice test sections about 5–6 times during the overall study period.\"},{\"question\":\"What reading time is estimated using recommended materials?\",\"answer\":\"Using Berkeley Review materials with a Kaplan biochemistry book, the estimate totals about 76 hours of reading. Even though students may use other sources like videos, 76 hours is presented as a reasonable time commitment.\"},{\"question\":\"How much time is allocated to studying with flashcards?\",\"answer\":\"The guide assumes around 5,000 flashcards. With an initial learning time of 30 seconds per card and 10 seconds for subsequent reviews, and a recommended spacing schedule reviewing each card 8 times over the next few months, the total is about 168 hours.\"}]","How Long It Takes to Study for the MCAT | PDF",1788538004,10,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":23,"language":22,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":90,"head_meta":92,"extra_data":94,"updated_unix":27},"how-long-it-takes-to-study-for-the-mcat","",{"@graph":35,"@context":89},[36,52,72],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/how-long-it-takes-to-study-for-the-mcat/201748/",{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":53,"image":54,"author":59,"headline":13,"publisher":61,"fileFormat":64,"inLanguage":22,"description":14,"dateModified":65,"datePublished":66,"encodingFormat":64,"isAccessibleForFree":67,"interactionStatistic":68},"DigitalDocument",{"url":55,"@type":56,"width":57,"height":58},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/how-long-it-takes-to-study-for-the-mcat/201748.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":9,"@type":60},"Person",{"url":40,"name":62,"@type":63},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-11","2026-09-04",true,{"@type":69,"interactionType":70,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":71},"ViewAction",{"@type":73,"mainEntity":74},"FAQPage",[75,81,85],{"name":76,"@type":77,"acceptedAnswer":78},"How long should a full-time student spend on CARS each week?","Question",{"text":79,"@type":80},"The plan recommends one passage per day with reviewing, averaging about 20 minutes. Doing this six days per week equals about 2 hours per week, plus full practice test sections about 5–6 times during the overall study period.","Answer",{"name":82,"@type":77,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What reading time is estimated using recommended materials?",{"text":84,"@type":80},"Using Berkeley Review materials with a Kaplan biochemistry book, the estimate totals about 76 hours of reading. Even though students may use other sources like videos, 76 hours is presented as a reasonable time commitment.",{"name":86,"@type":77,"acceptedAnswer":87},"How much time is allocated to studying with flashcards?",{"text":88,"@type":80},"The guide assumes around 5,000 flashcards. With an initial learning time of 30 seconds per card and 10 seconds for subsequent reviews, and a recommended spacing schedule reviewing each card 8 times over the next few months, the total is about 168 hours.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":91,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":62,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":93,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":23},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":96},[97,101,105,108,113,118,123,128,133,136,139],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},70,"exam",{"id":109,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":110,"show_sort_weight":111,"slug":112},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":114,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":115,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":117},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":119,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":129,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":132},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":135},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":28,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":28,"slug":138},"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":140,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":141,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":142},19,"General","general"]