Four months is a comfortable amount of time to study for the MCAT, especially if you're juggling classes or a job. You get room to rebuild the content properly and still have five weeks of full-length exams at the end 🙂
This 4-month MCAT study plan lays out all 16 weeks, from your diagnostic to test day. It shows the hours, when each full-length exam goes, and what to do when a busy week throws you off.
How to Study for the MCAT in 4 Months: The 4-Month MCAT Study Plan
Sixteen weeks is long enough to learn the content well and short enough to keep your momentum going!
Who This 4-Month MCAT Study Plan Is For
- Your test date is about 16 weeks away.
- You're taking classes, working part-time, or both, so 15 to 20 hours a week is what you can give the MCAT.
- You took some of the prerequisites a while ago, or your diagnostic showed a lot of content to rebuild.
Got 25 or more hours a week and fresh content? Our 3-month MCAT study plan gets you there sooner. If you can only find 10 to 15 hours a week, our 6-month MCAT study plan spreads the same work out, and that's completely okay!
Our guide on how to study for the MCAT covers the five phases every plan follows, and this plan keeps them in the same order.
Week 1 is your diagnostic. Weeks 1 to 11 are content review, with practice questions after every topic and timed passages from week 4. Weeks 12 to 16 bring one AAMC full-length exam a week, and week 16 ends in review and rest!
How Many Hours a Week the 4-Month MCAT Study Plan Takes
Plan on about 20 hours in a normal week and about 25 in a week with a full-length exam. The exam itself takes about 7.5 hours, and a careful review takes most of another day.
Across the 16 weeks that adds up to about 350 hours, a little more than our 3-month plan!
About three hours a day on five weekdays, a longer review day on the weekend, and one day off. Some of the top scorers we've interviewed studied around three hours a day on top of a full-time job, so this pace is doable alongside classes 🙂
Week-by-Week 4-Month MCAT Study Plan
Each row below is one week. Every content week touches each science subject, so nothing goes cold for long, and CARS and flashcards run every day of the plan.
Every week of the 4-month MCAT study plan fits in one table, from your diagnostic to test day!
If you're taking biochemistry or psychology this semester, move those topics later in the 4-month MCAT study plan so your class and your MCAT review cover them in the same weeks. Keep the full-length weeks where they are, and you're all set!
When Full-Length Exams Start in a 4-Month MCAT Study Plan
Take one full-length at the very start as your diagnostic and two more as checkpoints in weeks 6 and 11. From week 12, take one a week until test day. That's eight full-lengths in all!
Each AAMC practice exam is built from questions on past MCATs. Saving the five you buy for the last five weeks gives you the most realistic read on your score right before test day.
Between exams, the AAMC's Section Bank and its Biology, Chemistry and Physics Question Packs make good timed sets. For CARS, the AAMC's new CARS Question Bank replaced its old question packs, so that's where your official CARS passages come from now.
Review each exam as long as you spent taking it, and our guide to reviewing MCAT practice tests shows how top scorers do it!
(Optional) If you'd like to practice passages with a mentor, our 6-Week Live MCAT Accelerator lines up with weeks 11 to 16 of this plan, and every class is recorded.
How to Adjust Your 4-Month MCAT Study Plan If You Fall Behind
Almost every plan slips somewhere over 16 weeks, so try not to panic when yours does! Here's how to catch up.
- A topic ran over. Finish it on that week's review day and keep the next week's topics on schedule. Keep CARS and your flashcards going every day.
- Midterms or a work deadline ate a week. Drop to CARS and flashcards that week, then spread the missed topics across the review days of the next three weeks. You'll be back on track in no time!
- Your checkpoint score didn't rise. Spend a review day sorting your mistake log by cause. Content misses go back to practice questions, and timing or misreading misses get more timed passage sets.
If you'd like a 515+ scorer to look over your mistake log with you, our 1:1 MCAT tutoring lets you book a session whenever you hit a wall 🙂
How to Keep a 4-Month MCAT Study Plan From Stalling
Long plans tend to stall in the middle. By weeks 6 to 10 the diagnostic is behind you, test day still feels far off, and every week looks like the last one.
A few habits keep a 4-month MCAT study plan moving, and none of them take long!
- Keep your day off. One rest day a week is part of the plan, and skipping it tends to cost you more days later.
- Give each week one small finish line. Finish the topic list and log every miss, then tick both off on the review day.
- Rotate subjects day to day, so one hard subject never fills a whole day.
- Study with someone. A study partner or an MCAT study group helps with accountability, and explaining a topic out loud shows you what you've got down.
Rereading the same page three times, dreading every session, and flat scores for three weeks are the usual signs. If two of them show up, take two lighter days with only CARS and flashcards, then pick the plan back up. A short break now saves you weeks later!
Our guide to MCAT burnout covers more ways to stay motivated over a long plan, and our Anki guide shows how to keep flashcard reviews short on busy days.
4-Month MCAT Study Plan FAQs
Is 4 months enough to study for the MCAT?
Yes, for most students it is! At about 20 hours a week, a 4-month MCAT study plan gives you around 350 hours.
How far that gets you depends on your diagnostic and your goal, so check your progress at the week 6 and week 11 checkpoints 🙂
How many hours a day should I study on a 4-month MCAT study plan?
About three hours on weekdays and five on your review day, with one day off. Full-length weeks run a few hours longer.
Can I follow a 4-month MCAT study plan while working full-time?
Yes, if you can find 15 to 20 hours a week. Two hours on four weekday evenings and six on each weekend day gets you to 20, with one weekday off! Our guide to studying with work and school has more on fitting it in.
When should I take my first full-length exam?
In week 1, before you start content review. It's your diagnostic, so a low score is completely normal and tells you where to spend your time 🙂
What if I finish content review early?
Nice work! Start the timed mixed passage sets and the AAMC Section Bank sooner, and keep each AAMC full-length in its week.
Is a 5 or 6-month plan better than 4 months?
Only if you can give the MCAT fewer hours a week. Our 6-month MCAT study plan includes a 5-month version and runs about 15 to 18 hours a week.
For more on each phase, from the diagnostic to test week, see our full guide on how to study for the MCAT. Our other plans cover 1 month, 2 months, 3 months and 5 or 6 months.
If you'd like to work through passages live with a 515+ scorer, our 6-Week Live MCAT Accelerator practices live passages in every section. And if the cohort dates don't line up with your plan, 1:1 MCAT tutoring works around your schedule. You've got this 🙂
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