A general test-prep publisher taking on the MCAT
Mometrix produces study guides across a very large number of exams. That is the context for this book, and it explains most of what follows.
The MCAT Secrets Study Guide is currently on its 9th Edition, covering 2026–2027, so the edition number is genuinely current.
What it is not is a specialist product. The publishers who focus on this exam use seven volumes; this is one guide, and the depth reflects that.
On the "Secrets" framing
The title promises more than any study guide can deliver. There are no secrets to the MCAT in the sense the branding implies.
There is content you either know or do not, and there is an approach to passages that either works under time or does not.
What actually moves a score is unglamorous: working questions, reviewing them properly, and changing how you read a passage. A guide can describe those things. Doing them is the work, and no publisher can shortcut it.
Used as a cheap supplementary overview alongside a proper content resource, this is a reasonable purchase. Used as the main event, it is not enough, and the price difference against a real set is smaller than the difference in what you get.
How it compares with the other sets
Mometrix against the other MCAT book sets we review. This compares books with books. Where coaching fits is a separate question, covered further down.
| Mometrix | The alternatives | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | ||
| Format | A single study guide | Kaplan, Princeton Review and ExamKrackers each use 7 books |
| Publisher focus | General test prep across many exams | The others are MCAT specialists |
| Depth | Overview level | The sets teach each section properly |
| Cost | ||
| Price | About $49.95 to $71.55 | Sets run $250 to $300 list |
| Content | ||
| Strategy coverage | Minimal | ExamKrackers teaches approach directly |
| Practice material | Included but not at exam difficulty | ExamKrackers 44 mini-MCATs; the big two 3 tests each |
| Currency | ||
| Edition | 9th Edition, 2026–2027 | Kaplan revises annually |
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The Unbiased MCAT Prep Course Decision Quiz
Three different problems stall an MCAT score, and buying the wrong fix costs months. Six questions sort out which one is yours and what to spend on it. We name competitors and free resources when they beat us, and say so when the answer is spend nothing.
No email required. Your plan appears on screen.
Transparency, before you start. We sell MCAT tutoring and courses, so here are the rules this quiz follows.
- Zero budget, no purchases. Free resources only, and we say so.
- Content gap, buy content first. From whoever does it best, which is usually not us. Our tutoring comes up only as an optional add-on for a big gap.
- Strategy gap, we recommend our own course first. We would put our name against it, and we name a cheaper alternative beside it so you can price us against ours.
- Competitors named and linked when they beat us: UWorld, Kaplan, Blueprint, ExamKrackers, Khan Academy.
- We appear only where we fit, with the budget to match, and always beside a cheaper option.
- Our free MCAT resources show up wherever they fit, and they ask for nothing.
Where books fit, and where they do not
Every set on this page is a content resource. That is worth saying plainly, because it decides whether buying one is a good use of your money.
Books are excellent at closing content gaps. If there are topics you have never properly learned, a well-written set will teach them, at your pace, for a fraction of what a course charges.
This is the case books are built for and they do it well.
Books cannot watch you work. They cannot see that you commit to an answer before finishing the passage, or that you lose four minutes on the first CARS passage every time.
The most common thing students write to us about is finishing a full content resource, retaining it, and sitting at the same practice score. No book fixes that, because the problem is not knowledge.
What we would actually recommend. Buy the official AAMC material first, because nothing substitutes for questions written by the people who write the exam. Add one book set if you have real content gaps.
Add a question bank. Only then consider paying for hours with a person, and only if your score has stalled while you already know the material.
We sell coaching, so read that ordering knowing what we sell. It is also the order we would give a friend who was never going to buy anything from us.
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