We share stats based on our customers’ study plans to help you decide how to prepare for the MCAT.

Are you a pre-med student who’s planning to take the MCAT exam? You probably already know how daunting it can be to choose from the huge amount of MCAT study materials that are available to prepare for the MCAT. It’s easy to become overwhelmed when you’re selecting MCAT prep resources, but take a deep breath! You don’t have to go this alone; there are plenty of places to help you parse through the available MCAT prep study materials.

First, your college may already have a list of recommended resources to help pre-med students on their MCAT study plan. Check in with your advisor to see if they can give you some recommendations. They may also connect you with more senior students who’ve already taken the MCAT and can suggest which resources may be most useful.

Next, you can check online pre-med communities such as Reddit and the Student Doctor Network to see what your peers are saying about the resources they’re using. In addition, various test-prep websites and tutoring services offer their own rundowns of their most recommended MCAT resources.

StudyPrepLounge offers a comparison of their most recommended books and courses and ultimately recommends the Kaplan MCAT Complete 7-Book Subject Review as their #1 resource. ExamGenius has a helpful matrix comparing MCAT study materials according to their staff’s ranking, the resource’s price, and number of practice exams. That site also maintains a regularly-updated list of their “Ultimate Prep List” of recommended materials.

In addition to the well-known MCAT study resources available for purchase, don’t overlook the great free resources such as video courses and podcasts that you can also find online:

• Khan Academy
• The MCAT Podcast from Medical School HQ
• WikiPremed course
• MCAT-Review notes
• MCAT-Prep free practice exams

Finally, here at Cram Fighter, we keep a running list of the resources we see our customers adding to their MCAT study plans most often. The following MCAT study resources are the top 15 most popular among our MCAT customers as of September 2020:

You can use this list as a starting point for narrowing down which MCAT resources will get your focus. Or, maybe you want to get validation for the study materials you’ve already chosen. Keep an eye on Cram Fighter’s Most Popular MCAT Resources page as it could change over time depending on our customers’ preferences.

Be sure to note when MCAT resources offer a free trial so you can check them out before you make a final purchase. Take advantage of this option whenever possible. Ultimately, you’ll have to choose the resources that work best for you, but this article should give you a good starting point for finding your ideal study materials.

When you’re ready to create your MCAT study plan, take a look at Cram Fighter to build a manageable, custom daily study plan based on the resources you’ve chosen. You can try it free for 7 days.