This MCAT cheat sheet distills the AAMC's four-section exam into a printable rundown of the facts, equations, and scoring scale you'll lean on most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free MCAT toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.

MCAT exam at a glance

• Questions: 230 multiple-choice across 4 sections (59 + 53 + 59 + 59)
• Time: About 7.5 hours total seat time (6 hours 15 minutes of testing)
• Scoring: 472–528 total; each section scaled 118–132 — no pass/fail (500 ≈ 50th percentile)
• Good score: ~511–512 average matriculant (≈80th–82nd percentile); 515 ≈ 90th
• Cost: $355 standard registration (2026 testing year); $145 with AAMC Fee Assistance
• Administered by: AAMC, delivered at Pearson VUE test centers worldwide

What’s on the MCAT cheat sheet

• Chemical & Physical Foundations (Chem/Phys) — 59 Q / 95 min — general chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, and biochemistry, with the no-calculator equations you must memorize (F = ma, V = IR, PV = nRT) and acid-base shortcuts.
• Critical Analysis & Reasoning Skills (CARS) — 53 Q / 90 min — nine humanities and social-science passages that need no outside content — the three reasoning skills and how to answer only from the text.
• Biological & Biochemical Foundations (Bio/Biochem) — 59 Q / 95 min — biochemistry-heavy: the 20 amino acids and their charges, enzyme kinetics (Km vs Vmax), metabolism, and high-yield organ systems.
• Psychological, Social & Biological Foundations (Psych/Soc) — 59 Q / 95 min — the most learnable section — psychology, sociology, and the biology of behavior, condensed to the theories and terms most often tested.

How to use it in your final week

• Lock in the scoring scale so you can read your practice results at a glance — each section 118–132, total 472–528, midpoint 500 ≈ the 50th percentile — and know exactly how far you are from a 510+ target.
• Review the no-calculator essentials the sheet condenses: the acid-base and Henderson-Hasselbalch shortcut (pH = pKa when acid and conjugate base are equal), plus F = ma, V = IR, and PV = nRT.
• Front-load the most learnable content — Psych/Soc terminology and biochemistry (amino-acid charges, enzyme kinetics) return the most points per hour in your final days.
• Do a few timed CARS passages every day right up to the exam — it's the section you can't cram, so keep the reading-and-reasoning habit sharp rather than re-reading notes.

The cheat sheet is your review layer — your MCAT practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.

MCAT cheat sheet FAQ

References

1. 1.Association of American Medical Colleges. “What's on the MCAT Exam?.” students-residents.aamc.org, 2026. ↑
2. 2.Association of American Medical Colleges. “How the MCAT Exam Is Scored.” students-residents.aamc.org, 2026. ↑
3. 3.Association of American Medical Colleges. “Percentile Ranks for the MCAT Exam.” students-residents.aamc.org, 2026. ↑
4. 4.Association of American Medical Colleges. “Fees, the Fee Assistance Program, and Registration.” students-residents.aamc.org, 2026. ↑

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