Preparing for the MCAT can be very expensive. Test prep companies can cost over $10,000. Luckily, there are many alternative methods to study and prepare for the MCAT on a budget. One of the most important tasks you can do to prepare for the MCAT is taking practice tests. Practice tests can help give you a sense of what to expect on the real MCAT test, and they can also help you identify any areas that need more work. In this post, we will list 15 free MCAT practice tests and describe the features of each of them so that you can use the best ones for you.
1. Princeton
Princeton offers many study packages. With their free practice exam, you can get a taste of what paid packages include. First, you set your goals. Here, you enter your target scores for each MCAT section (ChemPhys, CARS, BioChem, PsychSoc, and Total). Second, you make your plan by entering two things: your test date and the date on which you expect to start studying for the exam. By recording exactly how many days you have between your study time and your test date, Princeton helps you create a study plan just right for you.
The Princeton free MCAT practice exam looks a lot like the real MCAT. You can go through a tutorial that explains how to navigate the sections, how to select answers, how to use the highlighting feature, and how to time yourself. If you want to skip a question, you can mark it for review and come back to it later. When you’re done, you can review your marked questions. Although Princeton doesn’t offer detailed explanations of why your answers are incorrect, their format is the most similar to the actual MCAT. This will help you build familiarity with the exam for your real test day.
- Format: Online
- Videos: 60 content review videos created by MCAT experts
- Full-length test: Yes, simulation test
- Practice questions: 59 questions
- Free access period: 3 months
- Explanations to answers: No
- Flashcards: N/A
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Sign up for a free Princeton MCAT Practice Test
2. Magoosh
Magoosh is very popular for its guarantee of increasing your MCAT score and for its large question bank of MCAT practice questions. With over 700 practice questions, 380 content review videos, and full-length practice tests, Magoosh is considered one of the most comprehensive MCAT study guides for premeds. While they don’t offer full-length practice tests for free, you can still sign up for a free 7-day trial to get a glimpse of how their platform works! The free trial includes 60 content review videos, 16 practice questions, and email assistance from tutors.
- Format: Online
- Videos: 60 content review videos created by MCAT experts
- Full-length test: No
- Practice questions: 16
- Free access period: 7 days
- Explanations to answers: N/A
- Flashcards: N/A
- Tutor access: Yes, email assistance
- For more info, visit: Sign up for a free Magoosh MCAT Practice Test
3. BluePrint
As one of the only free resources with study flashcards plus full-length practice tests, BluePrint helps you track your study progress like no other. When setting up your dashboard, Blueprint creates the ideal study schedule based on your start date of preparation, your MCAT test date, and how many hours you can study per week. You can also block out dates that you won’t be able to study. This helps you create a study plan that won’t interfere with your work-life balance. Then, BluePrint automatically fills in your dashboard calendar with assignments and different MCAT topics. As far as effortless planning goes, BluePrint is definitely one of the top options. Blueprint Analytics loads your progress as soon as you take your first practice test. As you continue to practice, Blueprint visualizes your progress using a chart that breaks down your strengths and weaknesses.
If you need more time past the free access period, you can upgrade to unlock even more features, such as custom practice sets, an MCAT equation sheet, end-of-chapter exams, and more! You can also sign up for a free MCAT Question of the Day, so you can practice on your commute or in between classes!
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: 10 full-length simulation tests, plus a half-length MCAT diagnostic test
- Practice questions: 59 questions for the test
- Free access period: 3 months
- Explanations to answers: No
- Videos: 60 content review videos created by MCAT experts
- Flashcards: 1,600+ with spaced repetition and analytics to track progress
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Sign up for a free BluePrint MCAT Practice Test
4. Kaplan
Similar to Blueprint’s free option, Kaplan personalizes your study calendar so that you don’t have to. By telling Kaplan your test date, how many hours a week you can study, and what days you want to take off, you can get a full study schedule without putting in the work. In addition to flashcards, Kaplan offers videos and quizzes for their learning modules so that you can practice before taking a full-length test. You can create your own quizzes by picking an MCAT topic and subtopic, such as “Biology >> Endocrine System,” or you can choose as many subtopics as you’d like! One of the best features of Kaplan’s free study bundle is their explanations to answers you get wrong. This helps you identify your gaps in knowledge of the material and how to do better next time.
After your 30-day trial expires, you can decide whether you’d like to upgrade to a paid subscription. Either way, Kaplan will keep sending you updates on their newest bundles, resources, and discount offers.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: 1 full-length simulation test
- Practice questions: 230 Bank questions
- Free access period: 30 days
- Explanations to answers: No
- Videos: Yes
- Flashcards: 1,600+ with spaced repetition and analytics to track progress
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Sign up for a free Kaplan MCAT Practice Test
5. Varsity Tutors
Need to brush up on your skills? Varsity Tutors offer hundreds of free MCAT practice tests. These are broken up into topics, such as Biology, Physical, Verbal, Social, and Behavioral Sciences. Before diving into hundreds of free Varsity Tutors practice tests, you can also take free Varsity Tutors diagnostic tests. These diagnostics tests help you understand where your foundational knowledge for the MCAT lies. Each problem is designed to test at least one core concept of the MCAT so that you can see how well you would perform on that topic. Each diagnostic test has 60 questions, but the average time spent on each topic ranges from 2 to 9 hours. Don’t worry! This just means that you can keep the diagnostic test open as long as you need to.
Although the free Varsity Tutors MCAT practice tests aren’t full-length, they cover all the topics on the MCAT. You can also get free access to 1,000+ flashcards, which look a lot like practice questions.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: No
- Practice questions: No
- Free access period: Unlimited
- Explanations to answers: No
- Videos: No
- Flashcards: 1,000+ with explanations
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Free Varsity Tutors MCAT Practice Tests
6. Khan Academy
Khan Academy is one of the resources best known for having outstanding video lessons and explanations. Although most of Khan Academy’s materials are for review, we are including them in our list because they offer amazing free materials to study for the MCAT. Of course, Khan Academy also offers free MCAT test practice questions for each of the 10 foundational units. These foundational units are biomolecules, cells, organ systems, physical processes, and chemical processes. The other 5 foundational concepts include topics in the social sciences, such as processing the environment, behavior, individuals, and society, society and culture, and social inequality.
Khan Academy also offers practice passages for the CARS, Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems, Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems, and the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior. These practice passages often include images or diagrams that you use for 4- or 5-part questions. Khan Academy does not offer full-length simulation tests. However, the resources they offer will prepare you well for any full-length practice tests and for the real MCAT test. A hidden perk to look out for is their “hint” feature on their practice passages and tests–it will help you get through your questions without needing to leave the module.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: No
- Practice questions: Yes, 10 questions per Foundational Concept sub-topic, or 160 per Foundational Concept
- Free access period: Unlimited
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: Varies per topic
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Khan Academy Free MCAT Practice Tests and Passages
7. Union Test Prep
Looking for more than 100 practice questions with no strings attached? Union Test Prep gives you access to their question bank without even signing up for a free account. Most of the question bank is dedicated to the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems and the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems. Therefore, you can expect free access to 120 questions–which you can treat as free MCAT practice tests! For other concepts such as CARS, Psychology, Sociology, and Scientific Inquiry and Reasoning, you get 10 free practice questions each. What’s more, Union Test Prep immediately scores your question and offers an explanation for the correct answer. Plus, they also give you a hint about how to approach questions on the MCAT so you can think critically and most importantly–think fast!
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: No
- Practice questions: 150 questions total
- Free access period: Unlimited
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: No
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Union Test Prep FREE MCAT Practice Tests
8. Med-Pathway
Using the same data analysis and interpretations from the AAMC MCAT, Med-Pathway offers a free MCAT practice test of 230 questions. The Med-Pathway practice test includes topics from all four major MCAT subjects (Chemical & Physical Foundations, CARS, Biological and Biochemical Foundations, and Behavioral Sciences). Since the test is broken up into these four sections, you will be getting 3-5 questions pertaining to subtopics covered in AAMC’s MCAT Content Outline. For example, the Chemical & Physical Foundations of Biological Systems includes questions about the synthesis of ibuprofen, thermodynamics of protein folding, neuronal transmission, etc. The Med-Pathway settings allow you to choose whether you’d like to time yourself, see results for each section as you go, or be in Tutor Mode. Tutor Mode annotates your answers and explains why your answers are correct (or not) so that you gain a better understanding of the topics.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: No
- Practice questions: 230 questions total
- Free access period: Unlimited
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: Yes, as additional resources here: Med-Pathway Zoom Workshop Resources
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Med-Pathway Free MCAT Exam
9. Test Prep Review (TPR)
If you’re looking for a quick practice test to add to your study guide, Test Prep Review is a good option! Although it’s not an extensive test and only has 15 free questions, Test Prep Review offers you extra questions that cover all biological topics on the MCAT. TPR is a great option to test your knowledge in less than an hour. What’s more, you will also have access to explanations for every correct answer.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: No
- Practice questions: 15 questions total
- Free access period: Unlimited
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: No
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Test Prep Review Practice Test
10. Gold Standard
Broken up into 4 sections, Gold Standard offers you free MCAT Practice Exams of 95 mins each, with 59 questions per AAMC MCAT subject. These practice exams resemble the real MCAT test with timer, highlighting, strikethrough, and flagging options. You are also given access to a periodic table, a navigation table, and a pause button to stop your time. Gold Standard hires doctors and teachers who aced their MCAT exams and take pride in teaching younger premeds how to succeed in their MCAT exams. Because of this, you can expect that these practice exams reflect what will be on the real MCAT test very accurately. Additionally, Gold Standard includes one full-length free MCAT practice test that lasts 375 minutes!
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: Yes, 1 full-length and 4 subject tests.
- Practice questions: 59 questions per subject test
- Free access period: Unlimited
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: No
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Gold Standard FREE MCAT Practice Test with Helpful Explanations
11. Doctor MCAT
Otherwise known as Doctor MCAT, Dr. Stuart Donnelly is one of the most well-known MCAT tutors to create study plans and practice tests to help premed students ace the MCAT. With over more than 18 years of experience, Doctor MCAT is considered New York’s leading private MCAT tutor and test prep expert! Along with a free consultation, you can get free access to practice questions that help reiterate material in your lessons. Although the practice questions are free, all other materials included such as videos, lessons, and private tutoring will require payment.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: Yes
- Practice questions: Yes
- Free access period: Unknown
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: No
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Doctor MCAT
12. Jack Westin
Jack Westin focuses on strategy, not content. With simple step-by-step approaches to each question, the Jack Westin study guides are best for students who already have a thorough understanding of all AAMC material and are looking for help with how to strategically take the MCAT exam. This means that with Jack Westin, you will be focusing on discipline, critical thinking, timing, managing stress, and passage-based deduction. You can find free practice tests on their website! However, these tests are unstructured and posted in HTML style on the website.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: Yes
- Practice questions: N/A
- Free access period: Unlimited
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: No
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Jack Westin AAMC Practice Test with Solutions
13. Aptare Prep
Aptare Prep offers a FREE MCAT practice test when you sign up for their free 3-day trial. The exam length is 6 hours and 15 minutes, is computer-based, contains multiple-choice questions, and a combination of passed and standalone questions. The practice tests cover all four sections of the AAMC MCAT. During your free trial, you can access all the practice exams, tools, and resource guides to track your progress. With their tools, you can also track your progress to check for areas that need improvement.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: Yes
- Practice questions: Yes
- Free access period: 3 days
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: No
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: Yes
- For more info, visit: Try Aptare Prep Free with a 3-day Trial!
14. Altius
Another platform that allows you to “try before you buy” is Altius. Their MCAT practice tests are formatted the same as the official AAMC test so that you get used to their platform. Altius also uses the exact same question blueprint as the AAMC, the same word count for its passages, item difficulty, and uses the same number of figures as the AAMC materials. According to Altius, their practice tests help students score within a 1-2 range of their practice scores on their actual MCAT test.
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: Yes
- Practice questions: Yes
- Free access period: You can take the practice exam once
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: Yes
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: Altius MCAT Practice Test
15. UWorld Grad School
UWorld Grad School is made up of college professors, researchers, and scientists who are passionate about teaching. This platform offers you a 7-day trial to access 100 free MCAT practice test questions. Most premed students who have used this in the past have raved about their illustrations and figures. So if you’re a visual learner, UWorld Grad School may be a good fit! If you are only looking for extra practice questions, you can use the 7-day free trial to test your knowledge. Then, with their detailed explanations, you can understand the correct and incorrect answer choices and the reasoning behind them. You’ll also have access to their performance monitoring tools so you can track your progress. Therefore, UWorld Grad School can create customized practice tests to prepare you for success!
- Format: Online
- Full-length test: No
- Practice questions: 100 questions
- Free access period: 7 days
- Explanations to answers: Yes
- Videos: No
- Flashcards: No
- Tutor access: No
- For more info, visit: UWorld Grad School MCAT Practice Question Bank
