What's on the MCAT® Exam?

Biomolecules have unique properties that determine how they contribute to the structure and function of cells, and how they participate in the processes necessary to maintain life.

Highly-organized assemblies of molecules, cells, and organs interact to carry out the functions of living organisms.

Complex systems of tissues and organs sense the internal and external environments of multicellular organisms, and through integrated functioning, maintain a stable internal environment within an ever-changing external environment.

Complex living organisms transport materials, sense their environment, process signals, and respond to changes using processes that can be understood in terms of physical principles.

The principles that govern chemical interactions and reactions form the basis for a broader understanding of the molecular dynamics of living systems.

Biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors influence the ways that individuals perceive, think about, and react to the world.

Biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors influence behavior and behavior change.

Psychological, sociocultural, and biological factors influence the way we think about ourselves and others, as well as how we interact with others.

Cultural and social differences influence well-being.

Social stratification and access to resources influence well-being.

Demonstrate understanding of scientific concepts and principles. Identify the relationships between closely-related concepts.

Reason about scientific principles, theories, and models. Analyzing and evaluating scientific explanations and predictions.

Demonstrate understanding of important components of scientific research. Reason about ethical issues in research.

Interpret patterns in data presented in tables, figures, and graphs. Reasoning about data and drawing conclusions from them.

Understanding the basic components of the text. Inferring meaning or intent from immediate sentence context.

Integrating distant components of the text to infer an author's message, intent, purpose, belief, position, bias, assumptions. Recognizing and evaluating arguments and their structural elements (claims, evidence, support, relations)

Applying or extrapolating ideas from the passage to new contexts. Assessing the impact of incorporating new factors, information, or conditions on ideas from the passage.

Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills passages come from a variety of humanities and social sciences disciplines.