List of MCAT topics

The following list of MCAT topics is a brief overview of the topics covered on the Medical College Admission Test as of January 2016. This test has no writing samples. The exam is about 6 hour 15 minutes of testing time, which is approximately 7 hours and 33 minutes including breaks.

There are four main sections:

Section	Questions	Minutes
Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems	59	95
Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS)	53	90
Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems	59	95
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behaviors	59	95

• Biology
  • Molecular biology
    • Enzymes and metabolism
    • DNA and protein synthesis
    • Eukaryotes
  • Genetics
  • Microbiology
  • Generalized eukaryotic cell
  • Specialized eukaryotic cells and tissues
  • Nervous and endocrine systems
  • Circulatory, lymphatic system, and immune systems
  • Respiratory system
  • Integumentary system
  • Digestive and excretory systems
  • Muscle and skeletal systems
  • Reproductive system and development
  • Evolution
• Organic chemistry
  • The covalent bond
  • Molecular structure and chemical spectra
  • Isomers and Stereochemistry
  • Separations and purifications
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Oxygen Containing Compounds
    • Alcohols
    • Ethers
    • Esters
    • Ketones
    • Aldehydes
    • carboxylic acids
    • Acid Derivatives (e.g. acid chlorides, esters, and amides)
  • Amines
  • Biological molecules
  • General Concepts in organic chemistry
• General chemistry
  • Electronic structure and periodic table
  • Bonding
  • Phases and phase equilibria
  • Stoichiometry
  • Thermodynamics and thermochemistry
  • Rate Processes in chemical reactions - kinetics and equilibrium
  • Solution chemistry
  • Acids/bases
  • Electrochemistry
• Physics
  • Translational motion
  • Force and motion, gravitation
  • Equilibrium and momentum
  • Work and energy
  • Waves and periodic motion
  • Sound
  • Fluids and solids
  • Electrostatics and electromagnetism
  • Electronic circuit elements
  • Light and geometrical optics
  • Atomic and nuclear structure
  • Basic concepts and general techniques
• Psychology
  • Sensory Processing
  • Sensation
  • Threshold
  • Weber's Law
  • Signal detection theory
  • Sensory adaptation
  • Psychophysics
  • Sensory receptors
  • Sensory pathways
  • Types of sensory receptor
  • Vision
  • Structure and function of the eye
  • Visual processing
  • Visual pathways in the brain
  • Parallel processing
  • Feature detection
  • Hearing
  • Structure and function of the ear
  • Auditory processing (e.g., auditory pathways in the brain)
  • Sensory reception by hair cells
  • Other Senses
  • Somatosensation (e.g., pain perception)
  • Taste (e.g., taste buds/chemoreceptors that detect specific chemicals)
  • Smell
  • Olfactory cells/chemoreceptors that detect specific chemicals
  • Pheromones
  • Olfactory pathways in the brain
  • Kinesthetic sense
  • Vestibular sense
  • Perception
  • Bottom-up/Top-down processing
  • Perceptual organization (e.g., depth, form, motion, constancy)
  • Gestalt principles
  • Making sense of the environment
  • Attention
  • Selective attention
  • Divided attention
  • Cognition
  • Information-processing model
  • Cognitive development
  • Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
  • Cognitive changes in late adulthood
  • Role of culture in cognitive development
  • Influence of heredity and environment on cognitive development
  • Biological factors that affect cognition
  • Problem solving and decision making
  • Types of problem solving
  • Barriers to effective problem solving
  • Approaches to problem solving
  • Heuristics and biases (e.g., overconfidence, belief perseverance)
  • Intellectual functioning
  • Theories of intelligence
  • Influence of heredity and environment on intelligence
  • Variations in intellectual ability
  • Consciousness
  • States of consciousness
  • Alertness
  • Sleep
  • Stages of sleep
  • Sleep cycles and changes to sleep cycles
  • Sleep and circadian rhythms
  • Dreaming
  • Sleep-wake disorders
  • Hypnosis and meditation
  • Consciousness-altering drugs
  • Types of consciousness-altering drugs and their effects on the nervous system and behavior
  • Drug addiction and the reward pathway in the brain
  • Memory
  • Encoding
  • Process of encoding information
  • Processes that aid in encoding memories
  • Storage
  • Types of memory storage (e.g., sensory, working, long-term)
  • Semantic networks and spreading activation
  • Retrieval
  • Recall, recognition, and relearning
  • Retrieval cues
  • The role of emotion in retrieving memories
  • Processes that aid retrieval
  • Forgetting
  • Aging and memory
  • Memory dysfunctions (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, Korsakoff’s syndrome)
  • Decay
  • Interference
  • Memory construction and source monitoring
  • Changes in synaptic connections underlie memory and learning
  • Neural plasticity
  • Memory and learning
  • Long-term potentiation
  • Language
  • Theories of language development (e.g., learning, Nativist, Interactionist)
  • Influence of language on cognition
  • Brain areas that control language and speech
  • Responding to the world
  • Emotion (PSY)
  • Three components of emotion (i.e., cognitive, physiological, behavioral)
  • Universal emotions (i.e., fear, anger, happiness, surprise, joy, disgust, and sadness)
  • Adaptive role of emotion
  • Theories of emotion
  • James-Lange theory
  • Cannon-Bard theory
  • Schachter-Singer theory
  • The role of biological processes in perceiving emotion (PSY, BIO)
  • Brain regions involved in the generation and experience of emotions
  • The role of the limbic system in emotion
  • Emotion and the autonomic nervous system
  • Physiological markers of emotion (signatures of emotion)
  • Stress (PSY)
  • The nature of stress
  • Appraisal
  • Different types of stressors (e.g., cataclysmic events, personal)
  • Effects of stress on psychological functions
  • Stress outcomes/response to stressors
  • Physiological (PSY, BIO)
  • Emotional
  • Behavioral
  • Managing stress (e.g., exercise, relaxation, spirituality)
  • Individual influences on behavior
  • Biological Bases of Behavior (PSY, BIO)
  • The nervous system
  • Neurons (e.g., the reflex arc)
  • Neurotransmitters
  • Structure and function of the peripheral nervous system (PNS)
  • Structure and function of the central nervous system (CNS)
  • The brain
  • Forebrain
  • Midbrain
  • Hindbrain
  • Lateralization of cortical functions
  • Methods used in studying the brain
  • The spinal cord
  • Neuronal communication and its influence on behavior (PSY)
  • Influence of neurotransmitters on behavior (PSY)
  • The endocrine system
  • Components of the endocrine system
  • Effects of the endocrine system on behavior
  • Behavioral genetics
  • Genes, temperament, and heredity
  • Adaptive value of traits and behaviors
  • Interaction between heredity and environmental influences
  • Influence of genetic and environmental factors on the development of behaviors
  • Experience and behavior (PSY)
  • Regulatory genes and behavior (BIO)
  • Genetically based behavioral variation in natural populations
  • Human physiological development (PSY)
  • Prenatal development
  • Motor development
  • Developmental changes in adolescence
  • Personality (PSY)
  • Theories of personality
  • Psychoanalytic perspective
  • Humanistic perspective
  • Trait perspective
  • Social cognitive perspective
  • Biological perspective
  • Behaviorist perspective
  • Situational approach to explaining behavior
  • Psychological Disorders (PSY)
  • Understanding psychological disorders
  • Biomedical vs. biopsychosocial approaches
  • Classifying psychological disorders
  • Rates of psychological disorders
  • Types of psychological disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • Trauma- and stressor-related disorders
  • Somatic symptom and related disorders
  • Bipolar and related disorders
  • Depressive disorders
  • Schizophrenia
  • Dissociative disorders
  • Personality disorders
  • Biological bases of nervous system disorders (PSY, BIO)
  • Schizophrenia
  • Depression
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Parkinson's disease
  • Stem cell-based therapy to regenerate neurons in the central nervous system (BIO)
  • Motivation (PSY)
  • Factors that influence motivation
  • Instinct
  • Arousal
  • Drives (e.g., negative feedback systems) (PSY, BIO)
  • Needs
  • Theories that explain how motivation affects human behavior
  • Drive reduction theory
  • Incentive theory
  • Other theories (e.g., cognitive, need-based)
  • Biological and sociocultural motivators that regulate behavior (e.g., hunger, sex drive, substance addiction)
  • Attitudes (PSY)
  • Components of attitudes (i.e., cognitive, affective, and behavioral)
  • The link between attitudes and behavior
  • Processes by which behavior influences attitudes (e.g., foot-in-the door phenomenon, role-playing effects)
  • Processes by which attitudes influence behavior
  • Cognitive dissonance theory
  • Social processes that influence human behavior
  • How the Presence of Others Affects Individual Behavior (PSY)
  • Social facilitation
  • Deindividuation
  • Bystander effect
  • Social loafing
  • Social control (SOC)
  • Peer pressure (PSY, SOC)
  • Conformity (PSY, SOC)
  • Obedience (PSY, SOC)
  • Group Decision-making Processes (PSY, SOC)
  • Group polarization (PSY)
  • Groupthink
  • Normative and Non-normative Behavior (SOC)
  • Social norms (PSY, SOC)
  • Sanctions (SOC)
  • Folkways, mores, and taboos (SOC)
  • Anomie (SOC)
  • Deviance
  • Perspectives on deviance (e.g., differential association, labeling theory, strain theory)
  • Aspects of collective behavior (e.g., fads, mass hysteria, riots)
  • Socialization (PSY, SOC)
  • Agents of socialization (e.g., the family, mass media, peers, workplace)
  • Attitude and behavior change
  • Habituation and Dishabituation (PSY)
  • Associative Learning (PSY)
  • Classical conditioning (PSY, BIO)
  • Neutral, conditioned, and unconditioned stimuli
  • Conditioned and unconditioned response
  • Processes: acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination
  • Operant conditioning (PSY, BIO)
  • Processes of shaping and extinction
  • Types of reinforcement: positive, negative, primary, conditional
  • Reinforcement schedules: fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, variable-interval
  • Punishment
  • Escape and avoidance learning
  • The role of cognitive processes in associative learning
  • Biological processes that affect associative learning (e.g., biological predispositions, instinctive drift) (PSY, BIO)
  • Observational Learning (PSY)
  • Modeling
  • Biological processes that affect observational learning
  • Mirror neurons
  • Role of the brain in experiencing vicarious emotions
  • Applications of observational learning to explain individual behavior
  • Theories of Attitude and Behavior Change (PSY)
  • Elaboration likelihood model
  • Social cognitive theory
  • Factors that affect attitude change (e.g., changing behavior, characteristics of the message and target, social factors)
  • Self-identity
  • Self-Concept, Self-identity, and Social Identity
  • The role of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and locus of control in self-concept and self-identity
  • Different types of identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, class)
  • Formation of Identity
  • Theories of identity development (e.g., gender, moral, psychosexual, social)
  • Influence of social factors on identity formation
  • Influence of individuals (e.g., imitation, looking-glass self, role-taking)
  • Influence of groups (e.g., reference group)
  • Influence of culture and socialization on identity formation
  • Social thinking
  • Attributing Behavior to Persons or Situations
  • Attributional processes (e.g., fundamental attribution error, role of culture in attributions)
  • How self-perceptions shape our perceptions of others
  • How perceptions of the environment shape our perceptions of others
  • Prejudice and Bias
  • Processes that contribute to prejudice
  • Power, prestige, and class
  • The role of emotion in prejudice
  • The role of cognition in prejudice
  • Stereotypes
  • Stigma
  • Ethnocentrism
  • Ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism
  • Processes Related to Stereotypes
  • Self-fulfilling prophecy
  • Stereotype threat
  • Social interactions
  • Elements of Social Interaction
  • Status
  • Types of status (e.g., achieved, ascribed)
  • Role
  • Role conflict and role strain
  • Role exit
  • Groups
  • Primary and secondary groups
  • In-group vs. out-group
  • Group size (e.g., dyads, triads)
  • Networks
  • Organizations
  • Formal organization
  • Bureaucracy
  • Characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy
  • Perspectives on bureaucracy (e.g., iron law of oligarchy, McDonaldization)
  • Self-presentation and Interacting with Others
  • Expressing and detecting emotion
  • The role of gender in the expression and detection of emotion
  • The role of culture in the expression and detection of emotion
  • Presentation of self
  • Impression management
  • Front stage vs. back stage self (Dramaturgical approach)
  • Verbal and nonverbal communication
  • Animal signals and communication
  • Social Behavior
  • Attraction
  • Aggression
  • Attachment
  • Altruism
  • Social support
  • Biological explanations of social behavior in animals
  • Foraging behavior
  • Mating behavior and mate choice
  • Applying game theory
  • Altruism
  • Inclusive fitness
  • Discrimination
  • Individual vs. institutional discrimination
  • The relationship between prejudice and discrimination
  • How power, prestige, and class facilitate discrimination
  • Understanding social structure
  • Theoretical Approaches
  • Microsociology vs. macrosociology
  • Functionalism
  • Conflict theory
  • Symbolic interactionism
  • Social constructionism
  • Exchange-rational choice
  • Feminist theory
  • Social Institutions
  • Education
  • Hidden curriculum
  • Teacher expectancy
  • Educational segregation and stratification
  • Family
  • Forms of kinship
  • Diversity in family forms
  • Marriage and divorce
  • Violence in the family (e.g., child abuse, elder abuse, spousal abuse)
  • Religion
  • Religiosity
  • Types of religious organizations (e.g., churches, sects, cults)
  • Religion and social change (e.g., modernization, secularization, fundamentalism)
  • Government and economy
  • Power and authority
  • Comparative economic and political systems
  • Division of labor
  • Health and medicine
  • Medicalization
  • The sick role
  • Delivery of health care
  • Illness experience
  • Social epidemiology
  • Culture
  • Elements of culture (e.g., beliefs, language, rituals, symbols, values)
  • Material vs. symbolic culture
  • Culture lag
  • Culture shock
  • Assimilation
  • Multiculturalism
  • Subcultures and countercultures
  • Mass media and popular culture
  • Evolution and human culture
  • Transmission and diffusion
  • Demographic characteristics and processes
  • Demographic Structure of Society
  • Age
  • Aging and the life course
  • Age cohorts
  • Social significance of aging
  • Gender
  • Sex versus gender
  • The social construction of gender
  • Gender segregation
  • Race and ethnicity
  • The social construction of race
  • Racialization
  • Racial formation
  • Immigration status
  • Patterns of immigration
  • Intersections with race and ethnicity
  • Sexual orientation
  • Demographic Shifts and Social Change
  • Theories of demographic change (i.e., Malthusian theory and demographic transition)
  • Population growth and decline (e.g., population projections, population pyramids)
  • Fertility, migration, and mortality
  • Fertility and mortality rates (e.g., total, crude, age-specific)
  • Patterns in fertility and mortality
  • Push and pull factors in migration
  • Social movements
  • Relative deprivation
  • Organization of social movements
  • Movement strategies and tactics
  • Globalization
  • Factors contributing to globalization (e.g., communication technology, economic interdependence)
  • Perspectives on globalization
  • Social changes in globalization (e.g., civil unrest, terrorism)
  • Urbanization
  • Industrialization and urban growth
  • Suburbanization and urban decline
  • Gentrification and urban renewal
  • Social inequality
  • Spatial Inequality
  • Residential segregation
  • Neighborhood safety and violence
  • Environmental justice (location and exposure to health risks)
  • Social Class
  • Aspects of social stratification
  • Social class and socioeconomic status
  • Class consciousness and false consciousness
  • Cultural capital and social capital
  • Social reproduction
  • Power, privilege, and prestige
  • Intersectionality (e.g., race, gender, age)
  • Socioeconomic gradient in health
  • Global inequalities
  • Patterns of social mobility
  • Intergenerational and intragenerational mobility
  • Vertical and horizontal mobility
  • Meritocracy
  • Poverty
  • Relative and absolute poverty
  • Social exclusion (segregation and isolation)
  • Health Disparities (e.g., class, gender, and race inequalities in health)
  • Healthcare Disparities (e.g., class, gender, and race inequalities in health care)

References

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