Khan Academy is the premiere partner of the AAMC, offering a free MCAT prep course. All content approved by the AAMC and is available on-demand as video content and can be accessed across all devices through their app and website.
Khan Academy is best known for their MCAT content review and students use it either as standalone content review or as a supplement to their preferred MCAT book set.
Pros
- There are no costs associated with this course
- Progress is tracked across devices
- Videos do a great job reviewing content
- Partnered with the AAMC on content and videos
Cons
- There is not much practice, hence why many students pair it with UWorld.
- There is not an option for students who need more comprehensive MCAT prep for knowledge gaps.
About Khan Academy MCAT
Khan Academy is a non-profit that started in 2008 that provides free, educational, online lessons in the form of short videos. While the Khan Academy website is in English, it can also be made available in other languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Turkish, French, Bengali, Hindi, Georgian, and German.
Founded in 2008 by Sal Khan, the purpose of Khan Academy is to offer valuable test prep and education online for free. Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which means that donations to this organization, should you deem it worthy, are tax deductible as well.
The course content, itself, is a playlist of original videos, which are hosted on Youtube as well as can be found on the website, which helps you to keep track of your progress. The content and videos on Khan Academy were created in partnership with the AAMC. This is the first external company the AAMC has decided to partner with, which can feel pretty reassuring as to its quality and reputation as an organization.
If your preferred method of learning is on-the-go, then you can also access the free Khan Academy App, which allows you to stream all the videos that you can find on youtube or on their website.
New to the MCAT? Start here.
Curriculum Review
The Khan Academy video course is for content review. This means that you are reviewing what is tested on the MCAT with few gaps needing to be filled. If this is what you are seeking as you are preparing for the MCAT, then you will be very pleased with the line-up offered by KA. When you sign up for Khan Academy, you will have access to the following units filled with several videos each:
- CARS practice questions
- Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems Passages
- Chemical & Physical Foundations of Biological Systems Passages
- Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behaviors Passages
- Biomolecules
- Cells
- Organ Systems
- Physical Processes
- Chemical Processes
- Processing the Environment
- Behavior
- Individuals & Society
- Society & Culture
- Social Inequality
The videos are set up as an electronic blackboard where the narrator draws out his explanations. This gives you the feeling that you are in a classroom, watching as the lecturer draws out models and diagrams of the information.
The curriculum is top-notch for its intended review, but do not expect to gain much-needed practice for the MCAT utilizing just KA. As the MCAT is not a content exam, practicing is of utmost importance. This is why many students choose to pair up Khan Academy with UWorld to incorporate the questions. Khan is pretty thorough with its content but its weakness is the low amount of practice you’ll actually get outside of the CARS practice questions.
Related: 8 Completely Free MCAT Study Guides
Platform
What is amazing about KA is that the apps sync with khanacademy.org so that it picks up where you left off, regardless of what devices you are logging in from. Khan Academy has received investment from some high-profile companies including Google and AT&T, the latter of which invested in the app’s function and user-friendliness.
Streaming from your devices sounds great in theory, but oftentimes you are not connected to Wi-Fi, and data can be expensive. Fortunately, you also have the ability to watch the Khan Academy content offline from your devices by downloading these videos before you plan on being offline or without Wi-Fi. This isn’t a ground-breaking feature, as other companies including Netflix offer such features. But, considering this is a free app that has the potential to save you thousands of dollars on an MCAT course, we find this pretty remarkable and convenient.
Student Feedback
Who Needs This Course
Khan Academy’s free MCAT course is for students who only need a content review. If you are filling in any knowledge gaps for the MCAT, don’t plan on Khan Academy providing the information needed to get you completely up-to-speed. This content by Khan Academy is sufficient as a standalone review for the MCAT but should still be paired with plenty of additional practice.
You can supplement this course with some free MCAT practice tests, but you should also make sure to practice on some real MCAT questions from previous tests, which can be purchased on the AAMC website. As mentioned previously, a lot of students prefer to pair Khan Academy with UWorld, which has a huge bank of MCAT practice questions for a pretty low cost, relatively speaking.
Similar MCAT Prep Course Reviews
Magoosh MCAT Review – The Best Budget MCAT Course?
Lecturio MCAT Review – A Look Inside This New Course
Altius MCAT Review: How Do They Guarantee 90th Percentile Scoring?
Examkrackers MCAT Review + 10% Off Discount!
What’s Next
If you’re new to prepping for the MCAT, start with our best MCAT prep course list. Here, you’ll find 8 of the highest-rated MCAT prep courses available today, as well as in-depth reviews on each individual course.
Looking to go to med school on a budget? Look no further than Test Prep Nerd’s Med School Scholarship! Hurry, the summer deadline is approaching.
