Free MCAT Practice Test

Additional MCAT Practice Resources

If you want some more MCAT questions and resources to help you study, check out the table below.

MCAT Sample Questions

In order to provide you with a better understanding of MCAT practice questions, we have provided you with some example questions.

Question #1

Category: Biological and Biochemical Foundations

Question: A scientist using mouse models to determine the response of blood hormones to large levels of glucose in the body discovers a new hormone not previously described.

According to his data, this hormone is found both inside and out of cells when carrying out its function, increase the amount of nucleic acid in the cell while functioning, and are derived from a structure containing four hydrocarbon rings.

This will likely be categorized as which type of hormone?

1. Enzymatic
2. Steroid
3. Peptide
4. Amino Acid

Answer: B. Steroid hormones, derived from cholesterol, act on intracellular receptors and produce mRNA specific to the outcome they produce. Thus, they are found both inside and out of the cell.

Peptide hormones, such as insulin, act on outer membrane receptors, but are polarized, so they cannot enter the cell. Amino acid hormones can have the ability to enter the cell, but are usually made up of very small combinations of amino acids, and never of cholesterol, a four hydrocarbon ring.

Question #2

Category: Chemical and Physical Foundations

Question: One of the many reasons that the eukaryotic cell can possess so much information in its DNA is the ability to condense coding regions when they are not being expressed. When acting on DNA, which of the following processes will usually lead to a decrease in gene expression?

1. Increased histone acetyltransferase activity
2. Decrease in histone deacetyltransferase activity
3. Increase in methylation activity
4. Increase in heterochromatin:euchromatin ratio

Answer: C. This is a straightforward question that assesses knowledge of modification of DNA segments. Although in the real world these methods are not exclusive to increasing or decreasing activity, for MCAT testing purposes, histone acetyltransferase (HAT) frees DNA from histone proteins for expression.

Histone deacetyltransferase (HDAC) binds DNA more tightly to histone, creating more heterochromatin, which is not expressed. Methylation is an epigenetic modification that generally trends toward silencing gene expression.

Question #3

Category: Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations

Question: A patient comes into the ER looking extremely agitated. They are acting aggressive, and claiming they need medication or “bad things will happen”. What is the likely state of this patient’s dopamine system?

1. There is decreased dopamine in the synaptic cleft.
2. There are decreased dopamine receptors on the post-synaptic membrane.
3. There is cell death in the areas with high dopamine cells.
4. There is seizure-like activity in the dopamine brain areas.

Answer: B. This question comes off much like a biology question, but is actually a first-level derivative of a psychology/behavior question testing the concept of tolerance. Long-time stimulant drug users have excessive amounts of dopamine in the synaptic cleft due to inhibition of re-uptake.

Because of this, the body responds by decreasing the amount of available receptors. This leads to tolerance, or the individual needing more drug to maintain the same level of physiological response. A person in withdrawal likely has a high tolerance built up over an extended period of drug use.

Overview of the MCAT

There are 4 different sections on the MCAT. Those sections are:

1. Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems: 59 questions, 95 minutes
2. Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS): 53 questions, 90 minutes
3. Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems: 59 questions, 95 minutes
4. Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior: 59 questions, 95 minutes