About Gold Standard MCAT

Gold Standard (MCAT-prep.com) has been in the business of MCAT test-prep for over 25 years. Gold Standard operates with the belief that a diverse range of study materials (courses, videos, books, practice tests, flashcards) from various sources can often be more effective than sticking to just one study method. Many of the Gold Standard’s MCAT materials are structured to follow problem-based learning methods, and the company prides itself on continuing to innovate and adapt its offerings as the MCAT exam changes over time.

What’s Offered

Gold Standard MCAT offers an extremely diverse range of courses and materials that students can take advantage of when preparing for the MCAT. In addition to online courses, Gold Standard also offers an array of practice test, question bank, and book bundles that students can choose from to make their MCAT prep experience as customized as possible.

Online Courses

MCAT Crash Course

The MCAT Crash Course includes “high-yield” online chapters from the Gold Standard MCAT book, along with practice questions and detailed explanations to reinforce the material. These chapter eBooks come from topics like Psychology, Sociology, MCAT Math, General and Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biology. The purchase of the Crash Course gives students access to over 3,000 practice questions, 2 full-length MCAT practice tests, and over 30 hours of online MCAT videos. Additionally, the Gold Standard’s MCAT CARS program (see below for details) is also included in the Crash Course package.

Students can purchase the Crash Course as a monthly subscription starting at $49.95 per month.

MCAT University

MCAT University is the second and more comprehensive online course option that Gold Standard offers. It includes all of the Crash Course benefits in addition to the following:

• 3 more full-length MCAT practice tests
• 5 more MCAT CARS practice tests
• Over 500 added practice questions
• Unlimited exam attempts during your access period

MCAT University is available as a monthly subscription starting at $79.95 per month.

MCAT CARS

MCAT CARS (Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills) is an ideal option for students who are looking to both gain more practice with test-taking as well as learn crucial test-taking strategies. Gold Standard MCAT CARS offers 5 full-length, timed or untimed, online practice tests; each test contains 53 questions and follows the required AAMC format. Each question comes with a detailed explanation to help students learn from their mistakes as they go. Like the real exam, each test has a 90 minute time limit. The access period for MCAT CARS is 3 months, and students are allowed unlimited exam attempts for each test taken during this access period. The current price of one MCAT CARS access period is $69.

Home Study MCAT Course

The MCAT Home Study Course is self-paced prep that offers an array of packages for students to choose from based on their price range, preference of book brand (Examkrackers, Princeton Review, or Kaplan), choice to include AAMC materials, as well as desired number of practice tests and questions.

There are a total of 6 purchasing options that students can choose from. This is broken down into 2 options for each book brand, as Gold Standard provides one option with AAMC materials and another option without them. The offerings for each option, along with current pricing, are shown below.

MCAT Practice Tests

For students who are not looking for courses and want only practice exams and questions, Gold Standard offers three packages that vary based on number of tests and questions offered and format (online/book).

Gold Standard Practice Tests

With this option, students can select the number of exams that they would like to purchase. Each one comes with 230 questions and all exams are fully online. Each practice test is full-length and based on the AAMC format. Each test comes with explanations (some in just written format while others also feature video explanations), and your raw scores are instantly converted to scaled scores upon completion. When purchasing this option, students can choose how many months of access they want – the options are 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year, with overall prices varying depending on the number of tests and desired access period.

Pricing starts at $70 for two tests and one year of access, with prices increasing as the number of tests and length of access increase. Click here for more details on pricing for this option.

Gold Standard Book Tests

Purchasing the Gold Standard book gives students access to 7 full-length practice tests, 5 coming directly from the book and the other 2 from the Gold Standard online platform. This option provides over 1600 MCAT practice questions with detailed explanations, as well as 1 year of online access to solutions and scaled scores.

Pricing for this option is currently $35.95.

MCAT Platinum Plus

This package comes with 20 full-length practice tests and also allows students to choose between two different breakdowns based on brand preference (option 1: 5 EK + Kaplan, option 2: 3 PR + 5 AAMC + GS). Regardless of which option you choose, all 20 exams are also available online in addition to the print versions. Students will be given the option to choose a boxed set of MCAT books from either Kaplan (7 books), Princeton Review (7 books) or Examkrackers (6 books) which come with their purchase. The Platinum Plus option also comes with a detailed MCAT study schedule, over 10,000 practice questions and a 12-month access period.

This package is the only one Gold Standard offers that comes with an MCAT score guarantee, which allows you to obtain repeated online access to Gold Standard resources for 6 more months at no charge if you do not obtain your desired score.

The Platinum Plus Package is currently priced at $1499, but can change depending on which set of books are chosen (Kaplan, PR or EK). Click here for details on the various pricing options.

Get Started with Gold Standard MCAT

To browse the various MCAT test-prep options and combinations that Gold Standard offers, or to sign up for membership, visit their website here. If you have questions about any of the packages or want to learn more, you can contact Gold Standard by phone (1-866-333-3138) or by email at help@mcat-prep.com.