OxidativeRN

MCAT Village

What you'll learn

Every high-yield topic the MCAT tests, across all seven districts, turned into something you do, not something you reread. 106+ hands-on stations and a boss gauntlet per district.

Become a Founder for $49 Play the free districts

One $49 payment unlocks the whole city. Glow Labs (biochem) is free forever.

Academy Grounds

Biology

Cells, microbes & the cell cycle

  • Rebuild a eukaryotic cell organelle by organelle: nucleus, rough vs smooth ER, Golgi sorting, lysosomes, mitochondria, and the cytoskeleton
  • Contrast prokaryote vs eukaryote (nucleoid, plasmids, 70S vs 80S ribosomes, binary fission vs mitosis) and place the four tissue types
  • Stain and classify microbes: Gram-positive vs Gram-negative, shapes and oxygen needs, the growth curve, and where beta-lactams strike
  • Work the viruses: lytic vs lysogenic phages, plus/minus-sense RNA, retroviruses, prions vs viroids, and gene transfer by transformation, conjugation, and transduction
  • Run the cell cycle through its cyclin-CDK checkpoints (Rb-E2F restriction, the p53 stop, the spindle checkpoint), split oncogenes from two-hit tumor suppressors, and trace mitosis vs meiosis

Genetics, inheritance & evolution

  • Solve Mendelian crosses (3:1, 9:3:3:1), incomplete dominance and codominance (ABO), X-linked carrier math, and epistasis
  • Read a multi-generation pedigree and call the mode: autosomal dominant vs recessive, X-linked, or mitochondrial
  • Apply Hardy-Weinberg (p² + 2pq + q²), then identify the forces that break it: selection, drift, gene flow, and bottleneck or founder effects
  • Distinguish the selection modes (directional, stabilizing, disruptive, balancing) and track allele-frequency change over generations
  • Sort mutation types (silent, missense, nonsense, frameshift) and recall the classic DNA experiments (Griffith, Avery, Hershey-Chase)

Development & reproduction

  • Walk fertilization through cleavage, morula, and blastocyst (ICM vs trophoblast), rank stem-cell potency, and order gastrulation and neurulation
  • Match each germ layer (ecto-, meso-, endoderm) to its derivatives and predict neural-tube defects
  • Trace fetal circulation through the ductus venosus, foramen ovale, and ductus arteriosus, then close the shunts at first breath
  • Run the HPG axis and menstrual cycle: pulsatile GnRH to FSH/LH, the estradiol feedback flip that triggers the LH surge, the corpus luteum, and hCG rescue
  • Compare male vs female gametogenesis (four sperm vs one ovum), localize Sertoli vs Leydig roles, and explain combined oral contraceptives

Nervous & sensory systems

  • Build the action potential from rest through threshold, the Na⁺ upstroke, K⁺ repolarization, and the refractory periods, and predict what TTX or K⁺ blockers do
  • Wire the synapse: EPSP vs IPSP, temporal vs spatial summation, the autonomic divisions and their transmitters, and CNS vs PNS glia
  • Trace reflex arcs end to end: the monosynaptic stretch reflex, the polysynaptic withdrawal reflex, and the autonomic baroreceptor reflex
  • Run sensory transduction: rod phototransduction, cochlear hair cells and tonotopy, vestibular and chemical senses, plus refractive errors and corrective optics

Endocrine system

  • Drive the major axes (HPA cortisol, HPT thyroid, PTH/calcium, ADH/osmolarity) and read their feedback loops
  • Separate steroid/nuclear-receptor hormones from peptide/cell-surface ones, with thyroid hormone as the lipophilic exception
  • Map hypothalamic-pituitary anatomy (anterior releasing factors vs posterior ADH/oxytocin) and run the insulin-glucose loop with its counter-regulators
  • Reason backward from a lab panel to the failing gland (primary vs secondary lesion)

Circulation, respiration & renal

  • Apply Frank-Starling, contractility, and afterload, compute stroke volume and ejection fraction, and trace blood through the chambers, valves, and SA-to-Purkinje conduction
  • Cover blood itself: ABO/Rh typing and transfusion, the coagulation cascade with vitamin-K factors, and EPO-driven hematopoiesis
  • Calculate minute and alveolar ventilation, the alveolar gas equation and A-a gradient, match V/Q, and read lung volumes off a spirometry trace
  • Explain the oxygen-hemoglobin curve and Bohr effect, CO₂ transport via bicarbonate and the chloride shift, and the control of breathing
  • Profile the nephron, run the countercurrent multiplier, and predict ADH and loop-diuretic effects on water handling

Digestion, muscle & bone

  • Deploy digestion site by site: salivary amylase, gastric pepsin and intrinsic factor, the duodenal bile-then-lipase order, brush-border disaccharidases, and B12 in the terminal ileum
  • Place the GI hormones (gastrin, secretin, CCK, somatostatin) and appetite hormones (ghrelin, leptin), and route fat through chylomicrons and lacteals
  • Run the sarcomere: the force-length relationship, calcium-gated cross-bridge cycling (troponin, tropomyosin), excitation-contraction coupling, and twitch summation to tetanus
  • Contrast the three muscle types and fiber types, and apply skeletal lever mechanics
  • Remodel bone (osteoclast/blast/cyte, compact vs spongy) under PTH/calcitriol/calcitonin control, plus skin thermoregulation

Immunity

  • Separate innate from adaptive immunity, and humoral (B cells, antibodies) from cell-mediated (T cells) responses
  • Apply MHC restriction (I to CD8, II to CD4), helper-T cytokine direction, and NK missing-self and complement killing
  • Generate antibody diversity by V(D)J recombination and affinity maturation, sort the isotypes, and explain class switching
  • Explain thymic selection and Treg tolerance, and how their failure produces autoimmunity

Research & data

  • Read a real clinical figure (a dose-response curve with a placebo arm), separate the variables from the controls, and judge whether the conclusion holds past the plateau

The boss

  • The Autoimmune Fog: a breadth gauntlet that pulls one high-yield item from every Academy Grounds subject into a single synthesis fight

Atomic Conservatory

General Chemistry

Atomic structure, quantum & the periodic table

  • Build any element's electron configuration (Aufbau, Hund, Pauli), including the Cr and Cu exceptions, and predict paramagnetic vs diamagnetic
  • Match orbital shapes to quantum numbers and apply the real filling order (why 4s fills before 3d)
  • Read an atomic spectrum: Bohr levels, the Lyman/Balmer/Paschen series, and E = hc/λ
  • Balance isotope abundances to recover an element's average atomic mass
  • Master every periodic trend from effective nuclear charge: radius, ionization energy, electron affinity, electronegativity, plus the anomalies
  • Read nuclear decay on sight: alpha vs beta vs gamma, and half-life math

Bonding, molecular shape & intermolecular forces

  • Build full Lewis structures: octet, lone pairs, formal charge, and resonance
  • Predict VSEPR geometry and hybridization; tell ionic from covalent and handle expanded octets
  • Rank every intermolecular force (London, dipole-dipole, hydrogen bonding, ion-dipole) to predict boiling points and solubility
  • Predict molecular polarity by dipole cancellation (why CO₂ is nonpolar but water is not)

Reactions, stoichiometry & gases

  • Limiting reagent, percent yield, empirical formulas, combustion analysis, and dilutions
  • Every gas law (ideal, combined, Dalton's, Graham's), kinetic molecular theory, and real-gas behavior
  • Pull a reaction order from rate data; rate laws from the slow step and the catalyst trap
  • Equilibrium done right: Q vs K, Le Chatelier, and how temperature shifts K

Thermodynamics

  • Gibbs free energy and spontaneity across all four enthalpy/entropy quadrants, plus the crossover temperature
  • System vs surroundings sign rules, Hess's law as a real calculation, and calorimetry (q = mcΔT)

Acids, bases, solutions & electrochemistry

  • Titration curves start to finish: equivalence point, half-equivalence pH = pKa, polyprotic acids, indicator choice, buffers
  • Weak-acid pH from Ka, the strong acids, and solubility (Ksp, common-ion effect, precipitation)
  • Colligative properties: freezing-point depression, boiling-point elevation, osmotic pressure
  • Oxidation numbers and OIL RIG; build galvanic and electrolytic cells with the Nernst equation and Faraday's law

Lab skills & ions

  • The separation toolkit: distillation, filtration, recrystallization, extraction, and TLC
  • Ion naming, charge balancing, solubility rules, net-ionic equations, and spotting spectator ions

Research & data

  • Read a real rate-vs-time figure, separate the variables from the controls, and judge whether the conclusion actually holds

The boss

  • The Equilibrium Dragon: a 13-round gauntlet that mixes every topic above into one fight

Synthesis Market

Organic Chemistry

Structure, naming & functional groups

  • Trace the parent chain on a drawn structure, tap its substituents and functional groups, and assemble the full IUPAC name with lowest-locant and alphabetization rules
  • Rank the functional-group priority that decides the suffix vs a prefix (acid, ester, amide, aldehyde, ketone, alcohol, amine)
  • Sort molecules into functional-group bins and rank boiling point, solubility, acidity, and basicity from intermolecular forces and resonance (alpha-H acidity, carboxylate stabilization, amine vs amide)
  • Judge whether a ring is aromatic, anti-aromatic, or non-aromatic by Huckel's 4n+2 rule
  • Predict the rate and the ortho/para vs meta direction of electrophilic aromatic substitution, including the halogen exception

Stereochemistry & conformation

  • Find each chiral center, rank the four groups by CIP priority, and trace 1 to 2 to 3 to assign R or S
  • Classify a pair of structures as enantiomers, diastereomers, meso, identical, or constitutional isomers, and assign E or Z across a double bond
  • Reason about optical activity and why a racemic mixture reads zero rotation
  • Flip a cyclohexane chair and use A-values and 1,3-diaxial strain to predict which substituent sits equatorial (including the tert-butyl lock)

Reactions & mechanisms

  • Push curved arrows for SN2, SN1, E1, E2, carbonyl addition, and proton transfer, and pick the pathway from what favors each (backside attack, carbocation stability, anti-periplanar geometry)
  • Rank carbocation stability (3 > 2 > 1 > methyl, plus allylic and benzylic resonance) and apply 1,2-hydride and methyl shifts
  • Choose Markovnikov vs anti-Markovnikov vs syn vs anti addition across hydration, hydroboration, halogenation, halohydrin, epoxidation, ozonolysis, and Lindlar vs Na/NH₃

Carbonyls, acid derivatives & tautomers

  • Pick the reagent and condition to hit a carbonyl product: reduction (NaBH₄, LiAlH₄), Grignard, acetal, imine, Wittig, cyanohydrin, Tollens, PCC vs chromic acid, and aldol vs condensation vs Michael, Claisen, and decarboxylation
  • Rank the acid-derivative reactivity ladder (acid chloride, anhydride, ester, amide, carboxylate) by leaving group and resonance, and route conversions downhill freely or uphill with activation (SOCl₂, Fischer)
  • Predict the keto-enol position from alpha-H acidity, stacking carbonyl neighbors to drop pKa toward the enol

Spectroscopy & separations

  • Wire each IR, NMR, and mass-spec peak to the exact atom or bond on a drawn structure (C=O stretch positions, acid OH and aldehyde shifts, the bromine 1:1 isotope pattern, acylium fragments)
  • Pick the separation technique from the physical property (distillation, acid-base extraction, recrystallization, and column, TLC, GC, ion-exchange, size-exclusion, affinity chromatography) and predict elution order

Synthesis & equilibrium

  • Plan a multi-step route to a target, discriminating near-twin reagents (PCC vs Jones, NaBH₄ vs LiAlH₄, OsO₄ cis-diol vs mCPBA trans-diol) and extending the carbon chain
  • Drive a Fischer esterification to a target yield by hand using Le Chatelier (flood the alcohol, remove water, or reverse to hydrolysis)

Research & data

  • Read a real reaction-yield figure, separate the variables from the controls, and judge whether the conclusion actually holds

The boss

  • The Carbocation King: tap the most acidic proton, the electrophilic carbon, the stereocenter, and the aldehyde proton, then transform past a 1,2-hydride-shift trap where trapping the cation too early builds the wrong product

The Prism Works

Physics

Vectors, motion & forces

  • Break any vector into components and rebuild it: x = |V|cos θ, y = |V|sin θ, decompose weight on an incline (mg sin θ along, mg cos θ into the ramp), and add vectors tail to head
  • Run a full projectile: range R = v²sin(2θ)/g (max at 45°), peak height, and time of flight, then read position, velocity, and acceleration off x-t and v-t graphs (slope and area)
  • Apply Newton's laws to get acceleration from net force (a = F/m), tell static from kinetic friction at the break-loose point, and pair action with reaction across different bodies
  • Predict circular motion with centripetal force F = mv²/r, and orbital speed v = √(GM/r)

Energy, momentum & statics

  • Conserve energy across drops, ramps, and springs: v = √(2gh), ½kx² launching to ½mv², minus friction work W = μNd
  • Track momentum and impulse: p = mv, FΔt = Δp, and work elastic vs perfectly inelastic collisions (momentum always conserved, kinetic energy only sometimes)
  • Read work and impulse as the area under force-distance and force-time graphs, and apply Hooke's law F = kx
  • Solve rigid bodies at rest with both conditions at once: ΣF = 0 and Στ = 0 (torque = force × lever arm), including levers, the leaning ladder, and center-of-mass tip-over

Fluids & thermodynamics

  • Work pressure and flow: P = ρgh, continuity (A₁v₁ = A₂v₂), Bernoulli's pressure-speed trade, Poiseuille's r⁴ resistance, and Archimedes buoyancy
  • Apply Pascal's hydraulic press, Torricelli drainage v = √(2gh), and absolute vs gauge pressure
  • Run the gas laws and kinetic theory: PV = nRT, v_rms scaling with √(T/M), Dalton partial pressures, and Graham's 1/√M effusion
  • Move heat and work through the first law (ΔU = Q − W), specific and latent heat (Q = mcΔT, Q = mL), the Carnot ceiling (η = 1 − Tc/Th), and net work as the enclosed area of a PV cycle

Waves, sound & optics

  • Connect every wave with v = fλ, set standing-wave harmonics on strings and in open vs closed pipes, and compute beats, decibels, and Doppler shifts for a moving source or observer
  • Place the image for mirrors and lenses with 1/f = 1/do + 1/di and M = −di/do, including diopter vision correction
  • Bend and split light with Snell's law, total internal reflection (sin θc = n₂/n₁), and dispersion
  • Predict interference and polarization: double-slit and grating spacing, thin-film color, and Malus's law I = I₀cos²θ

Electricity, magnetism & circuits

  • Build resistor and capacitor networks: Ohm's law V = IR, series vs parallel (capacitors combine the opposite way), Kirchhoff's loop and junction rules, and power P = I²R
  • Set RC timing with τ = RC and store energy U = ½CV², from a defibrillator pulse to a myelinated neuron
  • Compute the electrostatic trio from a point charge: Coulomb force, field E = kq/r², and potential V = kq/r, plus work W = qΔV
  • Find magnetic forces and induction: cyclotron radius r = mv/qB, force on a wire F = iLB, the right-hand rule, flux Φ = BAcos θ, and motional EMF ε = BLv

Nuclear, quantum & oscillations

  • Read radioactive decay off the curve N = N₀(½)^(t/t½), including non-integer half-lives, and balance nuclear equations (alpha, beta, gamma, electron capture)
  • Apply mass-energy and quantum relations: binding energy E = Δmc², photon E = hf, the photoelectric KEmax = hf − φ, de Broglie λ = h/p, and Bohr emission and absorption
  • Solve simple harmonic motion: spring T = 2π√(m/k) and the mass-independent pendulum T = 2π√(L/g), drive a system to resonance, and scale energy as amplitude² (E = ½kA²)

Physiology bridge: gas exchange

  • Turn the gas laws physiological: breathe by Boyle's law, find inspired PO₂ with Dalton minus the humidity tax, and run the alveolar gas equation
  • Drive diffusion with Fick's law (set by area, gradient, and thickness) and explain why oxygen needs hemoglobin using Henry's law

Research & data

  • Read a real measurement figure, separate the variables from the controls, and judge whether the conclusion actually holds

The boss

  • The Vector Wyvern: a 13-phase gauntlet that drills one challenge from every station and front-loads whichever topic you have been missing

Heartside Commons

Psychology & Sociology

Learning, memory & cognition

  • Run the operant 2x2 to tell positive and negative reinforcement from positive and negative punishment, trigger extinction and spontaneous recovery, and pick the reinforcement schedule that drives each response pattern
  • Sort items into episodic, semantic, and procedural memory, separate proactive from retroactive interference, and apply chunking, the misinformation effect, and the amnesia patterns
  • Localize a cortical deficit (Broca, Wernicke, hippocampus, prefrontal) and name the cognitive bias at work: availability, representativeness, anchoring, framing, confirmation, hindsight

Biological bases, sensation & perception

  • Wire each clue to its system: neurotransmitter (dopamine, serotonin, GABA, acetylcholine, endorphins), drug target (the receptor a psychoactive substance hits), and autonomic branch with the HPA cortisol axis
  • Reason through behavioral genetics (heritability, twin and adoption studies, epigenetics) and evolutionary psychology (kin and sexual selection, parental investment)
  • Explain color with trichromatic vs opponent-process theory, pitch with cochlear place theory, separate absolute threshold from the just-noticeable difference (Weber's law), and apply Gestalt grouping and attention effects (Stroop, cocktail-party, inattentional blindness)

Consciousness & sleep

  • Read an EEG to order the sleep stages (alpha, theta, spindles and K-complexes, delta, REM) and diagnose the sleep disorders (apnea, narcolepsy, night terrors)
  • Match each dream theory (Freudian, activation-synthesis, information-processing) and altered state (hypnosis, mindfulness) to its account, and predict how depressants, stimulants, opioids, and hallucinogens alter consciousness

Emotion, development & identity

  • Assemble the beat-chain for each emotion theory: James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer two-factor, Lazarus appraisal, and Selye's general adaptation syndrome
  • Order the developmental stage theories (Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg, Freud) and place Ainsworth attachment styles and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development
  • Sort identity and personality concepts: ascribed vs achieved vs master status, the Big Five, role strain vs role conflict, Goffman's dramaturgy, Cooley's looking-glass self, locus of control, and Bandura's self-efficacy

Social psychology & persuasion

  • Spot the biased line in dialogue: fundamental attribution error, self-serving and confirmation bias, the just-world and halo effects, in-group bias, and stereotype threat
  • Diagnose and intervene on group behavior: groupthink, conformity (Asch), obedience (Milgram), the bystander effect, social loafing, deindividuation, polarization, and facilitation
  • Defuse compliance techniques (foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, low-balling), route persuasion through the central vs peripheral path, and resolve the attitude-behavior link via cognitive dissonance
  • Name the ego defense mechanism in play (denial, repression, displacement, projection, reaction formation) and rank it on Vaillant's maturity tiers

Signal detection & decision-making

  • Plant the criterion fence on a field of trials and watch hits and false alarms move together, set a conservative vs liberal criterion to match which error costs more, and raise d-prime to separate signal from noise along the ROC curve

Sociology, institutions & health equity

  • Rank concepts on intensity ladders (folkways, mores, taboos), distinguish subculture from counterculture and ethnocentrism from cultural relativism, and apply the three lenses (symbolic interactionism, functionalism, conflict theory)
  • Work the institutions floor: family socialization and the hidden curriculum, religious organization types, Weber's Protestant ethic and bureaucracy, Durkheim, migration push and pull, sex vs gender, and demographic transition
  • Trace a health disparity upstream: place the structural driver (disinvestment, environmental racism, a coverage gap) above the visible outcome, then pick the intervention that dams the river at its source

Psychological disorders

  • Triage a clinical vignette into the right disorder family (mood, anxiety, psychotic, personality, neurodevelopmental, trauma, dissociative, neurocognitive), click the hallmark symptom, and split look-alike diagnoses (bipolar I vs II, OCD vs OCPD, delirium vs dementia)

Research & data

  • Read a real study figure, separate the variables from the controls, and judge whether the method supports the conclusion (attrition, reverse causation, selection bias, demand characteristics and blinding)

The boss

  • The Mirror of Bias: a gauntlet that reflects each station's own gesture back at you (tap-the-phrase, build-the-chain, the criterion fence, concept-sorts) with an adaptive deep-cut for your weakest topic

The Glow Labs

Biochemistry Free

Amino acids, proteins & folding

  • Classify all 20 amino acids by side-chain polarity, charge at physiological pH, and class, flagging the special residues Cys, Pro, and Gly
  • Predict net charge and isoelectric point (pI) from side-chain pKa values, reading His (pKa ~6) as the physiological buffer residue
  • Build all four levels of protein structure and rank the stabilizing forces: hydrophobic collapse, hydrogen bonds, ionic salt bridges, and disulfides
  • Trace denaturation and refolding: which bonds break with heat or pH, why the backbone survives, and where chaperones step in

Enzyme classification & kinetics

  • Sort enzymes into the six classes by suffix logic, including the traps: kinase vs phosphorylase, polymerase vs ligase, synthase vs synthetase
  • Read a Michaelis-Menten curve: Km as the [S] at half Vmax (affinity) vs Vmax as the saturation ceiling
  • Diagnose inhibition from a Lineweaver-Burk plot: competitive, noncompetitive, uncompetitive, and mixed
  • Predict pH and temperature optima, allosteric and feedback control, cooperativity (T vs R state), and zymogen activation

Central dogma & gene expression

  • Run transcription and translation in the right 5' to 3' direction, pairing codon to anticodon and applying wobble
  • Process eukaryotic mRNA: 5' cap, poly-A tail, and spliceosome removal of introns
  • Classify mutations (silent, missense, nonsense, frameshift) and predict the downstream consequence of each

Membranes, transport & signaling

  • Route each molecule by the right mechanism: simple and facilitated diffusion, plus primary vs secondary active transport (Na/K-ATPase, SGLT cotransport)
  • Use polarity, size, charge, and the gradient to decide direction and whether ATP is required
  • Match signaling routes to receptor type: GPCRs and second messengers, receptor tyrosine kinases, ligand-gated channels, and intracellular steroid receptors

Carbohydrates & lipids

  • Build mono-, di-, and polysaccharides, distinguishing aldose vs ketose, alpha vs beta anomers, epimers, and reducing sugars
  • Connect glycosidic linkage to function: alpha-1,4 and alpha-1,6 for storage vs beta-1,4 for structure
  • Predict membrane fluidity from saturated vs cis-unsaturated tails and cholesterol's buffering
  • Classify lipids and split saponifiable from non-saponifiable, tracking the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K

Metabolism & hemoglobin

  • Route metabolites through glycolysis, the TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, beta-oxidation, gluconeogenesis, and the pentose phosphate pathway, tallying ATP and NADH
  • Switch between fed and fasted states (insulin vs glucagon, the carnitine shuttle, ketogenesis) with rate-limiting control at PFK-1
  • Read an oxygen-hemoglobin curve: cooperative binding, P50, T vs R state, and the fetal-Hb left shift
  • Predict Bohr-effect right shifts from H⁺, CO₂, temperature, and 2,3-BPG

Biotechnology

  • Run and interpret PCR and qPCR, gel electrophoresis and SDS-PAGE, and Sanger vs next-generation sequencing
  • Choose the right separation by charge or size: ion-exchange, isoelectric focusing, size-exclusion chromatography
  • Read a Western, Southern, or Northern blot and an ELISA, and reason through restriction digests and CRISPR targeting

Research & data

  • Read a real assay figure, separate the variables from the controls, and judge whether the conclusion actually holds (interpolation vs extrapolation, attrition, reverse causation, overlapping intervals)

The boss

  • The Enzyme Eel: a three-phase fight mixing substrate and amino-acid ID, inhibition diagnosis, metabolism, transport, lipids, translation, and folding, with the finale aimed at your weakest subject

World Hub

Math, CARS & Data

Equations, algebra & units

  • Forge a formula by placing each variable where it belongs (numerator or denominator, right exponent), then test which way the answer moves when an input changes: F = ma, P = F/A, KE = ½mv², projectile range, the pendulum period
  • Isolate any target variable with the right inverse operation, working outside in (subtract before divide, divide before un-square): V = IR, the kinematics equations, PV = nRT, pH = −log[H⁺]
  • Carry units through dimensional analysis so the unwanted ones cancel: metric prefixes, km/h to m/s, mmHg to atm, kJ to kcal, eV to joules, and both forms of R
  • Run the mole bridge as unit conversions: grams to moles by molar mass, moles to particles by Avogadro's number, density, molarity, 22.4 L/mol at STP, and clinical mg/kg dosing

Estimation, logs & signed sums

  • Estimate fast without a calculator: scientific-notation multiply and divide, squares and roots, the key logs (log 2 = 0.3, log 3 = 0.5), trig from the 30-60-90 and 45° triangles, and powers of 2
  • Climb powers of ten on log scales where one unit is a factor of ten: pH and [H⁺], decibels (10 dB per power), the Richter scale, and Henderson-Hasselbalch buffer shifts
  • Stack signed steps to a net total, flipping a sign to reverse a step and scaling by a coefficient: Hess's law, bond energies (broken minus formed), heating-curve calorimetry, and formal charge

Graphs, data & study design

  • Read a curve and name its equation and key features: linear (slope = k), quadratic, exponential growth and decay (half-life, asymptotes), inverse (Boyle's law), logarithmic, and saturating or sigmoidal curves (Michaelis-Menten Km, hemoglobin cooperativity, logistic carrying capacity)
  • Pick the honest summary of a distribution: the mean for a symmetric pile, the median when a skew or outlier drags the mean
  • Separate precision (a tight cluster) from accuracy (centered on truth), and catch the tight-but-off-center trap
  • Judge whether a difference is real by reading 95% confidence intervals: clearly separated means real, overlapping means it could be noise
  • Sort a correlation into confounded, reverse causation, or true cause, and name a study by its structure (case-control, cross-sectional, cohort, RCT)

CARS & reading

  • Decode dense, jargon-heavy sentences into plain English on an unfamiliar topic, using only the passage
  • Tag each sentence's role: the author's own claim, supporting evidence, a concession, or a reported view the author does not endorse
  • Find the real thesis and reject the red herring (a reported view dressed up to look like the author's claim)
  • Answer main-idea, tone, inference, strengthen, and weaken questions, citing the exact sentence that supports each answer

Research reasoning

  • Read a real experiment, separate the variables from the controls, and flag the one weak spot left uncontrolled
  • Read the figure first, then judge which conclusions the data actually support (inhibition curves, confidence-interval bars, grouped bars, calibration scatter with an outlier)
  • Cross-examine each objection as sustained (a real flaw) or overruled (already controlled): confounds, the ecological fallacy, single-trial noise, regression to the mean, and the value of a pre-registered replication

The boss

  • The Rainbow Gauntlet: the culminating four-section practice exam in real MCAT order (Chem/Phys, CARS, Bio/Biochem, Psych/Soc), run a section at a time, that pulls together every skill the science districts and the World Hub build

Unlock the whole village

One payment opens every district, and everything we ship next is included free. Glow Labs (biochem) stays free for everyone.

Become a Founder for $49

Every skill here is something you perform inside the game and master through doing.