Start the new year by finally making peace with MCAT CARS. In this CARS Reading Skills Workshop episode of the Jack Westin MCAT Podcast, we walk through a full Jack Westin Daily CARS passage called “Standardized Tests” (posted on December 31) and show you exactly how to think while you read.

We treat this like a live CARS tutoring session: reading sentence by sentence, talking through confusion, and mapping the author’s argument so main idea questions feel way less mysterious.

In this MCAT CARS episode, you’ll learn how to:

🧠 Understand what the author actually believes about standardized tests

🧩 Separate background / history (Thorndike, criterion-referenced tests, etc.) from the real argument

🎯 Spot the author’s subtle skepticism about “objective” testing and statistics

🧾 Use validity and reliability the way this passage defines them (not your psych/soc memory)

🧭 Track when the passage shifts from standardized tests to criterion-referenced tests and why that matters

⚖️ Recognize when an author is questioning “objectivity” and hinting at subjectivity and judgment

Read the passage here first: https://jackwestin.com/daily/mcat-practice-passages/cars-practice-passages/standardized-tests

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

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💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

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In this episode of the Jack Westin MCAT Podcast, Mike and Molly break down one of the most confusing and heavily tested topics in MCAT Biology: the menstrual cycle.

Instead of memorizing hormone charts and phase names, we focus on understanding the story behind the cycle so you can answer any MCAT question, even when it’s asked in an unfamiliar way.

We cover:

🧠 Why the menstrual cycle is really two parallel cycles (ovarian vs uterine)

🔁 The follicular phase, ovulation, and luteal phase—and what actually drives each one

📈 How estrogen switches from negative to positive feedback

⚡ The LH surge and what truly triggers ovulation

🟡 The role of the corpus luteum and why progesterone matters

🧬 How the ovarian cycle “calls the shots” for the uterine cycle

🚫 Why memorization fails on MCAT hormone questions

🧪 How the AAMC tests this topic using passage-based reasoning

If hormone graphs blur together for you, or you’ve ever missed a question because you knew the facts but didn’t understand the why, this episode will help everything finally click.

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🙋 Tutoring: https://jackwestin.com/services/live-online-mcat-tutoring?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

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In this MCAT CARS episode, we walk through a full Jack Westin Daily CARS Passage called “Nativity Ode” (originally posted on December 24) and show you exactly how to read, interpret, and track the author’s ideas for tougher humanities passages.

You’ll see us go sentence by sentence and break down:

📌 How to identify the subject vs. the author’s point

🖼️ Why familiar, domestic nativity paintings matter to the argument

✒️ How Milton’s nativity poem contrasts with those paintings

🤫 What the author really means by an “uncluttered” poem focused on silence

🧩 How to tell when a paragraph is just example/support vs. a new argument

🎯 How to extract the main idea without understanding every dense sentence

🌀 What to do when a CARS paragraph feels esoteric, abstract, or confusing

This episode is perfect if you’re:

❓ Struggling with MCAT CARS main idea questions

📚 Unsure how to handle art/literature passages

🔁 Over-rereading and still not “getting” what the author wants to say

🎧 Looking for guided CARS practice you can follow along with in real time

🔗 You can find the original Jack Westin Daily CARS passage “Nativity Ode” here: https://jackwestin.com/daily/mcat-practice-passages/cars-practice-passages/nativity-ode

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🙋 Tutoring: https://jackwestin.com/services/live-online-mcat-tutoring?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

📸 Follow Us On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackwestinmcat?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👥 Join our Facebook Study Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freemcatprep?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

You can enjoy the holidays and still make real progress on your MCAT prep. This episode walks through how to balance family time, rest, and intentional studying so you don’t burn out or lose momentum.

We talk about:

🎄 How to handle MCAT studying during the winter holidays without guilt

😴 Why rest is required for score growth, not a “reward”

🧱 What a “maintenance phase” looks like if your MCAT is still a few months away

🎯 How to study intentionally instead of half-studying all day

📅 Why consistency matters more than intensity over the holidays

📚 How often you should do CARS passages so you don’t “lose” your skills

🃏 Smart ways to use Anki, practice questions, and review without grinding 8+ hours

📆 What to do if your MCAT is in January vs later in the year

✅ Quality over quantity: doing less, but doing it better

If you’ve ever felt like the MCAT is hanging over your shoulder when you’re trying to relax with family, this conversation is for you. You deserve focused study time and focused rest.

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

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👥 Join our Facebook Study Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freemcatprep?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

Art passages making your MCAT CARS practice feel extra confusing? In this Jack Westin CARS Reading Skills Workshop, Molly and Jack break down a Rembrandt passage sentence by sentence and show you how to separate tone from main idea without getting lost in the details.

Using this Daily CARS Passage, they walk through:

How to spot tone words vs argument/content words

Why “always,” “never,” and other extreme phrases matter so much on CARS

How religion, nature, and spirituality are used to build the author’s main idea

When to ignore overly dense sentences and focus on clear, direct claims

How to track support (like pupil conversations and biblical references) without memorizing details

By the end, you’ll see how to read CARS passages like arguments, not puzzles, and how to turn vague “CARS anxiety” into specific, fixable skills.

Read the passage first: https://jackwestin.com/daily/mcat-practice-passages/cars-practice-passages/rembrandt

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🙋 Tutoring: https://jackwestin.com/services/live-online-mcat-tutoring?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

📸 Follow Us On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackwestinmcat?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👥 Join our Facebook Study Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freemcatprep?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

Struggling with meiosis, gametogenesis, and all the weird details the MCAT loves to test? 🧬 In this Jack Westin MCAT Podcast episode 🎧, we walk through meiosis step by step and connect it directly to spermatogenesis and oogenesis so you can finally see the full picture.

You will learn how to:

🧠 Tell the difference between mitosis and meiosis in an MCAT context

🔁 Track ploidy changes from 2N to 1N without getting lost

🤯 Understand why "everything weird" in meiosis happens in meiosis I

🧷 Visualize tetrads, crossing over, independent assortment, and genetic diversity

⚠️ Explain nondisjunction, trisomy, and monosomy with real examples

🧪 Map out spermatogenesis from spermatogonia to mature spermatozoa

🥚 Map out oogenesis, timing, and why female gamete production is so unique

This episode is perfect if you want a clear and conversational review of:

🧬 Meiosis vs mitosis

👶 Gametogenesis in humans

🎓 High-yield MCAT biology and genetics topics

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🙋 Tutoring: https://jackwestin.com/services/live-online-mcat-tutoring?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

📸 Follow Us On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackwestinmcat?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👥 Join our Facebook Study Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freemcatprep?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

Struggling with dense MCAT CARS passages full of history, old quotes, and abstract ideas? In this CARS Reading Skills Workshop, Molly and Jack walk through the Jack Westin daily passage “Western Colonization” sentence by sentence and show you how to stay calm, focused, and accurate even when the passage feels impossible.

Using this tough passage, they show you how to:

- Tell the subject apart from the author’s argument

- Track big ideas like glory, colonization, and commerce without getting lost

- Notice when the author does not actually agree with what they just said

- Deal with confusing Old English quotes and still pull out what matters

- Avoid dangerous assumptions that wreck CARS questions

- Find the true main idea, not just the first sentence of each paragraph

- Stay confident when a passage feels boring, dense, or way above your comfort zone

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🙋 Tutoring: https://jackwestin.com/services/live-online-mcat-tutoring?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

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👥 Join our Facebook Study Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freemcatprep?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

In this episode, Mike and Molly turn one of the most complex MCAT topics, muscle contraction, into a story you’ll actually remember. You’ll follow a single movement from brain to bicep: motor neuron → neuromuscular junction → calcium surge → actin–myosin “love story” → sarcomere changes.

We break down skeletal vs cardiac vs smooth muscle, why calcium is the real puppet master, and how ATP can both start and end contraction (and what that has to do with rigor mortis 👀). If sliding filaments, troponin, tropomyosin and band changes all blur together for you right now, this episode will finally make it click.

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🙋 Tutoring: https://jackwestin.com/services/live-online-mcat-tutoring?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

📸 Follow Us On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackwestinmcat?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👥 Join our Facebook Study Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freemcatprep?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

Economic CARS passages feel intimidating or dry? In this MCAT CARS Reading Skills Workshop, Jack and Molly walk through our “Microloans” daily passage sentence by sentence and show you how to actually enjoy an econ passage while still reading with precision.

In this episode you will learn how to:

- Separate the subject from the argument so you stop missing main idea questions

- Track big ideas like capitalism in crisis and community trust without getting lost in the details

- Use context clues to handle unfamiliar econ terms like “collateral” and “loan sharking”

- Visualize abstract ideas so economic passages feel concrete and human

- Apply the same strategy to any dense MCAT CARS passage, not just this one

What we cover using the “Microloans” passage:

- How microcredit works and why the author thinks it matters

- Why the passage spends so much time on capitalism and conventional banks

- How microloans create an economy based on community trust

- How to spot repeated ideas that signal the true main idea

📌 Read the passage first:https://jackwestin.com/daily/mcat-practice-passages/cars-practice-passages/microloans

If this breakdown helped you see economic passages in a new light, like and subscribe for more MCAT CARS strategy sessions with Jack and Molly.

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🙋 Tutoring: https://jackwestin.com/services/live-online-mcat-tutoring?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

📸 Follow Us On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackwestinmcat?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

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Is the MCAT actually getting harder… or just noisier? 👀

In this episode of the Jack Westin MCAT Podcast, Mike and Molly sit down after taking AAMC Practice Exam 6 themselves and doing a full data-backed breakdown with the JW content team. No spoilers, no specific passages or questions discussed – just trends, strategy, and what this exam tells us about the future of the MCAT in 2025 and 2026.

✅ What we cover:

- How AAMC Exam 6 compares to Exams 1–4 and the rebranded Free Practice / Exam 5

- Why pure recall (P0) questions are decreasing and P1/P2 “content + passage” questions are on the rise

- What P0, P1, P2, P3 actually mean for how you should study

- The big picture: why content is necessary but not sufficient anymore

🧪 Section-by-section trends:

Chem/Phys

- “Scary-looking, not that deep” questions

- Passages that look intimidating but boil down to one core idea

- Why a solid passage-reading process can turn “impossible” questions into 20–30 second wins

Bio/Biochem

- Very Section Bank Volume 1–coded energy

- Heavy on pathways, relationships, inhibitors/activators, and mapping

- Fewer pure content grabs, more questions that truly blend content + passage strategy

Psych/Soc

- Fewer straight-up vocab questions, more application questions tied to passages

- Why people say it’s “becoming like CARS” (and what that actually means)

- How to use CARS-style reasoning (“least wrong answer”) to survive tricky psych/soc sets

🧠 Key takeaways for your MCAT prep:

- The exam isn’t necessarily harder – it’s messier and more data-dense

- You cannot rely on memorization alone

You need:

- A real passage-reading system

- Deeper conceptual understanding (not just flashcards)

- Consistent practice blending content + passage reasoning

Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and drop a comment with:

- Your AAMC Exam 6 experience

- What section scares you the most right now

- Topics you want us to break down next on the podcast

Want to learn more? Shoot us a text at 415-855-4435 or email us at [email protected]! 📱

📌 Free Academic Advising: https://calendly.com/academic-advising-4/jack-westin-academic-advising?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

💻 Try our Chrome Extension (video solutions to every AAMC passage) https://tinyurl.com/4jw5pad8

📚 Free Resources: https://jackwestin.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🎓 Live Education Sessions: https://jackwestin.com/sessions?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

👨🏻‍🏫 Courses: https://jackwestin.com/courses?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

🙋 Tutoring: https://jackwestin.com/services/live-online-mcat-tutoring?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast

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