When created and reviewed properly, flashcards can be an effective tool to memorize discrete pieces of information needed for the MCAT. Luckily, Blueprint has taken the hard work of making flashcards off your plate for MCAT studying!

Simply select the subject(s) and/or topic(s) you would like to practice, decide whose cards to include in the deck (ours, yours, or all) and you’re ready to go! You start with a default daily goal, which you can update at any time.

The Blueprint flashcards have two main study modes - study plan and a la carte.

Date Range

This setting is only available when using Study Plan mode. Study Plan mode pulls cards from Learning Modules that are in the Completed state. Date Range lets you control the size of your deck a bit more by offering four options:

There are three review styles in the Blueprint flashcards - spaced repetition (which we suggest for most of your study time), comfort level, and all cards.

This setting allows you to control whose flashcards will be included in your deck. There are three options:

When you are shown a card, click, tap, or press Space bar to see the other side. You must select a comfort level for that card (Low, Medium, or High) before advancing. This tells our spaced repetition algorithm when to show you that card again.

You can also choose to hide the card (click “Don’t show this card”) or bookmark it.

If you accidentally click Do not show and want to bring it back, you can find the card on your Flashcards page by going to Blueprint Cards and selecting Hidden. From there you can unhide the card.

Try out the keyboard shortcuts for a click-less review session.

Your Daily Goal is there to help keep you on track. You can edit your Daily Goal at any time, from 10 - 100 cards. If you achieve your daily goal, your streak tracker will update, and you can choose to keep reviewing or stop for the day.

At midnight (based on your computer’s time zone), we reset the Daily Goal progress back down to zero. If you happen to be reviewing cards during this time, you’ll see a message letting you know about the change and you can keep on reviewing cards.

The Blueprint MCAT Flashcards analytics page will help you understand your performance over time. Here are some key features of our analytics!

Each subject area has 4 badge levels with set thresholds for unlocking:

If you later change your comfort level for cards, we won’t take any badges away! There are also badges not related to content:

Spaced repetition is an evidence-based learning technique proven to increase the rate of learning. Blueprint flashcards use your comfort-level ratings to implement a 1/3/5 day schedule of review. For example, if you mark a card Low comfort, that basically means we will show you this card again in 1 day (provided you still have this subject and/or topic selected to study). If you mark a card Medium comfort level, we will show it to you again in 3 days. If you mark a card High comfort level, we will show it to you again in 5 days. Each day, we’ll start by showing you cards in the Low comfort bucket, any that are ready for review from your Medium and High buckets and then move to showing you new cards. In this way, Blueprint flashcards ensure you’re seeing the right content at the right time.

If you are an Online Anytime, Live Online, or Tutoring student:

Use Study Plan mode to perfectly align flashcards with your content review. In Study Plan mode, we will only show you flashcards from learning modules that are marked Complete on your Study Plan.

We recommend completing any assigned Learning Modules for the day, then clicking the icon to go to Flashcards. Any flashcards associated with the modules you just completed will be automatically added to your deck.

No. Think of the Blueprint flashcards as one big, dynamic deck. You configure the settings, set your Daily Goal, and then we’ll begin showing you cards based on your selections. In other words, there is no way to create a “Week 1 Cards” deck (for example). Unfortunately, flashcards cannot be exported or downloaded at this time.

You’ll notice a flashcards icon on each day of your Study Plan. This is your daily reminder to do flashcards. They are on each day of your Study Plan, with the exception of Full Length exams or review days, days off, and your MCAT date.

The icon will be in 1 of 3 states:

If you do not complete your daily goal for a given day, we’ll take the icon off of that day once it has passed. These icons are on by default, but if you would like to turn them off, use the toggle on the Flashcards home page:

Our flashcards are designed to cover all major concepts referenced in the AAMC content outline for the MCAT, with additional emphasis given to topics that are highly tested on the MCAT.

We currently have over 1600 cards, distributed across the following 7 subjects:

Depending on how much time you have to study each day, we recommend completing 20-40 flashcards each day. Blueprint experts find that flashcards are particularly useful as "warm ups" to start their studies or "cool downs" to close out their study sessions as well as for "in between times" like when you're waiting to have your oil changed or are on public transit. Consistent use of flashcards helps to keep content fresh without having to spend time fully reviewing.

Flashcards are best used to maintain your knowledge of discrete facts. They do not replace doing practice problems or reviewing more interconnected content areas, such as organ systems and metabolic processes.

Live Online and Self-Paced students can best make use of their flashcards using Study Plan mode. This mode will show you cards from Learning Modules that you’ve completed, making it super simple to align your content review with an effective flashcards review session. Use the Spaced Repetition review mode (it’s the default!) to get the most out of each review session.

Tutoring students will benefit from flashcards as part of their regularly scheduled MCAT study. Work with your tutor 1:1 to determine what you should focus on as well as your daily goals.

When determining where to direct your flashcard energy, start with your Full-Length analytics page. From here, use flashcards to bolster your knowledge in areas in which you're struggling.