Khan Academy® is one of the most valuable free educational resources available to pre-health students. Founded in 2008 as a nonprofit, Khan Academy® provides free video lessons, practice exercises, and personalized learning tools across dozens of subjects, including all the major sciences and social sciences tested on the MCAT®. In 2015, Khan Academy® partnered directly with the AAMC® to create an official MCAT® preparation collection, making it the only free resource developed in collaboration with the organization that writes the exam. This page shows you how to get the most out of Khan Academy® for your pre-health courses and standardized exam preparation.
What Khan Academy Offers for Pre-Health Students
MCAT® Test Prep Collection: The MCAT® collection is the crown jewel of Khan Academy® for pre-health students. Developed in partnership with the AAMC®, it includes video lessons, practice passages, and standalone questions covering all four MCAT® sections: Chemical and Physical Foundations, CARS, Biological and Biochemical Foundations, and Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior. The collection is organized by content area and includes hundreds of practice questions aligned to the official MCAT® content outline. Use this collection as your primary free study resource alongside official AAMC® practice materials. See our MCAT® prep guide.
Science Courses: Khan Academy® offers complete courses in biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry (through the MCAT® collection), anatomy and physiology, and health and medicine. Each course includes video explanations, practice exercises with instant feedback, and progress tracking. These courses align well with standard pre-health prerequisite curricula and can supplement or even replace textbook reading for visual learners.
Math and Statistics: Algebra, precalculus, statistics, and probability courses are available for students who need to strengthen their math skills for science courses and standardized exams. The AP® Statistics course is particularly well-organized and useful for building the biostatistics knowledge tested on the MCAT®.
Social Sciences: Psychology and sociology content covers the behavioral and social science topics tested on the MCAT® Psych/Soc section. See our psychology and sociology study guides for topic-level guidance.
How to Use Khan Academy Effectively
Do Not Watch Passively: The biggest mistake students make with Khan Academy® is treating videos as background entertainment. Watching a video without engaging with the material is passive learning, which produces weak retention (see our active learning guide). Instead, pause the video after each major concept and write a summary in your own words. Attempt practice problems before watching the explanation. Take notes by hand, not by copying but by rephrasing concepts in your own language.
Use the Practice Exercises: Khan Academy® provides practice exercises after each topic. Do them. These exercises provide immediate feedback and help you identify gaps in your understanding. If you get a question wrong, read the explanation carefully before moving on. The exercises are where learning happens; the videos are just the introduction.
Set a Schedule: Decide which topics you will cover each week and hold yourself to the schedule. Use Khan Academy® as a structured supplement to your coursework, not as something you browse randomly when you feel like it. For MCAT® preparation, map the Khan Academy® MCAT® collection to your study plan and work through it systematically alongside your question-bank practice. See our time management guide for help building a study schedule.
Combine with Spaced Repetition: After watching a Khan Academy® lesson on a topic, create flashcards (in Anki or another tool) for the key concepts you just learned. Reviewing these cards daily using spaced repetition reinforces the material and prevents it from fading. The combination of video learning (initial understanding) with spaced repetition (long-term retention) is more effective than either approach alone. See our spaced repetition guide.
Khan Academy for Different Exam Types
For the MCAT®: Use the official MCAT® collection as your primary free resource. Work through all four sections systematically. Supplement with subject-specific Khan Academy® courses for topics where you need deeper review.
For the DAT® and OAT®: Khan Academy® does not have a dedicated DAT® or OAT® collection, but the biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics courses cover the same content tested on these exams. Use the subject courses for content review and supplement with DAT®/OAT®-specific practice questions from other sources.
For Nursing, PA, and Other Programs: The health and medicine, anatomy and physiology, and science courses are valuable for nursing and PA prerequisite coursework. The content is not program-specific but covers the foundational knowledge these programs require.
Limitations of Khan Academy
Khan Academy® is excellent for content review and foundational understanding, but it has limitations. It does not replace practice with real exam questions from official sources (AAMC® practice tests for the MCAT®, ADA practice tests for the DAT®, etc.). The practice exercises on Khan Academy® tend to be simpler than actual exam questions. Use Khan Academy® to learn the content, then use official practice materials to learn the test. Additionally, Khan Academy® courses may not cover every topic at the depth required for advanced coursework. For subjects like organic chemistry and biochemistry, you may need to supplement with your course textbook or an OpenStax textbook for topics that Khan Academy® covers only briefly. See our free textbooks page for comprehensive alternatives.
Building a Khan Academy Study Plan
For Semester-Long Courses: At the beginning of each semester, identify the Khan Academy® content that corresponds to your course topics. Create a weekly schedule that aligns Khan Academy® lessons with your course lecture schedule so you are watching relevant videos within a day or two of the corresponding lecture. This synchronization maximizes the reinforcement effect: you encounter the material in lecture, then again in the Khan Academy® video, then again in the practice exercises. Three exposures within a short time window produce much stronger initial learning than a single exposure.
For MCAT® Preparation: During a dedicated MCAT® study period, work through the Khan Academy® MCAT® collection systematically, covering one content area per day or per study session. Complete the practice passages and questions for each area before moving to the next. Track your performance on Khan Academy® questions and note topics where you score below 70 percent, as these indicate areas needing additional review with your textbook or other resources. Integrate Khan Academy® into a broader study plan that includes AAMC® practice tests, a question bank, and Anki spaced repetition.
Tracking Your Progress: Khan Academy® provides built-in progress tracking that shows your mastery level for each topic. Use this feature to identify areas where you are struggling and allocate additional study time there. The mastery system uses a spaced-repetition-like approach, recommending review of topics where your performance has declined. Check your progress dashboard weekly to ensure you are on track with your study plan and adjust your schedule if certain topics are taking longer than expected.
Khan Academy for High School Students: If you are in high school preparing for a pre-health track, Khan Academy® is an excellent way to get ahead. Work through the AP® Biology, AP® Chemistry, and AP® Physics courses to build a foundation that will make your college prerequisite courses easier. The SAT® and ACT® prep sections can help you prepare for college admissions tests. Starting early with Khan Academy® gives you a significant advantage over classmates who encounter these subjects for the first time in college. See our AP® and IB courses guide for information on which AP® courses are most valuable for pre-health students.
Khan Academy for Parents: If you are a parent supporting a pre-health student, Khan Academy® can help you understand the subjects your child is studying. You do not need to become an expert in organic chemistry, but watching a few introductory videos can help you understand what your student is working through and enable more productive conversations about their academic progress. See our parent guides for more resources.
References
Khan Academy. “Khan Academy.” Khan Academy, Inc., 2025. https://www.khanacademy.org/. Accessed March 2026.
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). “MCAT Official Prep: Free Khan Academy Resources.” AAMC, 2025. https://students-residents.aamc.org/prepare-your-mcat-exam/mcat-official-prep-free-khan-academy-resources. Accessed March 2026.