MCAT content library / Chemistry & physics
Use quantitative models and molecular reasoning across chemistry, physics, laboratory methods, and organic reactions. This collection contains 67 primary lessons from the completed DDQX MCAT content map.
Use the topic groups for lookup or choose a short study path when you want a sequence.
Browse topic groups
- Atoms and chemical quantities (6)
- Aqueous solutions and acid–base chemistry (6)
- Motion and mechanical energy (4)
- Waves, sound, and light (8)
- Fluids and gases (6)
- Electricity and electrochemistry (7)
- Molecular structure and analytical evidence (9)
- Separation and measurement (4)
- Organic reaction reasoning (8)
- Thermodynamics and reaction rates (9)
- Study paths
Atoms and chemical quantities
- Moles, formulas, and yield: conserve the reacting material
- Atomic identity and nuclear change: conserve charge and nucleon count
- Electron configurations: account for orbitals and unpaired electrons
- Periodic trends: explain a comparison from electron structure
- Radioactive decay: read half-life from linear and semilog data
- Atomic spectra and the photoelectric effect: test quantized energy
Aqueous solutions and acid–base chemistry
- Aqueous ions and concentration: keep amount and volume separate
- Acid–base strength: distinguish concentration from dissociation
- Weak acids, bases, and salts: choose a defensible pH calculation
- Buffers: explain pH resistance and its limits
- Titration curves: distinguish endpoint, equivalence, and buffering
- Solubility: use common ions, pH, and complex formation
Motion and mechanical energy
- Motion: translate between vectors, units, and graphs
- Net force and friction: build the right free-body diagram
- Work, energy, and power: choose the useful conservation model
- Torque and levers: solve a static-equilibrium problem
Waves, sound, and light
- Waves: separate amplitude, frequency, and propagation speed
- Sound intensity: reason with attenuation and a logarithmic scale
- Electromagnetic light: connect wavelength, photons, and polarization
- Refraction and reflection: follow light across an interface
- Resonance: predict allowed patterns in strings and air columns
- Doppler shifts and ultrasound: infer motion from reflected waves
- Interference and diffraction: read a pattern as wave evidence
- Lenses and mirrors: predict image location, size, and orientation
Fluids and gases
- Pressure, buoyancy, and the role of fluid interfaces
- Ideal fluid flow: use continuity before Bernoulli
- Ideal gases: keep the controlled variables visible
- Viscous flow: explain pressure loss and radius dependence
- Gas mixtures: calculate partial pressure from composition
- Gas particles: connect temperature, heat capacity, and nonideality
Electricity and electrochemistry
- Electric fields and potential: separate force from energy
- Resistor circuits: track current, voltage, and measurement
- Redox bookkeeping: balance atoms, charge, and electrons
- Galvanic cells: connect half-reactions to cell potential
- Capacitors: distinguish stored charge, voltage, and energy
- Magnetic forces: predict a charged particle’s deflection
- Electrolysis: use charge to predict product yield
Molecular structure and analytical evidence
- Lewis structures: use formal charge and resonance together
- Molecular geometry: connect bonding, shape, and polarity
- Stereochemistry: distinguish connectivity, configuration, and identity
- Intermolecular forces: predict physical properties from structure
- Infrared spectra: use functional-group evidence cautiously
- UV–visible absorption: connect color, conjugation, and concentration
- Proton NMR: combine equivalence and splitting as structural evidence
- Mass spectra: distinguish mass-to-charge, isotopes, and fragments
- Conformation: tell permitted rotation from a change in configuration
Separation and measurement
- Extraction: use partitioning and pH to separate a mixture
- Chromatography: connect retention to the two phases
- Chiral mixtures: interpret optical rotation and plan a separation
- Distillation: infer separation from volatility and a temperature record
Organic reaction reasoning
- Functional groups: follow the bonds that change in a reaction
- Alcohol substitution: reason about leaving groups and competing pathways
- Carbonyl addition: predict products and reversible protection
- Organic redox: track oxidation state through functional-group changes
- Acyl substitution: explain reactivity, hydrolysis, and bond exchange
- Alpha-amino-acid synthesis: track atoms and stereochemical limits
- Aromatic heterocycles: decide which electron pairs can react
- Enolates: connect alpha-carbon chemistry to carbon–carbon bonds
Thermodynamics and reaction rates
- Heat and temperature: interpret a calorimetry measurement
- Reaction enthalpy: combine Hess cycles and bond-energy estimates
- Entropy and temperature: explain when a process is favored
- Free energy and equilibrium: distinguish standard from actual conditions
- Rate laws: infer reaction order and test a proposed mechanism
- The first law: account for heat, work, and internal energy
- Phase changes: read heating curves and pressure–temperature diagrams
- Equilibrium shifts: separate the reaction quotient from the constant
- Activation barriers: distinguish catalysis, rate, and product control
Study paths that use this section
From solutions to buffers
Build a quantitative acid–base explanation and apply it to amino acid charge.
View the 6-lesson path
- Moles, formulas, and yield: conserve the reacting material
- Aqueous ions and concentration: keep amount and volume separate
- Acid–base strength: distinguish concentration from dissociation
- Weak acids, bases, and salts: choose a defensible pH calculation
- Buffers: explain pH resistance and its limits
- Amino acid and peptide charge: count the groups that can change
From forces to fluid flow
Select the physical model that explains pressure, speed and flow resistance.
View the 6-lesson path
- Motion: translate between vectors, units, and graphs
- Net force and friction: build the right free-body diagram
- Work, energy, and power: choose the useful conservation model
- Pressure, buoyancy, and the role of fluid interfaces
- Ideal fluid flow: use continuity before Bernoulli
- Viscous flow: explain pressure loss and radius dependence
Connect the ideas
After reviewing a lesson, change one condition in its worked application and predict the result before reopening the feedback. For study design, graphs, uncertainty, and multi-figure reasoning, use Research & Data.