MCAT Biochemistry Flashcards
Updated · By the Revizly team
This free deck has 34 biochemistry flashcards on the metabolism topics pre-med students spend the most time on: enzymes, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, glycogen, the TCA cycle, fatty acids and ketones, the urea cycle and vitamins. Flip the cards, try the quiz, then build decks from your own biochem lectures.
Real example
Biochemistry Master Exam Review
What went in: A biochemistry exam review pasted into Revizly by a student and shared as a public class on revizly.app.
Real Revizly output from that review, lightly formatted.
The flashcards
The practice quiz
Question 1 of 6
A liver cell has abundant ATP, NADH, and acetyl-CoA. How does this condition affect pyruvate dehydrogenase activity?
Question 2 of 6
Why can a person with G6PD deficiency develop hemolysis after taking an oxidant drug?
Question 3 of 6
During prolonged fasting, why does the liver increase ketogenesis?
Question 4 of 6
A rise in fructose-2,6-bisphosphate would be expected to have which effect?
Question 5 of 6
Which combination correctly identifies the sources of urea’s two nitrogen atoms and its carbon atom?
Question 6 of 6
A person with extreme sensitivity to sunlight and a high risk of skin cancer most likely has a defect in which repair pathway?
What’s in this MCAT biochemistry deck
Thirty-four cards on metabolism and enzymes, the part of biochemistry most pre-med students find densest: enzyme models and inhibition, carbohydrate metabolism, the TCA cycle, fatty acids and ketones, the urea cycle and vitamins.
| Topic | Cards | What you’ll practice |
|---|---|---|
| Enzymes | 5 | Lock-and-key vs. induced fit, competitive inhibition, holoenzymes |
| Glycolysis and gluconeogenesis | 8 | Net yield, PFK-1 regulation, bypasses, biotin, fructose-2,6-bisphosphate |
| Glycogen | 4 | Bonds, liver vs. muscle, Von Gierke and McArdle disease |
| TCA cycle, PDH and pentose phosphate | 6 | Location, FADH₂, PDH cofactors, thiamine deficiency, NADPH, G6PD |
| Fatty acids and ketones | 5 | Carnitine shuttle, CPT-I, β-oxidation, ketone bodies |
| Urea cycle | 2 | Nitrogen sources, CPS-I |
| Vitamins | 4 | Vitamins A, D, K and C |
How to use flashcards for MCAT biochem
Use cards for the facts you need on demand, like rate-limiting enzymes, cofactors and deficiency diseases. Then practice passage-style questions that make you apply those facts. Cards build recall, questions build reasoning, and the MCAT tests both.
Learn pathways as stories, then card the details
Before you memorize anything about glycolysis, know what it’s for, where it happens, what goes in and what comes out. Then use cards for the details that are easy to mix up, like which enzyme is rate-limiting and what regulates it.
Pair every regulator with its logic
ATP inhibits PFK-1 because a cell with plenty of energy doesn’t need to burn more glucose. High acetyl-CoA shuts down PDH for the same reason. When the regulation makes sense, you can reason your way to answers you didn’t memorize.
Keep old cards in rotation
MCAT prep runs for months, and biochem you learned in week two needs to still be there on test day. Spaced repetition keeps old cards coming back at longer intervals, so you don’t have to restart the deck every few weeks.
Card formats that work for biochemistry
Biochemistry cards work best when they ask about one step, one regulator or one structural feature at a time. Pair those detail cards with a few big-picture cards about when each pathway runs.
| Format | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| Regulation | What activates phosphofructokinase-1? | AMP and fructose-2,6-bisphosphate. ATP and citrate inhibit it. |
| Location | Where does the citric acid cycle take place? | In the mitochondrial matrix. |
| Enzyme classes | How many enzyme classes are there? | Seven: oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, lyases, isomerases, ligases and translocases. |
| Big picture | Which pathways does the liver favor during fasting? | Glycogen breakdown first, then gluconeogenesis, fatty acid oxidation and, with prolonged fasting, ketogenesis. |
The fed and fasted states in one table
A lot of metabolism questions come down to whether insulin or glucagon is in charge. Learn this table first, then each pathway card will fit into a state you already understand.
| Fed state | Fasted state | |
|---|---|---|
| Main hormone | Insulin | Glucagon |
| Glucose | Used and stored | Made and released by the liver |
| Glycogen | Glycogen synthesis | Glycogen breakdown |
| Fats | Fatty acid synthesis | Fatty acid oxidation |
| Ketone bodies | Not made in meaningful amounts | Made by the liver during prolonged fasting |
How to pace a biochemistry deck
Your daily reviews grow with every new card you add, so the number of new cards a day matters more than the size of the deck. Start small, watch how long reviews take, and adjust each week.
- Start with about 20 new cards a day and see how long your reviews take after a week.
- If daily reviews take more than you can sustain, add fewer new cards for a while instead of skipping reviews.
- Add cards for a pathway right after you study it, not in one big batch weeks later.
- Keep reviewing old pathways while you add new ones; metabolism questions often connect several of them.
Common mistakes with biochem flashcards
The usual problems are memorizing pathway steps without regulation, cards copied word for word from a long paragraph, and too many new cards early on. Each one makes the deck slower without making recall better.
- Steps without regulation. Questions often ask what speeds a pathway up or slows it down, so card the regulated steps.
- Copy-pasted paragraphs. Rewrite each fact as a short question you can answer in a few seconds.
- Too many new cards at the start. A backlog of reviews is the fastest way to give up on a deck.
- Ignoring structure. Card amino acid side chain properties and functional groups, not just pathway names.
Make MCAT flashcards from your own materials
Upload your biochem lecture slides, a prep book chapter you own, or your own notes, and Revizly writes flashcards, a study guide and a practice quiz from them. Your deck then covers what you’re actually studying.
This deck covers metabolism. Your prep also covers biology, chemistry, physics, psychology and sociology. Upload each unit as you go and every subject gets its own deck with spaced repetition built in.
The free plan covers 2 classes a month. Essential is $6.99 a month for 20 classes, and Premium is $9.99 a month for unlimited classes.
Build MCAT decks from your own notes
Sign in, upload your lecture slides, a PDF or photos of your notes, and get flashcards, a study guide and a practice quiz in about 30 seconds. The free plan covers 2 classes a month.
PDF, photos, Word, PowerPoint or a YouTube linkYou can upload right after you sign inFrequently asked questions
Are these MCAT flashcards free?
Yes. The deck and the quiz on this page are free to use. You only need a free account to build decks from your own materials.
Are these official MCAT materials?
No. They’re biochemistry cards generated from a student’s exam review on revizly.app. They cover topics that appear on the MCAT, but they aren’t an official or complete MCAT resource.
Does this deck cover the whole MCAT?
No, it covers metabolism and enzymes. Use Revizly to build decks for the other subjects from your own lectures and notes.
Why were some cards removed?
We checked every card and dropped two that used outdated numbers: the count of enzyme classes and the ATP yield of palmitate, which current textbooks report differently.
Can I make flashcards from my MCAT prep book?
You can upload pages or PDFs you own, and Revizly builds cards from them. Upload one chapter at a time so each deck stays focused.
Can I export my cards to Anki?
Anki export is part of the Premium plan. On every plan you can study your cards in Revizly with spaced repetition, on the web or in the iPhone and Android apps.
How many new cards should I add per day?
Most students do better adding a steady number every day than dumping a whole chapter at once. Keep your daily review short enough that you actually finish it.
Is there a practice quiz for every deck I make?
Yes. Every class you upload comes with a multiple-choice quiz, with an explanation for every answer.
Which biochemistry pathways should I learn first?
Glycolysis and the citric acid cycle, because so much else connects to them. Then gluconeogenesis, glycogen metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, the electron transport chain and the urea cycle.
Should I memorize every enzyme in a pathway?
Focus on the regulated and rate-limiting steps first, like phosphofructokinase-1 in glycolysis. Those are the enzymes questions ask about most, and they explain how the pathway is controlled.
How long should my daily flashcard sessions be?
Long enough to clear your reviews every day, at a length you can keep up. If clearing reviews regularly takes longer than the time you have, add fewer new cards for a while.