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IMAT study plan

A 12-week IMAT study plan you can adapt.

Use this preparation schedule to connect syllabus study, retrieval, questions and revision. It is a starting framework for someone with basic school-level science, rather than a promise that every candidate can complete preparation in three months.

See the 12-week scheduleSix months or 30 days?

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Before week 1

Choose your starting point and available hours.

  1. Read the IMAT syllabus and subject map. Mark unfamiliar prerequisites; a weak foundation may require a longer preparation period.
  2. Take a short diagnostic using questions you have not seen. Our free practice examples can expose basic gaps, but they are too small and introductory to predict your exam score.
  3. Set hours you can sustain alongside school or work. The example below uses 15 focused hours per week. Divide longer blocks into manageable sessions, take breaks and move the days to suit your routine.
  4. Check the official rules for your admission cycle. A study timetable does not replace registration or eligibility checks.

Weekly timetable

An example 15-hour study week

This starting allocation gives biology and chemistry regular attention while keeping maths, physics, reasoning and reading in the rotation. Shift time towards your demonstrated gaps; these hours are not official exam weightings.

Monday
2½ hours biology + ½ hour delayed retrieval
Tuesday
2½ hours chemistry + ½ hour calculation and unit checks
Wednesday
1½ hours physics + 1 hour mathematics + ½ hour reading
Thursday
1½ hours biology + 1 hour chemistry + ½ hour reasoning
Friday
1½ hours mixed questions + 1 hour error review + ½ hour planning

Within a subject block, spend roughly half your time learning or repairing concepts and half retrieving and applying them. Later weeks should give more time to mixed questions and review. Keep weekends flexible for rest or catching up; avoid adding hours automatically after a difficult test.

Three-month preparation

What to do each week

Use the output of each week to decide whether to progress or repeat a foundation. The listed topics are a sequence example; cross-check your complete annual syllabus so later topics are not accidentally omitted.

  1. Week 1

    Diagnose and establish a baseline

    Attempt questions across every subject. Record accuracy, confidence and time separately. Review units, fractions, cell structures and atomic structure. Start a short daily reading habit.

    Checkpoint: A topic list labelled secure, uncertain or unfamiliar, with two priorities for week 2.

  2. Week 2

    Build cell and chemical foundations

    Connect membranes, transport and biological molecules. Review bonding, the mole and balanced equations. Practise algebra and motion graphs; include deduction and passage-evidence questions.

    Checkpoint: Explain a membrane process and solve a mole-ratio problem without consulting notes.

  3. Week 3

    Connect inheritance and calculations

    Study cell division and Mendelian inheritance. Practise concentrations and acid–base calculations. Add forces and energy, equations and probability. Review last week's errors after a delay.

    Checkpoint: Separate chromosome counts from DNA quantity and show units in every calculation.

  4. Week 4

    Check foundations before expanding

    Return to weak topics from weeks 1–3. Introduce respiration, equilibrium and circuit models. Compare an argument's premises with its conclusion. Take a mixed set with new wording.

    Checkpoint: Identify whether each miss came from knowledge, interpretation, method or pacing.

  5. Week 5

    Develop biological systems and reactions

    Connect physiology using inputs, outputs and feedback. Review redox and reaction conditions. Add fluids, functions and coordinate geometry. Keep reading and logical reasoning in the weekly rotation.

    Checkpoint: Draw a system or reaction model from memory and use it to solve a new problem.

  6. Week 6

    Review cumulative knowledge

    Combine weeks 1–5 in retrieval sessions. Introduce organic functional groups and thermal physics where the syllabus requires them. Solve unfamiliar maths questions, then compare methods.

    Checkpoint: Complete a mixed set and choose the next two priorities from the error log.

  7. Week 7

    Apply knowledge in mixed sets

    Rotate subjects within a session. Practise choosing a model, reading constraints and estimating answers. Use targeted lessons only when review identifies a specific missing concept.

    Checkpoint: Accuracy holds when the same idea appears in a different context.

  8. Week 8

    Train pacing deliberately

    Use timed sections alongside untimed repair work. Mark expensive questions, skip and return, and record where time is lost. Continue delayed retrieval of older biology and chemistry topics.

    Checkpoint: A skip-and-return rule based on your own timings, with fewer avoidable rushed errors.

  9. Week 9

    Attempt an unseen official paper

    Choose a paper you have not read and check its own year's instructions. Hide published answers. Afterwards, review uncertain correct answers as carefully as mistakes.

    Checkpoint: An honest first-attempt baseline and an ordered list of repair tasks.

  10. Week 10

    Repair the largest remaining gaps

    Spend most repair time on recurring errors and prerequisite concepts. Use new questions to check the fix. Reattempt old questions after a delay, separating remembered answers from improved reasoning.

    Checkpoint: A repeated mistake has a written cause, a revised method and a successful new application.

  11. Week 11

    Rehearse confirmed conditions

    If the applicable annual rules are published, match question count, duration and scoring. Otherwise label the simulation with the historical format used. Review the full attempt before taking another.

    Checkpoint: A pacing plan supported by results, plus a short final revision list.

  12. Week 12

    Consolidate and prepare calmly

    Retrieve key relationships and methods; revisit the error log. Avoid replacing sleep with repeated full tests. Verify official registration and test-day instructions when relevant to your cycle.

    Checkpoint: A realistic review routine and verified logistics, rather than an untested last-minute overhaul.

Adapt the schedule

Preparing in six months or revising in 30 days

A six-month preparation plan

Use approximately 12 weeks for foundations, 10 for application and cumulative retrieval, and four for simulation and final repair. Spread the early stages of the 12-week schedule over more sessions. Add prerequisite science and maths before accelerating; begin small question sets in the first month.

At the end of each month, use an unseen mixed set to update your priorities. Preserve some official papers for later attempts. More time is useful when it produces spaced retrieval and improved methods, rather than simply more rereading.

A 30-day revision plan

This option assumes you have already studied the syllabus. In days 1–7, diagnose gaps and repair prerequisites. In days 8–14, rotate targeted questions with delayed retrieval. In days 15–23, use mixed timed work and a fully reviewed simulation. In days 24–30, revisit recurring errors, maintain a manageable routine and check logistics.

If most topics are unfamiliar, a month is not equivalent to a full preparation course. Prioritise the foundations you can learn well, avoid invented score guarantees and adjust expectations to your actual starting point.

Make revision measurable

Keep an error log that changes the next session.

For each uncertain or incorrect answer, write the topic, your reasoning, the cause of the error and one next action. Revisit it after a few days and again in a later mixed set. Use a new question to check transfer; remembering the original option is not enough.

For example, if a dilution error came from treating final volume as water added, write the rule “identify total final volume before using c₁V₁ = c₂V₂”. Then solve a fresh dilution problem and check its units. The IMAT preparation guide explains the full diagnose–study–practise–review cycle.

Measure trends across comparable sets, including difficulty and whether questions are new. A change in raw percentage between unrelated sets does not necessarily show improvement or decline.

Subject guides

Choose a subject. Try a worked example.

Use these public guides to plan your study order, identify common mistakes, and practise with original questions and explained answers before opening the full workspace.

Public IMAT resources

Choose the next step in your preparation.

Free IMAT practice questions

Original examples across six subjects, with answers and worked explanations.

Official IMAT past papers

MUR paper links and a method for timed attempts and useful error review.

IMAT score calculator

Calculate a raw practice score using the historical marking model, with worked examples.

MEDichondria workspace

Turn your timetable into a daily study routine.

Use MEDichondria to connect topic lessons, timed questions and saved review progress.

Open the workspace