New Free MCAT Chemistry Book Released!

Mark Lee
Jan 31
3 min read

By: Mark Lee, MD

January 31, 2026

After much work, we are excited to announce the release of our next free MCAT book: MCAT OpenReview Chemical Sciences! This post explains what it is, how it was built, and where it fits into our future plans for the MCAT.

Made By Accomplished Clinicians

MCAT OpenReview Chemical Sciences was created by Mark Lee, MD and Rahul Grover, MD. We built it as part of our broader effort at Brain Brew AI to make high-quality MCAT prep materials easier to access, easier to learn longitudinally, and less dependent on expensive prep ecosystems.

A Free MCAT Book

MCAT OpenReview Chemical Sciences is a open-access review resource designed to support the Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems section. It’s meant to function as a “core review backbone”—something you can return to repeatedly as you learn, practice, and identify areas of weakness.

Instead of multiple separate articles or textbook chapters as was previously done by the AAMC, OpenReview curates open-access resources that covers key knowledge defined by the AAMC as required for pre-medical education (and the MCAT). It is ultimately an expert-curated online resource, built from expert-validated content, all embedded in an online learning environment optimized for active learning.

Why we made it

MCAT prep (an medical education for that matter) can be very expensive—not just the exam itself, but the layers of subscriptions, question banks, and textbooks associated with it. That cost can become a real barrier, especially for students who need to study over longer timelines, or those with less resources.

We made OpenReview because we believe:

Access shouldn’t determine outcomes. MCAT prep shouldn’t be gated by who can afford the best bundle.
Long-term studying works better when resources don’t expire. A free resource supports sustained, realistic preparation—especially for students balancing school, work, and clinical responsibilities.
Students deserve materials that are aligned, not overwhelming. Many resources are too sprawling (hours of content without a roadmap).

How we built it

We built MCAT OpenReview Chemical Sciences by synthesizing high-quality open-access resources—including OpenStax—and organizing them directly against the AAMC Foundational Concepts and related content categories for the chemical sciences.

Our approach was:

Start with the AAMC’s content expectations as the organizing framework
Pull from open-access sources that explain the underlying science clearly and accurately
Consolidate and rewrite where needed to improve continuity, clarity, and study usability
Keep the focus on what matters for MCAT performance: conceptual understanding, common pitfalls, and the kinds of reasoning the test rewards

Where to find it

You can access MCAT OpenReview Chemical Sciences for free inside the Brain Brew AI app. There is no paywall for this resource—our goal is to make it broadly usable for anyone preparing for the exam. Tough, you do need to create a free account to keep track of progress. Also, higher levels of AI utilization does required a paid (but low-cost) subscription to maintain our technical infrastructure.

What’s coming next

We’re building this as a complete, open set of MCAT study materials, and Chemical Sciences is a major step—but it’s not the last.

Here’s what’s next on our roadmap:

Brain & Behavior resources planned for release next month (February 2026)
A expert-curated, free MCAT question bank, which options to personalize ongoing learning based on prior performance
A free CARS question bank, with expert-vetted passages designed to promote reasoning and build skills for this challenging section of the MCAT

How to use it

We intend this as a resource that you can come back to over the course of your pre-medical education. As it is open-access, you may review it multiple times over the course of your career:

During your coursework: Go through related sections and practice questions to get comfortable with applying information you're learning in the test environment
During dedicated studying: When its time to study for the MCAT, go through the resource again, as many times as you need. We also recommend combining this resource with other existing resources to cover all your bases. But no (or minimal) expenses were used prior to using these other limited resources.
Before the exam: We envision new features to identify and focus your studies on your areas of weakness. Follow our journey to stay tuned!

How you can help!

We really believe in a collaborative approach. As a small team, making an open-access resource, we actively engage (and even rely on) real students in the development of our resources. The OpenReview resources, and Brain Brew platform has a whole, has benefited immensely from input by students such as yourselves. If you have any ideas you'd like to share, please email them to support@brainbrewai.com.