Blueprint MCAT Review (2025): The Best Choice for Visual Learners?

If you fall asleep reading dense textbooks, Blueprint MCAT was built for you.

While companies like The Princeton Review and Kaplan have been around for decades, Blueprint (formerly Next Step) disrupted the industry by asking a simple question: Why does studying for the MCAT have to be so boring?

Their answer was to invest heavily in production value and technology. The result is a course that feels less like a lecture hall and more like a high-end educational YouTube channel, backed by some of the most sophisticated analytics software in the test prep space.

I’ve tested their platform extensively for 2025, and here is why it is currently my top recommendation for most students.

The “Smart” Study Planner: A Game Changer

The hardest part of MCAT prep isn’t the physics; it’s the logistics. How do you fit 300 hours of studying into a 4-month schedule while juggling classes or a job?

Blueprint’s Study Planner is hands-down the best tool on the market for this.

• Drag-and-Drop: You tell it your test date and your available hours (e.g., “I can study 2 hours on Tuesdays but 8 hours on Saturdays”). It instantly populates a calendar with every video, quiz, and practice test you need to complete.
• Life Happens: Miss a day because you were sick? Click one button (“Rebalance Schedule”), and the software automatically redistributes your overdue tasks across your remaining study days. No guilt, no manual rescheduling.

Video Lessons: The “Netflix of MCAT”

This is Blueprint’s claim to fame. Most competitors film a teacher standing in front of a whiteboard. Blueprint uses motion graphics and animations to visualize complex concepts.

• Example: When teaching the renal system, they don’t just draw a nephron. They show an animated cross-section of the loop of Henle with ions moving across the membrane, visually demonstrating countercurrent multiplication.
• Engagement: The videos are shorter (5-15 minutes) and interspersed with quizzes to keep you active. It is much easier to binge-watch these modules than to sit through a 3-hour recorded lecture.

The QBank and Practice Tests

Blueprint purchased Next Step Test Prep a few years ago, which was famous for having the most representative practice exams outside of the official AAMC material.

• 15 Full-Length Exams: You get 15 tests. The interface mimics the official Pearson VUE testing center exactly (fonts, colors, strike-through tools). This reduces test-day anxiety because you are already comfortable with the UI.
• 5,000+ Question QBank: The QBank allows you to build custom problem sets. You can filter by subject (e.g., “Physics”), topic (e.g., “Fluids”), and difficulty (e.g., “Hard”).
• AI Integration: Their new AI features analyze your wrong answers and suggest specific learning modules to fix your weak spots. It’s like having a tutor looking over your shoulder.

Live Online vs. Self-Paced

Blueprint offers two main paths:

1. Self-Paced Course

This gives you access to all the videos, the QBank, the 15 exams, and the study planner. It is perfect for disciplined self-starters.

• Cost: ~$1,999 (often on sale).
• Access: 6, 9, or 12 months.

2. Live Online (515+ Guarantee)

This includes everything in the Self-Paced course plus 80+ hours of live classes.

• Two Instructors: Every class has two teachers. One leads the lecture, while the other manages the chat to answer questions in real-time. This ensures the flow of the class is never interrupted.
• The Guarantee: If you have a 500+ diagnostic, they guarantee a 515+ score. If you start below 500, they guarantee a 15-point increase.

Pricing & Value

Blueprint sits in the “premium but fair” price bracket. It is more expensive than Magoosh but generally cheaper than Princeton Review’s top-tier courses.

Pros and Cons

Final Verdict: Is Blueprint the Best?

For 80% of students, the answer is yes.

Unless you specifically need the “bootcamp” intensity of Princeton Review or the budget-friendly price of Magoosh, Blueprint offers the best balance of content quality, technology, and user experience.

The combination of high-yield animations and a study planner that adapts to your life makes it the most “student-friendly” course on the market. It respects your time while still providing the depth needed to score a 515+.

• Overall
  4.9
• Ease of Use
  5.0
• Features
  4.8
• Support
  4.7
• Value
  4.8

Scale 0-5. Ratings are our own weighted assessments.