It depends on your own study habits rather than the exam's difficulty: a course can be worth it if you know you need external structure and accountability to follow through on a plan, and unnecessary if you can build and stick to your own.

We'll be upfront about our own bias: neither of us paid for a prep course, and we scored among the highest results worldwide without one. That doesn't automatically mean a course is a waste of money for everyone, so let's actually break down what they offer.

What a good prep course genuinely offers

Structure, for candidates who struggle to build their own study plan from scratch. A syllabus already organized for you. Cohort accountability, studying alongside other candidates on a similar timeline. For someone who knows they won't stick to a self-built plan, that structure has real value.

What it doesn't automatically give you

A course does not do the actual studying for you, and it doesn't replace the hours of practice and review that any preparation method requires. It also doesn't personalize to your specific weak points the way targeted, individual review does, since a course is built for a general audience, not for you specifically.

Where the money actually goes further

Working through every available past paper, which is largely free or low-cost, tends to teach the exam's actual question style more directly than generic course material. Time spent on focused review of your own weak sections, identified through real mock exam data, usually outperforms broad course content that treats every student's gaps as identical.

When a course might genuinely make sense

If you know from experience that you need external structure and accountability to actually follow through on a plan, or if your starting content knowledge is thin enough that a structured syllabus walkthrough would save you real research time, a course can be a reasonable investment. It's a decision about your own study habits, not a verdict on whether the IMAT itself "requires" one.

The honest bottom line

A prep course is a tool, not a shortcut. It can be worth the cost for the right candidate and a waste of money for another, and the deciding factor is usually your own self-discipline, not the exam's difficulty.

Trying to figure out whether a course, self-study, or 1:1 guidance actually fits how you work best? That's exactly the kind of honest fit assessment we walk through in mentorship, without a sales pitch either way.

Apply for the mentorship

Neither of us needed a course to get where we are. Plenty of strong candidates genuinely benefit from one. The honest answer depends on you, not on us.