Should You Study for the IMAT in English or Your Native Language?

There's no single right choice - early on, learn new and difficult content in whichever language you understand fastest, then deliberately shift toward English-language resources as your comfort grows and test day approaches.

The IMAT itself is written entirely in English, so a lot of candidates assume their prep materials should automatically be in English too. That's a reasonable instinct, but it skips over a real decision underneath it: the paper is in English, but the textbook you learn a concept from, the video that explains it, and the flashcards you drill don't have to be. That choice has actual consequences, and most candidates never make it on purpose, they just default to whatever's easiest to find.

The case for studying in English from the start

Every term you'll be tested on, every answer option you'll need to parse quickly under time pressure, is in English. Learning a concept in your native language first and then having to re-map the entire vocabulary onto English later adds a translation step that costs time precisely when you can least afford it, in the middle of a 100-minute exam. For candidates who are already reasonably comfortable reading scientific English, studying in English end to end tends to mean faster recall on test day, because there's no second language layer sitting between the concept and the answer.

The case for sticking with your native language

If English isn't yet comfortable enough to learn brand-new, difficult concepts in in the first place, forcing all your early content learning into English can slow down the one thing that matters most early on: actually understanding the material. A student who grasps a genetics concept solidly in their native language and only learns the English terms afterward usually ends up in a stronger position than one who half-understood it the first time because they were fighting the language and the content simultaneously. Understanding first, vocabulary second, is a legitimate order to do things in.

The real answer is sequencing, not a single choice

This isn't really an either-or decision made once at the start of prep. It's more useful to think of it as a sequence that shifts as your English comfort grows. Early on, learning genuinely new and difficult content in whichever language you understand it fastest in is usually worth more than the authenticity of doing it in English from day one. As the months go on, deliberately shifting toward English-language resources, past papers, and terminology drilling closes the gap before it matters, so that by the time mock exams start, English is no longer the bottleneck, the content is.

What to actually do about vocabulary either way

Regardless of which language you learn new material in, keep a running list of the English terms for concepts you already understand, the ones that show up as answer options rather than full sentences. Biology and chemistry terminology in particular tends to look unfamiliar in English even when the underlying concept is one you know cold, and that gap is fixable with simple repeated exposure, not by abandoning whichever language actually teaches you fastest.

There's no single right language to study in, and treating it as a one-time decision is where most candidates get it wrong. Learn new, difficult material in whatever language actually makes it click, then deliberately shift the terminology and practice toward English well before test day, so the exam's language is never the thing standing between you and a question you actually know how to answer.