On the MCAT, there is no penalty for wrong answers, so students are encouraged to put an answer down for all questions. The raw scores are different from the scaled scores. The AAMC gives an example of getting between 35 and 37 questions right on a section equating to a scaled score of 123, but this is subject to change based on the difficulty of the exam.

On the MCAT, the number of questions right to score well can be illustrated by this example: People often wonder what the number of questions correct for an MCAT score is. This proprietary algorithm is not disclosed in detail, but in brief, the number of questions you get right is equated to a scaled score. There is a little bit of a black box in how exactly the scaled score for each section is decided, but the AAMC states that this process is called “equating” and this compensates for variability in difficulty from one set of questions to the next. The CARS section is 90-minutes in length and consists of 53 questions.Ĭorrect answers in each section are converted to “scaled-scores” between” 118 to 132. The Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology/Sociology sections of the MCAT each consist of 59 questions in 95-minute sections. The four sections of the MCAT are Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems, Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems, Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior, and Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS). So, no need for silent competition between you and the other test takers on test day – imagine yourself in a room of adorable test-taking puppies (or another cute animal of your choice). This is a good thing! This means no matter what time of the year you take the MCAT, or how many exceptionally smart people seem to be taking the exam alongside you on test day, your score on a certain day will be the same as if you took the exam alongside, say, a cohort of cute, cuddly puppies.īottom line: your MCAT score is only reflective of you and how you did on the sections compared to large swaths of historical data of how students did across many exam forms. Since the MCAT is given tens of thousands of times per year across numerous locations, they cannot curve based on individual cohorts. This type of curving is common but is not translatable outside the specific cohort that took a specific exam on that test date. This is slightly different from curving.įor example, if your biology class has a really hard midterm, your professor may curve the exam such that the average is a passing score or may curve such that the highest scoring individual on the exam gets a score of 100%.

In short, a score of 515 one day is equivalent to a 515 the next day, regardless of how test-takers did overall on the respective days.

According to the AAMC, the MCAT exam is scaled and equated such that scores have the same meaning, regardless of when you took the exam in any given testing year. Is the MCAT curved? Contrary to popular belief, the MCAT is not graded on a curve based on student performances. What Are The Best Practice Questions To Review For MCAT 2023

Mcat percentile range