What's the Highest MCAT® Score?
The highest MCAT® score is 528, and every total from 525 up is the 100th percentile. How rare top scores are, what top schools report, and what they buy.
The highest MCAT® score is 528, which takes a 132 in all four sections. On the AAMC's current table, every total from 525 to 528 is at the 100th percentile, and only about 1 test taker in 100 scores above a 524.
The AAMC doesn't publish how many people earn a perfect 528 each year. Its percentile table covers 305,494 scores from 2023 through 2025 and rounds the top four totals together, so any exact count you see online is an estimate.
1How Rare Is a Top Score?
Each five-point step above 510 cuts the group by more than half. A 520 puts you ahead of 97 percent of test takers, and the eight points between 520 and 528 hold the last 3 percent.
2What Do the Top Schools Report?
Even the most selective schools enroll classes averaging well below 528. Washington University's entering class of 2025 averaged a 520, the 97th percentile. Harvard's most recent entering class averaged 521.07, with section averages between 129.25 (CARS) and 130.82 (Psych/Soc).
That's seven to eight points below the maximum at two of the country's most selective schools. A 528 isn't the bar anywhere; it's well past it.
Related reading
Is the Average MCAT® Score Good Enough?3What Does a Score Above 517 Buy You?
The AAMC's MCAT and GPA grid (FACTS Table A-23) groups every score above 517 into one band, so it can't separate a 518 from a 528. Across the 2023–24 to 2025–26 cycles, the top bands looked like this.
Moving from the 506–509 band to 510–513 adds 15.3 percentage points. Each band after that adds less than 9. Above 517, 79.9 percent of applicants were accepted, and with a GPA above 3.79 the rate was 83.3 percent. Roughly one top scorer in five still didn't get in, because GPA, experiences and the school list carry the rest of the decision. The low GPA, high MCAT breakdown shows what a top score can and can't make up for.
4Can You Score Higher Than 528?
No. Each section tops out at 132, and the total is the four sections added together. If you see a score out of 45 on an old forum post, that's the exam before 2015, which scored totals up to 45 on a different scale.
5What to Do With a Score Near the Top
- Above 520: A retake almost never makes sense. AAMC data put the median second-attempt gain at about 1 point for people who start at 518 or higher, and every attempt goes to every school.
- 515 to 520: You're at or above the averages of the most selective programs. Your time goes further on the rest of the application than on more MCAT® points.
- Below 515: The good-score breakdown shows where your number compares with MD and DO averages.
To look up the percentile for any total or section score, use the PurpleCAT MCAT score guide.
Last verified October 29, 2026. Percentiles come from the AAMC table in effect May 1, 2026, to April 30, 2027. School averages are from each school's admissions site.
Sources and references
Sources
- AAMC, Summary of MCAT Total and Section Scores: Percentile Ranks in Effect May 1, 2026 to April 30, 2027
- AAMC, FACTS: Applicants and Matriculants Data (Table A-23)
- Washington University School of Medicine, The Entering Class of 2025
- Harvard Medical School, Admissions at a Glance
- AAMC, Percentile Ranks for MCAT Total and Section Scores, 2012 (pre-2015 exam)
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