How Is the MCAT^® Scored?

Start with the raw count. The AAMC tallies your correct answers in each section, and wrong answers are scored the same as unanswered ones. Some questions don't count at all: MCAT Essentials says every section includes a few field-test questions that the AAMC is trying out for future exams. You can't tell which ones they are, so treat every question as real.

Each section has its own question count and time limit:

Then comes the conversion. Every section is reported on the same 15-point scale, so 59 questions (or 53 in CARS) get squeezed into 15 possible scores. The AAMC's own example: if you get between 35 and 37 right in a section, your converted score might be a 123. On the current percentile table, a 123 is somewhere between the 25th and 37th percentile depending on the section, so getting about 60 percent right in a 59-question section puts you below the middle of all test takers.

The AAMC doesn't release raw scores. You see the scaled ones, along with a confidence band and a percentile for each.

No. The AAMC says plainly that the exam is not graded on a curve, so your score doesn't depend on who else tested that day. It's equated: each year has several test forms with different questions, and each form gets a conversion tailored to its difficulty.

That's the reason two people with 45 correct answers in Bio/Biochem can get different scaled scores. If one of them had a harder form, the same raw count converts to a higher score for them. The goal, in the AAMC's words, is that two equally prepared people who saw different questions get the same scaled score. A 510 in January means the same thing as a 510 in September.

This also kills a common test-day worry. If a section felt brutal, it may have been a harder form, and the conversion already accounts for that. You can't measure your score by how the test felt.

Equating takes time. The AAMC spends about 30 to 35 days scaling and equating each form and reviewing any concerns test takers raised about questions or testing conditions, which is why scores don't come back right away.

The one comparative number on your report is the percentile. It ranks your score against everyone who tested in the three most recent calendar years, so the people at your test center are a tiny slice of the comparison. The AAMC updates those ranks every May 1, so the same scaled score can carry a slightly different percentile from one year to the next while the score itself stays put.

Three habits follow directly from how the scoring works.

• Answer every question. A guess can only help. If you're out of time with five questions left, click an answer on each one before the clock runs out.
• Don't burn time on a question you can't crack. Every scored question in a section counts the same toward the raw total, so a hard question isn't worth more than an easy one. Flag it, guess, and come back if you have time.
• Don't try to guess which questions are field-test items. You can't identify them, and skipping effort on a question you think doesn't count is how you lose a point that did.

The same logic applies to your practice tests. AAMC practice exams use scaled scores like the real one, so they're the best estimate of where you'll score. Third-party companies build their own scales, and many of them run low. When you review a full-length, the useful number is how many you missed and why, more than the scaled score at the top.

You get two decisions after test day, one before you leave and one after scores come out.

• Score or void. At the end of the exam, you get one chance to score or void it, and the choice is final. A voided exam produces no score and schools never see it, though it still counts toward your testing limits. The retake article covers when voiding makes sense, which isn't often.
• Request a rescore. If you think there's a scoring error, you can submit a rescore request in the MCAT^® registration system within 30 days of your score release, for a fee. The AAMC checks that your answers were scored correctly. It won't show you which answers you picked or reopen the questions themselves.

Because you never see your answers, a rescore can only confirm or correct the count, so it's for cases where you have a specific reason to think something went wrong.

• Is there a penalty for guessing? No. A wrong answer counts the same as a blank one.
• Is each section worth the same? Yes. Each one is scored from 118 to 132 and adds equally to the total, even though CARS has 53 questions and the others have 59.
• Can you get your raw score? No. The AAMC reports only scaled scores, percentiles and confidence bands.
• What does my total mean? That depends on who you compare yourself with. What Is a Good MCAT Score? walks through the percentiles and the averages for MD and DO students.

To turn any section or total score into a percentile, use the PurpleCAT MCAT score guide.

Last verified October 29, 2026, against the AAMC's scoring explainer and MCAT Essentials for the 2027 testing year.