Typically, the earliest that students opt to take the MCAT is during the latter part of their sophomore year or the summer between sophomore and junior year. At this point, most students have completed their medical school prerequisite courses and are prepared to take the exam.
Just make sure to give yourself plenty of study time—somewhere between two and four months, depending on your command of the materials and your ability to devote full effort—so you can do as well as possible during your first attempt. Taking the MCAT isn’t fun and retaking the MCAT is even less so.
However, this doesn't mean that taking the MCAT multiple times necessarily looks bad. So far as your scores meaningfully increase from administration to administration, med schools will likely be fine with it. For example, suppose you start out with a 508 on your first attempt and get a 518 on your second attempt.
In general, students can apply to medical schools using scores earned within the last two to three years. It’s important to note that MCAT scores won’t be “valid” forever. However, different medical schools have their own requirements. It’s best to do your own research to ensure your scores will be valid at your target institutions.
If you hope to attend medical school immediately after you graduate, then you will need to complete pre-med coursework and take the MCAT by early May of your junior year in order to get your score before submitting your application in June when the cycle opens.
3 to 6 monthsHow long should I study for the MCAT? Believe it or not, most students who do well on the MCAT spend between 200 and 300 hours preparing for the exam. When you start your prep will be determined by your test date and by what other work and academic commitments you have—usually 3 to 6 months before your exam.
With all that said, how much time should you dedicate toward studying for a retake? In general, if the test is within 1-6 months of your previous test, prepare to commit to a month of full-time studying (40-50 hours per week) or 2-3 months of part-time studying (20-25 hours per week).
We sometimes get this variant of the "What is the earliest/latest I should take the MCAT?" question. While you can technically take the MCAT any time, you should take it during the summer after sophomore year at the earliest, and April of your application year at the latest.
According to the AAMC, the average pre-med student should spend about 240 hours preparing for the MCAT over three months. As the official MCAT prep of the AMSA, Kaplan recommends that you spend 300-350 hours studying so you can be above average.
The rule of thumb is to study for the MCAT for at least 8 weeks: Take the MCAT prereqs first. Students need fewer prereqs than they're led to believe. No need for calculus, statistics, or the second semester of organic chemistry.
So, for students who are doing about average or a little above average on the MCAT, in the 502-505 range, that's good enough to get a look and probably good enough to get an interview—although you would have to knock it out of the park on everything else—it could get you an acceptance.
If your GPA is above 3.5 you can get into a majority of schools and your MCAT will not prevent you from an acceptance. But if this happens for more than one section, for example, 127, 126, 129, 126 (508) you will most likely need to retake the exam. You never want to score below a 127 for more than one section.
A "good" MCAT score is one that puts you near or above the average percentile for matriculants at your target medical schools....The higher your MCAT percentile, the better.MCAT Total ScoreMCAT Percentile Rank5128651081508765066912 more rows
A lot of people that re-wrote their MCATs have told me that they found the January one easier and scored better.
We recommend taking the MCAT as early as possible but for the best chances waiting no longer than late July. That way your application is still complete by the end of August as the application pool gets more dense, and thus more competitive, going into the fall.
Yes. Almost none of the US M.D schools accept January MCAT for the current cycle.
So, what is the MCAT anyway? What is a good MCAT score? Also known as the Medical College Admission Test, MCAT is a standardized multiple-choice exam used by admissions officers to determine entrance to medical schools across the U.S. and Canada. It is offered by the AAMC with 30 exam dates annually.
While MCAT scores are a key element of getting into medical school, they aren’t the only factor colleges look at when making admissions decisions.
Ideally MedEdits recommends that students aim to complete this part of the process by April of their application year and after taking all medical school prerequisites. Doing this helps ensure applicants have plenty of time to work on other application components, such as AMCAS work and activities and the medical school personal statement .
To increase your odds of getting into your dream medical school, it’s a good idea to come up with a schedule for taking the MCAT in advance. Here’s a sample schedule to ensure you have plenty of time to prepare for and take the MCAT:
In some cases, students may want to delay taking the MCAT. If you have yet to study some of the necessary test subjects in college, you might want to wait to sit for the exam. Additionally, students who scored poorly on MCAT practice exams should probably wait a little longer to take the actual exam.
In general, students can apply to medical schools using scores earned within the last two to three years.
Medical school applicants have a lot on their plates, and deciding upon the best MCAT testing schedule can be stressful. While you don’t want to sit for the exam too early and risk earning a lower score, you also don’t want to wait too long and have to rush the application process.
If you wait too long to take your MCAT, you won’t be able to devote enough attention to your medical school personal statement, AMCAS Work and Activities section, and numerous secondary essays (including pre-writing secondary essays before secondary applications are released).
We get a lot of questions about what MCAT score to aim for or what a good MCAT score is, which are closely followed by questions about when to take the MCAT, variations of which include: 1 When should I take the MCAT? 2 When is the best time to take the MCAT? 3 When is the earliest I should take the MCAT? 4 When is the latest I should take the MCAT? 5 What’s the absolute latest date I can take the MCAT and still apply during a given application cycle?
So, when should you take the MCAT to maximize your score and improve your admissions odds? While the AAMC offers around 30 MCAT test dates each year, some will be better options for you than others depending on where you are in your education and when you intend to apply to medical school.
Your MCAT score won’t be released until about a month after the exam.
It’s worth noting that, in and of themselves, MCAT scores technically don’t “expire” as far as the AAMC is concerned. Rather, the window of acceptable score dates is set by each individual medical school. That’s why you should look up in advance the earliest test date accepted by each med school that interests you.
For example, let’s say you’ll be graduating in May 2023 and plan to take a gap year before entering med school in August 2024.
Taking the MCAT isn’t fun and retaking the MCAT is even less so. (If you’re wondering how far in advance to study for the MCAT, we suggest you read the following guide: The Ideal MCAT Study Schedule)
If you have decided to apply for medical school, you will have to plan a timeline for one of the important requirements you will have to fulfill, which is getting an adequate score on the MCAT, which is administered by AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges). The AAMC is dedicated to lead and serve the academic medicine community.
On the AAMC website, there are three questions listed that you should ask yourself to figure out when it is the right time for you to take the MCAT. They discuss a 2016 Post-MCAT Questionnaire that reports that students who took the MCAT needed an average of 20 hours each week for three months to prepare for the exam.
In general, pre-med students take the MCAT upon completion of their prerequisite classes to get into medical school. In fact, those classes teach the knowledge that will be necessary to know for the exam.
There are a couple of considerations to keep in mind about the MCAT that will help you plan in a more effective way. These considerations include:
A pre-med student should take the MCAT no earlier than the second semester of sophomore year of undergrad. The ideal time is over the summer after sophomore year and before the beginning of your junior year.
Now, if you’re wondering how much you can push off the MCAT, you should be aware that the very final time to take it should be between January and April of the year you apply for medical school.
Siting with your pre-med advisor is the best way to create a timeline that will work best for you. The more you know about the schools you have in mind the better you’ll prepare to fulfill their requirements.
You’ll need at least one year with labs of biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics.
That said, a prep course is a… course. To get the most out of your MCAT prep course, you’ll spend time attending class, watching science tutorials, and practicing. One of the benefits of a prep course, beyond having all your study resources in one place, is that you won’t waste time learning anything that won’t be on the MCAT.
In response to concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the AAMC has cancelled all administrations of the MCAT through at least May 21. They will be waiving all rescheduling fees for people who signed up for MCAT exams that were cancelled.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty to figure out an individualized plan for you, let’s talk about what the general recommendations are for how long you should study for the MCAT: Typically students need 3-6 months to study. This is a hard test. On average, students who do well will put in between 250-400 hours of MCAT studying.
A good bet for MCAT studying is to set aside 20-40 hours a week depending on how much time you need for content. But you MUST always be practicing MCAT thinking, so at least 20 hours will mostly be test and question review. And then, if you need content work on top, you can add additional hours to your schedule.
Many worry especially about their Physics. But at the end of the day, the focus of the MCAT is primarily on reasoning and reading. If you haven’t taken a practice test, this really won’t be clear until you take one (we will get to that soon).
If you start at 500, and you want a 515, a fair guess is that it will take you about 15 weeks (just under 4 months). If you start at 485, it will take twice as long. However, please note this formula is NOT Linear. You will have periods of big jumps, and periods of no movement.
However, depending on where you start, it could take you half as much time (or twice as long). So generally, students are best off starting to study the summer before their Junior year if they have already taken biochem and physio.
First, make sure you have a date in mind for what you want to be your MCAT retake day. Being completely ready by this date should be your goal. A lot of students just start studying for the MCAT again on a daily basis, not knowing when they’re going to stop because they don’t have a date set.
Every year MCAT Mastery helps thousands of premeds in achieving their target MCAT score goal so they can get into the med-school of their dreams. The dedicated team at MCAT Mastery accomplishes this by conducting ongoing research and paid interviews with 90+ percentile MCAT scorers, to bring you the most credible, most proven MCAT prep strategies on the planet.
If you have strong negative emotions while you prep, overcoming difficult MCAT problems and passages will become even harder. You’ll likely not be able to study and will be prone to procrastinating. Even if you somehow push through, your progress will be mediocre compared to if you were to study with a clear mind.
Someone in med-school who rewrote the MCAT would be perfect to talk to. It’ll make you realize the FACT that retaking the MCAT is completely normal. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. The MCAT is a brutal exam and med-schools realize that.
One of the biggest mistakes MCAT retakers make is starting to study really soon after they get their scores back. If you want to hit your target score, we don't recommend doing this. In fact, you should take a few weeks off to reflect on how you can improve from the first time you prepared for the MCAT.
Every top MCAT scorer knows that you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to get a high MCAT score, you just need to be the most strategic. Getting a high MCAT score means you have to get as many questions right as you possibly can…. And all questions are made up of passages.
The MCAT is a brutal exam and med-schools realize that. They know it can take a little longer for even the best med-school candidates to adapt to the style of the MCAT. So it’s okay to feel bad and feel disappointed.
Now that we have discussed why it is important to take MCAT practice tests, let’s tackle the question: “how many MCAT practice tests should I take?”
If you only have a few weeks to a month to study for the MCAT, you will want to take as many MCAT practice tests as possible without overwhelming yourself. I wrote a 1-month MCAT study guide particular for this case.
First, we start with the AAMC material. You will have to buy the Official MCAT Prep Bundle from the AAMC. From this material alone we can knock out 9 of the practice tests. There are technically only 4 full-length practice tests (if you count the sample test) but that’s okay.
The number of MCAT practice tests you should take is going to differ depending on the situation and person. The most important take away from this article is to take as many MCAT practice tests as possible. You want to make sure you don’t get burnt out but you also want to challenge yourself.
The Medical College Admission Test is the final qualifier for admissions into medical school. As such, it is extremely difficult, and it is not uncommon for students to want to retake the test to improve their scores.
The short answer is that the MCAT can be taken up to a lifetime total of seven attempts. These attempts may be broken up and spaced out by testing years, with consecutive-year attempt caps. Students often wonder if several attempts can make you look bad when applying to schools.
There are a few answers to this, and they add up to the lifetime cap of seven attempts.
This is a complicated question. If you set a target score on the MCAT and did not reach your goal, or if you are just not confident that your score is strong enough to get you into your ideal first-choice medical school, you may be considering registering for another MCAT and trying again.
Deciding whether or not to take the MCAT again can be a difficult choice. As such, we’ve put together a few questions to help you come to a final conclusion.
In order to gain acceptance into medical school, you will want to aim for a minimum score of 510. If you take the MCAT and receive a low score or you simply want to see if you can do better, there are some things you can do to bring your score up on your next attempt.