The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is notorious. It’s rigorous, comprehensive, and extremely difficult. It also plays one of several determining roles in whether or not an applicant is admitted into medical school.
The MCAT is scored on a scale of 472 to 528, with an average score that hovers around 500. However, for students that are accepted into allopathic (M.D.-granting) medical schools, the average is higher. In the 2020–2021 academic year, the MCAT average for admitted students was 511.5.
If you fall short of that average, it’s natural to feel discouraged.
You also may be wondering:
Before you consider whether you should retake the MCAT, it’s important to know whether you can retake the MCAT. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) does set some ground rules about this. They are:
Bear in mind that if you fail to show up for the test or your scores are voided, these instances will factor into these limits.
Score improvement is, of course, the entire motivation behind retaking the MCAT in the first place. According to the AAMC, test-takers who scored between 472 and 517 the first time saw a median gain of two to three points the second time around. That means that unless you already have a very high score, you’re likely to show improvement.
A lack of preparation could be the reason behind an initial disappointing score. Perhaps you simply didn’t realize that the MCAT would be so challenging, or maybe you focused on studying the wrong material. Perhaps you thought you could “wing it” with minimal preparation.
You may also have been dealing with external factors at the time. If you elect to retake the exam, then you’ll have an opportunity for a redo and more time to put in the hard work the MCAT requires.
Perhaps your MCAT score might get you into a solid medical, but you’re aiming higher — top tier. Schools like Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Columbia, and New York University (Langone) admit students with an average MCAT score ranging from 519 to 522, significantly higher than the average score for medical school admits. So, retaking the MCAT could be your ticket in.
The same AAMC report that shows a gain for students with score under 518 reveals that the average point increase for test takers who earned a 518 or higher when they first took the MCAT have a median increase of zero during their second sitting.
Therefore, it’s also possible that you’ll receive an even lower score especially if you don’t take the time necessary to figure out what you need to do to improve your score.
Medical schools evaluate MCAT scores in a number of different ways.
For example, some consider only your highest score, while others review an average of all iterations. Still others consider only the highest scores from each section.
No matter what, admissions committees will see all of your MCAT scores. While taking the test twice is unlikely to impact your admissions decision, if you end up taking the MCAT three or more times could make them question if you’re prepared for the challenges of medical school.
You’re not going to earn a higher score if you don’t put in additional work preparing. This means revamping your study schedule, which will be grueling.
We advise students to spend at least three months preparing for the MCAT again. We find that if students don’t take this time, that they rarely bump a test score unless there was something extraneous that went wrong on test day to negatively impact an outcome (you were sick, you got into a car accident on the way to the exam center, etc.).
Your MCAT plays a pivotal role in determining whether you’ll be admitted into medical school, along with your GPA. It’s a metric that could get you through a threshold — or prevent medical schools from evaluating other aspects of your candidacy.
Retaking the MCAT is not a simple decision. When it comes down to it, it depends on a number of factors.
Ultimately, medical schools generally do consider the MCAT a reliable tool for predicting your ability to make it through medical school and do well on future standardized exams and in your future career.
Some candidates will benefit from an MCAT retake, while others won’t. It’s a personal decision, coming down to your own strengths, ambitions, and abilities.