The Medical College Admission Test is a 6-hour 15-minute, 230-question exam required by nearly every medical school in the United States, and by most Canadian medical schools. It is scored from 472 to 528. Below: how the exam is built, how it is scored, and the free tools and guides we have for it.
Test Ninjas Research · Updated September 11, 2026
The four sections
Every section is scored from 118 to 132 and weighted equally, so the four add together into your total. Three of the four are content sections; CARS is a pure reasoning section with nothing to memorise.
Section scores are scaled, not raw — the 230 questions you answer are converted onto a common scale that accounts for small differences in difficulty between test forms. The scale is centred so that a total of 500 sits near the middle of all test takers, with each section centred at 125. There is no penalty for a wrong answer.
A growing number of medical and health-science programs accept the GRE. Our GRE course covers Verbal and Quant in full, with adaptive practice tests and instant scoring.
The MCAT has 6 hours and 15 minutes of actual testing time across four sections. Total seated time is 7 hours 30 minutes once the tutorial, the three optional breaks, the void question and the survey are added — and check-in is additional on top of that, so plan for most of a working day.
There are 230 multiple-choice questions in total: 59 in Chem/Phys, 53 in CARS, 59 in Bio/Biochem, and 59 in Psych/Soc. Most are attached to passages, with a smaller number of standalone discrete questions in every section except CARS, which is entirely passage-based.
A total of 500 sits near the middle of all test takers. Students who go on to matriculate at U.S. MD programs average about 512, so that is a more useful benchmark than the overall median if medical school is the goal. What counts as competitive ultimately depends on the schools on your list.
The AAMC allows up to three attempts in a single testing year, four attempts across two consecutive years, and seven attempts in a lifetime. Voided exams and no-shows count toward these limits, so book a date you intend to keep.
The MCAT is built on introductory biology, general and organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry, psychology, and sociology. Most pre-med students complete that foundation before beginning dedicated MCAT preparation, because the exam tests application of the material rather than first exposure to it.
Not at this time. Our MCAT resources are free guides and calculators. If you are applying to programs that accept the GRE — an increasing number of medical and health-science programs do — our GRE course covers Verbal and Quant in full with adaptive practice tests.