MCAT Percentile Ranks

A 515 sits at roughly the 91th percentile, meaning about 91% of test takers scored at or below it. Percentiles shift slightly year to year as the AAMC refreshes the reference sample, so treat this as a close guide rather than a fixed figure.

A 500 falls at approximately the 48th percentile. That is by design: the scale is centred at 500, so roughly half of all test takers score above it and half below.

The AAMC recalculates percentile ranks annually from a pooled sample of recent test takers and publishes the updated table effective May 1. The scaled scores themselves remain comparable across years — a 510 always represents the same level of performance — but the share of test takers below that score can drift.

Yes. The AAMC publishes percentile ranks for each section as well as for the total, and the same scaled score lands at a different percentile in each. A 128 is roughly the 90th percentile in CARS, the 85th in Chem/Phys, but only the 76th in Psych/Soc — because Psych/Soc produces higher scores overall, the same 128 is less distinguishing there.

Schools work primarily from the scaled total and section scores, and they publish medians in those terms rather than in percentiles. Percentile is most useful to you as a self-assessment tool — it tells you where you sit in the test-taking population, which the scaled score alone does not convey.