The MCAT reports five numbers: one for each of the four sections, on a scale of 118 to 132, and a total from 472 to 528. This page explains how that range is built and what different parts of it mean.
Test Ninjas Research · Updated September 11, 2026
How the range is constructed
Each section spans 15 possible scores, from 118 to 132. Because there are four sections and they are weighted equally, the total spans 56 points: 4 × 118 = 472 at the floor, and 4 × 132 = 528 at the ceiling.
The section scale
Section score
Meaning
132
Section maximum
128
Clearly above average
125
Section midpoint
122
Clearly below average
118
Section minimum
There is no failing MCAT score. Every score from 472 to 528 is reportable, and schools set their own expectations rather than working from a cut-off published by the AAMC.
What the range looks like in practice
Scores cluster tightly around the centre. That has an important consequence: the same three-point gain is worth very different amounts depending on where you start. Moving from 497 to 500 gains nine percentile points; moving from 522 to 525 gains one.
Total score landmarks (percentiles effective May 1, 2026)
Your section score is not a count of correct answers. The AAMC converts raw performance onto the 118–132 scale in a way that accounts for small differences in difficulty between test forms, so a 128 earned on a slightly harder form means the same thing as a 128 earned on a slightly easier one. This is also why no official raw-to-scaled conversion chart exists: the conversion belongs to the form, not to the exam.
Confidence bands
Score reports show each section and total inside a confidence band rather than as a bare number: ±2 points on the total and ±1 point on each section. A reported 510 therefore arrives as a band of 508–512. The AAMC's stated purpose is to signal that scores are imprecise and to discourage distinctions between applicants with similar scores — a 509 and a 511 are, statistically, much the same performance. Admissions committees are generally aware of this, though schools that report median scores inevitably create pressure to treat single points as decisive.
Applying with the GRE instead?
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.
Each of the four sections is scored from 118 to 132, and the four section scores add together into a total ranging from 472 to 528. Every score in that range is reportable — there is no failing score on the MCAT.
528, achieved by scoring 132 on all four sections. Every total from 525 upward rounds to the 100th percentile, meaning fewer than one test taker in 200 reaches that band at all — and a clean 528 is rarer still.
The scale is centred at 500 for the total and 125 for each section. That centring is deliberate — the AAMC designed the scale so the midpoint sits near the middle of the test-taking population, which means roughly half of all test takers score above 500 and half below.
The range is a deliberate design choice rather than an accident of the question count. Section scores are scaled, not raw, so the numbers were never meant to read as a count of correct answers. Using 118-132 also keeps the current scale visibly distinct from the pre-2015 MCAT, which ran from 3 to 45, so a score from one era is not mistaken for the other.
Roughly, yes. Each section is centred at 125, so a 125 sits near the middle of test takers for that section. Four section scores of 125 produce a total of 500, which is the centre of the total scale.