Physical sciences, biological sciences, verbal reasoning, and writing skills are the four sections of the Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®), the standardized testing tool for getting into medical school in the United States. Each medical school in the United States has a minimum score it will accept from applicants, and some medical schools outside the United States accept MCAT® scores but have their own scoring standards. The first three sections are scored using a simple point system for each correctly answered question. The total score is calculated adding the points from each section.
The first three sections — physical sciences, biological sciences, and verbal reasoning — have a lot of straightforward and objective questions. Questions on physics, organic and inorganic chemistry, and physics are included in the physical sciences section of the test. The questions on the MCATbiological ®’s sciences section focus on biology and physiology. Verbal reasoning assesses the test taker’s ability to comprehend what he or she reads.
Students will receive a numerical score ranging from 1 to 15 for these three sections. The lowest cumulative score on these portions is a 3, with one point awarded for each of the three sections, and the highest is a 45. Students with a score of 30 or higher are sought the top medical schools. A section score of 8 represents the average of all students who take the exam, indicating that a student with a cumulative score of more than 24 is above average. Each year, most schools publish the average and range of scores of the students they accept.
The essay section, which differs from the three multiple choice sections in terms of scoring, is the fourth section. Students must write an original piece of writing for this section. The essays are analytical in nature, and the scorers are looking for proper grammar and content. For this section, two scorers read an essay and assign scores based on the letters J through T, resulting in a score range of 1 to 6. The final MCAT® scores are simply the sum of the two essay scores.
Students will receive their MCAT® scores along with a section-by-section breakdown of their performance. Students are allowed to retake the MCAT® exam as many times as they want, but schools handle multiple test-taking in different ways. Some schools consider a student’s highest score from several tests taken, while others consider only the most recent score. Others will average the various MCAT® scores, while others will look at all of the student’s scores to see how he progressed over time.