when it comes to getting into medical school.  Admissions committees want to see that you can  

handle the rigors that come with a medical  school curriculum, and they feel your MCAT  

score is the best indicator they have. But  what score counts as enough? Let's find out.

Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.

What MCAT score do you need to get into medical  school? That's a fair question, but one that's  

difficult to give an easy and precise answer to.  That's because *it depends*. A higher MCAT score,  

all other things being equal, is going to improve  your chances for admission to medical school.

Your MCAT score is not the end all be all, but  it is the single most heavily weighted factor  

in medical school applications. That being said,  you don't need a 525 to get into a top university.

Let's explore what score to aim for.

Data from the AAMC on medical school applicants  indicate that the average applicant to medical  

school has an MCAT of 506.4, and the average  successful matriculant has an MCAT of 511.5  

with a standard deviation of 6.5.  Assuming a normal distribution curve  

and knowing this standard  deviation, we can deduce that over  

84% of matriculants had an MCAT above  a 505. That's a 73rd percentile score.

In terms of category breakdown on each section,  

the averages for medical school  matriculants were as follows:

Chem/Phys: 127.8

CARS: 127.1

Bio/Biochem: 128.1

Psych/Soc: 128.6

Knowing this, it's clear that with an MCAT of 504,  

it's not impossible, but rather improbable to  be successfully admitted to medical school.

Ok, so higher is better, but does that mean  everyone should be aiming for a 525? Not quite.

There are multiple factors you must consider  when determining your target MCAT score.  

And it's not just a matter of how  ambitious or competitive you are.

The AAMC MSAR database is the official resource  and best guide in determining where you are  

compared to successful matriculants at each  medical school. You can see the average MCAT,  

GPA, and standard deviation for the  schools you are hoping to attend.

The MSAR is a great tool not only because  you get detailed information on each of  

your medical schools of interest,  but also because you can learn of  

some other medical schools you weren't  even considering that may be a great fit.

The AAMC's MSAR is not free, costing $28 for  one year or $36 for two. As an alternative,  

many medical school admissions websites post  average GPA and MCAT score statistics which  

can be accessed free of charge. However,  MSAR may still be worth the investment,  

as it contains the most up-to-date data  and allows for more detailed analysis,  

such as describing score differences between all  accepted applicants versus matriculants only.

Your GPA is the second most important factor in  predicting your ability to handle the academic  

rigor of medical school. Your MCAT and GPA are  the two most important objective measurements in  

a medical school application. Whether that's  fair to you as a premed is not the point,  

as you are much more than your "numbers." But when  medical school admissions committees need ways to  

sift through thousands of applicants, they cannot  listen to everyone's story — they need a shortcut,  

and GPA and MCAT cutoffs help filter  down the list to a more manageable level.

I don't want to oversimplify things for you.  At Med School Insiders, we appreciate the  

importance of nuance. While your MCAT and GPA are  the two objective measurements that are easiest to  

measure and compare, they aren't the end all  be all of an application. We're speaking in  

populations and statistics here. Is it possible to  get into a top medical school with a low GPA and  

MCAT but stellar narrative and story? Absolutely  — it's just incredibly rare and difficult to do.

If your GPA is lower than the average GPA  for matriculants at your target schools,  

you'll want to aim for an above-average  MCAT score to make up for it.  

This helps to reassure medical schools that  you can in fact handle the academic rigor, and  

perhaps your suboptimal GPA was simply due to an  adjustment period early on in college that brought  

down your overall average. Or perhaps some other  academic hiccups that occur for many students.

The soft components of your application  are those that you cannot easily put a  

number to — think of your personal statement,  secondary essays, letters of recommendation,  

and of course your work & activities and  extracurriculars, including research.

At this stage, while you're preparing for the  MCAT, you probably don't need to worry about your  

essays, as you'll be able to handle that closer  to when you submit your application. However,  

you should fairly assess where you stand in terms  of the other factors. Are you able to get truly  

stellar letters of recommendation that make you  look like the best thing since sliced bread?  

Are you crushing your extracurriculars and  have substantial research to back it up?  

Do you have a unique and strong narrative  that makes you a highly compelling applicant?

When looking at applicants, these are  the factors that help sway the decision  

of the medical school admissions committees  in whether to consider you for an interview.  

Students that have incredible stories, such  as starting a successful non-profit for the  

underserved populations in a metropolis while  publishing a few articles in immunology research,  

are the ones who don't need a top score  to have an edge over other applicants.  

And unfortunately, it's a competitive process  and a zero sum game. As there are only a finite  

number of spots each year at medical schools,  you getting in means someone else cannot.

If you're a student with average soft components,  including extracurriculars, research, and letters  

of recommendation, you have more to gain with a  strong MCAT score. For many of these students,  

a 515 or even higher is a good goal to aim  for, again with higher scores being better.

At the same time, I don't think that having  a particular target score is necessary when  

approaching the MCAT. When I took the MCAT,  I was aiming for a top percentile score,  

but in reality the real goal was to  study intensely for a couple months.  

A few weeks out from my test, I had  already overshot my goal on pratice tests.  

Did that mean I should slow down and just be  happy that my practice test scores were high?  

Of course not. Not only would that limit  me from achieving a higher score, but by  

resting on my laurels and getting complacent,  I risked scoring much worse on the actual test.  

It was critical to continue studying intensely  for the remaining month to ensure I maximized  

my test day performance. And luckily enough,  I scored in the elusive 99.9th percentile.

Ultimately, there is no single  target score for every student.  

The score you should aim for  depends on two main factors:  

how strong the rest of your application is,  and which schools you're hoping to attend.

With approximately half of medical school  matriculants scoring at a 512 or higher on  

their MCAT while still putting in the work  on their extracurricular and research front,  

this isn't the time to get complacent and pat  

yourself on the back for having a few  clinical experiences and 1 publication.

You also shouldn't feel overwhelmed and believe  that you cannot achieve an excellent score.  

If there's one thing I've learned over the  years in tutoring numbers of students, it's  

that your study approach and techniques are more  important than anything else — even intelligence,  

which neuroscientists are discovering is  more malleable than initially thought.

In becoming doctors ourselves,  

we've seen first hand how inefficient  and flawed current medical education is,  

including MCAT prep. As medical school becomes  more and more competitive, students simply don't  

have the time to bury themselves in books, when  they also need to be attending to volunteering,  

clinical exposure, research, and earning a  strong GPA. That's why we've been hard at work  

in creating a better way to study for the MCAT.  I've got two new study tools to share with you.

First, the Med School Insiders MCAT Course  is coming soon. If you want to be a part of  

the heavily discounted beta that's released later  this year, make sure you've signed up to my weekly  

newsletter at medschoolinsiders.com/newsletter.  Link in the description.

And second, check out Memm, the only MCAT  study tool completely built on evidence  

based learning principles from the ground up  by two 99.9th percentile scoring physicians.  

Memm delivers what students need — a single,  easy-to-use tool that focuses on just the  

content you need to know for the MCAT, using  the most effective methods in learning science,  

to deliver results fast. We're incredibly proud of  what we've created. We've seen prior students jump  

over 10 points in just the few weeks leading up to  their exam, and you can read their stories on the  

Memm blog. Learn more about how Memm can help  you achieve your target MCAT score at memm.io.

For all your MCAT needs, check out my MCAT study  playlist. Much love, and I'll see you guys there.