What's a Good Score?

Part of The MCAT. Everyone wants one number that tells them whether they are safe. Medicine does not really offer that number. A score is useful information, but it only becomes useful when you read it against your school list, your GPA, and the rest of your application.

The short answer

A good score is one that gives you a realistic school list and fits the rest of your application. That answer is less satisfying than a cutoff. It is also more honest.

The same score can mean different things for different people. A 510 may be a strong result for one applicant's list and a reason to rethink the list for another. The score matters, but the school list is part of the interpretation.

"Is this a good score" has no answer. The two questions underneath it do, and they are the ones this page is really about: whether you can build a list you would be glad to send at this number, and, if you are thinking about going again, what a second attempt would actually buy you and what it would cost.

There are also scores that are simply weak for a particular plan. A score can make an MD-heavy list unrealistic, narrow your options, or tell you that the preparation did not work. Saying that out loud is more useful than pretending every score is equally competitive. A low score is not a judgment about your worth or your ability to care for patients. It is a practical problem that may call for a retake, a different list, a longer timeline, or a hard look at what you want from this path.

What the number means

The MCAT runs from 472 to 528. Each section is scored from 118 to 132, and a 500 is the midpoint of the total scale. The percentile attached to a score tells you how you performed relative to other test-takers. Those percentiles move slightly as the AAMC updates its table, so treat the numbers as current reference points, not permanent laws.1 ⟳ Verify

Score Approximate percentile Rough context
500 ~48th around the middle of the testing pool
505 ~64th above the testing-pool average
510 ~79th around the top fifth
512 ~84th above the average for MD matriculants in recent data
515 ~91st around the top tenth
518 ~95th very high
520 ~97th exceptional
524+ ~99th near the ceiling

Read them as reference points for the scale, not as admissions probabilities.

The numbers that matter for applicants

The average MCAT score for students who matriculate at U.S. MD schools has been around 511–512 in recent years. The average applicant, including people who do not matriculate, has been closer to 506. DO matriculants average lower, around 503–504 in recent data.2 3 ⟳ Verify current figures with the AAMC and AACOM.

Those averages tell you that the MCAT does real sorting. They do not tell you that 512 is a magic line or that 505 means the door is closed. They are group averages. None of them is a promise, or a sentence, about your file.

The most selective research-heavy schools often have matriculant averages in the 520s. Many other MD schools enroll students across a wider range. Mission, state residency, GPA, experiences, writing, letters, and the fit between your story and a school's priorities all change the picture.

Set the target from the list

The AAMC's MSAR publishes each school's own matriculant range and median, which is the only version of this number that applies to the schools you are actually applying to.4

Do not choose your target from a stranger's score on Reddit. Start with the schools you might actually apply to.

For each school, look at the current median and range of matriculant MCAT scores in the AAMC MSAR. Then look at the school's mission, in-state preferences, average GPA, and the experiences it tends to value. A balanced list should not be built from scores alone, but your score should be part of the conversation.

A score near a school's median puts you in the range of many people who enrolled there. It does not guarantee an interview. A score below the median does not automatically disqualify you. It means the rest of your application, the school's mission, and the strength of your list matter even more.

For a low-income student, this is one place where a little structure helps. You do not need to spend weeks chasing every online opinion about what counts as good. Build a list, look at the actual numbers, and decide what range you are trying to reach.

MD and DO are not two versions of the same score chart

DO schools are physician-training programs with their own missions, schools, and admissions processes, not a consolation prize for someone who did not reach an MD number. Both paths lead to physician licensure, but the school list and application strategy can look different.

If your score is in the low 500s, that may make a broad DO list more realistic than a list made entirely of MD schools. No verdict on your ability to become a physician comes with that. Take it as a reason to examine the options honestly and build a list that gives you a real chance.

The test-taking question

One difficult exam does not tell you that medicine is not for you. People have bad testing days. People also take standardized tests differently, and a score can reflect preparation, health, timing, language, money, and the conditions around the exam.

But persistent difficulty with standardized testing is worth taking seriously. The MCAT is not the last major exam in medicine. Medical school brings block exams and shelf exams, followed by Step exams, residency exams, and specialty boards. The format and stakes change, but the path keeps asking you to learn a large amount of material and perform under pressure.

One disappointing score is no reason to quit. But be honest with yourself about whether you can build the systems, support, and time that repeated testing will require. If the answer is no, changing direction is not a personal failure. If the answer is yes, the MCAT result is information about what needs to change before the next step.

What the MCAT cannot tell a school

The MCAT can show how you performed on one demanding standardized exam. It does not show whether you can listen to a frightened patient, carry responsibility, work with a team, recover after a bad semester, or understand the people you hope to serve.

That does not make the number irrelevant. It means the number is one piece of a file. A high score will not repair every weakness in an application. A lower score does not erase the rest of your record.

If the score is lower than you hoped, find the gap first

Do not decide about a retake while you are still reacting to the result. When you are ready, the comparison that decides it runs against your own practice scores rather than against any school's median.

Pull up your last few scored AAMC full-lengths and measure the distance between that average and what you got on the day.

If you were practicing around the score you received, the exam measured you accurately. That is a fact to accept rather than argue with. Sitting the same exam again on the same preparation is paying to receive the same score twice, and schools will see both attempts.

If you were practicing well above what you received, something happened on the day, and that distance is the only concrete evidence you have that another attempt has points in it. Somebody averaging 520 who walked out with a 505 has a real case for going again. Somebody averaging 505 who scored 505 has a preparation to rebuild before there is any point booking a date.

The gap also tells you what a retake would have to repair, and those repairs are not the same size. A day that went wrong, through illness or sleep or a section that came apart, is a fixable event. Knowledge that was never there is a timeline. The timing guide has the attempt limits, the fees, and the score-reporting rules.

What the extra points would cost you

A higher score is better. That is true, and it is not the whole calculation, because the months it takes to reliably produce a higher score have to come out of something.

Ask yourself what. Preparation time is taken from clinical hours, from a project you were part of, from the kind of sustained presence somewhere that produces a letter from someone who actually knows you, and sometimes from a whole application cycle.

Be fair to both sides of that trade. Turning a 512 into a 517 is a genuine gain. By the table above it is close to ten percentile points, and it puts schools within reach that were not before. The honest question is what those points were bought with. If your practice scores say the points are really there and the months are months you can afford, it may be one of the best trades available to you. If they come out of a file that is already thin, or out of a cycle you cannot afford to lose, you can arrive with a stronger number attached to a weaker application.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. A wide range of scores gets people into medical school every year, and that range is wider than the internet makes it sound. What matters is whether the score you are holding supports a list you can realistically build.

Where the line actually falls

Nobody can hand you the cutoff, but you can find your own, and it rests on three honest answers. honest answers.

What you are genuinely capable of. Your own calm read on whether there is another level in you, made once the disappointment has worn off rather than during it.

What your practice was already telling you. The gap above is the closest thing to evidence you have, and it is more reliable than how the day felt.

Whether you can still build a real list from here. That depends on the whole application rather than the score alone: your GPA, your state, your experiences, the schools whose mission fits your story, and whether a broad DO list is part of the picture. If a list you would genuinely be glad to send exists at this score, the case for spending another six months is weaker than it feels right now.

And the same checkpoint that sits on the GPA page belongs here. Schools read the score and the GPA together, and the published acceptance grid is harsher where both are low than either one is alone. GPA Strategy & Recovery has those numbers and an honest account of what a second attempt costs, in money, in years, and in the federal borrowing you have left for medical school itself. Looking at all of that squarely and choosing a different path is a legitimate answer, and a mature one.

What to carry out of this page

  • There is no universal good score, but some scores are not competitive for some plans.
  • Your target should come from a realistic school list, not an internet cutoff.
  • The retake question is answered by the gap between your practice average and your score, not by how far the score sits below a number you had in mind.
  • Every extra point is bought with time that came from somewhere else in your application. Sometimes that trade is worth making, and sometimes it is not.
  • The MCAT matters, but it is not the whole application or the whole person.

Percentile tables, matriculant averages, and school medians change. Verify current figures with the AAMC, AACOM, and the MSAR before setting a target. — Last reviewed: 2026-08-02

References

Footnotes

  1. Current MCAT percentile ranks and the 472–528 scale: https://www.aamc.org/services/mcat-admissions-officers/resources/percentile-ranks ↩

  2. Current MD applicant and matriculant averages: https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/students-residents/data/facts-applicants-and-matriculants ↩

  3. Current DO applicant and matriculant data: https://www.aacom.org/searches/reports/report/applicant-and-matriculant-average-mcat-2016-2023 ↩

  4. School-specific MCAT ranges and medians through the AAMC MSAR: https://students-residents.aamc.org/medical-school-admission-requirements/medical-school-admission-requirements-msar-applicants ↩