MCAT Score Converter For Pre-Med Students

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An MCAT score converter is what every pre-med student needs to know how likely they could be accepted to their dream medical school.

In this post, I will present to you the exact equivalent of your old MCAT score to the new one, discuss MCAT scores—giving you information about what’s good, what’s just lying within the average, and the highest score in history according to statistics.

Table Of Contents

MCAT Score Converter: Old MCAT Score Versus New

Old MCAT Score	New MCAT Score	MCAT Percentiles
45	528	>99
44	527	>99
43	527	>99
42	526	>99
41	525	>99
40	524	>99
39	523	99
38	522	99
37	520	98
36	518	96
35	517	95
34	515	92
33	514	90
32	512	85
31	510	80
30	508	74
29	506	68
28	504	61
27	503	58
26	501	51
25	499	44
24	498	41
23	496	34
22	494	28
21	493	25
20	491	20
19	490	18
18	488	14
17	486	10
16	485	8
15	484	7
14	483	6
13	482	5
12	480	3
11	479	2
10	478	2
9	477	1
8	477	1
7	476	1
6	475	<1
5	474	<1
4	473	<1
3	472	<1

Table 1. Old Vs New MCAT Scores With Their Corresponding MCAT Percentiles

What Is A Good MCAT Score?

You could stop worrying and be confident if your MCAT score lies within the “good” category. You could say that your MCAT score is good if it’s close to or above the average percentile for matriculants at your aspired medical school.

In 2019-2020, the average MCAT scores were 510 and 511, with an average GPA of 3.71.

But of course, the higher the better. Remember that in my article on the best pre-med majors, I emphasized how your MCAT score could be a huge factor to get accepted to med school.

If you want to have a competitive score that will make your admissions application more impressive, your MCAT score should be around 508-513. At this level, you are already part of the top 25% of all examinees.

As for each component, you might want to target the following scores:

Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems: 127-128
Critical Analysis and Reading Skills: 127-128
Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems: 127-128
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior: 127-128

If you aim for an MCAT score that will not just guarantee the acceptance of your application to high ranking medical schools but also take you to the top 10% spot of all examinees, your MCAT Total Score should be playing around 514 to 528.

As for each component, you might want to target the following scores:

Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems: 129-132
Critical Analysis and Reading Skills: 129-132
Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems: 129-132
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior: 129-132

Also, if there are scores you must aim, there are also scores wherein you need to improve some more as they are found to be less competitive. These scores are below the average. You’ll become less advantageous when you try to apply to competitive programs.

MCAT Total Score: 500-507

Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems: 125-126
Critical Analysis and Reading Skills: 125-126
Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems: 125-126
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior: 125-126

If your MCAT score is within the low ranges, try checking this article on how to get into med school with a low MCAT score.

Check your score in our MCAT score converter to know how competitive your application is.

Average MCAT Score

In 2019-2020, the Association of American Medical Colleges’ report revealed that the average MCAT score for all applicants is 505 to 506. Whereas for matriculants or applicants who were already accepted and have registered to a medical school is 511.

Here are the average MCAT scores by section:

MCAT CBPS: 127-128
MCAT CARS: 127
MCAT BBLS: 128
MCAT PSBB: 128-129

Highest MCAT Score

528 is the highest possible MCAT score one could achieve. Interestingly less than 1% of the takers have gotten perfect scores according to data.

If you aim for a medical school with the highest-ranking scores, you should aim at least an average of 517 to get accepted. To date, 46 schools have students who scored the highest on the MCAT exam.

Out of these schools, the University of Pennsylvania (Perelman) and New York University (Grossman) goes on top of the list as their students have median scores of 522.

University of Pennsylvania (Perelman)

U.S. News research rank: 3
U.S. News primary care rank: 14
Percentage of students who submitted a new MCAT score: 85

New York University (Grossman)

U.S. News research rank: 4
U.S. News primary care rank: 35
Percentage of students who submitted a new MCAT score: 100

If you want to boost your MCAT score and attain the highest possible score, you can try engaging on prep courses for MCAT here.

Old MCAT Vs New MCAT Difficulty

There has been a debate on which between the old and new MCAT is more difficult. Since opinions and experiences vary from one examinee to another, I could say that the degree of difficulty of the two depends and is incomparable.

To those who took both, they think that the new MCAT is harder. The new MCAT seems to test the quality of your knowledge whereas the old one is rich in unfamiliar passages that you hardly know of. The new MCAT requires more critical thinking and reading comprehension.

Also, the older exam is formulated as if it is made especially for physical science or engineering majors, and questions are not necessarily focused on health. Whereas, the new one is concentrated on biology concepts and has bits of health-related concepts.

Here are also additional differences between the two:

You’ll have more time per question on the CARs/Verbal section of the new MCAT.
As I mentioned earlier, the new MCAT focuses more on Biology which makes it harder. It has more biochemistry concepts, research incorporation, and experimental techniques.
The new MCAT CBP is oriented more on chemistry concepts than physics. But, intro-level physics on MCAT is not your average basic physics in college. They usually put hard-to-decipher physics questions on the exam.
Psych/Soc section is quite easier. Anyone can do well on that part as long as you’re familiar with various psych/soc related terms and concepts.

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Regardless of which is difficult, your score depends on how prepared you are to be fully equipped on answering every item correctly. Practice more questions and read more especially on areas that you think you still need to improve.

Hopefully, my MCAT score converter would be your useful guide to assess your chance to get into your preferred medical school.

MCAT is one of your golden keys to enter med school. Prepare well so you could have an MCAT score that’s not just good, but also competitive among your co-applicants.

If you have found this post helpful, how about you check out some of our other blog posts?

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