How many questions are on the MCAT?

The four sections

That’s 6 hours 15 minutes of testing. With the tutorial, breaks and the end-of-day questions, you’ll be seated for about 7 hours 30 minutes, plus check-in.

Passages and standalone questions

Most MCAT questions come in sets based on a passage. Each science section has 10 passages with 4 to 6 questions each, 44 questions in all, plus 15 standalone questions.

CARS is all passages: 9 of them, with 5 to 7 questions each. The passages come from the humanities and social sciences, and you don’t need any outside knowledge to answer them.

Some questions don’t count

Each section includes a few field-test questions that the AAMC is trying out for future exams. They don’t count toward your score, and you can’t tell which ones they are. So treat every question as if it counts.

Is there a passing score?

No. Each section is scored from 118 to 132, with 125 in the middle. The four section scores add up to a total from 472 to 528, with 500 in the middle.

Medical schools set their own expectations, and many publish the scores of the students they admit. Look those up for the schools on your list, and set your practice target from there.

Answer every question

There’s no penalty for wrong or unanswered questions. Your score is based on how many you get right, so make a guess rather than leave anything blank.