MCAT test day: test centers, check-in and the rules

Finding an MCAT test center

Use the AAMC’s Find an MCAT Test Center Location tool, which runs on Pearson VUE’s site and doesn’t need a login. A center showing up there doesn’t mean it has seats. You only see open dates when you sign in to the MCAT Registration System. If your first choice is full, you can ask for an email alert when a date and location open.

In Canada, the AAMC won’t give the MCAT in Quebec in 2027 because of Bill 96 rules.

Check-in and ID

1. Arrive 30 minutes before your start time. Check-in starts then, and if you arrive after your start time you can’t test.
2. Show your ID. It must be government-issued, unexpired with a printed expiry date, in English, with your photo, and with first and last names that exactly match your registration. A driver’s license, passport or passport card, green card or Employment Authorization Document all work. School IDs and digital IDs don’t.
3. Sign digitally, have your palm scanned and your photo taken.
4. Put your phone and small electronics in the sealed bag you’re given, and everything else in your locker.
5. Turn out your pockets and get wanded. This repeats every time you go in or out of the testing room.

The noteboard instead of scratch paper

You get a noteboard booklet with nine 14-by-8.5-inch wet-erase pages and a fine-point marker. There’s no paper and no whiteboard of your own.

You can only write once the exam has started, never during a break or before you press End Break. You can’t tear out or erase pages. If you run out of space, raise your hand and the staff will swap your booklet for a new one.

What you can have in the room

• Your glasses and your ID, which stays on your desk.
• What the center gives you: earplugs, your locker key, the noteboard booklet and the marker. Your own earplugs aren’t allowed.
• Layers such as a sweater or hoodie, but you can’t take them off in the room without an unscheduled break, and the clock keeps running. Coats, jackets and hoods over your head aren’t allowed.
• Some medical items, such as an inhaler, an EpiPen or pills, after a visual check. Anything else needs approval through the accommodations process.

At the end of the day

When you finish, you get one chance to score or void your exam. If you don’t choose before time runs out, it’s scored. Then you collect your things, show your ID again, and get a letter confirming you completed the exam and what you chose.