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AAMC PREview Practice Test and Scores: 10 Scenarios and Percentiles

PREview scores run from 1 to 9. In the AAMC table used until April 2027, a 6 is at the 63rd percentile and a 7 at the 84th. How credit adds up, how to read your report, and 10 practice scenarios.

Practice situational judgment

What your score means

PREview is scored from 1 to 9 with a percentile rank, the share of scores at or below yours. These are the AAMC's percentile ranks in effect from May 1, 2026 to April 30, 2027. For the format, dates and school list, see our AAMC PREview exam guide.

ScorePercentile rank
14%
28%
315%
427%
544%
663%
784%
894%
9100%
About this table

The table covers 76,265 scores from the 2023, 2024 and 2025 testing years. The median score is 6, the most common is 7 (20.8% of scores), and the average works out to 5.6. Scores of 8 and 9 made up 16.2% of the total.

The AAMC rebuilds the table by early May each year, so your percentile can change while your score stays the same. Source: the AAMC's 2026 percentile ranks (PDF), read on October 17, 2026. Each school decides how it uses PREview, so there is no single good score.

How credit adds up

Each of the 186 responses is scored against the consensus rating of medical educators. A match earns full credit. One step off on the same side of the scale earns half. Crossing the middle earns nothing.

See a worked example

Here is practice scenario 1 below, scored the AAMC way against one set of ratings:

  1. Key ineffective, you said very ineffective: half credit.
  2. Key very effective, you said effective: half credit.
  3. Key ineffective, you said ineffective: full credit.
  4. Key effective, you said effective: full credit.
  5. Key ineffective, you said effective: no credit.

That is 3 out of 5. Response 5 shows the costly miss: ineffective and effective are one step apart, but they sit on opposite sides of the scale, so it earns nothing. Raw points are then converted to the 1 to 9 scale through equating, so a score means the same on every test form.

From the AAMC's scoring page.

How to read your score report

Your report shows a total score from 1 to 9, a confidence band and a percentile rank. Schools receive the same three things.

More on the report
  • Confidence band: the range your true score likely falls in. The AAMC uses it to discourage reading much into small differences between similar scores.
  • Percentile rank: taken from the table in effect when your score is released, and it can change after each May update.
  • Every scored exam: the report lists all exams you have taken and scored since 2020. Voided exams are not scored and do not appear on your AMCAS application.
  • Release: about 30 days after your testing window, by email. AMCAS applicants' scores upload automatically. The AAMC does not give scores by phone.
  • What you do not get: a copy of the exam or your answers. The AAMC gives only the score, percentile and confidence band.

The AAMC has a sample score report (PDF), and its score report page has the rest.

The AAMC's practice exams

The AAMC offers two free practice exams as PDFs with scoring keys and rationales, and a $20 Scored Practice Exam that gives a scaled score and percentile rank like the real one.

How the AAMC suggests using them
  1. Take Practice Exam 1 under timed conditions, check it against the scoring key, and read the rationales.
  2. Take Practice Exam 2, using what you learned.
  3. Take the Scored Practice Exam, timed, in the MCAT Official Prep Hub, and review the rationales.

All three are on the AAMC's preparation page.

10 practice scenarios

We wrote these in the PREview format, and the ratings are our judgment, not the AAMC's key. Rate all 45 responses, then score yourself: 1 point for a match, half a point for one step off on the same side.

1. The late lab partnerTeamwork and collaboration

Your lab partner arrives about 20 minutes late to every session, so you set up each experiment alone. Today the instructor stops by and asks you both why your group is behind schedule.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Explain to the instructor that the delays come from your partner arriving late.
  2. Tell the instructor you will both make up the time, then talk with your partner after class about arriving on time.
  3. Say nothing and keep setting up alone.
  4. After class, ask your partner whether something is making it hard to arrive on time.
  5. Ask the instructor to assign you a new partner.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Ineffective. It may be accurate, but it blames your partner in front of the instructor before you have raised it with them.
  2. Very effective. It takes shared responsibility in the moment and deals with the real problem directly and privately.
  3. Ineffective. The group stays behind, and the pattern continues.
  4. Effective. It opens the conversation with care, though it leaves the instructor's question unanswered.
  5. Ineffective. It avoids the problem instead of working on it, and your partner never hears why.
2. A patient's question while shadowingEthical responsibility to self and others

You are shadowing a physician. While the physician is out of the room, the patient tells you her blood pressure medicine makes her dizzy and asks whether she should stop taking it.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Make sure the physician hears about her question and the dizziness when they come back.
  2. Explain that you are a student who cannot advise her, and suggest she ask the physician.
  3. Tell her to keep taking it until she talks to the physician.
  4. Look up the medicine's side effects on your phone and tell her what you find.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. The person who can answer safely gets the information, and the patient's concern is not lost.
  2. Effective. It is honest about your role, but it leaves it to her to raise a symptom that matters.
  3. Ineffective. It is medical advice you are not in a position to give, even if it sounds cautious.
  4. Very ineffective. It steps outside your role and could lead her to a decision without her physician.
3. Credit for your ideaInterpersonal skills

In a project meeting with your professor, a classmate presents an idea you suggested to the group last week as if it were their own.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. After the meeting, tell the classmate privately that you would like the idea credited to you when it comes up again.
  2. Add to the discussion with details that show how you developed the idea.
  3. Interrupt to say the idea was yours.
  4. Email the professor afterward to explain that the idea was yours.
  5. Say nothing, since the group's success matters more than credit.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. It addresses the issue directly, calmly and without embarrassing anyone.
  2. Effective. It contributes to the work and shows your understanding, without a confrontation.
  3. Ineffective. It turns a project meeting into a public dispute.
  4. Ineffective. It goes over your classmate's head before you have talked with them.
  5. Ineffective. It avoids conflict, but the misunderstanding is likely to happen again.
4. Too much on your plateResilience and adaptability

You are leading a student club fundraiser. A week before the event, you realize you cannot finish the planning alone because you also have two exams that week.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Ask two club members to take on specific tasks, and check in with them midweek.
  2. Tell the club president now that the event may need to move.
  3. Stay up late every night to finish everything yourself.
  4. Hold the event as planned with whatever is ready.
  5. Skip studying for one exam to finish the planning.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. It asks for help early, with clear tasks and a way to keep track.
  2. Effective. It is honest early, though it does not yet solve the workload.
  3. Ineffective. It puts your health and your exams at risk instead of sharing the load.
  4. Ineffective. It hopes the problem away, and the event may suffer.
  5. Ineffective. It trades one responsibility for another when help is available.
5. A roommate who says she is fineEmpathy and compassion

For two weeks your roommate has been skipping meals and staying in bed most of the day. When you ask, she says she is fine, just tired.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Tell her you have noticed she seems down, and ask if she would like to talk.
  2. Mention the campus counseling center and offer to go with her.
  3. Give her space, since she said she is fine.
  4. Tell your other friends that you are worried about her.
  5. Tell her she needs to pull herself together before exams.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. It names what you see without judgment and leaves the door open.
  2. Effective. It offers real support, though it may feel like a lot before she has said anything is wrong.
  3. Ineffective. Two weeks of these signs deserve a caring check-in.
  4. Ineffective. It shares her private situation without her knowing.
  5. Very ineffective. It dismisses what she may be going through and is likely to push her away.
6. A grading error in your favorEthical responsibility to self and others

Your graded exam comes back with an addition error that gives you 8 more points than you earned.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Tell the instructor about the error.
  2. Tell the instructor, and mention that other exams may have the same addition error.
  3. Ask a classmate whether they would report it.
  4. Keep the points, since the error was not your fault.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. It is honest, and it is the only response that fixes the grade.
  2. Very effective. It is honest and helps the instructor check everyone's grade fairly.
  3. Ineffective. It delays a decision that is yours to make.
  4. Very ineffective. Knowingly keeping points you did not earn is dishonest.
7. A view different from yoursUnderstanding others

In a class discussion about a health policy, a classmate who grew up in a rural town disagrees strongly with your view.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Ask what experiences shaped their view.
  2. Say which of their points you agree with, then explain your view.
  3. Repeat your argument more forcefully.
  4. Change the subject to avoid conflict.
  5. Tell them their view is uninformed.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. It treats their background as information and helps you both understand the issue better.
  2. Effective. It is respectful and constructive, though you learn less about why they see it differently.
  3. Ineffective. It does not engage with what they said.
  4. Ineffective. The class loses a useful disagreement.
  5. Very ineffective. It is disrespectful and shuts the discussion down.
8. The same two people always clean upTeamwork and collaboration

At the food bank where you volunteer, the same two people stay to clean up after every shift while most volunteers leave early.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Suggest a rotating cleanup schedule to the volunteer coordinator.
  2. Stay and help the two volunteers clean up.
  3. Complain to the other volunteers about the people who leave early.
  4. Leave early too.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. It fixes the pattern fairly for everyone, through the person who runs the shifts.
  2. Effective. It helps right away, but the pattern stays the same.
  3. Ineffective. It spreads frustration without changing anything.
  4. Very ineffective. It adds to the burden on the two who stay.
9. Honest feedback on a presentationInterpersonal skills

A classmate asks for honest feedback on a practice presentation that you thought was disorganized.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Name one or two things that worked and one or two specific changes that would help.
  2. Offer to watch a second run-through after they revise it.
  3. Tell them it was great so they feel confident.
  4. Tell them it was disorganized.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. It is honest, specific and easy to act on.
  2. Effective. It is supportive, though it gives them nothing to fix yet.
  3. Ineffective. They asked for honesty, and they lose the chance to improve.
  4. Ineffective. It is honest but vague, and it is hard to act on.
10. A mistake in the shared study guideCommitment to learning and growth

You notice that a summary you wrote for your class's shared study guide has an error, and several classmates have already used it to study.

Rate the effectiveness of each response.

  1. Correct the guide and post a note telling classmates what changed.
  2. Ask the instructor to confirm the correct answer, then post the fix.
  3. Quietly fix the error.
  4. Leave it, since the exam may not cover that topic.
Show our ratings and why
  1. Very effective. It owns the mistake and reaches the people who already studied from it.
  2. Effective. It makes sure the fix is right, though it takes longer to reach classmates.
  3. Effective. The guide is right from now on, but people who already studied it are not told.
  4. Very ineffective. Classmates may learn the wrong thing from your work.

AAMC PREview is a registered trademark of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Confetto is not affiliated with or endorsed by the AAMC. Casper is a registered mark of Acuity Insights. Confetto is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Acuity Insights or Casper. Practice scenarios are original and written by Confetto.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good AAMC PREview score?

Each school decides how it uses PREview, so there is no single good score. In the AAMC table in effect until April 30, 2027, the median score is 6, the most common is 7 (20.8 percent of scores), and a 7 has a percentile rank of 84, meaning 84 percent of scores were 7 or lower.

Can my percentile change after I test?

Yes. The AAMC rebuilds the percentile table each May from the last three testing years. Your score stays the same, but the percentile rank next to it can move.

Will schools see every PREview score I have?

Your score report includes every exam you have taken and scored since 2020, and the AAMC releases all the scores in your report to the schools that receive it. A voided exam is not scored and does not appear on your AMCAS application.

Can I cancel a score after I see it?

No. You choose to score or void the exam at the end, within 10 minutes, and the choice is final. Scores cannot be voided after they are released, and a voided exam still counts as an attempt.

Does the AAMC show which responses I got wrong?

No. The AAMC does not give you a copy of the exam or your answers, only your score, percentile rank and confidence band. The free practice exams' scoring keys and rationales are where you learn the pattern.

Is the Scored Practice Exam like the real exam?

It gives a scaled score and a percentile rank like the real exam. It runs online in the MCAT Official Prep Hub, but not on the exam platform itself.

Are these practice scenarios from the AAMC?

No. We wrote them in the PREview format, and the ratings are our judgment, not the AAMC's key. For real items with the AAMC's ratings, use its two free practice exams.