The AAMC PREview exam is scored by comparing your effectiveness ratings to consensus ratings established by medical educators. You earn full credit when your rating matches the experts’ key, half credit when you’re one step off but on the same side of the scale, and zero credit when your rating falls on the opposite side. Your raw performance is then converted into a scaled score ranging from 1 to 9 and paired with a percentile rank.
How Full and Half Credit Work
Each PREview scenario presents a situation and asks you to rate a possible response on a four-point scale: Very Ineffective, Ineffective, Effective, or Very Effective. Behind the scenes, a panel of admissions officers, faculty, and student affairs professionals has already rated that same response and reached a strong consensus on the correct rating. That consensus rating becomes the scoring key for the item.
Think of the four-point scale as split into two sides. Very Ineffective and Ineffective sit on one side; Effective and Very Effective sit on the other. Credit is awarded like this:
- Full credit: Your rating matches the key exactly. If the panel says “Effective” and you say “Effective,” you get full credit.
- Half credit: Your rating doesn’t match the key but stays on the same side of the scale. If the key is “Effective” and you say “Very Effective,” you’re still on the positive side and earn half credit.
- No credit: Your rating lands on the opposite side of the scale from the key. If the key is “Effective” and you say “Ineffective” or “Very Ineffective,” you receive nothing for that item.
This structure rewards directional accuracy. Even if you misjudge the intensity of a response, recognizing whether the behavior is broadly effective or broadly ineffective still counts for something. But crossing from one side of the scale to the other is treated as a fundamental misread of the situation.
Who Sets the Scoring Key
The AAMC assembles subject matter experts who work directly with medical students and understand what professional behavior looks like in health care settings. These panels include admissions officers, faculty members, and student affairs staff. They independently rate each response, and only items where there is strong consensus become part of the scored exam. This means the “right” answer isn’t based on one person’s opinion; it reflects broad agreement among people who evaluate future physicians for a living.
Scaled Scores and Percentile Ranks
Your individual item scores are combined and converted into a single scaled score reported on a 1 to 9 scale. Alongside that number, you receive a percentile rank showing the percentage of examinees who scored the same as or lower than you. A percentile rank of 72, for example, means you scored as well as or better than 72% of test-takers in the reference group.
The percentile table is based on examinee performance over a rolling three-year window and is updated each May. Because the table shifts as new data comes in, the percentile rank attached to your score could change slightly after an update, even though your scaled score stays the same. Your score report also includes confidence bands, which mark the range where your true score likely falls. These bands exist because no single test administration captures your abilities with perfect precision, and the AAMC uses them to discourage schools from drawing sharp distinctions between examinees with very similar scores.
When Scores Are Released
Score reports are released approximately 30 days after each testing window closes. When your scores are ready, they become available in your AAMC account and can be sent to medical schools through the application system.
How Schools Use the Score
Not every medical school requires the PREview exam, but the list is growing. For the 2026 cycle, 15 schools require the exam, 16 recommend it, and 3 additional schools require a situational judgment test that PREview satisfies. Schools that require it will expect to see a score in your application. Schools that recommend it won’t penalize you for skipping it, but submitting a strong score gives you one more data point in your favor.
Because the exam measures interpersonal and professional competencies rather than science knowledge, schools typically use it alongside the MCAT, GPA, and other application materials. It gives admissions committees a standardized way to evaluate qualities like service orientation, teamwork, and ethical responsibility that don’t show up in an academic transcript.