How To Register For Mcat Test When Capacity Is Max

Learn when to take the MCAT, including the primeval date and the absolute latest date you should accept the exam

(Notation: This resource also appears in our MCAT Ultimate Guide.)

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Introduction

If you're applying to medical school, the many application components you need to take care of, from your personal statement to your letters of recommendation, might make your medical school application timeline feel like a juggling deed.

Still, all premeds know to plan effectually one major milestone: the MCAT. Your score on this formidable exam, along with your college GPA, will of course be a huge factor in determining which schools you get into.

We go a lot of questions nigh what MCAT score to aim for or what a good MCAT score is, which are closely followed past questions near when to have the MCAT, variations of which include:

When should I accept the MCAT?
When is the best time to accept the MCAT?
When is the earliest I should take the MCAT?
When is the latest I should accept the MCAT?
What's the absolute latest date I can take the MCAT and however employ during a given awarding cycle?

So, when should you lot have the MCAT to maximize your score and ameliorate your admissions odds?

While the AAMC offers around 30 MCAT exam dates each year, some will be better options for you than others depending on where you are in your education and when you intend to apply to medical school. There is no universal "best month" to accept the MCAT.

In this guide, nosotros'll answer the most common MCAT questions in order to help you effectively program your medical school admissions process.

(Suggested reading: Boilerplate GPA and MCAT Score For Every Medical School)

When is the earliest I should take the MCAT?

The primeval you should have the MCAT is sometime late in your sophomore year or during the summer between your sophomore and junior years. You'll have completed most of your medical school prerequisites by then, thus minimizing the amount of content review you'll have to take on, regardless of which MCAT prep books or grade y'all purchase.

If you're an early bird when it comes to taking the MCAT, y'all'll accept plenty of exam date options, as 24 of the 30 or so test dates fall between April and September. Simply make sure to give yourself plenty of study time—somewhere between two and iv months, depending on your command of the materials and your power to devote full try—so you can do as well equally possible during your outset attempt. Taking the MCAT isn't fun and retaking the MCAT is even less then.

(If y'all're wondering how far in accelerate to study for the MCAT, we suggest you read the following guide: The Ideal MCAT Study Schedule.)

When is the latest I should take the MCAT?

You should plan to take the MCAT for the final time between January and April of your application year. For case, if yous'd like to enroll in medical school in August 2024, you'll want to have your MCAT during the get-go four months of 2023—that is, no later than April 2023.

You may wonder why y'all need that kind of window. After all, AMCAS won't even allow you submit your principal application until belatedly May.

There are a few reasons why it'south to your do good to wrap upward the MCAT past April:

You'll want to spend serious time writing your application essays. If y'all expect too long to take your MCAT, you won't be able to devote enough attending to your medical schoolhouse personal statement, AMCAS Work and Activities section, and numerous secondary essays (including pre-writing secondary essays before secondary applications are released).
Your MCAT score(s) will be a primary cistron in determining which medical schools you should apply to. You don't desire to spend valuable time and money applying to certain med schools and find out after the fact that your MCAT score doesn't fifty-fifty put you in the running for consideration.
Your MCAT score won't be released until about a month after the exam. If you want adcoms to review your applications with your full set of scores in mitt, and you lot desire to take full advantage of medical schools' rolling admissions process, you should complete your testing early.

We emphasize final time because you may want to take the MCAT more than in one case. You tin accept it up to 3 times during a testing year, four times during two consecutive years, and seven times during your life. (Note: Voiding your test or failing to prove up to a scheduled examination date will even so count towards these limits.)

That means that if yous're non scoring as high as you'd like on your diagnostics or practise tests by the end of the summer before your awarding year (by August 2022, using our above example), information technology'southward a skillful idea to build in some time to take the MCAT twice, just in case. You don't want to be rushing through the exam while also writing your medical school personal statement and secondary essays, prepping for CASPer, and (hopefully) readying yourself for medical school interviews.

What year of college should I take the MCAT?

We sometimes go this variant of the "What is the earliest/latest I should take the MCAT?" question. While you tin can technically accept the MCAT any time, you should accept it during the summertime after sophomore twelvemonth at the earliest, and April of your application yr at the latest. Sometimes, your "application year" corresponds to spring of your junior year; other times, it corresponds to the jump of your senior year or a gap year. Just make certain to optimize for your all-time score in the fewest possible attempts.

A timeline for your final MCAT examination date

Working backwards, hither'due south a conservative plan designed to give you your all-time shot at acing the MCAT:

Summer earlier your application year (i.e., June–August): Study for the MCAT
Fall before your awarding year (i.due east., September): Accept the MCAT once (Notation: The MCAT is non offered betwixt October and December)
Winter of your awarding year (i.eastward., January–April): Retake the MCAT, if necessary

If you're a terrific test taker and take been scoring well, yous may not need to bake in that second try. Still, if yous're applying to med schoolhouse while still in college, plan to devote the summer earlier your awarding year (i.e., the summer betwixt sophomore and inferior year) to studying for the MCAT in order to requite yourself the greatest number of testing options going forward.

**When should you not take the MCAT?**

Since the MCAT is and then of import, y'all'll desire to be adequately prepared for the MCAT each time you take it. Therefore, here are some considerations for when non to take the exam:

If yous haven't studied many of the topics on the test in college (nosotros recommend having completed at least 80 percent of your prerequisites)
If you're scoring poorly on the AAMC practice exams and need more fourth dimension to study
If you lot feel spread so thin with other priorities that you may demand divide time solely allotted for MCAT studying

What's the absolute latest engagement I can take the MCAT without delaying my medical school application?

To avoid causing any application delays, the very latest date past which you'll desire to take the MCAT is the last examination date offered in May of your application year. MCAT scores are released roughly i month after you have the exam, and since AMCAS applications aren't released to schools until late June, taking the MCAT on the last May appointment won't filibuster review of your awarding in any way.

Be enlightened that AACOMAS (the DO medical schoolhouse application) and TMDSAS (the Texas medical schoolhouse application) have slightly earlier timelines: AACOMAS starts transmitting applications to med schools on June 15th, and TMDSAS begins on June 1st. And so, if you're as well submitting applications within these systems, you'll well-nigh likely desire to take the MCAT by mid-May or the end of April, at the very latest.

Of course, about medical schools don't really review your awarding until you submit their secondary application. Therefore, the real answer to this question is: The absolute latest date yous can take the MCAT is whichever test date has a score release date closest to your secondary application submission.

However, we still don't recommend that you consider MCAT test dates subsequently than May of your application year for the reasons discussed above.

(Suggested reading: TMDSAS: The UItimate Guide and Dr. vs. Exercise: The Biggest Differences (And Which is Amend))

How many times should I accept the MCAT?

As few times every bit possible. Notwithstanding, this doesn't mean that taking the MCAT multiple times necessarily looks bad. And so far as your scores meaningfully increase from assistants to assistants, med schools will probable be fine with it. For example, suppose y'all showtime out with a 508 on your first endeavor and get a 518 on your second effort. We would all agree that your retake was worth it. Withal, if you kickoff with a 508 and get a 509 on your second try, nosotros would probably say that your retake wasn't worth it.

If yous're because a second (or third) attempt or simply want to learn more well-nigh how how adcoms view multiple MCAT attempts, we suggest you read our guide on retaking the MCAT.

How long are MCAT scores valid?

At the bulk of medical schools, MCAT scores earned within the past ii to iii years are considered valid. Nonetheless, to brand matters more complicated, some med schools require a score achieved inside two to 3 years of the date of application, whereas others count backwards from matriculation—this tin can effect in a discrepancy of a year or more between schools.

It'south worth noting that, in and of themselves, MCAT scores technically don't "expire" every bit far as the AAMC is concerned. Rather, the window of acceptable score dates is prepare by each individual medical schoolhouse.

That's why you should expect upward in advance the earliest test date accustomed by each med school that interests yous. MSAR or schools' admissions websites will be able to provide this information.

(Suggested reading: How to Use MSAR to Build Your Medical School Listing)

How does my graduation twelvemonth affect the expiration of my MCAT score?

Sometimes students who program to graduate early or take a gap year inquire us how those plans volition bear upon the expiration dates of their MCAT scores. The respond is: they don't. So, regardless of when you graduate (including if you're a nontraditional applicant), recall that what matters when determining score validity is when you desire to begin medical school.

For example, let's say you'll be graduating in May 2024 and plan to take a gap year before entering med school in August 2025. Based on the reasons outlined above, we'd recommend taking the MCAT no subsequently than Apr 2024. Setting a foolproof earliest test date is more complicated; even so, summer 2022—between sophomore and inferior year—would likely exist the earliest appointment you'd desire to consider.

Conduct in listen, however, that if you didn't become in anywhere and had to reapply to medical school the post-obit year, a summer 2022 date would be expired in the eyes of some medical schools, thus potentially forcing you lot to have the MCAT again.

Concluding thoughts

Students oftentimes ask when is the best time to take the MCAT. The reply depends on when y'all tin adequately set up for the exam and when you desire to enter medical school.

Don't rush the studying procedure and run a risk a lower score, and don't spend then much time studying that yous stop up delaying your applications. The same thinking applies to the question, "What year of college should I have the MCAT?"

We propose building your medical school application timeline effectually your MCAT examination dates. Remember that information technology's just the starting indicate, though, and that once you have your ideal score in hand, you'll want to turn your whole attention to the many essays that yet remain. That just makes it all the more important that y'all get the timing right for this crucial exam.