MCAT to IQ converter

Treat this as a rough guide. Most of the MCAT tests what you learned in chemistry, biology, physics and psychology courses, so it says less about IQ than a test built around reasoning alone.

Every MCAT score, from the same model as the calculator. The likely range covers about four in five people at that score. The last column is the IQ you would get if the MCAT measured IQ perfectly, which is the number most other charts show.

Going the other way, this is the MCAT score people at each IQ typically get. Scores at the same IQ vary a lot, so the range matters more than the middle figure.

Three of the four MCAT sections test science knowledge: organic and general chemistry, physics, biochemistry, biology, psychology and sociology. You cannot do well on them by reasoning alone. You have to have studied the material, often for many months.

Only Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) is content-free, since it tests reading and reasoning about passages in the humanities and social sciences. A single-score conversion averages across the two kinds of section, so much of what it captures is preparation.

A 2018 study by McLarnon, Goffin and Rothstein used the section scores of more than 4,800 MCAT applicants to test how a general ability factor and narrower abilities behave at different ability levels, which treats the MCAT as a window onto general ability. But it did not compare the MCAT with an IQ test, and we found no such comparison anywhere. The link used here is an assumed correlation of .55, the lowest of any test on this site.

MCAT test-takers are pre-medical students, self-selected and heavily prepared. The average score of applicants who were accepted to medical school in recent years was about 512, which is around the 84th percentile of all test-takers. That is a group with well above average academic skills, and the model assumes their average IQ is about 114.

That assumption does more work here than in most conversions. An MCAT of 500 is around the median of test-takers, but the estimate for it is well above 100 because the people taking the test are already an above-average group.

Almost nobody needs to convert an MCAT score to an IQ, and medical schools do not ask. What people want is context: is a 508 a sign of unusual ability, or of diligence? The honest answer is both, in unknown proportions. The estimate here says a 508 sits well above the average of people who take the test, and that the range for the IQ behind it is wide.

If you are choosing between retaking the MCAT and moving on, a conversion will not help. Score changes on a retake tend to come from content review more than from any change in reasoning ability, which fits the MCAT being a measure of readiness. Use the percentile and the target range of the schools you are considering, not an IQ figure.

Percentiles compare you with recent test-takers. The estimated IQ column shows the most likely value, with the likely range in brackets.

There is no official MCAT to IQ conversion. The AAMC does not publish one. What we can do honestly is treat the MCAT as a good but imperfect signal of general ability. We place your score among MCAT test-takers, assume how able that group is on average, and use the correlation between the two to predict the most likely IQ. Because the correlation is below 1, high and low scores are pulled towards the middle. That is why the estimate comes with a range.

Evidence grade: weak. The percentile ranks are official, and the score is a good measure of readiness for medical school. The link to IQ has never been measured, and most of the test is content.

Published facts we used

• Percentile ranks and mean 500.6, SD 11.2 for 2023 to 2025 testing years, N = 305,494 (AAMC).
• MCAT section scores analysed for a general ability factor (McLarnon, Goffin and Rothstein, 2018; N over 4,800). Not a comparison with an IQ test.

Assumptions we made

• Mean IQ of MCAT test-takers: 114. Pre-medical students.
• IQ spread among test-takers: SD 11.
• Correlation between MCAT and IQ among test-takers: .55. No published value exists.