The AAMC PREview® Professional Readiness Exam: Understanding its Purpose and How to Prepare

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The AAMC PREview® exam provides applicants with an opportunity to reveal more about who they are in the application process and demonstrate their professional and interpersonal skills.    

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Success in medical school is not solely reliant on academic preparation. It also requires learning strong professional and interpersonal skills to shape doctors who provide compassionate care, collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary medical teams, and navigate emotional, cultural, and ethical challenges with resilience. The AAMC PREview® professional readiness exam provides applicants an opportunity to demonstrate possession of those competencies. As one of the newest services from the AAMC, we want to keep you informed about all things related to the PREview exam, including why medical schools are using the exam in their admissions process and how to effectively prepare for the exam.

In May, the PREview team hosted “An Overview and Q&A With Medical Schools” webinar with representatives from three medical schools recommending or requiring the PREview exam for the current application cycle. When asked why their school decided to incorporate the PREview exam into their admissions process, all three representatives emphasized that the PREview exam is a useful tool for ensuring a holistic review of their applicants. Jennifer Lucero, MD, associate dean of admissions for the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine, stated, “The PREview exam offers a way to evaluate applicants by providing a more comprehensive look at all of the different attributes they display in their application.”

Although all medical schools do not currently require the PREview exam, it’s still a great idea for you to familiarize yourself with our exam prep materials and tips for creating an ideal testing environment. On the “Prepare for the AAMC PREview Exam” page, you can find resources such as our Examinee Preparation Guide, the Practice Exam Booklet, and past webinars. We also highly recommend reviewing the resources on our “AAMC PREview Test Day page to better understand what to expect on the day you sit for the test. The PREview exam is administered via a secure online testing environment, from a location of your choosing, so preparing yourself and your testing space ahead of time is essential.

We highly encourage you to do the following prior to sitting for the PREview exam:

  1. Identify a private, well-lit space to sit for the exam.
  2. Read the Workspace & Computer Requirements to ensure that you have the proper technology setup.
    1. Test your equipment.
    2. Download a compatible browser (Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox) and confirm that it is up to date.
    3. Download the ProctorU Extension for your browser of choice and review the ProctorU tip sheet.
  3. Thoroughly review the Test Day Rules to refrain from prohibited behaviors that could cause the remote proctor to interrupt or terminate your exam.
  4. Look over the process for reporting a technology issue so that you understand the proper steps to take if you experience problems while testing.

    Ultimately, we see the primary purpose of the AAMC PREview exam as twofold. One is to provide medical schools with an idea of how prepared students across the professional competencies measured in the exam. Second, and even more importantly, it provides applicants with an opportunity to reveal more about who they are in the application process to ensure the doctors of tomorrow possess the skills to meet both the technical and interpersonal demands of a medical career.
     

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