Preparing for the PREview exam does not require a big time commitment, so whether you plan to take it before or after your MCAT exam, you should feel confident you can be ready. But preparation is still very important. AAMC official resources provide an understanding of the competencies measured by the exam and explain what it will ask you to do. You don’t want surprises on test day to impact your performance on the exam, so we recommend following these steps.
- Become familiar with the competencies measured by the PREview exam. Pay special attention to the descriptions to learn the positive behaviors associated with each competency.
- Use the AAMC Preparation Guide to learn what the exam measures and what the exam is asking you to do. For example, it is important to know that the exam is not presenting a scenario and asking what you should or would do. It is instead presenting statements that are actions that could be taken. The exam asks you to determine if the action (or response) will make the situation better or worse. You will be asked to rate the response as effective, ineffective, very effective, or very ineffective. The guide includes definitions of the effectiveness ratings to help you understand the different levels.
- Before jumping into practice tests, watch this webinar with our test prep team to get more information on the competencies and walk through how to rate an actual scenario.
- Take Practice Exams #1 and #2. After completing each Practice Exam, review the rationales, not just for those you got wrong, but also for those you got right. Review them in the context of the competencies and how they align with the behaviors associated with them.
- Take the Scored Practice Exam, which provides a scaled score and percentile rank just like the actual exam, under timed conditions in the MCAT Official Prep Hub. Be sure to apply what you learned from your review of Practice Exams #1 and #2 as you complete the exam and review your results afterwards.
Tip: Examinees sometimes tell us that they felt they needed more information or more context about the scenario to answer the questions. It is important to understand that all the information required to rate a response is presented in the scenario. Examinees who spend time considering information not presented in the scenario are likely to become distracted from the task at hand, which may impact their rating. In this way, the exam is a little like real life, because we often evaluate situations without all of the information we would like to have.
Don’t Forget! Preparing for the PREview exam also means making sure you understand how to navigate the exam platform and are familiar with the online testing experience. The platform is designed to be intuitive, but you don’t want your first time seeing it to be on test day. We recommend watching the PREview Test Day Experience video, which describes the check-in, testing, and check-out processes. Please also check the workspace and computer requirements to ensure you have a smooth testing experience. Advanced understanding of the functions and features of the system will allow you to focus your time and mental energy more fully on the scenarios and items rather than the platform navigation.
For more information, visit the AAMC PREview exam webpage.