The AAMC PREview exam: what it is and which schools use it

The AAMC PREview professional readiness exam is a situational judgment test for medical school applicants. The AAMC says it “is designed to assess professionalism skills,” which it pairs with academic preparation as what students need to succeed in medical school.¹

The format

PREview is delivered online, through “a secure online testing environment.”² It’s proctored remotely on your own computer.³

Questions

186, built on text-based scenarios about situations students meet in medical school

Each scenario

A short scenario followed by four to eight possible responses to rate

Rating scale

1 = very ineffective, 2 = ineffective, 3 = effective, 4 = very effective

Time

Up to 75 minutes, with no break. Total seated time is about 95 to 115 minutes.

Fee (2026)

$105 to register, $25 to reschedule

The question count and rating scale come from the AAMC’s test format page,² the scenario structure from its guide for schools,⁴ and the timing and fees from PREview Essentials for 2026.³

How it’s scored

You get full credit for a response when your rating matches the consensus of medical educators. You get half credit when you’re one point away but on the same side of the scale: for example, rating a response “effective” when the consensus is “very effective.”³

Your total score is reported from 1 to 9, with a confidence band of plus or minus 1 point.⁴ Your score report also shows a percentile table. For May 2026 to April 2027, a score of 7 sits at the 84th percentile and a score of 8 at the 94th.⁵

Dates and fees

In 2026, PREview ran from April through October, with appointments from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern time on each test date. Score reports arrive about 30 days after each testing window.⁶ The AAMC hasn’t posted 2027 test dates yet.

If you’re approved for the AAMC Fee Assistance Program, your first PREview registration is free, and rescheduling and later registrations are half price.³

Which schools use it

The AAMC’s official list covers the 2027 application year and was last updated June 12, 2026. Schools fall into four groups: those requiring PREview, those recommending it, those requiring a situational judgment test that PREview satisfies, and those exploring it for future use.⁷ More than half of all medical school applicants now take PREview, according to the AAMC, even when applying to schools that don’t require it.⁴

When you start or submit your AMCAS application, your PREview scores upload to it automatically. For schools that don’t use AMCAS, you release scores yourself through the AAMC’s score reporting system.³