In recent years, the medical community has placed increasing emphasis on the importance of a premed’s soft skills and non-academic qualifications. While academic qualifications are still a major determining factor in a premed’s medical school acceptance, admissions committees are also interested in evaluating a med school candidate’s empathy, professionalism, communication skills, and ethical decision making. So to do just that, the AAMC is introducing the PREview Professional Readiness Exam.
PREview is a situational judgment test much like Casper, but it is instead developed and administered by the AAMC. Since it’s quite new on the scene, it’s very possible you will not have to complete it in order to apply to medical school. In 2023, only 19 schools participated in the test. However, there is a chance future premeds or future residency applicants could be faced with it.
This guide will outline everything you need to know about the PREview exam, including test logistics, what it’s designed to evaluate, whether or not you need to take it, how it’s scored, how to prepare, and a PREview FAQ.
What Is the AAMC PREview Professional Readiness Exam?
The AAMC PREview Professional Readiness Exam is a standardized situational judgment test designed to evaluate a premed’s awareness of effective and ineffective professional behaviors.
It’s essentially AAMC’s answer to the rising popularity of the Casper test, which is required by approximately 50 medical schools.
The PREview exam is composed of a series of hypothetical scenarios that students may be faced with in medical school. Students are asked to assess the effectiveness of behavioral responses to each of these scenarios in a multiple choice format.
Admissions committees will use the applicant’s responses to determine if they, in addition to strong academic metrics, possess the temperment, empathy, and ethical decision making necessary to be a medical student and future physician.
The AAMC’s premed competency model for PREview includes professional, science, and thinking and reasoning competencies.
The premed competencies formerly known as the core competencies for entering medical students, were updated in 2023 for the 2024-2025 cycle to better reflect expectations for students entering medical school.
Professional Competencies
- Cultural Awareness—The premed appreciates and understands how sociocultural, economic, political, and historical factors affect other people’s behaviors, wellbeing, and interactions. They value diversity and show an active interest in learning about different beliefs, cultures, and values.
- Cultural Humility—The premed engages with and seeks out alternative perspectives with a willingness to adjust their mindset. They actively reflect on their own beliefs and biases and how they could affect others, value inclusivity, and cultivate a supportive environment where all are welcome.
- Commitment to Learning and Growth—The premed displays a continuous desire for personal, professional, and academic growth, including reflecting on and learning from challenges, mistakes, and successes, asking for and incorporating feedback, and setting goals for learning and development.
- Teamwork and Collaboration—The premed collaborates with others to achieve shared goals through an open communication of ideas, a willingness to listen to feedback and provide feedback, and an ability to alternate between the role of team member and leader based on their own and others’ experience and expertise.
- Empathy and Compassion—The premed acknowledges and is sensitive to other people’s feelings, experiences, and perspectives and shows a desire to ease others’ burdens and distress.
- Resilience and Adaptability—The premed demonstrates perseverance in the face of challenging or ambiguous situations or environments by adapting their approach in response to unexpected setbacks and new information. They ask for support when needed and show a capacity to balance their responsibilities with their wellbeing.
- Ethical Responsibility to Self and Others—The premed conducts themself with integrity and honesty in all things, adheres to ethical principles, acts professionally, and encourages the same behavior in others.
- Reliability and Dependability—The premed demonstrates accountability, fulfills their obligations to themself and others in a suitable and timely manner, and understands the consequences of not doing so.
- Interpersonal Skills—The premed treats other people with respect and dignity, understands how to recognize and manage their emotions, understands how their emotions can affect others, shows an awareness of behavioral cues and how they can affect other people, and is able to adjust their behavior according to these cues.
Science Competencies:
- Human Behavior—The premed applies their awareness of others, social systems, and themself to solve problems related to biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors that influence health and wellbeing.
- Living Systems—The premed applies their knowledge of the natural sciences to solve issues related to macro and molecular systems, such as cells, organs, molecules, and biomolecules.
Thinking and Reasoning Competencies:
- Critical Thinking—The premed applies their logic and reasoning skills to identify both the strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches or solutions to problems.
- Quantitative Reasoning—The premed applies quantitative reasoning to explain the natural world’s phenomena.
- Scientific Inquiry—The premed applies their knowledge of the scientific process to synthesize and incorporate information, formulate research hypotheses and questions, is intimately familiar with the languages of the sciences and uses this language to contribute to the discourse of science.
- Written Communication—The premed communicates information articulately with written words and sentences.
Each of these competencies are essential to a student’s success in medical school, residency, and their future career as a licensed physician, as there’s a great deal more to being a doctor than high grades in science.
Who Needs to Take a PREview Test?
Not every medical student needs to take a PREview test. Whether or not you need to take the test is up to the medical schools you’re applying to.
In 2023, although all AMCAS medical schools were invited to use the PREview exam in their admissions processes, only 8 medical schools required it, and only 11 schools recommended it.
The AAMC anticipates huge adoption from schools in the future. They estimate over 80% of applicants will apply to at least one school that is requiring or recommending applicants take PREview. That said, these are only estimates, and so far, the AAMC has actually seen a drop in participation from 2023 to 2024.
They previously stated that “Most if not all of the 2023 administration participating schools are expected to participate again in 2024, with the addition of some new MD- and DO-granting institutions.”
However, for 2024, as of the writing of this article, there are only 6 schools that require PREview and 7 that recommend it.
Medical Schools Requiring PREview Scores in 2024
- Mercer University School of Medicine
- Saint Louis University School of Medicine
- Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah
- University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
- University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
- University of Massachusetts T.H. Chan School of Medicine
Medical Schools Recommending PREview Scores in 2024
- Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
- George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
- Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans
- Morehouse School of Medicine
- Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
- Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
- University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine
It’s possible that schools could be added to each of these lists, so be sure to check back before submitting your application.
Here is a list of all medical schools participating in PREview for 2024.
Now, the tricky part is what to do if a medical school only recommends applicants take the exam instead of making it a requirement.
Since this exam is brand new, we can’t say for certain whether or not there will be consequences for not participating in the PREview exam. That said, you should look at each application component as another opportunity to impress admissions committees. Competition to earn acceptance to medical school is fierce. If you’re up against an equally qualified candidate but they completed the recommended exam, and you did not, they could have a leg up on you.
If you’re unsure of what to do, consult with your prehealth advisor or directly with the medical schools you’re applying to.
What PREview Test Dates Are Available?
If you need to take the test, when can you take it, and when should you schedule it?
PREview exam dates for 2024 are offered from March until September. Score reports will be released approximately 30 days after each testing window.
This makes scheduling the test a little tricky. Some schools say that you can have your PREview score submitted up until the last date in mid-September, which will get the school your score by mid-October. However, the AAMC says your application may not be considered complete until participating schools receive your PREview results.
It’s imperative that you complete your PREview exam as soon as possible to ensure your application is not delayed. Applying early is one of the most essential tips for premeds, as schools offer interview invites and acceptances on a rolling basis. The first applicants get the first interview spots, and the first interviewees are the first to get acceptance offers.
With that in mind, aim to take your exam between test windows 1 to 4, which run from mid-March to min-June.
For example, Window 1 has test dates available for March 13th and 14th. Registration for those dates closed February 28th. The next Window is for mid-April test dates. Registration closes April 3rd, and scores are released to schools by May 21st.
The following test dates are available for 2024.
| Window | Test Dates | Registration Opens | Registration Closes | Scores Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | March 13 & 14 | Jan. 31 | Feb. 28 | April 16 |
| 2 | April 17 & 18 | Jan. 31 | April 3 | May 21 |
| 3 | June 5 & 6 | Jan. 31 | May 22 | July 9 |
| 4 | June 20 & 21 | Jan. 31 | June 5 | July 23 |
| 5 | July 24 & 25 | Jan. 31 | July 9 | Aug. 22 |
| 6 | Aug. 14 & 15 | Jan. 31 | July 31 | Sept. 17 |
| 7 | Sept. 12 & 13 | Jan. 31 | Aug. 29 | Oct. 15 |
Dates are subject to change.
Continue to check the AAMC PREview schedule for changes as well as the specific instructions provided by each school you apply to.
What Is the Format of the PREview Professional Readiness Exam?
The PREview exam presents examinees with hypothetical scenarios linked to the core competencies listed above and based on real-life situations in healthcare, educational, or other settings. Since the questions were developed for premeds, you do not need healthcare experience to perform well on the test.
A scenario set is composed of a scenario and items (responses). Each scenario is a short paragraph that describes a dilemma medical students may face during medical school. The items describe the actions you could take in response to the situation, and it’s your job to rate the effectiveness of each response using a 4-point scale:
1 = very ineffective, 2 = ineffective, 3 = effective, and 4 = very effective.
Image: PREview Sample Question from AAMC.
VERY INFECTIVE:
The response will cause additional problems or make the situation worse.
INEFFECTIVE:
The response will not improve the situation or may cause a problem.
EFFECTIVE:
The response could help but will not significantly improve the situation.
VERY EFFECTIVE:
The response will significantly improve the situation.
There are 30 scenarios and 186 questions on the test, and you have 75 minutes to complete it. To learn more, continue to the sample question section below.
How Is the PREview Professional Readiness Exam Scored?
The PREview exam is a multiple choice test, as, after “many years of research,” the AAMC has determined multiple choice to be the most reliable format to evaluate the core competencies.
You will receive a single score ranging from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest). Your score is based on how closely your effectiveness ratings of each response align with those of medical educators.
During the development of the PREview exam, the AAMC had professional medical educators at accredited US MD-granting medical schools review the scenarios and rate responses in the same way examinees would. Their responses established the scoring key.
If your rating matches the medical educators’ rating, you are awarded full credit. If your rating is close, you’re awarded partial credit.
While every variation of the PREview exam is designed to evaluate a premed’s understanding of effective pre-professional actions and behaviors, some questions will be more ethically complex than others. Therefore, in an attempt to make things as equal as possible, the AAMC converts raw scores to scaled scores in order to compensate for these small variations in difficulty.
Each total score is reported along with a “confidence band,” which shows the ranges in which your total score lies. Confidence bands are designed to help signal “the lack of precision of test scores.” They are meant to limit distinctions between test-takers with similar scores.
A percentile rank will also be reported along with your total score and confidence band. Percentile ranks of scores represent the percentages of examinees who earned the same or lower scores than you did.
At the end of your test, you will be asked if you want your exam scored or if you would like to void it. Similar to how you can choose to void your MCAT when you reach the end of the test, if you feel like you bombed the exam, you can elect to not have it reviewed and essentially throw it in the trash. However, voiding your PREview does count toward your annual and lifetime attempts.
Scores will be released by the AAMC to participants, as well as the schools of their choosing, on the scheduled score release day that corresponds to their test date, at some point between April through October. Your score report will include your total score, confidence band, percentile rank, and any additional notes.
PREview scores are automatically pulled into the AMCAS primary application, so there is no further action required of the applicant.
AAMC PREview Sample Questions
The following are example scenarios and multiple choice responses provided by the AAMC.
Sample Question 1:
You are pursuing a two-week volunteer opportunity at a well-regarded local clinic. When you receive your course schedule, you realize the volunteer opportunity would conflict with your weekly required lab. This is the only time that the lab is offered this semester, so you are not able to make up the lab. Participation in the lab will count toward your grade.
Please rate the effectiveness of each response to this situation.
1. Skip your lab for two weeks to attend the volunteer opportunity.
2. Ask your lab instructor to identify a solution that will allow you to attend both.
3. Stop pursuing the volunteer opportunity so that you can attend the required lab.
4. Tell your lab instructor in advance that you will miss two of your scheduled lab sessions.
5. Attend the lab and investigate if similar volunteer opportunities are available at another time.
For each of the five responses, you will rate them on a scale of 1-4
1 = VERY INEFFECTIVE, 2 = INEFFECTIVE, 3 = EFFECTIVE, 4 = VERY EFFECTIVE
Answering Sample Question 1
This question is aiming to see how you manage your time effectively when conflicts arise. As a premed and med student, you must be able to balance multiple commitments and opportunities. Simply put, no matter how much you may want to do, there’s only so much time in a day, and you won’t be able to do everything.
The scenario is clear that this lab is the only one available and that it will count towards your final grade. It also indicates that the required weekly lab takes priority; however, at the same time, you should see what other options are available.
Skipping your lab for 2 weeks would be VERY INEFFECTIVE since it counts towards your grade; plus, skipping would mean you’re failing to meet your obligations. Not a good look for a premed.
On the other hand, attendinding the lab while looking for similar volunteer opportunities is VERY EFFECTIVE. This ensures you receive your lab mark, opens you up to new volunteer opportunities, of which there are usually many, and shows you can take initiative.
Check out our Guide to Premed Volunteering to learn how to find volunteer opportunities.
Sample Question 2:
You are assigned to a small group in your clinical skills course. One of your group members has recently struggled with their assignments. The group member is often late to sessions, prepares materials of poor quality, and needs numerous reminders to complete tasks. Your group receives a new assignment that is due in three weeks and will be graded based on the group’s overall performance.
1. Encourage the group member to speak to the professor about creating a plan to handle their workload.
2. Meet with the group member one-on-one and ask how you can help them contribute more effectively to the assignment.
3. Meet with your group and evenly divide tasks across all members, making sure expectations are clear.
4. Ask the professor to assign the group member to a different group.
5. Work with the other members of your group to complete the assignment without the group member.
6. Request that your professor grade each group member independently.
7. Schedule recurring group meetings to review the work completed by each group member.
8. Tell the group member their lack of accountability places the entire group’s performance and grade at risk.
For each of the five responses, you will rate them on a scale of 1-4
1 = VERY INEFFECTIVE, 2 = INEFFECTIVE, 3 = EFFECTIVE, 4 = VERY EFFECTIVE
Answering Sample Question 2
This question tests your problem solving abilities, communication skills, and how you approach working with others. Evaluators want to see that you have thoroughly assessed the situation and will approach it with empathy, understanding, and proactiveness.
Asking the professor to assign the team member to a different group is VERY INEFFECTIVE, as a major point of the assignment is working as a group. Medicine is a team sport, through and through. You must be able to work effectively on teams of all shapes and sizes. Going behind your team member’s back is not only inconsiderate, but it disregards the point of the assignment. It’s extremely unlikely the professor will appreciate your actions, as it creates more work for them and illustrates you are not proactive in solving problems yourself.
Confronting the team member and telling them that their poor performance will affect the entire team is INEFFECTIVE. While you are taking action, you are not offering constructive feedback or suggestions that will help the team member improve. It’s unlikely this confrontation will result in any positive outcomes. Plus, there’s a good chance you’re telling the team member something they already know.
Encouraging the team member to speak with the professor about creating a plan to help them handle their workload is EFFECTIVE, as it shows you understand the problem and have identified a potential solution. However, it’s not VERY EFFECTIVE because you are essentially putting the ball in someone else’s (your professor’s) court. You as a member of the team are not offering to help your struggling team member.
Meeting with the group member one-on-one and asking how you can help them contribute more effectively is VERY EFFECTIVE, as it’s clear you recognize the issue and are willing to face it with empathy and proactivity. By meeting alone, you’re also not calling out the team member in front of the rest of your group, which will likely cause them to become defensive. This action helps both the team member as an individual and the group as a whole.
PREview Prep: How to Prepare for the Exam
You can’t study for your PREview exam, but you can prepare for it.
1 | Complete Sample Questions & Practice Exams
The best way to prepare for PREview is to understand the exam format and complete practice questions and tests. The sample scenarios and questions you’re presented with are developed by the AAMC to reflect exactly the kinds of hypothetical situations you’ll face on the real test, so working through them beforehand is an absolute must.
Sample exams will help you familiarize yourself with what you’ll encounter on test day, and they’ll give you a sense of the results you can expect.
Reflect on your practice test results and pay close attention to the scoring key rationales at the end. This provides essential insight into how the questions are evaluated. You can find all of the answers and how they are rated at the end of the test.
While the answers are provided at the end, do not look at them until after you’ve completed the test. For any questions you get wrong, take a look at the question again to determine where you went wrong. Don’t try to memorize the correct answer, but rather aim to understand why you got the question wrong.
Here are some AAMC Professional Readiness Exam Sample Questions, as well as AAMC PREview Exam Practice Exam 1 and AAMC PREview Exam Practice Exam 2.
2 | Simulate the Testing Experience
Take your test prep up a notch by completing your practice exam within the 75 minutes you’ll be allotted on test day. Do all you can to simulate the environment and conditions in which you will be taking the actual exam.
Take your practice tests using the same laptop you’ll use on test day and sitting at the same desk you will take the test. Once you schedule your exam and know the time of day of your test, take the sample tests at that time too.
The more you can simulate the pressure of the real test, the better.
3 | Understand the PREview Format and Testing System
Taking multiple practice tests will familiarize yourself with the 1-4 multiple choice system of the PREview exam. Become intimately familiar with each of the core competencies outlined above, as each scenario you face will address one or more of them.
Additionally, be sure to watch the AAMC PREview Professional Readiness Exam Test Day Experience video to familiarize yourself with the remote-proctored online experience. The video showcases the check-in process, the features and functions of the PREview exam platform, and how to submit your exam once you’re done.
It’s also a good idea to log in to the system before test day, go through the tutorial, and review the PREview exam’s policies and procedures so that you’re not leaving anything to chance come test day.
AAMC PREview FAQs
1 | How Is PREview Different From Casper?
PREview is similar to Casper in that they are both situational judgment tests designed to assess an applicant’s non-academic or soft skills, such as empathy, social skills, ethics, and professionalism, through an exam that can be taken from a laptop or desktop in the comfort of your home.
They take roughly the same time to complete. Casper takes 90 to 110 minutes to complete, while PREview takes 90 to 115 minutes. 75 minutes are dedicated to taking the test itself, while the remaining minutes are dedicated to administrative activities, such as check-in and exam instructions.
However, there are some notable differences.
For starters, PREview is a multiple choice test, whereas Casper requires participants to respond to hypothetical scenarios in written or verbal format.
Another difference is that PREview was designed and is administered by the AAMC, while Casper was developed in 2010 by Harold Reiter and Kelly Dore at McMaster University’s Program for Educational Research and Development (PERD) in Canada and is administered by Acuity Insights.
There is also a difference in price.
Casper costs $85 USD, which includes distribution of results to 7 programs. An additional $18 USD is charged for each additional program you need to send your results to.
The PREview exam charges a flat registration fee of $100 for the 2024 testing year, and this includes score release to an unlimited number of participating medical schools. If you qualify for AAMC Fee Assistance, the registration for your first exam is free, and you will receive a 50% discount on any subsequent exams.
Another difference is participants will be able to see their PREview score when it is released, whereas Casper only releases a student’s score to medical schools, not to the student.
Learn more about Casper with our Casper Test Guide: Everything You Need to Know.
2 | When Do I Take the PREview Test?
In 2024, test dates are offered from March until September.
Tests are only offered between 8 am and 1 pm Eastern Time. Each test day has a limited number of appointments, and you must register in advance. Registration for all tests opened on January 31.
It’s imperative to register as early as possible, as appointment times and individual test dates are only offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. Do all you can to ensure your PREview exam score does not hold up your application.
3 | How Do You Sign Up for a PREview Test?
You can sign up for a PREview test by creating an AAMC account or by verifying you already have one.
On the PREview webpage, click the Log In to Your PREview Portal button. You will be asked to enter your AAMC credentials and then to ensure your name exactly matches the name on the ID you will provide on the day of your test.
You will then be directed to Meazure, the registration and scheduling system managed by the AAMC’s vendor, Yardstick. Double check that your AAMC ID, name, and email address is correct, as after it is automatically sent to Meazure, you will be unable to edit your information.
Next, go to the Products tab in the PREview portal and select AAMC Professional Readiness Exam (PREview) 2024. You will be taken to the scheduling webpage, where you will then select Online Proctoring. Once here, you can choose your preferred time zone, test date, and appointment time. Your exam time is displayed in the 24-hour clock format, so if you want to select 8 pm, your exam time will be 20:00.
After that, you will be asked to add your address and payment info in order to confirm your purchase and secure your appointment time.
Once your exam is scheduled, you will receive a confirmation email and be given access to an exam tutorial, which will demonstrate the features and functions of the software.
4 | How Much Does PREview Cost?
For the 2024 testing year, test takers will need to pay a flat registration fee of $100 for the PREview exam, which includes score release to an unlimited number of participating medical schools.
If you qualify for AAMC Fee Assistance, registration for your first exam is free, and you will get 50% off on any subsequent exams.
5 | Can You Fail the PREview Exam?
You cannot technically fail the PREview exam, but you can perform very poorly on it. Your score ranges from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest), so while 1 isn’t technically a fail, a low score on a professionalism exam may as well be.
6 | How Many Times Can You Take PREview?
You can take the PREview exam twice per administration year and no more than four times in your lifetime (beginning with the 2020 administrations). However, earning a low score does not mean you can simply retake the test.
Retakes are only offered if you void the exam, encounter a technical issue, or have your exam terminated by your remote proctor because they suspect you have violated the rules in some way. After an investigation, you may be offered a retake, but that is no guarantee.
7 | Can You Retake the PREview Exam?
Retakes are possible, but not for a low score in the same cycle. If you are not accepted to medical school, you can choose to retake PREview when you reapply in the following admissions cycle.
If you void your exam, you can retake it once during the same year, or three more times in your lifetime. You can only take the PREview exam four times in total over the course of your life.
If you encounter a technical issue or your remote proctor suspects you are engaging in prohibited behaviors, such as leaving your seat or searching for potential responses online, they can terminate your exam, and the AAMC may carry out an investigation. If they determine you did nothing wrong, you will likely be offered a retake. In this case, your terminated exam will count toward your total number of attempts. However, retakes are not guaranteed.
8 | Do You Have to Take the PREview Exam If a School Only Recommends It?
Since it is only a recommendation, technically speaking, you can choose not to take the PREview exam. However, if a medical school recommends candidates do something, it’s a good idea to take it to heart.
Since this exam is brand new, we can’t say for certain whether or not there will be consequences for not participating when a school recommends you do. That said, you should look at each application component as another opportunity to impress admissions committees. Competition to earn acceptance to medical school is fierce. If you’re up against an equally qualified candidate but they completed the recommended exam and you did not, they could have a leg up on you.
Admissions committees want the medical students they accept to be self-starters, to pay attention and take initiative, and to always go above and beyond. Ignoring their recommendation demonstrates apathy—the last thing you want to convey to a medical school you hope to be accepted by.
Med School Application Clarity
Balancing all of the moving components of your medical school application is no small feat—and now there’s yet another hoop to jump through. Currently only a handful of schools require the test, with another handful recommending applicants take it, but that’s likely to change in the years to come as AAMC continues to promote their new test.
Don’t let anything slip through the cracks—get tailored advice that will help earn acceptance at your top choice medical school.
Med School Insiders offers Comprehensive Medical School Admissions Packages that will help you with every aspect of your medical school application—including PREview. Our team of doctors has years of experience serving on admissions committees, so you’ll receive key insights from people who have been intimately involved in the process.
