Your grade point average (GPA) plays a major role in your medical school admissions. Many schools use the GPA as a first step to screen out candidates. This can prevent your application from being fairly assessed based on all of its components. It is suggested by StudentDoc, a medical student resource guide, that you aim to have a GPA of 3.5 or higher to be competitive. This is especially true if you go to a school that is known for grade inflation.
Another reason your GPA is so important is that not only do medical schools look at it but they also calculate a science GPA from it. Your science GPA is all your grades from courses in biology, chemistry, physics, and math averaged like your original GPA. At some schools, this GPA matters more then your overall GPA because the admission committees know these courses are difficult and they want to see if you can handle the tough subjects that you will need to pass in medical school. Therefore, it is critical that you do your best in these courses.
The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) consists of four sections and is another important factor when getting accepted into medical school. The first three sections---physical sciences, biological sciences and verbal reasoning---are graded on a 1 to 15 scale. These three sections count the most on the exam. According to eduers.com, in 2009 the average MCAT score in each section for Harvard Medical School was 11.9, 10 for Tulane University School of Medicine and 8.5 for Mercer University School of Medicine. The average MCAT score is usually higher for more prestigious medical schools. However, remember that people have been accepted with higher as well as lower MCAT scores. The last section on the MCAT is the writing sample section, which has two essay questions that are graded by letter. The writing sample is not given as much weight as the other sections.