Imagine being presented with complicated medical dilemmas and conflicts, only to have your reactions compared to physicians with way more experience than you.
That’s pretty much how the AAMC PREview Professional Readiness Exam is going to work, and odds are, you’ll have to take it sometime over the summer if you want to apply to medical school in the 2022-2023 cycle.
This article will serve as a comprehensive FAQ about everything you need to know surrounding the PREview exam, including timeline, logistics, test format, and the best preparation strategies. Let’s get to it!
The AAMC PREview (formerly known as the AAMC Situational Judgment Test during its piloting phase) is a standardized exam designed to help admissions officers assess your readiness to learn about issues related to professionalism in medical school.
The PREview exam looks beyond academic metrics to assess and evaluate personal competencies such as resilience, service orientation, ethics, cultural competence, and teamwork. The goal is to provide a more complete picture of applicants and help schools identify applicants who demonstrate these core competencies.
The AAMC PREview presents a series of hypothetical scenarios students may encounter in medical school and asks examinees to evaluate the effectiveness of a series of behavioral responses to each scenario.
Examinees’ responses provide insight into their knowledge of effective and ineffective behaviors across eight core pre-professional competencies:
The AAMC PREview is administered through a secure online testing environment. It includes one test section with text-based scenarios that present hypothetical dilemmas similar to what you may encounter in medical school. However, the scenarios do not expect you to have had direct experience in medical school to perform well.
Following each scenario, there are several behaviors that describe a response to the dilemma presented in the scenario. You will be asked to rate the effectiveness of each behavior using a 4-point scale: 1 = very ineffective, 2 = ineffective, 3 = effective, and 4 = very effective.
The AAMC collaborated with medical educators, including faculty, admissions officers, and student and diversity affairs officers to develop the scoring for the PREview exam. Your score is based on how closely your effectiveness ratings for the responses align with medical educators’ ratings.
Full credit is awarded for a response if your rating matches the medical educators’ rating. Partial credit is awarded if your rating is close to the medical educators’ rating.
Your PREview score will appear on your score report as a single number between 1 and 9, along with your percentile rank comparing your scores to other examinees who also completed the exam.
Step-by-step Guide for Finding Your Score Report Online
Sample Score Reports for Scored and Voided Exams
Current 2021 Percentile Ranks and the 2020 Percentile Ranks
Unfortunately, at the time of writing this article, the official list of participating schools has not been confirmed.
But the AAMC claims that this information will be made available sometime this month in February 2022, so check the AAMC’s website soon to stay updated.
Applicants will register for an exam date and complete the exam online at a location of their choosing (e.g. at home, a library, etc.) from June through September.
The exam will be offered in five testing windows across 10 dates. Appointments will be available throughout each test day beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern Time. Your appointment time will be shown in your local, military time:
Starting this year, there will be a $100 flat fee for applicants who take the PREview exam, including unlimited score distribution.
The flat fee will be waived for applicants who apply and are approved to receive benefits through the AAMC Fee Assistance Program.
You will have 75 minutes to complete the exam. The total session time may range from 90 – 105 minutes, depending on how well you prepare for your exam session prior to test day by ensuring your computer equipment meets the technical specifications and preparing your work space according to our test day rules.
Step 1: Before registering for the AAMC PREview exam, please verify that you have an AAMC account or create one.
Step 2: Click on the “Log in to the AAMC PREview Portal” button. After you enter your AAMC credentials you will be asked to confirm your name exactly matches the name on the ID you will present on exam day or make any necessary name changes. You will also have an opportunity to update your email address. After confirming your name, you will be eligible to schedule your exam. The AAMC system will then direct you to the registration and scheduling system, Measure, which is managed by our vendor, Yardstick.
Step 3: Your AAMC ID, name, and email address will be automatically sent to Measure. Please verify that this information is correct. If it is not, return to the AAMC website to update your information.
Step 4: Prior to scheduling your exam, read the Examinee Agreement and the AAMC PREview Essentials. It is important that you become familiar with the Examinee agreement because you will be required to agree to it on test day before you will be allowed to take the exam.
Step 5: Once you have scheduled your test, you will receive a confirmation email and gain access to an exam tutorial demonstrating the functions and features of the exam software. The exam tutorial will be available up until the time you begin your exam, and you can complete it as many times as you desire.
The Exam Tutorial: Yardstick’s Measure platform provides a tutorial demonstrating the functions and features of the exam software available. The tutorial will be available to you once you successfully log in to Measure and it will be up until the time you begin your exam. You can complete it as many times as you desire. To access the exam tutorial, log in using your AAMC credentials.
If at any time during your exam the proctor has reason to believe you are using prohibited items or engaging in prohibited behaviors as described below, your proctor may interrupt or terminate your exam.
The proctor may interrupt your exam to request clarification of your activity, request that you cease the prohibited activity, and terminate your exam if you fail to comply with the proctor’s instructions.
Prohibited Activities:
Activities that will Result in Immediate Exam Termination:
If the proctor interrupts or terminates your exam for a violation, the AAMC may conduct an investigation.
You’re only allowed to take this exam once per year, and a terminated exam counts as one attempt. The AAMC may offer a retake depending on outcomes of investigations.
Additional Technical Requirements:
Environmental Requirements:
The PREview exam can only be taken on a desktop or laptop. It cannot be completed on your cell phone or tablet. Verify that your device meets the workspace and computer requirements prior to the exam. Download the ProctorU Extension to access your live, remote exam proctor prior to your exam date.
If you believe that a technology issue in Yardstick’s Measure system interfered with your performance and wish to have the AAMC research what occurred, please:
Notifying the proctor when an issue occurs will allow the proctor to assess and possibly correct the problem so you can continue testing. Further, your report to the proctor will aid Yardstick and the AAMC if they need to research the issue after your exam. Failure to report a problem to the proctor may hinder their ability to resolve the issue and offer you an opportunity to retake the exam due to a verifiable technology issue.
If you do not report an issue and the AAMC subsequently learns that a technology issue occurred, we will contact you if the issue affects our ability to score your exam.
You may reschedule your exam appointment, subject to deadlines associated with your current exam date, by first canceling your current appointment and then scheduling a new appointment.
Registration for a given test window closes approximately one month before the first test date in that window. If you reschedule prior to the registration deadline associated with your current appointment, you may reschedule into the same or later window if appointments are available.
You may also reschedule after your current appointment’s registration deadline and no later than 24 hours prior to your current appointment, but you will only be able to schedule a new date in a future window if appointments are available.
Deadlines for each window are outlined in the table below:
If you do not attend your scheduled exam and you do not reschedule or cancel by the deadline, your registration fee is non-refundable. The AAMC may grant an exception to the above deadlines and/or fees for one of the following reasons:
To request a rescheduled appointment for any of the above reasons, send a completed Request to Reschedule form along with supporting documentation to askpreview@aamc.org. Supporting documentation includes any hospital records, official requests for deployment or jury duty, funeral program or death certification, and/or proof of displacement.
The AAMC will review requests until Sept. 30, one week after the last test date of Window 5. However, they strongly recommend you submit your request within 24 hours after your scheduled appointment time. If approved, the AAMC will offer you a new appointment but cannot guarantee your preferred date or time.
Both applicants and schools will receive the scores within 30 days of testing. The AAMC will provide schools with resources that share validation and evaluation results to support integration of PREview scores and enhance their holistic admissions process. PREview scores will be fully integrated into the AMCAS Data Exchange Service so schools will receive scores alongside other application data.
2022 AMCAS Season:
When you elect to have your exam scored on exam day, you will select the school(s) to receive your score report. You do not need to take any further action after exam day to ensure the school(s) you selected receive your report.
For the AMCAS 2022 application, if you decide to apply to a school that you did not select on exam day, you still have the opportunity to send your AAMC SJT score report. Complete the Request to Release AAMC SJT Score form and email it to askpreview@aamc.org.
You may select additional schools after exam day as many times as you wish; however, the AAMC recommends selecting all schools to which you have applied or intend to apply as early as possible in the 2022 application season. Requests to select additional schools must be received no later than Aug. 31, 2022.
Once you select a school, either on exam day or through the Request to Release AAMC SJT Score form, you may not deselect a school.
2023 AMCAS Season:
Reporting your score to AMCAS participating medical schools:
When you initiate or submit the AMCAS application, all PREview scores for exams taken since 2020 will be automatically uploaded to AMCAS. If you elect to have your exam scored on exam day, and you initiate or submit the AMCAS application, your AAMC PreVIEW score will be automatically uploaded to AMCAS. If you take the PREview exam after submitting your AMCAS application, your score will be uploaded to AMCAS when it is available on the published score release date.
Reporting your score to non-AMCAS medical schools:
If you elect to have your exam scored on exam day, you will also be asked if you would like to send your score report to any participating medical school that does not use the AMCAS application. The AAMC recommends you select all of the participating schools to which you have applied or intend to apply. For schools you select on exam day, you do not need to take any further action after exam day to ensure those school(s) you selected receive your report.
Reporting your score to additional non-AMCAS schools after exam day:
If you decide to apply to a non-AMCAS participating medical school that you did not select on exam day, you still have the opportunity to send your AAMC PREview score report. Complete the Request to Release AAMC PREview Score form and email it to askpreview@aamc.org.
AAMC releases scores only on scheduled score release dates; therefore they must receive your request one week prior to the next scheduled score release date in order to include it in the next release.
You may select additional schools after exam day as many times as you wish; however, the AAMC recommends selecting all schools to which you have applied or intend to apply as early as possible in the 2023 application season. Requests to select additional schools must be received no later than Aug. 31, 2023.
There are several steps you can take and resources available to help you prepare for the AAMC PREview exam:
The AAMC SJT Sample includes sample questions to familiarize you with the structure of exam questions.
The 2021 AAMC SJT: Examinee Preparation Guide offers advice and strategies to help you prepare for the AAMC SJT exam.
The 2021 AAMC SJT Practice Exam Booklet includes an official practice exam, scoring key, and scoring key rationales to help you become familiar with the exam format, types of scenarios and items you’ll see on the actual AAMC PREview, and the process for evaluating and rating items. The practice exam booklet has been expanded to include a full-length practice exam and scoring key rationales for all items.
Review the eight pre-professional competencies and definitions measured by the AAMC PREview exam, as each scenario you encounter will address one or more of these competencies.
Familiarize yourself with the official policies and procedures on the AAMC PREview: Essentials and what to expect on test day.
Log in prior to test day to walk through a tutorial demonstrating the features and functions of the online testing system.
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