What’s Tested on the MCAT: CARS

• The MCAT CARS section tests critical reasoning and comprehension, not scientific knowledge.
• Test-takers face 53 multiple-choice CARS questions across 9 passages in 90 minutes.
• The CARS section tests three skills: Foundations of Comprehension, Reasoning Within the Text, and Reasoning Beyond the Text.
• CARS passages cover humanities and social sciences in an equal 50/50 split.
• Success on the MCAT CARS section relies on analyzing tone, argument structure, and main ideas under tight time constraints.

The Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) section of the MCAT is designed to test your ability to read a passage, interpret the information, and answer questions about it. Although this sounds similar to a standard reading comprehension test, it is much more complex than you might expect. The passages themselves can be challenging to read and understand, and the questions are based on critical reasoning skills that require a higher level of analysis and insight than most tests you’ve probably encountered before. Learn what’s tested on the MCAT CARS section so you can maximize your score.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• MCAT CARS Fast Facts
• What does MCAT CARS test?
• MCAT CARS: Passage Content
• MCAT CARS: Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills
• MCAT CARS: Pacing Strategy & Time Management
• MCAT CARS: Scoring 
• MCAT CARS Quiz

MCAT CARS Fast Facts

The CARS section is the second section you’ll encounter on the MCAT. You will receive a 10-minute break before this section and a 30-minute lunch break once you’ve completed it.

Full Name	Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills
Section Position	2nd section of the MCAT
Number of Passages	9 passages
Number of Questions	53 questions (5–7 per passage)
Question Types	All questions are passage-based. There are no discrete (stand-alone) questions.
Time Allotted	90 minutes
Time Per Passage	10 minutes
Score Range	118–132

What does MCAT CARS test?

The MCAT CARS section evaluates reading comprehension, logical analysis, and critical thinking through 9 passage-based sets totaling 53 questions over 90 minutes. Unlike other MCAT sections, CARS requires no prior science or subject knowledge. Instead, test-takers analyze 500- to 600-word passages drawn equally from humanities disciplines and social sciences.

According to AAMC^® guidelines, CARS questions test three core cognitive skills: Foundations of Comprehension (30%), Reasoning Within the Text (30%), and Reasoning Beyond the Text (40%). Students must identify the author’s main idea and tone, evaluate argument strength and underlying assumptions, and apply passage concepts to hypothetical new scenarios. Mastering these analytical skills is essential for pre-med students aiming to boost their overall MCAT score and demonstrate readiness for medical school coursework.

MCAT CARS: Passage Content

The passages that you’ll encounter in the MCAT CARS section are based on humanities and social sciences. The passages cover fields such as literature, the arts, philosophy, religion, economics, history, political science, and more. However, it’s more important for you to consider how difficult the passage is to read and understand, rather than the exact topic that is covered. You will not need prior knowledge of the topic. Difficulty level is determined by the author’s language and writing style, and whether the passage is highly abstract or more concrete in terms of the ideas being presented. The author may present an argument, or may present someone else’s argument and discuss it.

MCAT CARS passages are drawn from a variety of different humanities disciplines, including: 

• Architecture
• Art
• Dance
• Ethics
• Literature
• Music
• Philosophy
• Popular Culture
• Religion
• Theater
• Studies of Diverse Cultures

MCAT CARS passages are also drawn from a variety of social science disciplines, including:

• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Economics
• Education
• Geography
• History
• Linguistics
• Political Science
• Population Health
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Studies of Diverse Cultures

MCAT CARS: Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills

There are a total of nine passages in the CARS section, each with five to seven questions directly associated with them. You’ll have 90 minutes to answer a total of 53 questions. The questions on the MCAT CARS section fall into three broad categories based on the level of reasoning required.

The AAMC has defined these critical analysis and reasoning skills as:

1. Foundations of Comprehension
2. Reasoning Within the Text
3. Reasoning Beyond the Text

Each of these question types requires you to use the passage to find the answers.

Foundations of Comprehension questions determine whether you’ve understood the basic components of the text in the passage. These questions tend to focus on a single fact or idea, either on a broad scale or with a very narrow focus. You might be asked about the main idea of the passage, a specific detail that was directly stated or strongly implied, the opinion of the author or other viewpoints discussed in the passage, or the meaning of words or phrases in the context of the passage. These questions are closest to the traditional reading comprehension questions that you may be familiar with. However, the MCAT has ways of making them more difficult, such as asking which of the answer choices is NOT mentioned in the text, or the meaning of a phrase that is very different in the passage from everyday usage.

There are four question skills within Foundations of Comprehension:

• Summarize Text
• Paraphrase Detail
• Recognize Opinion
• Interpret Meaning

Questions in Foundations of Comprehension will make up approximately 30% of the questions in CARS, or about 16 questions

Reasoning Within the Text questions require a generally higher level of critical analysis of the MCAT CARS passage. These questions ask why the author included certain elements in the passage, how the author builds their arguments, or what conclusions you can draw when connecting ideas from different paragraphs. Reasoning Within the Text questions often focus on passage arguments and on author intention: what is the author trying to accomplish with the passage and what evidence do they use to convince their readers.

There are three main question skills within Reasoning With the Text:

• Describe Function
• Evaluate Reasoning
• Make Deduction

Questions in Reasoning Within the Text will also make up approximately 30% of the questions in CARS, or 16 questions.

Reasoning Beyond the Text questions are often considered the most challenging of the MCAT CARS questions, but they are also the most common on the section. This type of question will introduce new information, and ask you to determine how it relates to the passage. You might be asked to recognize a new example of a passage idea or identify an analogous situation in a new context. Perhaps you’ll need to predict new results of a situation similar to the passage, or anticipate how the author would respond to a criticism the passage never mentioned. Alternatively, you might be required to understand how new facts might challenge or support an argument that was discussed by the author.

There are four main question skills within Reasoning Beyond the Text:

• Imagine Example/Analogy
• Predict Outcome/Explanation
• Anticipate Response
• Strengthen/Weaken Argument

Questions in Reasoning Beyond the Text will make up approximately 40% of the questions in CARS, or 21 questions.

MCAT CARS: Pacing Strategy & Time Management

The timing on the CARS section is tight, so learning how to pace yourself during the CARS section is essential to your success. You have 90 minutes to complete 9 passages and 53 questions, which averages out to exactly 10 minutes per passage. However, not every passage takes the same amount of time. Use the 10-minute rule as a guidepost rather than a rigid constraint.

Don’t wait until the end of the exam to realize you are running out of time. Monitor your clock at these specific milestones to manage your pacing curve:

• 2 Passages Complete: 70 minutes left
• 4 Passages Complete: 50 minutes left
• 6 Passages Complete: 30 minutes left
• 8 Passages Complete: 10 minutes left

If you are behind at any milestone, proactively increase your speed on the next one or two passages to get back on track.

MCAT CARS: Scoring

CARS scoring uses a three-step process: raw points are calculated, converted into a scaled score, and assigned a percentile rank.

• Raw Score: CARS contains 53 passage-based questions. Your raw score is simply the number of questions answered correctly (out of 53). There is no penalty for incorrect answers, so answering every question is always advantageous.
• Scaled Score (118–132): The raw score is converted through equating into a scaled score ranging from 118 (lowest) to 132 (highest), with a midpoint of 125. Equating adjusts for slight variations in difficulty across different test forms, ensuring a 126 on one exam version represents the same performance as a 126 on another.
• Percentile Rank: AAMC assigns a percentile rank corresponding to your scaled score, comparing your performance against all test-takers over a multi-year period. Because CARS has a steep scoring curve, small changes in raw accuracy can yield significant jumps in percentile.

Learn how to improve your MCAT CARS score using Kaplan’s CARS strategy and expert tips.

MCAT CARS Quiz

Test your readiness for CARS with this short quiz.

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Written by Kaplan experts, reviewed by Dom Eggert. Dom is an MCAT Product Manager and the Editor-in-Chief of Kaplan’s industry-leading 7-book MCAT Review series. He has more than two decades of experience in education including more than a decade helping pre-med students at Kaplan, across teaching, tutoring, writing and editing, course design, and educational product development.