What’s Tested on the MCAT: CARS

The Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills section of the MCAT, commonly referred to as MCAT CARS, is designed to test your ability to read a passage, interpret the information, and answer questions about the passage. 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.

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MCAT CARS: Overview

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.

MCAT Section	Number of Questions	Time Limit	Section Score Range
Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS)	53 total (9 passages)	95 minutes	118-132

According to the AAMC, 50% of the questions in the CARS section will come from the humanities, and 50% will come from social sciences. You’ll also be tested on the three critical analysis and reasoning skills detailed below.

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, and the level of difficulty that is required for each category. 

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, whether or not a specific detail was mentioned, infer something from 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 types within Foundations of Comprehension:

1. Main Idea
2. Detail
3. Inference
4. Definition-in-Context

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 question types ask why the author included certain elements in the passage, or to bring together two disparate pieces of information and recognize the relationship between them. Reasoning Within the Text questions often focus on an argument made in the passage and ask you to identify evidence from the passage that is used to support or weaken an argument, or conversely, to correctly identify the argument that a piece of evidence strengthens or undermines.

There are two main question types within Reasoning With the Text:

1. Function
2. Strengthen–Weaken (Within the Passage)

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. This type of question will introduce new information, and ask you to determine how it relates to the passage. You might be asked to extrapolate an inference from new evidence, or to apply what the passage states in a new context. Alternatively, you might be required to understand how new facts might challenge or support an argument that was discussed by the author.

There are two main question types within Reasoning Beyond the Text:

1. Apply
2. Strengthen–Weaken (Beyond the Passage)

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

[ RELATED: MCAT CARS Practice Questions ]

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Written by Kaplan experts, reviewed by Aeri Kim and Logan Emlet. Aeri Kim has been teaching MCAT prep at Kaplan for over eight years and also works on the MCAT content development team, helping optimize our courses to better suit student needs in real-time. She holds a BS in Biological Sciences as well as a PhD in Structural Biochemistry. Logan Emlet serves as an MCAT Product Manager at Kaplan North America. Since beginning his journey with Kaplan in 2013 as a teacher, he has guided thousands of students through the complexities of the MCAT.