Liberal re-engineering of the MCAT exam: a new test coming in 2015

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Preface: I'm sure this has been discussed before, and I used the search function and went thru 5 pages of results without finding anything on this topic. This is a pre-emptive strike against all the idiots who are going to come on here and say "use the search function!"

The AAMC has announced the format of the MCAT is changing in 2015; they are adding sections on "critical/analytical reasoning" and a "social and behavioral" section.

https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/

https://www.aamc.org/students/downlo...eviewguide.pdf

1. Basically they are adding psychiatry/psychology to the MCAT. For the first time, you will have to know the details of a specific disease process. Note that they are NOT doing this for other areas of medicine -- only psychiatry. Example: they will want you to know about serotonin's role in depression.

2. They are adding a psych 101 content list: theories of memory, personality, coping mechanisms, etc. Basically one semester of psychology is going to be a de-facto required course for premeds. Awesome!

3. They are basically adding content on "cultural competency." That includes race-based, class-based, and gender-based systems of "discrimination." In other words, a social liberal's wet dream.

4. Looks like the verbal reasoning section is going to consist almost entirely of "social engineering" style passages. You'll be reading passages about how racist doctors are and the questions will ask you to validate their pre-conceived notions of "racial justice."

5. Looks like the writing section is going away. I remember when the writing section was added to the MCAT years ago -- the ivory tower academicians told us that it was very important to assess the ability of future doctors to read and write clearly. Now it turns out all that needed skill was just bull****. Amazing how that turns out.

6. Test is being expanded to about 7 hours. With the academic liberals running the show, I predict in 20 years it will be a 2 day test. You need a ton of time to test on history, politics, geography, "justice", diversity, social learning theories, group behavior theories, and all the other soft crap with no objective truths they are trying to push.

Here are some sample questions, note that some of these questions have figures attached to them that I couldnt copy over. You get the general idea however.

12) Which of the following explanations describes why the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage likely affects views about voting and being a voter? During that stage people are:

A. establishing a philosophy of life.
B. perpetuating and transmitting culture.
C. gaining life experiences to provide bedrock for their ideals.
D. contributing to the betterment of society


18) How would a Social Identity Theorist most likely explain the results summarized in Figure 1?

A. The physician is ethnocentric and places high value on belonging to his racial in-group.
B. The physician perceives Blacks as competing against Whites for scarce societal resources.
C. The physician is a product of prejudiced parents and peers.
D. The physician is surrounded by inaccurate stereotypes.


20) Which of the following conclusions is supported by the findings?

A. Participants high in implicit bias prescribed thrombolytic therapy for Black patients more often than for White patients.
B. Participants prescribed thrombolytic therapy less than 50% of the time for all patients,
regardless of their implicit bias levels.
C. Participants high in implicit bias prescribed thrombolytic therapy for Black patients 77% of the time.
D. Participants high in implicit bias prescribed thrombolytic therapy for White patients more often than for Black patients.


27) Researchers asked participants to rate the importance of several tasks for performing a job. Thirty minutes later they asked participants to rate the tasks again, but this time the tasks were paired with a random rating. Participants were told that ratings were averages provided by their peers. Then, they asked participants to rate the tasks again. Which of the following results would you predict when comparing results from the first and second rating? Participants rated tasks with:

A. lower “peer ratings” as more important the second time.
B. moderate “peer ratings” as less important the second time.
C. higher “peer ratings” as more important the second time.
D. the same, regardless of “peer ratings.”

Looks like a filter to raise the % of douchebags practicing medicine.

A lot of people have told me that the quality of doctors popping out has fallen over the years. I don't know if this is true or not, but this should only accelerate that process.

That sounds awful

Ha, this is so ridiculous. Seems arbitrary to add psychiatry as the one area of medicine concretely tested on the MCAT. Also psychology...on an exam that is based on scientific fact and your ability to perform in the natural sciences, why in the hell add a bunch of theoretical social science? Makes no sense. I love the field of psychology. It's incredibly interesting but, even though it has some relevance to medicine, it really doesn't belong on the MCAT.

The addition of all of the social/cultural fluff is the worst idea of all. That said, I (and most likely everyone else here) have to talk about that **** ad nauseam in my first year clinical med course every week anyway, so why not give pre-meds a little glimpse of things to come?

Who's determining what goes into the MCAT, anyway? I'm envisioning a panel made up of ICM instructors...that special kind of super-touchy-feely MD who are pretty rare out in the wild.

I read the OP's post in Rush Limbaugh's voice for some reason.

When are they going to add a personal finance section? I bet that'd do more to advance the state of medicine than any of the current pre-reqs.

To address the OP, why is psych or the added social science stuff any more or less integral to medicine than the current bio/physics or chem/ochem sections? I can't think of a doctor who ever used anything other than a basic understanding of bio/physics/chem in practice. I don't feel having taken the pre reqs makes med school any easier, or the concepts in class easier to understand.

The MCAT is about testing logic, fortitude, and hard work. Whether it uses irrelevant bio material, irrelevant physics material, irrelevant chem material, irrelevant english material, or irrelevant psych material, who cares?

That said, I feel bad for these guys having to take the longer test and would lobby against the changes if I was on the board. But the psych and social fluff is a non issue.

At least they're adding stats. That calc requirement was a few decades overdue of being canned.

For the record, I'm one of those crazy leftist liberals, and I think that it's pretty dumb to add subjects like this onto the test. I'm not sure why you had to turn it into a political argument, when members of the opposing political party (like myself) could very well agree with you on the matter. That being said, I like to think that maybe these sections would help weed out people like you that put words like "justice" and "discrimination" in quotation marks. Like it or not, your future patients will very likely consist of minorities, women, and (gasp!) even poor people. Best of luck with containing your disdain for them.

Social Identity what? Oh man, I'm going to be such a bad doctor.

psshh... like I couldn't study for that.

Originally Posted by ImNotBritish

For the record, I'm one of those crazy leftist liberals, and I think that it's pretty dumb to add subjects like this onto the test. I'm not sure why you had to turn it into a political argument, when members of the opposing political party (like myself) could very well agree with you on the matter. That being said, I like to think that maybe these sections would help weed out people like you that put words like "justice" and "discrimination" in quotation marks. Like it or not, your future patients will very likely consist of minorities, women, and (gasp!) even poor people. Best of luck with containing your disdain for them.

If I'm a racist, sexist ass, then taking this silly test isnt going to change that and its not going to screen me out. I know that stance is contrary to popular liberal opinion, but its true.

Your retort actually reminds me of a medical school "standardized patient" encounter. Our faculty preceptor admonished us for not waiting for a response after knocking on the door, specifically a "yes you may enter" response. Just saying "yes" as is commonly used, wasnt good enough. Her reasoning was that a female patient may be in the process of dressing into her gown, and you have violated her privacy unless she gives you a SPECIFIC directive to enter the room. I laughed my ass off as I watched my colleagues knock and ask "may I enter?" before opening the door.

If that's not bad enough, later on in the semester a different faculty member specifically directed us to use gender neutral language in the introductory questioning of the patient, lest you have a closet transgender person who you offend. Instead of entering the room stating "Hello Mr Jones, this is Dr X" you have to start off by "establishing a gender neutral identity" by asking "may I call you Mr Jones or is do you have a different name or title you prefer to be addressed by?"

Of course I never had any intention of using that stupid nonsense in real clinical practice; but I was curious as to how a real patient would respond to it so I used it in a family practice clinic one day. The patient, a 78 year old woman, said something to the effect of "well actually I would prefer to be addressed as 'your highness' if you dont mind" and we both laughed for a good while.

Originally Posted by Kevin Baker

When are they going to add a personal finance section? I bet that'd do more to advance the state of medicine than any of the current pre-reqs.

To address the OP, why is psych or the added social science stuff any more or less integral to medicine than the current bio/physics or chem/ochem sections? I can't think of a doctor who ever used anything other than a basic understanding of bio/physics/chem in practice. I don't feel having taken the pre reqs makes med school any easier, or the concepts in class easier to understand.

The MCAT is about testing logic, fortitude, and hard work. Whether it uses irrelevant bio material, irrelevant physics material, irrelevant chem material, irrelevant english material, or irrelevant psych material, who cares?

That said, I feel bad for these guys having to take the longer test and would lobby against the changes if I was on the board. But the psych and social fluff is a non issue.

At least they're adding stats. That calc requirement was a few decades overdue of being canned.

I agree with you for the most part -- organic chemistry is not needed to be a physician. However, there is a HUGE difference between fact-based irrelevant scientific subjects compared with opinion-based, irrelevant NON-scientific subjects. Testing people on whether they conform to non-objective liberal social philosophies is different and less preferable than testing them on irrelevant but fact-based science.

Originally Posted by JP2740

Looks like a filter to raise the % of douchebags practicing medicine.

Is there a fraction higher than 100%?

Outside of pro athletics of course, because there, you can go up to 110%.

BTW, this kind of nonsense is not limited to the MCAT, so before you just laugh this off and say it doesnt affect you, let me remind you that there are discussions at the specialty board level to require crap like "diversity participation" and "social welfare engagement" as MOC (maintenance of certification requirements).

America in 2012 is not Mayberry; setting expectations that future physicianswill be culturally competent and sensitive is a good thing.

I would also like to point out that psych and psychology are tested on StepI (behavior science) and Step II (psych), however, for Step I, mostschools/students place less value on teaching/learning behavioral sciences thanother subjects. Consequently, most med students who never took psych inundergrad are likely to only have a cursory understanding of psychology and howit can be used in interacting with patients. Mandating that all pre-meds take apsychology class before entering med school ensures that medical studentsenter--and hopefully leave--with a working knowledge of psychology

I dont care about this since I already am in medical school.

What I'm most surprised by is how everyone in this thread seems to think that psychology is not evidence based? What? Modern psychology has nothing to do with unfalsifiable Freudian babble, its based on experiment after experiment.

While I agree that psychiatry is an odd specialty to suddenly focus on, and that psychology is an odd, random choice to add to the MCAT, this specific critique that psychology is purely "theoretical", with the implication that its results are unfounded, belies ignorance on y'alls part.

Makes me think a lot of you haven't been near a psych textbook, or heard even a single psych lecture. Maybe it is a good idea to start testing this (seemingly random) stuff...

Really? Liberal re-engineering? That's what you're going with?

You know what's just as worthless as "diversity participation" and "social welfare engagement"? Garbage phrases like "academic liberals" and adding "liberal" into every damn sentence.

Originally Posted by BeastInfection

Ha, this is so ridiculous. Seems arbitrary to add psychiatry as the one area of medicine concretely tested on the MCAT. Also psychology...on an exam that is based on scientific fact and your ability to perform in the natural sciences, why in the hell add a bunch of theoretical social science? Makes no sense. I love the field of psychology. It's incredibly interesting but, even though it has some relevance to medicine, it really doesn't belong on the MCAT.

The addition of all of the social/cultural fluff is the worst idea of all. That said, I (and most likely everyone else here) have to talk about that **** ad nauseam in my first year clinical med course every week anyway, so why not give pre-meds a little glimpse of things to come?

Who's determining what goes into the MCAT, anyway? I'm envisioning a panel made up of ICM instructors...that special kind of super-touchy-feely MD who are pretty rare out in the wild.

psych belongs on the MCAT much more than ochem or physics, my friend. at least you will be using those principles you learn when studying for psych again once you are in med school and beyond.

Who cares?

It's just something else to study for. It's not like I can remember any of the kinematic equations anyway--in the big picture it's just stuff you'll study for and subsequently forget.

As for med schools letting in different demographics because of this--it's not going to happen. The MCAT could have an Arabic section or a peach farming section and the exact same type of people are going to get into medical school.

And even IF different types of people got into med school, med school itself would equalize everyone in the end.

Originally Posted by RySerr21

psych belongs on the MCAT much more than ochem or physics, my friend. at least you will be using those principles you learn when studying for psych again once you are in med school and beyond.

Does it, most psych is common sense imo. Its like the science and terminology behind the stuff I already knew or assumed. There were few "novel" concepts I learned in psych...just a boatload of terms.

Glad I'll [hopefully] be done with this mcat nonsense by this may

I agree that not only is the content change frustrating but also the year they chose to implement this new version. if i decide to take the MCAT in my junior year i will have the old version but if i decide to retake i will have to take the new version. Which one should i study for? I have some time to think though.

Originally Posted by BrandonR

I agree that not only is the content change frustrating but also the year they chose to implement this new version. if i decide to take the MCAT in my junior year i will have the old version but if i decide to retake i will have to take the new version. Which one should i study for? I have some time to think though.

Obviously take it junior year! It's gonna be a hell of a lot easier to study for since you have so much material

I got so lucky... I'll be taking the 2014 MCAT so I don't have to deal with this extra crap.

This really is crazy that they are doing this... I can't imagine being a pre-med right now trying to study for this test : (

There is so much hatred and prejudice in this thread, I am honestly amazed that some of you want to be doctors. Being a doctor is all about being sensitive and kindly toward patients.

Yeah, new MCAT looks awful. I thought the point of the MCAT was, besides providing an objective point of measurement besides GPA, making sure that med. students going in had the necessary background in the basic sciences to be able to start learning the clinical sciences. Hence the emphasis on bio, orgo, chem and physics.

Now the purpose of the MCAT is... Propagating the bull**** universities love to spew at their students?

Originally Posted by LossForWords

I read the OP's post in Rush Limbaugh's voice for some reason.

Originally Posted by link2swim06

Does it, most psych is common sense imo. Its like the science and terminology behind the stuff I already knew or assumed. There were few "novel" concepts I learned in psych...just a boatload of terms.

are we talking about psychology or psychiatry? very different. the latter is not so much common sense and you have to study all of the guidelines and rules for what Sx qualify for what disorder, etc.

Originally Posted by lossforwords

i read the op's post in rush limbaugh's voice for some reason.

I'm watching this closely because I will have to make changes at WikiPremed over the next few years to respond to this. I'm not happy about that mountain of work to keep my project relevant, and so my first instinct is to complain. It's in my disposition too. My own feeling from teaching so many premeds in small group session over the years is that the folks entering United States medical schools really need more attention on their hard sciences. MCAT review is a crucial stage for integration and deepening of the knowledge, and so I don't want to see folks distracted from this important work. This may not make me many friends to say this. Please don't be discouraged by what I say, but given the time and effort invested by everyone involved, by both students and teachers, the scientific understanding of future doctors really is not so good in this country, and my feeling is that the AAMC is only pushing the curriculum in the wrong direction, so it will only get worse. This gives me a terrible helpless feeling. I am crying in the wilderness. Students today know more facts than they did twenty years ago, but there is less understanding, especially of the underlying foundation. I guess I have to say I am opposed to this dilution of focus in MCAT review, no matter how well intentioned the changes. I hope nobody takes this the wrong way, but for me the general down-rating of organic chemistry, both by the AAMC over the past decade, and in this thread, is an example of a deeper problem. It is absolutely true that a doctor will never think about acyl substitution in clinic, but without having achieved a high fluency in organic chemistry that person never actually understood even the simplest living system. Good medicine is not just a treatment rubric but it also has a basis in a doctor's own understanding of general science.

Now with regard to the original comment in this thread, for my part, I just haven't seen any evidence of an underlying political agenda in the planned MCAT changes. There is no political content to encouraging future doctors to have a better understanding of human psychology. This will be a practical benefit to patients. The medical schools are hijacking MCAT review a bit. I wish they wouldn't, but I think it is because they want to be able to communicate using common, accepted language within advanced, specific coursework in medical school regarding social interactions and individual psychology as they relate to a clinician's daily interactions with their patients. That's what I think. An aspect of MCAT review which doesn't get too much attention is that MCAT review is not only about filtering out students but about compelling you to get strong in what you need for medical school. I think medical schools are feeling limited in developing courses they feel a positive need for because students are coming in without even the introductory language.

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