Does the MCAT determine how good a doctor you will be or how smart you are?

[Unis]

I'm feeling terrible right now because I took the MCAT today (Jan. 30) and I voided because I felt too uncomfortable with it. I am now debating whether that was the right decision or not but I can't take it back.

But does this exam determine whether you will make a good doctor because I feel like a failure because of it and it breaks my heart to think that I will just make a miserable doctor because I can't seem to do well on it. Does it determine how smart you are? Please give me your opinions.

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[vanillabreen]

I'm feeling terrible right now because I took the MCAT today (Jan. 30) and I voided because I felt too uncomfortable with it. I am now debating whether that was the right decision or not but I can't take it back.

But does this exam determine whether you will make a good doctor because I feel like a failure because of it and it breaks my heart to think that I will just make a miserable doctor because I can't seem to do well on it. Does it determine how smart you are? Please give me your opinions.

I'm so sorry you had to void. Must have been a hard decision. I wanted to void after PS when I took it yesterday, but then I sucked it up and realized this is my last chance (I'm in a 7-Year-Program and this is the only MCAT I can take in order to get in the following semester).

But anyway, sometimes I really felt like this test determined if you can become a doctor - thinking analytically, putting all your knowledge to "diagnose" an ambiguous case or in this case a convoluted passage.

But the MCAT is just a test. You are beyond a test. If you shadowed doctors, volunteered in hospitals, have a strong understanding in your sciences, and an overall love and passion for the medical field then THAT is what determines how well a doctor you can become. It all boils down to what you want and how determined you are.

Do you want to become a doctor? If you really BADLY do then you'll take the test again and nail it this time. This test is just a hurdle not an indication.

 

[LostInStudy]

Absolutely not. This doesn't determine if you're a good doctor at all, that all just comes down to the individual, not an exam. It doesn't determine how smart you are either. I think if you study hard enough then you can get at least a 30 no matter what your IQ or GPA is. I voided before because I didn't quite feel prepared and I did everything in my power this time to do well. I ended up doing 40 FLs and who knows how many questions outside the FLs. You just have to work on this test until doing it is second nature to you. I think, for me, voiding was the best decision I made at the time. Just hang in there, the mental side and how you treat yourself is the hardest part of it, not the actual studying or answering questions.

Hope this helps,

-LIS

 

[jckut10]

.

 

[equios]

+1 on the MCAT tests your ability to take the MCAT. All it is is another silly hoop that AAMC want you to jump through in order to study medicine. It has very little if any bearing on how good a physician you will be. In the end, all it is is just a game. Don't worry about it. If you get a bad score, you can retake it. Plus, as with any standardized test, your score will improve just by the sheer nature of you taking the test again and again.

 

[Mister T]

Honestly? No, no it doesn't.

It's supposed to be an exam that filters out people who are incompetent accordingly (which I think it does to an extent), but I have seen kids with mediocre scores and gpas get into MD schools here in America that end up as fine doctors (and by fine I mean they haven't killed anyone as far as I know of LOL).

The thing is is that medical school is mainly a lot of regurgitation and repetition or in other words HARD WORK.

Intelligence in many ways is going to cripple you if you rely on that.

One of my friends who got a 36 on the MCAT who basically slacked through undergrad, failed out of first year because he never developed a work ethic (not really his fault as he was never really challenged and never failed in life), even though he was deemed qualified to be accepted.

And I'm not just saying all of this to "inspire" you or make you feel better. It's the truth.

 

[TheBoondocks]

Honestly? No, no it doesn't.

It's supposed to be an exam that filters out people who are incompetent accordingly (which I think it does to an extent), but I have seen kids with mediocre scores and gpas get into MD schools here in America that end up as fine doctors (and by fine I mean they haven't killed anyone as far as I know of LOL).

The thing is is that medical school is mainly a lot of regurgitation and repetition or in other words HARD WORK.

Intelligence in many ways is going to cripple you if you rely on that.

One of my friends who got a 36 on the MCAT who basically slacked through undergrad, failed out of first year because he never developed a work ethic (not really his fault as he was never really challenged and never failed in life), even though he was deemed qualified to be accepted.

And I'm not just saying all of this to "inspire" you or make you feel better. It's the truth.

Wow, we agree a second time.............

I laugh at all of the gunners. I'm 24 and know a ton of med students. If you get a 20 yes, I think you will struggle with Step one etc. However, any one who scores 27 or better and has a work ethic can make it. I know of tons of 37 plus personally. They're all doing ok, the kids who dominate are the low 30's high 20s who work their but off. Innate ability matters later on in residency but without a work ethic, the first 2 years will kill you. I got a 14 PS 7 Vr 13 PS. A friend of mind got a 27. I can almost bet she would make a better physician and med student than me because of her unbelievable work ethic. She got A's in crazy upper level classes where I got Bs...... I will have to ramp up in medical school like lots of people.

 

[J ROD]

I'm feeling terrible right now because I took the MCAT today (Jan. 30) and I voided because I felt too uncomfortable with it. I am now debating whether that was the right decision or not but I can't take it back.

But does this exam determine whether you will make a good doctor because I feel like a failure because of it and it breaks my heart to think that I will just make a miserable doctor because I can't seem to do well on it. Does it determine how smart you are? Please give me your opinions.

no test can be a mere measure of an individual......

 

[Velocity]

There was supposedly a report released a while ago that correlated higher MCAT scores with better performance as a doctor, but I never saw the report myself (just heard that a dean of a medical school saw it and used it as justification for why they should up their minimum MCAT cutoff).

As others have said, the MCAT is just a test of how well you take the MCAT. It could be said that it's a partial measure of how well you might do in medical school, where there'll be a lot of material but very little depth. In fact, while the material is different, one could argue that the MCAT does the exact same thing (a lot of material, very little depth into any of it). But I wouldn't look into it more beyond that. There's a lot that goes into being a good doctor, and there's no way that the MCAT can evaluate that.

My own advice for you, is to not void your tests. I think that nearly everyone feels pretty terrible when they reach the end of their test. Actually, I've taken it twice, and the second time I took it I felt VERY confident (my preparation was much better than the first time I took it a few years earlier), and yet my score was worse - lower than I'd ever received on any of the numerous practice tests I'd done, even. If this would be your first official score, don't void it. It's practically a malicious rumor that medical schools hold it against you if you take it more than once (I say "practically" because there are probably some admissions officers out there who do look at it badly, but it seems that it's not the majority). The exam takes a ton of effort and time to prepare for, and it's not cheap. Unless you know that you didn't prepare well at all, just know that you probably won't feel confident at the end, and don't void it.

 

[Unis]

Thank you all for your responses they've helped a lot. I need to keep my focus and try this again. I know that if I got into medical school I would work very hard. But, unfortunately, if they don't see a good MCAT score from me they will not even give me a chance. I have to just keep trying.

 

[Spank]

Not at all. The best doctor I have even been to was my pediatrician. She was a DO.

 

[surftheiop]

I'm feeling terrible right now because I took the MCAT today (Jan. 30) and I voided because I felt too uncomfortable with it. I am now debating whether that was the right decision or not but I can't take it back.

But does this exam determine whether you will make a good doctor because I feel like a failure because of it and it breaks my heart to think that I will just make a miserable doctor because I can't seem to do well on it. Does it determine how smart you are? Please give me your opinions.

The MCAT tells you exactly 2 things In my opinion

1) How well you learned your Pre-Reqs

2)How good you are at taking tests

If I had to make a list of qualities I wanted in a doctor I dont think either of these would make it

 

[gassyPants]

I think your ability to get used to taking insane standardized exams reflects how mentally stable you will be after you become a doctor.

 

[Gauss44]

Answer to title: No.

Think of all the qualities it doesn't measure.

Plus MCAT has at least 2 serious flaws:

1. The test maker sometimes overlooks, or fails to think of, other completely valid perspectives.

(Example: A stand-alone question that says, "What can cause X? Answers choices: A. Y can. B. Z can. C. Q can. D. Y, Z, and C can." The answer might be Y can under certain circumstances, and Z can under other equally common circumstances, but Q does the opposite and clearly cannot cause X. There you have it, 2 valid answers, where there is no "best" answer because the test maker completely overlooked something about Y or Z. Test makers are imperfect human beings too. Minimizing these imperfections likely requires time and money so there's only so much that will be done to prevent it.)

2. The easier problem to prevent is one of setting a bad example: Unlike most other professions, the answer keys of most MCAT prep material is littered with insults, put-downs, belittling, and discouraging harsh remarks (and other negativity) aimed at students who choose a wrong answer. Ask anyone in a non-medical profession, and most other (not all) will agree that this is inappropriate, contagious, and ultimately harmful. A better choice would be a neutral* (non-insulting, non-belittling answer key), or better yet, an encouraging* one.

(I believe that pre-meds look up to advisers, adcoms, professors, and doctors, in a similar way to how a child looks up to a parent and older siblings, and in a similar way to how anyone might look up to a role model, and that what's said in MCAT answer keys works it's way into the next generation of doctors. Patients will ultimately be on the receiving end of whatever culture is set at these early stages.)

AAMC is better than most of the test prep companies when it comes to this, yet still has plenty of examples (of #1 and #2 above).

*TBR deserves credit for the encouraging statement on their books, "If you study, it will come." I find that tone far more appropriate and helpful, than negativity.

 

[csx]

No. I think the test is useless in determing how good a doctor you will be or if you can even get thru Medschool. But at the end of the day, there has to be SOMETHING to separate individual applicants outside GPA's/EC's. You can fake/bs EC's on your app but you cant fake your mcat score. I think the most important quality is that the physician is a people person, they have good communication skills, that they are empathetic etc, but how do you gauge that?