Which type of student does better on the MCAT?

[Biology4Life84]

Given the following which person does better on the MCAT?

Person A: Knows all the facts covered on the outline for the MCAT but lacks real problem solving skills...

Person B: Knows some of the facts on the outline for the MCAT but also has expert skills in problem solving.

Does it matter to have a working knowledge of intimate details of concepts? Or do the real problem solvers prevail with higher scores?

Any advice would be appreciated

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[BerkReviewTeach]

In my experience, Person B scores better on the MCAT. It does not mean you don't need both a strong working knowledge (especially vocabulary) and test-taking skills, but being able to reason out problems when you don't fully grasp the concept helps more than knowing the details and facts associated with a concept really well, but not being able to apply it to an unfamiliar situation. If the MCAT were untimed and had more straight-forward recall questions, then Person A would excel. But with a limited amount of time and many questions requiring the assimilation of multiple concepts, reasoning wins out.

 

[iusesharpies]

I think problem solving will get you a long way but there will always be questions that require you to straight up know specifics. So if you don't know all of the facts, you may have to be okay with guessing on those type of questions and moving on to others you can reason through.

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

Given the following which person does better on the MCAT?

Person A: Knows all the facts covered on the outline for the MCAT but lacks real problem solving skills...

Person B: Knows some of the facts on the outline for the MCAT but also has expert skills in problem solving.

Does it matter to have a working knowledge of intimate details of concepts? Or do the real problem solvers prevail with higher scores?

Any advice would be appreciated

If these were the only options, I'd say B. But, in reality, it should be a mix of the two. Know as much content as you can while honing your critical thinking/ problem-solving skills. You must have a working knowledge of many concepts for the MCAT and just being a "good problem-solver" without knowing those details will not work in your favor.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

As said, you want a mix of the two. But while there will be some questions that you essentially just have to know, the majority of questions will lend themselves to problem solving skills.

 

[Zenabi90]

There's a reason why most successful prep plans strike a balance between content review and passage practice. You need elements of both to succeed on this test. Also your A:B comparison isn't really fair, as A has no problem solving skills but B has some content knowledge.

If I had a choice between say
A. 75% content mastery, 25% problem solving
B. 25% content mastery, 75% problem solving

I'd probably go with B. The MCAT is not the memorization test it once was. There has been a large shift across the board exams towards less pure memorization and more problem solving/lateral thinking/2nd and 3rd order thinking. This includes the Step exams in medical school.

It's also generally easier to teach content mastery than problem solving (not that it can be done, its just harder). So I'd rather be person B than person A.