Any one else finding the MCAT pointless and unjust?

[Corpus Callosum]

---

Members do not see this ad.

They close the first thread, we'll open another one, why not,

 

[kgmed23]

pointless and unjust?

ill tell you on sept 12, 5pm

Expect it to be delayed for another 2-3 days.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

A test for an admission to medical school has TWICE (x2) English than Biology
and TWICE English than chemistry, TWICE English than organic chemistry TWICE English than physics
in other words MEDICAL COLLEGE ADMISSION TEST HAS:

X2 Humanities than SCIENCES, and for what, becoming a doctor

Does anyone see anything wrong with this ?

Okay simple question to make this more amenable to some people who may favor english, and this is their favorite section
Why can't the verbal section be half a section, and some other science be full section? what is more important for a doctor ?

 

[DrBowtie]

A test for an admission to medical school has TWICE (x2) English than Biology
and TWICE English than chemistry, TWICE English than organic chemistry TWICE English than physics
in other words MEDICAL COLLEGE ADMISSION TEST HAS:

X2 Humanities than SCIENCES, and for what, becoming a doctor

Does anyone see anything wrong with this ?

Okay simple question to make this more amenable to some people who may favor english, and this is their favorite section
Why can't the verbal section be half a section, and some other science be full section? what is more important for a doctor ?

Absolutely. You may know all the science in the world, but being a doctor is all about communicating your point effectively verbally and written (in charts). The #1 characteristic I heard at my interview this past week they were looking for was effective communication skills.

And before you get slammed by the grammar police, you should probably clean up your post.

 

[scgamer2000]

A test for an admission to medical school has TWICE (x2) English than Biology
and TWICE English than chemistry, TWICE English than organic chemistry TWICE English than physics
in other words MEDICAL COLLEGE ADMISSION TEST HAS:

X2 Humanities than SCIENCES, and for what, becoming a doctor

Does anyone see anything wrong with this ?

Okay simple question to make this more amenable to some people who may favor english, and this is their favorite section
Why can't the verbal section be half a section, and some other science be full section? what is more important for a doctor ?

Twice as much English as science?

Yes, it has twice as much English as biology, twice as much English as general chemistry, twice as much English as organic chem, and twice as much English as physics.

However, biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics are all sciences, and you're quadruple-counting the verbal reasoning portion. There's twice as much science as there is English. More, in fact:

52 questions of physical sciences
52 questions of biological sciences
= 104 questions on science

vs 40 questions on verbal reasoning.

On a side note, do you disagree with my statement that other people who are non-native speakers of English have taken the MCAT and ultimately gotten into medical school?

 

[durrrr]

A test for an admission to medical school has TWICE (x2) English than Biology
and TWICE English than chemistry, TWICE English than organic chemistry TWICE English than physics
in other words MEDICAL COLLEGE ADMISSION TEST HAS:

X2 Humanities than SCIENCES, and for what, becoming a doctor

Does anyone see anything wrong with this ?

Okay simple question to make this more amenable to some people who may favor english, and this is their favorite section
Why can't the verbal section be half a section, and some other science be full section? what is more important for a doctor ?

No offense, but the fact that you do poorly in verbal makes it no surprise that you can't reason this out for yourself.

Congrats on the great science scores, but IMO, the AAMC CBT science sections are ridiculously easy. Verbal is tough for people because it requires the individual to develop thinking strategies and models for attacking the problems, something that has to be done individually, and not taught. IMO, because of that, verbal is way more an appropriate indicator... but that's just me.

 

[gdawg102]

That is the hope in the near future,, my individual opinion standing on by itself, will not weigh heavily, but after recruiting a significant number of people through conversations and debates such as this, we may at some point protest a change.

I'm not sure if this effort will be helpful to most of us seeing that I don't think you will be able to accomplish this as soon as you say but I'm sure our children will appreciate it very much. Pray tell though, do you plan on taking this unfair version of the MCAT? Or will you dedicate your entire life to changing this test to make it fair? In any case, good luck on your ventures.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

No offense, but the fact that you do poorly in verbal makes it no surprise that you can't reason this out for yourself.

Congrats on the great science scores, but IMO, the AAMC CBT science sections are ridiculously easy. Verbal is tough for people because it requires the individual to develop thinking strategies and models for attacking the problems, something that has to be done individually, and not taught. IMO, because of that, verbal is way more an appropriate indicator... but that's just me.

All what verbal requires is to undestand the passage and be a fast reader, it takes only a minimal amount of reasoning to answer the questions after this is accomplished. If you are trying to say that literature is more important than science, maybe you should not be here then, go become a poet,

 

[Corpus Callosum]

Twice as much English as science?

Yes, it has twice as much English as biology, twice as much English as general chemistry, twice as much English as organic chem, and twice as much English as physics.

However, biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics are all sciences, and you're quadruple-counting the verbal reasoning portion. There's twice as much science as there is English. More, in fact:

52 questions of physical sciences
52 questions of biological sciences
= 104 questions on science

vs 40 questions on verbal reasoning.

On a side note, do you disagree with my statement that other people who are non-native speakers of English have taken the MCAT and ultimately gotten into medical school?[/quote]
I agree with you, but you have to remember that lots of those people, although being non-native speakers, came from english speaking dominated and school based countries.

 

[SN2ed]

Just out of curiosity, how much time do you take to read a passage? I've always thought reading slowly was the best method. So I just take 4 minutes to read the passage, then answer the questions. I'm not sure if this is fast, but I don't believe it is. I could be wrong though. So far I have never had to guess on a verbal question due to time constraints. The extra time I spend on reading makes up for itself when I answer the questions. Maybe try this method and see if it helps you. This way you, hopefully, won't be stressed using up time to read the passage. I realized that for some who want to read really fast, they lose a good deal in comprehension because they focus too much on just reading fast. This occupies their mind instead of the passage. So as the minutes go by, the person is thinking about how slow they're reading rather than the passage.

 

[cheezer]

My score on any section of the MCAT is irrelevant to this debate.
Even if I or anyone else score 15 on the verbal reasoning section, does not make this test anymore valid than it already is, just like prostitution is despicable but turns in substantial profits,

All what verbal requires is to undestand the passage and be a fast reader, it takes only a minimal amount of reasoning to answer the questions after this is accomplished.

Considering some of the statements you've made, I'd say your practice scores are very relevant to this debate. Your downplaying of the verbal section would have a different connotation were you not struggling with it.

If you are trying to say that literature is more important than science, maybe you should not be here then, go become a poet,

He was addressing the difficulty between sections, not their relative importance. I'm not sure how saying that verbal is harder than the sciences on the practice tests implies that one should become a poet.

Twice as much English as science?

Yes, it has twice as much English as biology, twice as much English as general chemistry, twice as much English as organic chem, and twice as much English as physics.

However, biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics are all sciences, and you're quadruple-counting the verbal reasoning portion. There's twice as much science as there is English. More, in fact:

52 questions of physical sciences
52 questions of biological sciences
= 104 questions on science

vs 40 questions on verbal reasoning.

On a side note, do you disagree with my statement that other people who are non-native speakers of English have taken the MCAT and ultimately gotten into medical school?[/quote]
I agree with you, but you have to remember that lots of those people, although being non-native speakers, came from english speaking dominated and school based countries.

You've been here for nine years and have a bs/ms from here; I think this qualifies you as a non-native speaker from an "english speaking dominated and school based country."

 

[heymanooh1]

VR: 8(and I used 10 to 15 more minutes on each test on this section)

I foresee a 6 or less in your future MCAT VR score.

 

[UCDavisdude]

Learn a foreign language so that you have some first hand experience, then talk.

cytotoxic is correct. havent u taken a general psych course. if not, u should, its rather interesting

 

[brianoflee]

Just out of curiosity, Corpus, when are you taking your MCAT?

 

[Corpus Callosum]

I foresee a 6 or less in your future MCAT VR score.

Exactly right, I know that, when the time is up, I would always have one passage remaining, sometimes two.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

Just out of curiosity, Corpus, when are you taking your MCAT?

Friday, Sept 7th

 

[Dulcina]

corpus--
don't you think that reading speed is correlated with reasoning? That perhaps, you read faster if you can comprehend the information more quickly?...it also saves time if you don't have to go back and re-read the information.

anyways, go take your test and be done with it.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

corpus--
don't you think that reading speed is correlated with reasoning? That perhaps, you read faster if you can comprehend the information more quickly?...it also saves time if you don't have to go back and re-read the information.

anyways, go take your test and be done with it.

Dulcina,
No I don't, because if I can't understand the terms, sentences, and complex use of words, how can I possibly reason? See, it is natural for Americans not to understand this dillema from our prespective, when me and you read a passage, it is not the same, you only have to reason when you read, for me I have two stages: translate to "me", to understand, and then reason the ideas, if the former fails, the latter is impossible to achieve. I don't have a problem with reasoning, and that is evident by my high score in sciences on the practice tests.

 

[Cytotoxic]

Dulcina,
No I don't, because if I can't understand the terms, sentences, and complex use of words, how can I possibly reason? See, it is natural for Americans not to understand this dillema from our prespective, when me and you read a passage, it is not the same, you only have to reason when you read, for me I have two stages: translate to "me", to understand, and then reason the ideas, if the former fails, the latter is impossible to achieve. I don't have a problem with reasoning, and that is evident by my high score in sciences on the practice tests.

I completely agree that the VR is not fair to you, or anyone else with a deficiency in the English language. However, as many have said, this is an English speaking country. You will have to read and interpret patient data and histories in English. You will have to communicate with patients in English. If you can't master English to a high enough level to do that, you should not be practicing medicine in a predominately English-speaking country.

 

[durrrr]

All what verbal requires is to undestand the passage and be a fast reader, it takes only a minimal amount of reasoning to answer the questions after this is accomplished. If you are trying to say that literature is more important than science, maybe you should not be here then, go become a poet,

You claim that you don't even understand a passages a lot of the time, but you feel you are capable of analyzing VR well? lolololo.

I wouldn't want anyone who couldn't finish the VR on time to be my doctor in an English speaking world. That's just scary.

You'd have to be pretty bad at English, slow in reading or slow in thinking to not finish the VR on time on a regular basis, and if that's the case, I don't think you should be in medical school (to practice in an English speaking society). Just my opinion, I'm sure many will disagree.

 

[BlueCow]

I completely agree that the VR is not fair to you, or anyone else with a deficiency in the English language. However, as many have said, this is an English speaking country. You will have to read and interpret patient data and histories in English. You will have to communicate with patients in English. If you can't master English to a high enough level to do that, you should not be practicing medicine in a predominately English-speaking country.

I speak English well and communicate well with people. I can read medicine books very well and comprehend it easily. However I can't understand passages such as philosphy where it argues in a circle. Is that mean I will have problems communicating with patients?

 

[Corpus Callosum]

You claim that you don't even understand a passages a lot of the time, but you feel you are capable of analyzing VR well? lolololo.

I wouldn't want anyone who couldn't finish the VR on time to be my doctor in an English speaking world. That's just scary.

You'd have to be pretty bad at English, slow in reading or slow in thinking to not finish the VR on time on a regular basis, and if that's the case, I don't think you should be in medical school (to practice in an English speaking society). Just my opinion, I'm sure many will disagree.

I am way past a pre-med major to be slow in thinking, don't you think? (no offense to other premeds)
You know, it strikes me, when you want to criticize others and tell them what they can or can't achieve, maybe you aught to rise to their level of achievements first...

 

[Corpus Callosum]

I completely agree that the VR is not fair to you, or anyone else with a deficiency in the English language. However, as many have said, this is an English speaking country. You will have to read and interpret patient data and histories in English. You will have to communicate with patients in English. If you can't master English to a high enough level to do that, you should not be practicing medicine in a predominately English-speaking country.

I don't understand, you are trying to link patient's well being, reading charts and medical books with reading a verbal reasoning passage about rock formations, philosophy,...? There is a huge disparity between the two, and you claim to be the science research person that you are!!!

 

[Cytotoxic]

I speak English well and communicate well with people. I can read medicine books very well and comprehend it easily. However I can't understand passages such as philosphy where it argues in a circle. Is that mean I will have problems communicating with patients?

No, understanding abstract philosophy passages is a matter of reasoning. I was responding to CC's complaints about the VR not being fair to those without a mastery of the English language.

 

[scgamer2000]

All what verbal requires is to undestand the passage and be a fast reader, it takes only a minimal amount of reasoning to answer the questions after this is accomplished.

I think there's a difference between reasoning in the sciences and reasoning in humanities. In a science passage, you're presented with data--the reasoning comes about in analyzing the data. It's rather easy to "understand" the data--the meaning of a chart that says on day 3, there were 50 cells in the dish and on day 5, there were 300 is quite obvious.

In verbal reasoning, "reasoning" and "understanding" are basically the same thing. You're almost making it sound as if reading quickly is the primary driving force behind understanding the passage, and that's simply not true (somebody's gotta be scoring those 3s and 4s in the section). Granted, reading it quickly will let you get a superficial understanding of the material, but the questions are often about reading between the lines and drawing implicit relationships between different ideas presented in the passage.

On a side note, do you disagree with my statement that other people who are non-native speakers of English have taken the MCAT and ultimately gotten into medical school?

I agree with you, but you have to remember that lots of those people, although being non-native speakers, came from english speaking dominated and school based countries.

I'm sure that's true. My mom is from the Philippines and so took English in grade school--thus she speaks with no hint of an accent whatsoever and can reason in the language just fine. But while lots of people might come from countries where English is taught alongside another language, a lot don't come from such countries. A lot of observers are somewhat worried that our science and engineering graduate programs are full of immigrants (mostly because it begs the question about why native-born Americans aren't doing well enough to get in). But those students presumably had to take the GRE. I doubt they did amazingly well on the verbal reasoning section of that test, but they still got in. You don't see them complaining about how unfair and evil the test is. They just accept that the test was made with a somewhat different person in mind (i.e. one who has a strong command of the English language) and trust the admissions officers can see past that.

You will have to communicate with patients in English. If you can't master English to a high enough level to do that, you should not be practicing medicine in a predominately English-speaking country.

To be fair, I think there's a difference between communicating with patients or reading their records and analyzing some piece of literature on the MCAT. (I'd also add that the average patient wouldn't do too well on MCAT verbal reasoning, so I don't think you need to be afraid that their command of the language is too sophisticated for the OP)

 

[Cytotoxic]

I don't understand, you are trying to link patien's well being, reading charts and medical books with reading a verbal reasoning passage about rock formations, philosophy,...? There is a huge disparity between the two, and you claim to be the science research person that you are!!!

What does it matter what the VR passages are about? If you have an adequate command of English, you should be able to read them without much trouble.

 

[brianoflee]

when you want to criticize others (...) maybe you aught to rise to their level achievements first...

This is a little unfair, Corpus. I agree with you to an extent -- in the sense that I wouldn't want a high-school dropout criticizing my study methods -- but can you really expect everyone to have one Masters and two Bachelor degrees in order to disagree with you? By those standards most MDs wouldn't even be qualified 😳

Good luck on your exam tomorrow, btw.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

This is a little unfair, Corpus. I agree with you to an extent -- in the sense that I wouldn't want a high-school dropout criticizing my study methods -- but can you really expect everyone to have one Masters and two Bachelor degrees in order to disagree with you? By those standards most MDs wouldn't even be qualified 😳

Good luck on your exam tomorrow, btw.

Thank you very much, I appreciate.
No, you don't have to have anything to disagree with me, and I would even accept advice from a highschool drop out, this is all fine with me, but what is not fine is when people pass judgment on me harshly and try to challenge me and accuse me of slow thinking and being unfit to me a doctor, I was replying to his post. Those are his words which were way past disagreement

"I wouldn't want anyone who couldn't finish the VR on time to be my doctor in an English speaking world. That's just scary.

You'd have to be pretty bad at English, slow in reading or slow in thinking to not finish the VR on time on a regular basis, and if that's the case, I don't think you should be in medical school (to practice in an English speaking society)."

I am noticing that people blame me fOR what I write constantly, and fail to look above, and notice what the first person had said, forcing me to reply the way I do, as if I am always the one to blame and can't reply, but others can say whatever they want about me, not fair, notice I never attack anyone except after being attacked, when the bullets come your way, men don't hide, besides I am only stating facts then because that individual had brought it upon him/her self
Good luck to you too if you are taking the mcat also.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

If you cant speak english well, why not go to medical school where they speak your language???

 

[gujuDoc]

What does it matter what the VR passages are about? If you have an adequate command of English, you should be able to read them without much trouble.

I agree that the VR is there to test your reasoning skills. The reason people say it most correlates to the USMLE is because in other parts of the MCAT you often don't have to read the whole science passage to even get the basic gist of the passage, or in other cases you don't even have to look to the passage for the answers because the answers lie in outside knowledge.

The point of the verbal is to test one's ability to reason without regards to outside information. After starting grad school, I do believe that the ability to critically read well is important. Some of the basic principles we've been going over in our scientific ethics and writing course are basic principles that was in the book I was reading on analytical reading skills and the levels of reading.

The reason why VR is more importance then science in basic skills that youngsters should have is because those who can critically read and have a good grasp of the language can pick up any subject easily whether it is science, math, philosophy, etc. and often teach themselves through literature.

That being said, I don't know whether I'd agree that VR defines your ability to be a great doctor and I've know several people who've struggled with the MCAT but made it in despite the odds through doing special masters programs or if they were a URM by getting in one of the HBCs etc. and they are doing fine now. A friend of mine at USF IMS program told me that he interviewed at the Gtown GEMS program and they were telling them there that someone with a 22 MCAT had matched into general surgery after doing the GEMS program and making it into their medical school.

So definitely anything is possible. However, the MCAT isn't going away because people need some way to standardize things considering the different levels of difficulty from courses, instructors within an institution teaching the same course, differences in difficulty from one school to another, and so forth. It gives a weed out mechanism to admissions committees and a way of putting applicants on the same playing field.

 

[cheezer]

10+ verbal for Corpus!!

 

[Tan008]

10+ verbal for Corpus!!

good luck Corpus!

man though...cheezer, your pictures freakes me out soooo much...it pretty much sums up my MCAT experience

 

[axp107]

I don't understand, you are trying to link patient's well being, reading charts and medical books with reading a verbal reasoning passage about rock formations, philosophy,...? There is a huge disparity between the two, and you claim to be the science research person that you are!!!

I completely agree with you... my neighbor's parents are Indian... they don't have a great command of the english language.. except, they're the best cardiologists in town and make millions a year (in their private practice together.. husband and wife). Why are they they the best? They know what they're doing.. and they're nice and amiable. As long as you're good at what you do and can atleast read charts, you'll be successful. It's impossible to EVEN try and argue otherwise.

Both were born and raised in mud huts in tiny villages btw.

It just irks me when I see 19 and 20 year olds blindly putting faith in the MCAT, assuming its the final determinant of your life. NO, it is not.. chances are.. even if you get a 14 Verbal, you can end up working under an immigrant with a 7 VR from another country.

/ thread

Corpus, I understand you think it's unfair.. just study your butt off for the sciences and hope for the best on Verbal. Then again, complaining about it will change nothing... Good luck. Just know you can be successful in life without double digit Verbal scores. The MCAT is just a hoop to jump through.. you can do it. Honestly, once you get in, nobody is going to care/ask you about your MCAT scores.

 

[Meatwad]

I speak English well and communicate well with people. I can read medicine books very well and comprehend it easily. However I can't understand passages such as philosphy where it argues in a circle. Is that mean I will have problems communicating with patients?

Are you a doctor? If not, how do you or all of us know you comprehend it easily. That's a bold statement from someone who has not gone through formal medical training.

I believe a doctor should possess many qualities, and not just be a scientist. The VR section is just a way to further sift through applicants, in an attempt to accept as well-rounded an individual as possible. If that means keeping out some potentially excellent doctor's who don't have great skills on the verbal section, so be it; there are 10 other kids who will get a 10 on the VR who will become just as competent doctors. No offense, but the system as a whole will not miss you; it won't miss me, either. There are plenty of qualified warm bodies to fill seats at med schools.

The system's not always in your favor: suck it up. Life isn't fair, and sometimes all the hard work in the world won't get you what you want.

 

[Dulcina]

Reading speed is not correlated with reasoning powers. Rather it is the ability to quickly analyze and figure out what you are reading means. I was reading a book on analytical reading over the summer and reading really has 4 stages if you include the last state of comparative reading across different but similar pieces of literature.

I guess I was unclear. I dont think that the speed it takes you to read a sentence (understanding or not) is correlated with reasoning powers. But I DO think that if you try to absorb... say... 80% of the gist, then it becomes correlated.

When I started practicing for VR, I read slowly, because I was trying to absorb a lot of the info. By the end, I was reading much more quickly, absorbing the same amount of info.

Of course, if i'm just reading without really trying--like the stuff i read for fun (ie, not actively reading), then I agree, reading speed is not correlated with reasoning skill.

 

[Dulcina]

The system's not always in your favor: suck it up. Life isn't fair, and sometimes all the hard work in the world won't get you what you want.

agree. And to CC's previous comment that he would still complain/debate this issue if he were getting good VR scores because the mcat is unfair... i dont believe it. are you so kind that you would complain for those poor ppl unfairly getting low VR scores? why don't you focus your energies on something else? a lot in the world isnt fair, the mcat is pretty small on the scale of "unfairness"

 

[Corpus Callosum]

agree. And to CC's previous comment that he would still complain/debate this issue if he were getting good VR scores because the mcat is unfair... i dont believe it. are you so kind that you would complain for those poor ppl unfairly getting low VR scores? why don't you focus your energies on something else? a lot in the world isnt fair, the mcat is pretty small on the scale of "unfairness"

How do you know I am not? You don't know the least about me.
I already have many career choices in life but I decided to leave all aside and study medicine to go back and serve my people. I come from an underepresented indigent society that is lacking medical care, where poeple don't need a pilot or an engineer, they need doctors who can improve their health and alleviate their pains. And this is my objective in life. I am not into this for wealth, prestige, or personal gains.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

I completely agree with you... my neighbor's parents are Indian... they don't have a great command of the english language.. except, they're the best cardiologists in town and make millions a year (in their private practice together.. husband and wife). Why are they they the best? They know what they're doing.. and they're nice and amiable. As long as you're good at what you do and can atleast read charts, you'll be successful. It's impossible to EVEN try and argue otherwise.

Both were born and raised in mud huts in tiny villages btw.

It just irks me when I see 19 and 20 year olds blindly putting faith in the MCAT, assuming its the final determinant of your life. NO, it is not.. chances are.. even if you get a 14 Verbal, you can end up working under an immigrant with a 7 VR from another country.

/ thread

Corpus, I understand you think it's unfair.. just study your butt off for the sciences and hope for the best on Verbal. Then again, complaining about it will change nothing... Good luck. Just know you can be successful in life without double digit Verbal scores. The MCAT is just a hoop to jump through.. you can do it. Honestly, once you get in, nobody is going to care/ask you about your MCAT scores.

You are one of the very few my friend, one of the very few
Thanks appreciate it the advice although I sucked big time on the verbal today though, aghh I have a headache from today's verbal

 

[Corpus Callosum]

good luck Corpus!

man though...cheezer, your pictures freakes me out soooo much...it pretty much sums up my MCAT experience

Thanks appreciate it.
Ya cheezer's picture is exactly like you said, AAMC should have the same picture on the first page of the mcat

 

[Corpus Callosum]

10+ verbal for Corpus!!

sure when I quessed on 60% of the questions,

 

[mindquick]

MCAT verbal scores correlate very closely to USMLE Step 1 scores, so it's just something you got to get good at.

 

[BlueCow]

MCAT verbal scores correlate very closely to USMLE Step 1 scores, so it's just something you got to get good at.

Correlation is not predictive. It is not a cause and effect. It is just statistics.

I read somewhere that there is a high correlation of the sunspot cycle and the election on the Democrat politicians in the US.

 

[scgamer2000]

MCAT verbal scores correlate very closely to USMLE Step 1 scores, so it's just something you got to get good at.

I keep hearing people say that, but I'm not sure where it's from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCAT#The_MCAT_today

It says that the best single section correlation comes from BS, then PS, and lastly VR (.553, .491, and .397, respectively). None of those are particularly good, to be honest. (You can use your school's resources to get access to the original study.) If you look at the MCAT interpretive manual (http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/mcatinterpmanual05.pdf) then you'll find that the test as a whole has a 0.70 correlation coefficient with USMLE Step 1 performance, which is a pretty darned good relationship. You need the whole test to get a good predictor of performance.

Correlation is not predictive. It is not a cause and effect. It is just statistics.

Nothing in statistics is ever predictive or able to establish cause and effect. The question is whether or not there's good reason to suspect that the correlation means something. There's a direct correlation between education level and salary. But it would be absurd to dismiss this as being mere statistics. The MCAT focuses 2/3rds of its question (i.e. non-essay) on your knowledge and reasoning involving basic sciences. USMLE Step 1 does the same thing. Is it logically necessary that the MCAT be predictive of USMLE scores? No. Is there a good reason to suspect it is? Hell yeah.

 

[jon stewart]

sure when I quessed on 60% of the questions,

hey corpus,

did you ever fly commercial aircraft?
here comes the childish side of me....did you ever play flight simulator..hahha?

i wanted to be a commercial airline pilot after becomming a doc but my eyes suck and i wear contacts so good bye to that idea.....

 

[Corpus Callosum]

hey corpus,

did you ever fly commercial aircraft?
here comes the childish side of me....did you ever play flight simulator..hahha?

i wanted to be a commercial airline pilot after becomming a doc but my eyes suck and i wear contacts so good bye to that idea.....

Yes I did a few times, but most of the planes I fly are little Cessna's. I am a flight instructor, I teach students so we use little planes.
As for vision you can still be a commercial pilot, that does not stop you, you would have restriction on your liscense that you can't fly without corrective lenses on, that's all, but you can fly. What you can't be however, is a military pilot, you can't fly F-16's with poor vision. So for commercial flight, you can keep that idea going, you can do it.
As for stimulators, no I have not, all the training I did was on actual planes, although stimulators were much cheaper, but it never feels real, I prefer the actual thing,
Good luck.

 

[BrokenGlass]

cytotoxic is correct. havent u taken a general psych course. if not, u should, its rather interesting

dude, scientific *theories* change, get refined, modified, and proved wrong as often as the wind changes direction. Haven't you been paying attention in any of the science course you might have taken? A person who trusts *theories" 100% cannot even begin to call him/her self a scientist. You can read journals all you want, but if you don't have firsthand experience of what you are taking about, then you remind me of someone who spends 4 years studying everything about baseball without ever swinging a bat.

Also, everybody would benefit more from this board if people who know enough MCAT-related science spent their time answering questions instead of getting into pissing contests.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

Broken Glass,
How did you do on the MCAT and what did you think of it? Didn't you take with us on Sept 7th?

 

[BrokenGlass]

I completely agree with you... my neighbor's parents are Indian... they don't have a great command of the english language.. except, they're the best cardiologists in town and make millions a year (in their private practice together.. husband and wife). Why are they they the best? They know what they're doing.. and they're nice and amiable. As long as you're good at what you do and can atleast read charts, you'll be successful. It's impossible to EVEN try and argue otherwise.

Both were born and raised in mud huts in tiny villages btw.

It just irks me when I see 19 and 20 year olds blindly putting faith in the MCAT, assuming its the final determinant of your life. NO, it is not.. chances are.. even if you get a 14 Verbal, you can end up working under an immigrant with a 7 VR from another country.

/ thread

Corpus, I understand you think it's unfair.. just study your butt off for the sciences and hope for the best on Verbal. Then again, complaining about it will change nothing... Good luck. Just know you can be successful in life without double digit Verbal scores. The MCAT is just a hoop to jump through.. you can do it. Honestly, once you get in, nobody is going to care/ask you about your MCAT scores.

Yeah man, it's ridiculous how many people here think of themselves as professional deep thinkers and as experts on what it takes to be a good doctor. They like to cite statistics in attempting to prove their claims. Numbers can be scewed, massaged, and misrepresented to prove almost anything. Many of these *studies* are biased and are loaded with assumptions. Correlation beween blah and blah. Blah blah. Whatever.

 

[jon stewart]

Yes I did a few times, but most of the planes I fly are little Cessna's. I am a flight instructor, I teach students so we use little planes.
As for vision you can still be a commercial pilot, that does not stop you, you would have restriction on your liscense that you can't fly without corrective lenses on, that's all, but you can fly. What you can't be however, is a military pilot, you can't fly F-16's with poor vision. So for commercial flight, you can keep that idea going, you can do it.
As for stimulators, no I have not, all the training I did was on actual planes, although stimulators were much cheaper, but it never feels real, I prefer the actual thing,
Good luck.

ohh where would i go to get pilot training at the age of around 50ish...after working as a doc for 20 or so years? is it even possible to get a liscence at that age? please dont tell me it takes 4 years.....and then another three for a residency in the type of bird i want to fly.....

 

[PreMD86]

Can I get an amen for corpus' account being on hold?

 

[LadyLightning20]

I speak English well and communicate well with people. I can read medicine books very well and comprehend it easily. However I can't understand passages such as philosphy where it argues in a circle. Is that mean I will have problems communicating with patients?

nope. I was a national tier debater in high school, VR has always been my highest scoring section (come on, sept 12th!!) and I feel like my brain is exploding when I read philosophy and stuff like that. I can communicate just fine, just not about stuff like that.