for all thy naysayers

[scdocusc]

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for those out there who say MCAT score means something.... I've found out in medical school thus far that It doesnt mean anything at all. Once you are in then its an open field. Doing well in medical school and on the boards is highly dependent on working hard. If you study a bunch every night then you will be at the top of your class. I didnt perform well on the MCAT personally but trust me when I say the MCAT is worthless in predicting performance in medical school. I'm living proof of that. SUCK ON THAT AAMC! I'm writing this not to lull you into a false sense of security about doing poorly on the MCAT but to let you know that you should never give up and dont let some of these no talent clowns on these boards rail you for having a low score. Good luck to everyone this cycle and let me know if you have questions and I'll try to answer them.

 

[RySerr21]

you mean if you score in the 20s on your MCAT you can still be a great physician!?!?! OMG someone should tell the pre allo people, cuz they seriously have no idea!!!!! Its a 35+ or off to the Caribbean. 🙄

haha.....thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Chocolate Bear]

The MCAT serves as a decently objective criterion by which pre meds can be evaluated. However, I agree that it's not the end-all that many schools and students make it out to be. Your case is exactly why I abhor the admissions practices of many schools.

Way to stick it to the man, and keep up the good work! 👍

 

[anon y mous]

for those out there who say MCAT score means something.... I've found out in medical school thus far that It doesnt mean anything at all. Once you are in then its an open field. Doing well in medical school and on the boards is highly dependent on working hard. If you study a bunch every night then you will be at the top of your class. I didnt perform well on the MCAT personally but trust me when I say the MCAT is worthless in predicting performance in medical school. I'm living proof of that. SUCK ON THAT AAMC! I'm writing this not to lull you into a false sense of security about doing poorly on the MCAT but to let you know that you should never give up and dont let some of these no talent clowns on these boards rail you for having a low score. Good luck to everyone this cycle and let me know if you have questions and I'll try to answer them.

Could you please let the adcoms at the schools I applied to know that before they reject me because the rest of my application is good.

 

[Cp22kjer]

for those out there who say MCAT score means something.... I've found out in medical school thus far that It doesnt mean anything at all. Once you are in then its an open field. Doing well in medical school and on the boards is highly dependent on working hard. If you study a bunch every night then you will be at the top of your class. I didnt perform well on the MCAT personally but trust me when I say the MCAT is worthless in predicting performance in medical school. I'm living proof of that. SUCK ON THAT AAMC! I'm writing this not to lull you into a false sense of security about doing poorly on the MCAT but to let you know that you should never give up and dont let some of these no talent clowns on these boards rail you for having a low score. Good luck to everyone this cycle and let me know if you have questions and I'll try to answer them.

Glad to hear you're doing well!

 

[J1515]

There is a significant correlation with performance on the MCAT and USMLE steps.

 

[DannMann99]

Honestly, In general I think it's a good indicator.

Its a tough test thats meant to evaluate you on your cumulative knowledge gained primarily in your first 2 years of undergrad...

Now the material doesn't matter so much... but the thought process does. If you can succeed on a surprisingly tough exam like that... well then you can probably do good in med school.

I guess what i'm saying is, it's stupid but they need some additional means to evaluate you so thats why we have it.

I did terrible in highschool and pulled a 1200 on my SATs
Some people do terrible in u-grad and pull 35 on their MCATs
I'm fairly intelligent and I'm sure they are too.

 

[Cp22kjer]

I believe the only score that gave any indication was the BS section and even then the correlation wasn't that impressive. I believe its .6 or something of that nature (only measured the P value at P<.001 if I can remember right).

In my opinion there is NOT a significant correlation. Check out this thread...lots of info on this:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=538750&highlight=score

 

[J1515]

I believe the only score that gave any indication was the BS section and even then the correlation wasn't that impressive. I believe its .6 or something of that nature (only measured the P value at P<.001 if I can remember right).

In my opinion there is NOT a significant correlation. Check out this thread...lots of info on this:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=538750&highlight=score

Opinions really don't matter. MCATs are there for a reason, and it's *usually* the same people who use the "I'm a bad test taker" excuse who do poorly on the MCAT and USMLE steps.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16186610?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=5&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

The MCATs do exactly what they are supposed to do. They weed out people who are average to subaverage.

It's also not a coincidence that people can perform satisfactorily on the COMLEX but do poorly on the USMLE. COMLEX is a "know the facts" test. USMLE requires more reasoning and thought process similar to the MCAT.

 

[spicedmanna]

Opinions really don't matter. MCATs are there for a reason, and it's *usually* the same people who use the "I'm a bad test taker" excuse who do poorly on the MCAT and USMLE steps.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16186610?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=5&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

The MCATs do exactly what they are supposed to do. They weed out people who are average to subaverage.

It's also not a coincidence that people can perform satisfactorily on the COMLEX but do poorly on the USMLE. COMLEX is a "know the facts" test. USMLE requires more reasoning and thought process similar to the MCAT.

I might be in the minority here, but I tend to agree with you, J. I'm not saying that the MCAT is end all and I do think that it definitely lacks in robustness, but all in all, it does the job it is supposed to do. We should, however, recognize that only modest correlations have been drawn and therefore exercise caution in drawing any causal conclusions, as we might be tempted to do with things of this nature. There are certainly going to be students that don't correspond to the predictions made by the correlations; statistics speak more about group tendencies than individual ones. Also, we are not accounting for the numerous variables here...

That said, I think it isn't asking too much to at least score at or above the national average of all test takers for a given administration. I think there is cause to question, or at least consider more carefully, the abilities of those who score significantly below the national average. By abilities, I am talking about ability to pass and score reasonably well on the boards and thrive in medical school.

The MCAT isn't the end all and certainly it should be considered along with the entire application package.

 

[ayushman80]

I might be in the minority here, but I tend to agree with you, J. I'm not saying that the MCAT is end all and I do think that it definitely lacks in robustness, but all in all, it does the job it is supposed to do. We should, however, recognize that only modest correlations have been drawn and therefore exercise caution in drawing any causal conclusions, as we might be tempted to do with things of this nature. There are certainly going to be students that don't correspond to the predictions made by the correlations; statistics speak more about group tendencies than individual ones. Also, we are not accounting for the numerous variables here...

That said, I think it isn't asking too much to at least score at or above the national average of all test takers for a given administration. I think there is cause to question, or at least consider more carefully, the abilities of those who score significantly below the national average. By abilities, I am talking about ability to pass and score reasonably well on the boards and thrive in medical school.

The MCAT isn't the end all and certainly it should be considered along with the entire application package.

Its too bad that the schools weight the MCAT soo heavily in admissions. Every year the accepted MCAT keeps going up. Good for those people who do well, but putting soo much weight on one exam is not a good idea in the big scheme of things. Oh well, I don't think this is going to change.

 

[MossPoh]

The accepted MCAT can only go up so much.

I don't blame schools for it. There is a limited amount of things to judge by. I didn't do stellar, but it is one of only a couple of factors a school can go by. It is difficult to weed through thousands of applications. They simply don't have the time to go indepth with every applicant.

 

[Cp22kjer]

I might be in the minority here, but I tend to agree with you, J. I'm not saying that the MCAT is end all and I do think that it definitely lacks in robustness, but all in all, it does the job it is supposed to do. We should, however, recognize that only modest correlations have been drawn and therefore exercise caution in drawing any causal conclusions, as we might be tempted to do with things of this nature. There are certainly going to be students that don't correspond to the predictions made by the correlations; statistics speak more about group tendencies than individual ones. Also, we are not accounting for the numerous variables here...

That said, I think it isn't asking too much to at least score at or above the national average of all test takers for a given administration. I think there is cause to question, or at least consider more carefully, the abilities of those who score significantly below the national average. By abilities, I am talking about ability to pass and score reasonably well on the boards and thrive in medical school.

The MCAT isn't the end all and certainly it should be considered along with the entire application package.

Yes this makes sense and I do agree!

 

[TehDoc]

You rock my world.