How smart do you need to be to be a doctor?

[americanpierg]

---

Members do not see this ad.

i'm sure if he had taken ochem and biology courses, he wouldn't find bio section any more difficult than physics. if you can "learn stuff more easily than others" and get a 4.0gpa, you should also be able to pawn mcat. yet most premeds are lucky to get a 30-35.

ah thats where ur wrong, getting a 4.0 doesnt mean you "learn stuff more easily than others", it means u put in more work than someone who got a 3.0. I have a 3.94 right now, does that mean im smarter than someone with a 3.5? HELLL NO, im a rock. Some of these kids with low gpas are pretty smart and they amaze me with how much random information they know when we talk. The reason I have a high gpa is because i spend so much time studying until i know the stuff, not because im smart.

The majority of people who get 4.0s are not geniuses, they are hard working and dedicated students. Those that are able to "learn stuff more easilty than others" are those that spend an hour studying for physics and understand the concept by heart and can 100% the exam. These people are rare anomolies, and they are the ones that "pawn" the mcat with the same amount of studying as everyone else. Everyone else has to spend hours studying to ace the same physics test. if those people who have 4.0s study for a year, im sure theyll get 40+ on the mcat easily...what does that tell u...

 

[67192]

He did not make them up. They are on the AAMC website.
AAMC

 

[MrDreamWeaver]

dunno, i'm prty freakin' ******ed but i got in??ALKAK?

 

[bolnoi]

ah thats where ur wrong, getting a 4.0 doesnt mean you "learn stuff more easily than others", it means u put in more work than someone who got a 3.0. I have a 3.94 right now, does that mean im smarter than someone with a 3.5? HELLL NO, im a rock. Some of these kids with low gpas are pretty smart and they amaze me with how much random information they know when we talk. The reason I have a high gpa is because i spend so much time studying until i know the stuff, not because im smart.

The majority of people who get 4.0s are not geniuses, they are hard working and dedicated students. Those that are able to "learn stuff more easilty than others" are those that spend an hour studying for physics and understand the concept by heart and can 100% the exam. These people are rare anomolies, and they are the ones that "pawn" the mcat with the same amount of studying as everyone else. Everyone else has to spend hours studying to ace the same physics test. if those people who have 4.0s study for a year, im sure theyll get 40+ on the mcat easily...what does that tell u...

it tells me that they study for mcat for 3 years and they still can't get a 40. therefore hard studying doesnt help you on the mcat as much as you'd like.

 

[americanpierg]

it tells me that they study for mcat for 3 years and they still can't get a 40. therefore hard studying doesnt help you on the mcat as much as you'd like.

....lol except they forget much of the stuff from the first two years of "studying" becuase taking a class is not studying....what r u not seeing here, its not like its a complex situation. what does the mcat measure?? does the mcat measure intellectual capacity and potential?? does it measure ur ability to think on an abstract scale?? no, the mcat measure KNOWLEDGE, it measures how much INFORMATION uve been able to memmorize and retain. how does one know this KNOWLEDGE and INFORMATION. they do it through studying. They embed the information into their mind so they can pull it out when asked. Some people may retain information better than others, but that can be easily offset if the second person puts in more EFFORT and TIME. the smartest man in the universe would know nothing if they never learned it.

the only difficulty is that the mcat requires so MUCH information that most people wont be able to learn and memmorize it all. to do so takes time, and lots of time. if u had enough time u could easily learn it all. anyone could learn all the stuff needed to 40+ the mact with enough time, unless they have a medical disorder that affects their memmory

Which takes us to the end: doing well on the MCAT does not depend on how SMART you are, it depends on how good ur MEMMORY is.

 

[bolnoi]

....lol except they forget much of the stuff from the first two years of "studying" becuase taking a class is not studying....what r u not seeing here, its not like its a complex situation. what does the mcat measure?? does the mcat measure intellectual capacity and potential?? does it measure ur ability to think on an abstract scale?? no, the mcat measure KNOWLEDGE, it measures how much INFORMATION uve been able to memmorize and retain. how does one know this KNOWLEDGE and INFORMATION. they do it through studying. They imbed the information into their mind so they can pull it out when asked. Some people may retain information better than others, but that can be easily offset if the second person puts in more EFFORT and TIME. the smartest man in the universe would know nothing if they never learned it.

are you saying that people who have lower gpa's but higher mcat's put more effort and time into studying? If mcat only measured knowledge, then results would be no different from regular class exams and you'd expect people with 4.0 to get 40+ all the time.

 

[colt]

Basically, if the statistics are correct, we know that the average IQ for lawyers, doctors, professors etc is in the 120-130 range. Now does IQ correlate with scholastic achievement, or is it mostly hard work? I guess it would depend on how valid you consider IQ test in determining intelligence.

Maybe having a higher IQ allows you to see the importance of working hard? I remember a quote from Einstein which was basically, "I'm not more intelligent than others; I just spend more time working on problems". I think we can all agree that he had a high IQ though.

I believe that when higher IQ and hard work team up, you can get many of the above-mentioned professions. When average-lower IQ and hard work team up, you can get SOME doctors, but not very many. High IQ and relative laziness will produce about the same amount of doctors as lower IQ and hard work. Overall, the bulk will come from both 120-130 IQ's and hard work. 🙂

 

[americanpierg]

are you saying that people who have lower gpa's but higher mcat's put more effort and time into studying? If mcat only measured knowledge, then results would be no different from regular class exams and you'd expect people with 4.0 to get 40+ all the time.

thats exactly what im saying...people who have lower gpa's but higher mcats put more time into studying for the MCAT. plus its not difficult to get a 4.0 in a class. in a class u only sudy a SPECIFIC topic, wheras the MCAT studies a wide range of topics. its easier to remember information when its all within one topic, its much harder to remember information spanding a wide array of topics

how do u view "smartness". to me, just because u did better than someone else on the MCAT does not mean ur smart, it means u were able to memmorize more stuff tha he was. "SMART" does not mean the ability to regurgitate random information, smart is the ability to view the information as only conceptual and apply it. Smart is how einstein used the information he knew to create general relativity, how newton used the information he knew to create his theorys on gravity and energy. Theyre smart becuase they didnt just memmorize what was already there, they took that information and expanded upon it, venturing into what was not known.

 

[bolnoi]

Basically, if the statistics are correct, we know that the average IQ for lawyers, doctors, professors etc is in the 120-130 range. Now does IQ correlate with scholastic achievement, or is it mostly hard work? I guess it would depend on how valid you consider IQ test in determining intelligence.

Maybe having a higher IQ allows you to see the importance of working hard? I remember a quote from Einstein which was basically, "I'm not more intelligent than others; I just spend more time working on problems". I think we can all agree that he had a high IQ though.

I believe that when higher IQ and hard work team up, you can get many of the above-mentioned professions. When average-lower IQ and hard work team up, you can get SOME doctors, but not very many. High IQ and relative laziness will produce about the same amount of doctors as lower IQ and hard work. Overall, the bulk will come from both 120-130 IQ's and hard work. 🙂

there are studies that show that iq has 80% narrow sense heritability. it's funny my genetics teacher said "but it doesnt mean anything, because those were just studies between twins. other populations might have different norms of reactions." --like as if twins are a unique set of populations.

 

[bolnoi]

thats exactly what im saying...people who have lower gpa's but higher mcats put more time into studying for the MCAT. plus its not difficult to get a 4.0 in a class. in a class u only sudy a SPECIFIC topic, wheras the MCAT studies a wide range of topics. its easier to remember information when its all within one topic, its much harder to remember information spanding a wide array of topics

yep, people who actually put more effort and time can memorize a specific topic and get a 4.0 gpa. on the other hand, even with their greater diligence they still can't beat smart people on the mcat, because sometimes you actually have to think.

 

[americanpierg]

there are studies that show that iq has 80% narrow sense heritability. it's funny my genetics teacher said "but it doesnt mean anything, because those were just studies between twins. other populations might have different norms of reactions." --like as if twins are a unique set of populations.

did u just pull that statistic out of ur @ss... i would expect that to be closer to 10%. intellegence hardly connected through genetics (unless u count brain disorders and variances in brain size and whatnot), intelligence is 90% affected through social factors.

 

[Kwasaki28]

There is obviously a spectrum…

You have docs that are exceptionally bright and others that are not. But even the person graduating last in his/her class is most likely far more intelligent than the average Joe with a BS or a BA.

I guess the only way you can find out what kind of smarts you need is to do it for yourself. It’s actually pretty easy: get a 3.5 or above GPA in college (not just any piss poor college - but a real university) and score a 30 and above on the MCAT. Spend two years mastering all there is to know regarding anatomy, histology, biochemistry, biostatistics, physiology, neurosciences, behavioral sciences, pathology, virology, immunology, microbiology, and pharmacology. Then spend another two years learning internal medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, neurology, pediatrics, surgery, anesthesiology, and geriatrics. After all that, spend three to eight years dedicated to amassing all the knowledge available for a given field. Meanwhile while maintaining and reviewing all the material which you’ve accumulated and working 60+ hours/week, you would need to stay current with all the new discoveries and guidelines for the rest of your life.

 

[americanpierg]

There is obviously a spectrum…

You have docs that are exceptionally bright and others that are not. But even the person graduating last in his/her class is most likely far more intelligent than the average Joe with a BS or a BA.

I guess the only way you can find out what kind of smarts you need is to do it for yourself. It’s actually pretty easy: get a 3.5 or above GPA in college (not just any piss poor college - but a real university) and score a 30 and above on the MCAT. Spend two years mastering all there is to know regarding anatomy, histology, biochemistry, biostatistics, physiology, neurosciences, behavioral sciences, pathology, virology, immunology, microbiology, and pharmacology. Then spend another two years learning internal medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, neurology, pediatrics, surgery, anesthesiology, and geriatrics. After all that, spend three to eight years dedicated to amassing all the knowledge available for a given field. Meanwhile while maintaining and reviewing all the material which you’ve accumulated and working 60+ hours/week, you would need to stay current with all the new discoveries and guidelines for the rest of your life.

that doesnt sound like someting only a smart person could accomplish...it sounds like someting a very dedicated person who puts in a lottt of effort would accomplish