In terms of intelligence

[ivorychins]

Hypothetically if someone wasn't smart enough to become a doctor, but still wanted to work in health care, what career should they get into?

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[ERDOC555]

Don't make me say it aloud, I think we all know the answer to this question...

If you don't want to be a physician there are many ways to become a healthcare "provider"

 

[kb1900]

Naturopathic surgery

 

[Wordead]

emergency medicine

 

[Terror Billy]

emergency medicine

 

[HueySmith]

DNP

 

[Rendar5]

emergency medicine

Eh not really with the current generation of residents considering it’s a harder to get into field than average.

 

[pseud0]

Eh not really with the current generation of residents considering it’s a harder to get into field than average.

post to like ratio checks out

 

[rabbott1971]

Hospital attorney.

 

[mvenus929]

Phlebotomist, CNA, MA, RN, therapist (physical, speech, occupational, or psychologic), social worker, biller/coder, paramedic (or tech), x-ray tech, scrub tech, medical technologist (working in the lab), receptionist...

My sister started down the RN path, decided that was too hard/long, so is going for MA now.

 

[CharlieBillings]

.

 

[Foot Fetish]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

 

[sliceofbread136]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

I dunno, I think doing quality clinical work requires some honest to god brain power

 

[NickNaylor]

I dunno, I think doing quality clinical work requires some honest to god brain power

If you routinely generate a differential of one diagnosis it really isn’t too difficult...

 

[sliceofbread136]

If you routinely generate a differential of one diagnosis it really isn’t too difficult...

Not always if you are actively ruling other parts of the differential during your h+p and are really only left with one thing. If there is only one in your head that you came up with just system 1 thinking then ya there isn’t much effort. In general though that’s not great medicine

 

[WisNeuro]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

Pretty much. There are a few larger scale studies looking at IQ numbers and professions, although they are a bit dated at this point. Means/medians for doctoral level professions are obviously 1+SDs above the mean, but a large number of people earning MDs and PhDs are merely average to high average IQ when you look at range and quartiles. Having a high IQ definitely helps, but there are plenty of mitigating factors that allow average IQ individuals to work at different doctoral level professions.

 

[whatisthisstuff]

There is an endless number of healthcare related jobs that probably require less intelligence than a physician (or atleast less training). I don't think you necessarily need to be top of the charts to become a doc but I'm not going to sit here and pontificate over the intelligence required by each and every field.

I'll throw out a pitch for nursing and I'm a big believer that nursing is the lifeblood of any hospital, its also the field where there are some of the biggest disparities in quality. There are so many schools out there and so many different types of people who get into the field that there is such a range of great nurses => terrible nurses. Can't have enough great nurses imo. Also alot of flexibility in regards to location, hours, and the type of field you work. Something I am a bit envious of as I'm having to pick a specialty.

 

[NickNaylor]

Not always if you are actively ruling other parts of the differential during your h+p and are really only left with one thing. If there is only one in your head that you came up with just system 1 thinking then ya there isn’t much effort. In general though that’s not great medicine

Exactly - practicing crappy medicine is not difficult.

 

[Kgizzle]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

Yeah I agree you don't have to be smart to be a doc and if you really want to do this thing and you're willing to put up the work, you too can become a physician!

 

[libertyyne]

I thought EM was reasonably competitive.....

From numbers alone it seems there are only eight fields out of 23(including optho and uro) that have lower means. I wouldnt exactly call that competitive. Probably a little below average is how I would look at it.

 

[W19]

Don't make me say it aloud, I think we all know the answer to this question...

If you CAN'T be a physician there are many ways to become a healthcare "provider"

FTFY

 

[HueySmith]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

This is always talked about, but as I go through second year, I start to think that's not true.

 

[PikminOC]

Life coach

 

[PikminOC]

This is always talked about, but as I go through second year, I start to think that's not true.

You are right. I hope when you are all full fledged attendings you still post on here and see how your views have changed.

 

[mistafab]

I said this in another thread - but in my friends going EM - they say that it is much more dependent on non step stats than most specialties. IE they have large "commitement to specialty" requirements, LOR requirements, and audition rotation requirements than other specialties. So even though it doesn't "look" competitive, it is probably as competitive as IM programs.

View attachment 225340
From numbers alone it seems there are only eight fields out of 23(including optho and uro) that have lower means. I wouldnt exactly call that competitive. Probably a little below average is how I would look at it.

 

[libertyyne]

I said this in another thread - but in my friends going EM - they say that it is much more dependent on non step stats than most specialties. IE they have large "commitement to specialty" requirements, LOR requirements, and audition rotation requirements than other specialties. So even though it doesn't "look" competitive, it is probably as competitive as IM programs.

I think the numbers bear out that it is as competitive as IM programs as well. I guess I am weird, but when people say competitive i think 240 and above in terms of medians.

 

[mistafab]

Fair

I think the numbers bear out that it is as competitive as IM programs as well. I guess I am weird, but when people say competitive i think 240 and above in terms of medians.

 

[sovereign0]

I think the numbers bear out that it is as competitive as IM programs as well. I guess I am weird, but when people say competitive i think 240 and above in terms of medians.

I agree w/r/t a correlation between the word "competitive" and step scores, but IMHO one of the other differentiating factors is having to do away rotations. Having to get good SLOE's means that it takes more than a muppet with a 230-240 step to match into EM.

Plus, I think demand and supply for EM is a bit inflated with the current healthcare market. At my school, EM has been nipping at the bud of IM for the most commonly matched-into specialty for several years.

 

[Donald Juan]

For this debate over EM intelligence and their competitiveness, it's just a joke that they're not intelligent. You'll understand when you start residency.

 

[libertyyne]

I agree w/r/t a correlation between the word "competitive" and step scores, but IMHO one of the other differentiating factors is having to do away rotations. Having to get good SLOE's means that it takes more than a muppet with a 230-240 step to match into EM.

Plus, I think demand and supply for EM is a bit inflated with the current healthcare market. At my school, EM has been nipping at the bud of IM for the most commonly matched-into specialty for several years.

I never realized you needed to do away's to match EM. That changes my perspective a little bit.

 

[HueySmith]

Specialized NP or CRNA - same pay as a doctor, less schooling

 

[878956]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

100% accurate.

 

[Newyawk]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

How many years of clinical experience do you have?

 

[sovereign0]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

Aren't you still a pre-clinical student? Well heck yeah at this point all we do is memorize and regurgitate facts.

Residency and beyond is nothing like that though. You still have to have a lot of semantic knowledge, but if you aren't able to convert that into practical application with finesse, I don't think you can ever be a good doctor. Hell, I doubt you would even do well in rotations with this kind of mindset.

 

[Newyawk]

Aren't you still a pre-clinical student? Well heck yeah at this point all we do is memorize and regurgitate facts.

Residency and beyond is nothing like that though. You still have to have a lot of semantic knowledge, but if you aren't able to convert that into practical application with finesse, I don't think you can ever be a good doctor. Hell, I doubt you would even do well in rotations with this kind of mindset.

To be fair I just realized he did say specifically "the hardest part about becoming a doctor is...". Regardless that wouldn't explain the intelligence necessary to actually treat patients so his statement still doesn't answer the original question.

 

[sovereign0]

To be fair I just realized he did say specifically "the hardest part about becoming a doctor is...". Regardless that wouldn't explain the intelligence necessary to actually treat patients so his statement still doesn't answer the original question.

I recognized that too, but I stand by my statement. You still have to pass rotations to even "technically" become a doctor, and you need to complete a residency to be a practicing doctor in any practical sense of the word. I don't have any personal experience to back that up, as I'm also still pre-clinical, but I'd wager that people don't actually start feeling "like doctors" until they are partway through their residency, if not until they've had some experience as an attending under their belts.

If getting into medical school is the hardest part of becoming a doctor, then I guess the hardest part of becoming a doctor is having access to loans and the ability to write a checkbook, because last I checked, Caribbean schools are still in business.

Getting into medical school might be a significant choke point for getting into the profession (it's actually pretty much the only one, considering the graduation rate for mainland US schools), but I don't think that is equivalent with it being the hardest part.

 

[Newyawk]

I recognized that too, but I stand by my statement. You still have to pass rotations to even "technically" become a doctor, and you need to complete a residency to be a practicing doctor in any practical sense of the word. I don't have any personal experience to back that up, as I'm also still pre-clinical, but I'd wager that people don't actually start feeling "like doctors" until they are partway through their residency, if not until they've had some experience as an attending under their belts.

If getting into medical school is the hardest part of becoming a doctor, then I guess the hardest part of becoming a doctor is having access to loans and the ability to write a checkbook, because last I checked, Caribbean schools are still in business.

Getting into medical school might be a significant choke point for getting into the profession (it's actually pretty much the only one, considering the graduation rate for mainland US schools), but I don't think that is equivalent with it being the hardest part.

agreed. everyone loves that old joke: "what do they call the guy who graduates at the bottom of his med school class?" "a doctor". but what they don't necessarily call anyone is a GREAT doctor. that achievement requires many more skills and much more talent than just doing well on the MCAT.

 

[TheIllusionist]

The hardest part of becoming a doctor is getting into medical school, namely doing well on the MCAT, which is essentially a bio-flavored IQ test. Everything else is essentially rote memorization. We like to pretend we're doing rocket science, but really we're just memorizing and regurgitating a bunch of facts. You don't need a high IQ to do that.

Agreed. MCAT is the most gloaded part of most people's medical careers, outside of perhaps high level research, if one chooses that route. For those that act like the wards aren't about memorization from an intellectual standpoint, who are you kidding? STEP2 and shelf exams are literally all about knowing algorithms. Yeah logic helps here and there with memorization of algorithms and a minority of the "why" questions, but again, that's the minority. The rest is all emotional intelligence. Most of being a top level doc is about practice and hardwork. Again, research or inventing medical devices are the exceptions.

If you look at clinical medicine, one basically needs a decent memory, dedication, and social skills. It's ideally for the kid in high school that was class president, had a photographic memory, but wasn't the best, despite working very hard, at the quantitative subjects, writing, and the social sciences. And no, this example doesn't refer to all of you lazy SDN geniuses that sucked at high school but magically turned it all around when they finally "tried."

 

[Jojos]

i don't think you have to be brilliant to be a doctor. to get through med school you just need to work hard and efficiently and know how to connect the different subjects together. it really is more a function of time x chair x study.

Also, empathy, a much bigger game changer of whether you should be a doctor or not. If you don't have it, reconsider.

 

[Treebeard]

Studying for the MCAT was a blast compared to my anatomy class.

 

[jhamaican]

For this debate over EM intelligence and their competitiveness, it's just a joke that they're intelligent. You'll understand when you start residency.

I think you had a typo

Fixed that for you

So many stories.

Just give me the bed number please. I will see the patient.

 

[TheIllusionist]

Studying for the MCAT was a blast compared to my anatomy class.

It was for me too. MCAT tests a lot of skills you learn throughout your educational career, especially deductive reasoning and reading comprehension. You just have to learn a limited set of knowledge in the sciences to apply those skills. Anatomy is pure memorization of often disjointed facts. Yeah there are some connections you can make, but the bulk of your grade is how much you Anki structures or draw and redraw them/identify them in the cadaver till they are imprinted in your mind.

 

[TheIllusionist]

Aren't you still a pre-clinical student? Well heck yeah at this point all we do is memorize and regurgitate facts.

Residency and beyond is nothing like that though. You still have to have a lot of semantic knowledge, but if you aren't able to convert that into practical application with finesse, I don't think you can ever be a good doctor. Hell, I doubt you would even do well in rotations with this kind of mindset.

You are correct in a sense. However, I would argue that, in the case of clinical medicine, the practical application of theoretical knowledge has more to do with dedication, patience, teamwork, and just plain discipline. It's more about conscientiousness and social skills. But honestly, that's almost every career.

 

[Treebeard]

It was for me too. MCAT tests a lot of skills you learn throughout your educational career, especially deductive reasoning and reading comprehension. You just have to learn a limited set of knowledge in the sciences to apply those skills. Anatomy is pure memorization of often disjointed facts. Yeah there are some connections you can make, but the bulk of your grade is how much you Anki structures or draw and redraw them/identify them in the cadaver till they are imprinted in your mind.

True.... though even just med school classes in general are pretty damn hard. I don't buy this "the hardest thing is the MCAT" saying.

 

[TheIllusionist]

i don't think you have to be brilliant to be a doctor. to get through med school you just need to work hard and efficiently and know how to connect the different subjects together. it really is more a function of time x chair x study.

Also, empathy, a much bigger game changer of whether you should be a doctor or not. If you don't have it, reconsider.

True.... though even just med school classes in general are pretty damn hard. I don't buy this "the hardest thing is the MCAT" saying.

It's more along the lines of: the MCAT is the part of the process that requires the most of what is conventionally thought of as "innate" intelligence. It's a largely you have it or you don't relative to the rest of medical education. I had friends who studied for two weeks and got 39s. I had friends who studied for 6 months and got 27s. There are some confounding variables, such as the fact that a lot of what the MCAT tests are skills that one needs to accumulate over a long educational career and therefore would be tough to bring up even a year's time. However, the extent to which those confounding variables play a role is certainly up for debate.

On the other hand, med school preclinical success is more correlated with time management, discipline, and just overall organized study habits. Add in emotional intelligence and just social skills in general for clinical years. The only people that can skirt the shear hard work needed to be at the top of their class are those with a truly photographic memory. Those kids that can look at a massive box and arrow chart for a clinical algorithm and memorize it in a glance. They don't need to sit there and rationalize steps or continuously anki or draw and redraw it or do quite as many practice questions to cement it in their heads. Additionally, those with very strong background that pretty much learned all the information in graduate classes or similar situations can afford to relax a bit more.

 

[Newyawk]

I remember reading this in another thread but to paraphrase: any doctor/med student/etc. who claims they don't need to be intelligent to get to where they got is the definition of arrogance. many people have tried to get to where you are and have failed somewhere along the way. humility is recognizing that you succeeded and having the understanding that it was a challenging road and being thankful for the gifts you were given (hard work, intelligence, athletic ability, etc.)
when somebody says "congratulations on graduating from Harvard med school!" the humble response is "thank you very much", not "oh it's nothing, I'm no smarter than any of you"

 

[Newyawk]

oh, and the fact remains that physicians and surgeons as a field have one of the highest average IQs of all professions. don't believe me, look it up.

 

[QueenJames]

My buddy wanted to become a doc.

But due to his obsession with smoking that dank... Studying for classes last minute... And caring more about "free time".... he graduated with a GPA somewhere north of 3.1.

He pursued Dentistry.

Then he slowly replaced that thought with PA.

And now...

He's a nurse.

He's happy. So I guess that's all that matters?

 

[TheIllusionist]

Disclaimer: all of this applies to become A LICENSED DOCTOR not the BEST doctor or even a GOOD doctor necessarily.

In the words of Dr. Edward Goljan: I'm a hard worker with a 110 IQ.

oh, and the fact remains that physicians and surgeons as a field have one of the highest average IQs of all professions. don't believe me, look it up.

I always felt that medicine was hyped up in such a way that it attracted people far more talented for it IQ wise than necessary, due to societal prestige surrounding its nobility and relatively good compensation. It's artificially competitive. I also do believe that, in the not so distant past, medicine needed a much more cavalier spirit along with a more intuitive and creative mindset. Evidence based medicine saves lives, but it has done to medicine what the assembly line did to the blacksmith. The blacksmith used to take pride in making the product from start to finish. In one generation, his son became or was replaced by an assembly line worker. Someone who couldn't take the same pride in his work because he was mindlessly doing the same repetitive step over and over again. Evidence based medicine, albeit not nearly as profoundly, has similarly pigeonholed people into doing specific things in specific situations. It has made everything a factory kind of algorithm. Yes there are cool exceptions, but for the most part, you are following a rule book. If you deviate and something happens, your ass can get sued far easier than if you never took risks and even more people died. And mastering a physical exam or eliciting information the most efficient way out of patients are far less about IQ type intelligence than they are about the EQ kind and just plain conscientiousness and mindfulness.

I remember reading this in another thread but to paraphrase: any doctor/med student/etc. who claims they don't need to be intelligent to get to where they got is the definition of arrogance. many people have tried to get to where you are and have failed somewhere along the way. humility is recognizing that you succeeded and having the understanding that it was a challenging road and being thankful for the gifts you were given (hard work, intelligence, athletic ability, etc.)
when somebody says "congratulations on graduating from Harvard med school!" the humble response is "thank you very much", not "oh it's nothing, I'm no smarter than any of you"

I agree with the last part for sure. That's the most socially apt answer in that situation.

However, I do believe that those in medicine tend to overestimate how much their innate intelligence contributes to their success in the field. I think they tend to underestimate, how generally speaking, their relatively better off early educational and/or socioeconomic circumstances played a role. Most of my friends with very good scores and grades are from rich families. They grew up in towns with great schools in two parent households. They were read to as children, and traveled all over the world well before most of us can even think of the opportunity. Hillary Clinton said that her granddaughter will hear 30,000 more words on average compared to a child in the lowest income bracket. There are studies showing that if people aren't exposed to the concept of relative vs. absolute comparisons before a certain age, they have a very very hard time picking it up later on. Subtle and not so subtle differences early on matter A LOT.

Later on, when these same kids went to college, they had either a cushy campus job or not job at all, thus allowing them to dedicate tremendous time to their studies. They never had to worry about the cost of application fees because their parents would just delightfully fork over the money. Of course, NOT ALL, of the top students I know are like this, but a disproportionately high number are.

Honestly, I have met very few aspiring med students that came from a wealthy or upper middle class background that really wanted to get into med school, yet couldn't eventually get in. Generally, it's really bad life circumstances that set people up in a bad position to get into med school. Or it's people that are far lazier than they would like to admit, the types of people always looking for shortcuts. The average IQ of docs isn't a lot more than 1 SD above the mean. An SD is about 15 points on an IQ test, so that means there are certainly people within the average range that can become docs. IQ has a ton to do with nutrition and early childhood attention/education. Adjusting for socioeconomic factors, more than 50% of the population is above an IQ of 100. It explains why with improvements in those areas, IQ has been rising, since the early 1900s fairly consistently. By definition, I do believe the majority of people have the cognitive prowess to become doctors. IMO, the real difference maker is opportunity and effort.

Also, now I do realize that getting into school itself may be a barrier for some of the more average IQ folks. However, I think they can get past that or always succeed in the Caribbean, if they have enough money and the right mindset.

On a side note:
I would frankly score similarly on some med school exams, if I took the class in the 10th grade or now, despite my reasoning capacity and critical thinking skills vastly improving since then. Maybe I would have done better in the 10th grade because it was before I "discovered" women and mind altering substances.

 

[sloop]

Disclaimer: all of this applies to become A LICENSED DOCTOR not the BEST doctor or even a GOOD doctor necessarily.

In the words of Dr. Edward Goljan: I'm a hard worker with a 110 IQ.



I always felt that medicine was hyped up in such a way that it attracted people far more talented for it IQ wise than necessary, due to societal prestige surrounding its nobility and relatively good compensation. It's artificially competitive. I also do believe that, in the not so distant past, medicine needed a much more cavalier spirit along with a more intuitive and creative mindset. Evidence based medicine saves lives, but it has done to medicine what the assembly line did to the blacksmith. The blacksmith used to take pride in making the product from start to finish. In one generation, his son became or was replaced by an assembly line worker. Someone who couldn't take the same pride in his work because he was mindlessly doing the same repetitive step over and over again. Evidence based medicine, albeit not nearly as profoundly, has similarly pigeonholed people into doing specific things in specific situations. It has made everything a factory kind of algorithm. Yes there are cool exceptions, but for the most part, you are following a rule book. If you deviate and something happens, your ass can get sued far easier than if you never took risks and even more people died. And mastering a physical exam or eliciting information the most efficient way out of patients are far less about IQ type intelligence than they are about the EQ kind and just plain conscientiousness and mindfulness.



I agree with the last part for sure. That's the most socially apt answer in that situation.

However, I do believe that those in medicine tend to overestimate how much their innate intelligence contributes to their success in the field. I think they tend to underestimate, how generally speaking, their relatively better off early educational and/or socioeconomic circumstances played a role. Most of my friends with very good scores and grades are from rich families. They grew up in towns with great schools in two parent households. They were read to as children, and traveled all over the world well before most of us can even think of the opportunity. Hillary Clinton said that her granddaughter will hear 30,000 more words on average compared to a child in the lowest income bracket. There are studies showing that if people aren't exposed to the concept of relative vs. absolute comparisons before a certain age, they have a very very hard time picking it up later on. Subtle and not so subtle differences early on matter A LOT.

Later on, when these same kids went to college, they had either a cushy campus job or not job at all, thus allowing them to dedicate tremendous time to their studies. They never had to worry about the cost of application fees because their parents would just delightfully fork over the money. Of course, NOT ALL, of the top students I know are like this, but a disproportionately high number are.

Honestly, I have met very few aspiring med students that came from a wealthy or upper middle class background that really wanted to get into med school, yet couldn't eventually get in. Generally, it's really bad life circumstances that set people up in a bad position to get into med school. Or it's people that are far lazier than they would like to admit, the types of people always looking for shortcuts. The average IQ of docs isn't a lot more than 1 SD above the mean. An SD is about 15 points on an IQ test, so that means there are certainly people within the average range that can become docs. IQ has a ton to do with nutrition and early childhood attention/education. Adjusting for socioeconomic factors, more than 50% of the population is above an IQ of 100. It explains why with improvements in those areas, IQ has been rising, since the early 1900s fairly consistently. By definition, I do believe the majority of people have the cognitive prowess to become doctors. IMO, the real difference maker is opportunity and effort.

Also, now I do realize that getting into school itself may be a barrier for some of the more average IQ folks. However, I think they can get past that or always succeed in the Caribbean, if they have enough money and the right mindset.

On a side note:
I would frankly score similarly on some med school exams, if I took the class in the 10th grade or now, despite my reasoning capacity and critical thinking skills vastly improving since then. Maybe I would have done better in the 10th grade because it was before I "discovered" women and mind altering substances.

Of course it’s true that the reason doctors are on average of high intelligence has a lot to do with the gating function of standardized testing, but I think that people who think medicine does not require that much intelligence generally either underestimate the abstraction and rational reasoning involved in competent medical practice or overestimate what average intelligence really looks like.

On the first point, the practice of medicine involves very complex cognitive processes including analyzing large amounts of data and coming up with the most likely, most parsimonious explanation while simultaneously filtering and minimizing the importance of other abnormal data based on context. Many exam findings, historical data, and lab results can be either critical or meaningless depending on the context of other data which similarly can be critical or meaningless. This is a very difficult cognitive task and requires abstract reasoning, attention and salience and suppression processes.

On the second point, people in medicine have often spent 8+ years rarely interacting intimately with people of truly average intelligence, so they forget what level of functionality this implies. I’m in psychiatry and we frequently have to estimate intelligence because people who are intellectually sub-normal often have the potential for poor coping and maladaptive behavior. People with average intelligence will often have occasional concrete proverb interpretation, sometimes need clarification of tasks even when seemingly presented in a clear and simple way, and are often incapable of even college level education (though generally are capable of high school graduation). Medicine generally requires superior intelligence.