Low MCAT score, bad doctor?

[felixfelicis]

Would you trust your doctor if s/he'd told you s/he had a low MCAT score? I grew up with many current/past med students, and there is a huge correlation between who I thought I could trust with a complicated problem with my body and who ended up getting good MCAT scores. (obviously subjective but you get the point)

My thoughts are that superb critical thinking ability should be a necessity for doctors, even if they will typically deal with cases that aren't very complicated.

There are obviously many other factors that go into being a good physician, but I think critical thinking is a must. In fact, I would set a threshold below which people could not legally become MDs. Thoughts?

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[Gauss44]

1. You wouldn't know if your doctor had a low MCAT score.

2. Everyone is better at some things than others. If you are good at your job, and not the MCAT, who cares?

 

[gettheleadout]

Would you trust your doctor if s/he'd told you s/he had a low MCAT score? I grew up with many current/past med students, and there is a huge correlation between who I thought I could trust with a complicated problem with my body and who ended up getting good MCAT scores. (obviously subjective but you get the point)

My thoughts are that superb critical thinking ability should be a necessity for doctors, even if they will typically deal with cases that aren't very complicated.

There are obviously many other factors that go into being a good physician, but I think critical thinking is a must. In fact, I would set a threshold below which people could not legally become MDs. Thoughts?

This already exists, the USMLE Step exams have pass thresholds. You have to pass to become licensed.

 

[SN2ed]

Who dwells on their MCAT score that long?

 

[Columbia09]

My surgeon scored a 25 on his MCAT and I wouldn't let anyone else operate on me. MCAT scores mean nothing when you're talking about being a good doctor.

 

[gettheleadout]

My surgeon scored a 25 on his MCAT and I wouldn't let anyone else operate on me. MCAT scores mean nothing when you're talking about being a good doctor.

How exactly are you judging his/her surgical skill relative to other doctors?

 

[Person0715]

Why would a patient care about MCAT scores? Patients just want to be treated.

 

[deleted393595]

I think you can also make a good argument here that MCAT scores are also in some way linked to socioeconomic status more so than intelligence. It just comes down to how many resources to have available to study for it imho (My AAMC Practice average is around a 41 and I'm not that smart...)

 

[Columbia09]

How exactly are you judging his/her surgical skill relative to other doctors?

Because he's already a good surgeon I could trust. Not to say that there are other good surgeons out there obviously. The POINT was that MCAT scores mean nothing about v=being a good doctor

 

[freakingoutabit]

No, definitely not. A person could know very little about optics, projectile motion, circuits, electrochemistry -- the list goes on and on -- and still be a very good doctor.

I studied for 3 months for the MCAT and raised by score by 9 points (comparing my first practice test to my actual score). Did I become a better future doctor in those 3 months of studying? No, not at all.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Obviously, yes. If my doctor can't solve a problem of resistors or a galvanic cell there is no possible way for my doctor to know anything about my arthritis*.

*I don't actually have arthritis if you're wondering.

 

[gumdrops]

Would you trust your doctor if s/he'd told you s/he had a low MCAT score? I grew up with many current/past med students, and there is a huge correlation between who I thought I could trust with a complicated problem with my body and who ended up getting good MCAT scores. (obviously subjective but you get the point)

My thoughts are that superb critical thinking ability should be a necessity for doctors, even if they will typically deal with cases that aren't very complicated.

There are obviously many other factors that go into being a good physician, but I think critical thinking is a must. In fact, I would set a threshold below which people could not legally become MDs. Thoughts?

I'd be more worried about a bad Step 1 score.