Med school--lousy at math

[Slinkycoils]

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Any thoughts on someone with exceptional verbal ability (99% SAT, ACT, etc...) and mediocre math (600 ish m-SAT) aptitude succeeding in medical school?

I realize that undergraduate entrance exams aren't required for admission...I mention them only to provide objective info for posters to consider.


Thanks 🙂

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

Depends on why your math scores were low. As long as your willing to work hard and can think logically... then med school is doable

 

[GladifImakeit]

You should be fine. There are a few equations (Aa gradient, Cr clearance, Winter's formula, anion gap, gap gap, osms and corrections for glucose, albumin, etc come to mind) but increasingly people use apps/programs to enter variables rather than doing any math. Regardless, I can't think of any situation where I've used the harder stuff in med school (logs, derivatives, multivariable equations or binomials, etc.). Good old add, subtract, multiply and divide are all you really need. The most common situation requiring math probably is to calculate a dose of medication/IVF and rate of infusion. Statistics can be helpful if you like reading and interpreting journal articles but in my experience isn't necessary on a daily basis.

 

[Poetic Silence]

Get Off Your Ath And Do Some Math!™

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

Seriously though. At least for the first 2 yrs there is minimal math involved. + if math is involved they let you use a calc

 

[operaman]

Almost no math in med school beyond very basic algebra with the ability to memorize and manipulate a few formulas. Unless the test has been recentered again, a 600 SAT math is a decent enough score and you should have no trouble with any calculations they throw at you.

 

[DrSnips]

Biostats does have some math, but it is VERY little of the curriculum. Other than that, arithmetic is the main math skill you will use. I know from studying with my classmates that most are pretty poor at math, even when they have otherwise good reasoning skills. So if they do well, so can you.

 

[TheRadiologist]

You do not need great skill in math to get through med school. If you can do math needed in general chem, you can do all the math you will ever need in medical school. You will need a very basic understanding of statistics, but you should have no problem.

 

[D elegans]

+1 to all above posts. In my opinion, there is no math in medical school. There are equations, but there is no level of mathematical reasoning required.

That being said, there are numerous topics for which a mathematical bent would be useful. For example, understanding hemodynamic relationships is much easier if you have a grasp of basic algebra. But there are plenty of people in my class with no mathematical skill who got by fine by just memorizing crap.

 

[HolySmokes]

Shouldn't this be in pre-allo?

 

[Slinkycoils]

I debated about where to stick this...Sorry to clutter up the Allo forum!

Ultimately, I stuck my question here because I figured that I'd be more likely to get responses from people who are attending/have attended medical school (i.e.: people who have first hand experience)--not pre-meds.

In any case, thanks for all the feedback!

 

[Sheldor]

I debated about where to stick this...Sorry to clutter up the Allo forum!

Ultimately, I stuck my question here because I figured that I'd be more likely to get responses from people who are attending/have attended medical school (i.e.: people who have first hand experience)--not pre-meds.

In any case, thanks for all the feedback!

Many of my classmates likely have below 600ish math skills and less than 99th percentile for verbal. Don't worry about and go for it!

 

[realmeaning]

This whole thread is music to my ears.

 

[NightSwim]

You should be fine. There are a few equations (Aa gradient, Cr clearance, Winter's formula, anion gap, gap gap, osms and corrections for glucose, albumin, etc come to mind) but increasingly people use apps/programs to enter variables rather than doing any math. Regardless, I can't think of any situation where I've used the harder stuff in med school (logs, derivatives, multivariable equations or binomials, etc.). Good old add, subtract, multiply and divide are all you really need. The most common situation requiring math probably is to calculate a dose of medication/IVF and rate of infusion. Statistics can be helpful if you like reading and interpreting journal articles but in my experience isn't necessary on a daily basis.

Agree with this guy/girl. During your clinical years you need math for stuff like calculating medication dosing based on body weight. If an attending pimps you with an arithmetic question and you don't know it, whatever, no big deal. On the USMLE step 1 there are a few math type questions, where you have to calculate things like sensitivity and number needed to treat. But anyone can get good at these questions with practice.

Besides, a 600 isn't even bad. Save your worrying for something better.

 

[Abby_Normal]

Keep in mind that the SAT and reality are notoriously ill-acquainted.

But if you are concerned, a better indication of whether your math skills will suffice for medical school would be how well you do with math when it's presented in the context of chem/physics/etc.

 

[bomgd3]

Med students are hilariously bad at math. Some of the easiest questions on UWorld, like simple ones asking about means and medians, often have only 50% of people getting them right.

So you'll be in good company! Besides, as someone else mentioned, a 600 isn't even that bad. It's a little above average. Med school is really light on the math. We don't even use units.

 

[Poetic Silence]

Med students are hilariously bad at math. Some of the easiest questions on UWorld, like simple ones asking about means and medians, often have only 50% of people getting them right.

So you'll be in good company! Besides, as someone else mentioned, a 600 isn't even that bad. It's a little above average. Med school is really light on the math. We don't even use units.

Nurses, pharmacists and optometrists typically outscore physicians in math.

Math heavy specialties:

Radiology

Radiation Oncology

Ophthalmology

Anesthesiology

 

[hrandani]

If you're unable to memorize an equation, do some basic addition and division you have bigger problems than not being able to get through medical school. That's about the extent of math, I might have had one question on the Nernst Equation in all this time. Even then there were some tricks to skip the logs for a quick estimate.

After all the sturm und drang that ensued shortly after that neuro midterm, I've spent some serious time trying to figure out how half of my class made it through physics.

 

[PrideNeverDie]

the running joke is that people get into medicine BECAUSE they aren't good at math

 

[lightfire22000]

The average SAT score of current medical students is only about 1400(math/verbal.) That's not particularly high. So if you scored 600 on math and 800 on verbal, you should be fine. A lot of logical thinking is required, but only the most basic math is used. The most important thing is to go for help when you need it.

 

[Slinkycoils]

The average SAT score of current medical students is only about 1400(math/verbal.) That's not particularly high. So if you scored 600 on math and 800 on verbal, you should be fine. A lot of logical thinking is required, but only the most basic math is used. The most important thing is to go for help when you need it.

Neat. Thanks so much! Do you have a source for that figure (i.e.: 1400), by any chance?

 

[ijn]

You should be fine. There are a few equations (Aa gradient, Cr clearance, Winter's formula, anion gap, gap gap, osms and corrections for glucose, albumin, etc come to mind) but increasingly people use apps/programs to enter variables rather than doing any math. Regardless, I can't think of any situation where I've used the harder stuff in med school (logs, derivatives, multivariable equations or binomials, etc.). Good old add, subtract, multiply and divide are all you really need. The most common situation requiring math probably is to calculate a dose of medication/IVF and rate of infusion. Statistics can be helpful if you like reading and interpreting journal articles but in my experience isn't necessary on a daily basis.

You use logs in the first two years. Especially Nernst Equation, Henderson Hasselbach, and maybe drug half lives but I guess you can just memorize ln(0.5)=0.7. But yeah, it's usually easy ****, like the log of 10, 100, etc.

 

[CassieBagley]

Any thoughts on someone with exceptional verbal ability (99% SAT, ACT, etc...) and mediocre math (600 ish m-SAT) aptitude succeeding in medical school?

I realize that undergraduate entrance exams aren't required for admission...I mention them only to provide objective info for posters to consider.


Thanks 🙂

Step 1 Math topics I've encountered in first year so far:
1. pulmonary + cardiovascular equations
2. statistics + epidemiology

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

You aren't allowed to use a calculator for almost anything in classes so any math you get isn't hard. I don't really think memorizing equations counts as "math"...you might have to do some simple calculations but a lot of the time the equations are used for "if the number on this side goes up then the number on that side goes down doh".

 

[GoSpursGo]

Moving to What are my Chances.

 

[SnowyRox]

Your bigger problem is going to be acing Physics & Chemistry. No calculators allowed in these classes at my university and the math ends up being an obstacle for many pre-meds.

Buy a pocket calculator and carry it around if you're bad at mental math. The vet I shadowed used to ask me to figure out dosages when he was doing it and compare answers. He would consider a calculator to be cheating, but it's better than nothing.

 

[Poetic Silence]

Moving to What are my Chances.

I can see no reason for that. Enjoy yourself.

 

[pfaction]

One does not simply get into medical school and be bad at math. You must be good at math to get through general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, calculus, and statistics. And you must be good (and fast) at math to get through the MCAT.

Every time I see stupid **** like this, I take a second of my day to ridicule you.

1) I got <1300 on my SAT. I got just around 1200. I was at the bottom 90% of my entering class. I cannot do Math. I cannot speak English. The SAT was hell on earth for me. So is the MCAT, but for a different reason.

I am now the top 90% in my class of 250 pharmacy students, even after doing horrible in pharmacokinetics. The rest of my curriculum involved basically no math. Straight concepts, drugs, memorization.

2) Whatever Organic Chemistry you're taking that involves math, stop taking it. You're doing Organic wrong.
3) I got B's in Inorganic, and flat A's in Organic. No calculator needed in Organic, only 3D visualization.
4) lmao @ thinking you need to be good at math to get into med school. Anything you order has to be verified by pharmacists and checked for weight dosing. I've corrected how many doctors on their dosing of narrow therapeutic drugs?
5) I'm pretty sure I'm getting into medical school and I'll still be **** at math.

You're a great applicant but stop it.