So you are making blanketing generalizations based off admittedly nothing but your own observation? Gotcha.
I also take issue with you saying that "most" medical school matriculants with a 28/3.5 will "probably" become excellent doctors, regardless of their interpersonal skills.
I said that IMO a person with excellent interpersonal skills and a 28/3.5 is preferable to someone w a 35/4.0 without good interpersonal skills. A 28/3.5 is well above the high-risk for failing in med school line but is very much borderline for admissions due to high levels of competition. That is why I used that.
I don't think anyone would dispute this.
Nope, still think standardized patient exams are pointless feel-good bull**** that waste your time in medical school and are even more pointless as an applicant. How good of an actor you are (which is a major part of what these exams test) has little bearing on how you are as a physician.
I agree with you insofar as these exercises require good acting. That said, I do think they can at least give some good places to work from, although we have not done much w standardized pts yet, so I cannot give much of an opinion. I speak to this more from my clinical background in the hospital than as a medical student. From that perspective, I feel that my background has made the practice scenarios we have done in med school easier for me. Additionally, I see the MMI as a reasonably screen for students that one would not want in his/her class. Sure, no screen is perfect, but at least the MMI gives more people an opportunity to pick up on your d*ckish behavior/attitude before you are admitted. The MMI, at least for me, seemed to pull the guard down, which I think makes it, perhaps, a bit less of an "interview" and, therefore, less likely to encounter the same faking issues that traditional interviews deal with.
I have also known well liked interpersonally skilled doctors to misdiagnose stage III cancer. Quite frankly, I don't care if my doctor is a butt-hole if he/she isn't a fool. If he/she can do his/her job very well, that's the most important thing to me.
Everyone misses diagnoses. This is when those interpersonal skills are [often] most important. Medical schools focus on training you to make those diagnoses. Sure, measures such as intelligence have some predictive value; however, a test like the MCAT is measuring only a few aspects of that factor, as does something like the MMI. To me, each factor is of some value. I do not think the MMI or traditional interview is perfect; however, there have been papers that argued for the effectiveness of hybrid MMI-traditional interview approaches.
Also without hard evidence your opinion is just that, an opinion. So if you feel your opinion is "worth time" writing with a tone of superiority while pointing out flaws in another's opinion, you should take that time to provide evidence. Or post kindly and discuss your opinion that way.
I don't like the thought of this during interviews. However, it is what it is. As an evaluating tool, I view it as far less useful than a normal interview. It places an expectation of experience on the applicant rather than who the applicant is. Get a feel for the person. If you feel the person is a good fit, YAY. If not, oh wells, NEXT!
It places an expectation of both experience AND who you are. Both are important. However, in many ways, your entire app is about "who you are," which makes the personal interview somewhat redundant, really. Having interviewed candidates for jobs before becoming a medical student, I much prefer watching candidates actually work. It gives me a much better feel for how they might operate on a day to day basis than just asking them a bunch of largely hypothetical questions on which they could EASILY lie.
I remember this thread. I read and responded when it first came out. No wonder I got the feeling this is not the first time he talks down to people like this but not quite sure where I have seen his previous posts. Some longtime members like RogueUnicorn did mention that was not the first time he posted in such tone. Quite a character.
