Actually no it isn't. The fact that you can say this with a straight face that working for 12 straight hours on a clerkship (or even worse in residency when you're actually responsible for getting **** done) shows you have no idea of the reality.
On a clerkship, you'll be physically and mentally tired depending on the clerkship.
I worked 12 hour days on 3rd shift and studied for the MCAT?
Yeah, it's the MCAT. Enough said. Working and studying is harder than just studying.
You also get several shots at the MCAT in reality, so it's really much easier to try to up your score on the MCAT with practice AAMC exams, Examkrackers, Princeton Review, etc.
I can't believe you think your MCAT score and USMLE score prove your point. And no, Step 1 is not memorizing a bunch of facts. That will get you maybe a passing score, but it won't even get you the average.
He got a 37 on his MCAT which places him at the 98th percentile of scores. He then got a 269 which is greater than 2 standard deviations above the mean (although that mean is increasing) as the USMLE doesn't calculate percentiles.
I'd rather be physically doing something than sitting in a chair and clicking through Powerpoint slides for hours on end.
I have not taken step 1 yet, but I have heard that from many who have taken both... Lets see if mid-to-upper 20 MCAT can get me a 240+ step 1.
Not unheard of! I know someone who got 255 step 1 and had a low 20 MCAT... His sentiment is the same with @notbobtrustme --Step 1 is a memorization test...
Once you get above a certain score on the USMLE, you're pretty much in the 99th percentile of all test takers. The USMLE score is more impressive bc you have a higher caliber of student taking the test. It's like a funnel that tapers down as you progress thru education where you're filtering out more and more people who don't meet the threshold. There's a way to calculate your percentile when you know certain numbers: http://www.usmlegunner.com/2013/02/usmle-step-exam-score-to-percentile.html
This is totally true. There were a lot of problems I was able to sort out just by process of elimination and logical deduction with only a cursory knowledge of the material being tested.
But then what about residency?
It also took you only 2 weeks of review before you took your test. You and your friend are very much at the head end of the curve.
You think Anesthesiology is a specialty where you sit back and do nothing? Psych is much better but it also has a more effective filter when it comes to patients they take and even then you will do more inpatient Psych.
Every day I spend in med school, psych looks more and more attractive. I feel like a guy stuck on a desert island with a fat chick.
I can't imagine many worse fates than babysitting 4 CRNAs all day while serving as their liability tampon as some AMC skims all the profit they can from my billing number.
Not to mention the ones (IMHO) who tend to get the 260+ scores are the people who are also highly performing THROUGHOUT the first 2 years as well. I think just saying, f' class I'm just going to buy good review books, FA, and Qbanks and only study those and get my 260+ that way is a bad game plan. Not saying it's not possible, but I haven't seen that happen, esp. since the test writers are now testing things that aren't found directly in review books.
I think it's an interesting test- you can approach it different ways. The hard way is by learning everything you can possibly know about the subjects. The easy way is reading a whole hell of a lot your entire life and then using your reading comprehension to pick it apart the science passages via deductive reasoning.
You're shocked Psych doctors have to take care of Psych patients?
Ok. There are many people across all income levels with anxiety, depression, etc. that you can effectively help and get their life back together. That's a very gratifying thing to do.
You're in a BS/MD program where the first filter is effectively taken out. It can get exhausting having to jump thru hoops for some people - premed, MCAT, med school, residentcy, fellowship, etc. It's delayed gratification for a longer period of time and can feel never ending for people.
He's in a BS/MD. He didn't have to work hard in undergrad to enter med school. It was essentially a conditional acceptance at age 17.
That's why I hate this "one size fits all" rule that the only thing that matters in the first 2 years is Step 1. Why would a residency want someone who aces a 1 day exam, but didn't give a **** for 2 straight years and got straight "P"s? They want people who can maintain a good work ethic even if there isn't an immediate award.
Your minimum MCAT score required to enroll at your medical school (as part of the program) is much lower than that in the normal traditional pathway where there is no minimum score where acceptance is assured. It makes perfect sense since your entire undergraduate education was 2 years. It would be unfair to expect you to get a fantastic MCAT score when your curriculum is much more overloaded and compressed.
I don't think we're referring to people who try their hardest and still end up in 3rd quartile. We're talk about people who WILLINGLY don't push themselves and then make up rationalizations to justify their behavior, that aren't necessarily supported by the data.
