Poor mcat = failing usmle???

[cohen5000]

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I've had clinical, administrative, and research medical experiences. My GPA was a 3.43 but I studied nearly obsessively in undergrad. I took the mcat like 7 years after all my pre-req's but couldnt score over a 17. I tried to have accomodations for extra time for the mcat. I provided psych educ reports describing a language processing impairment which makes it difficult to comprehend the passages under a time constraint but it was denied by AAMC. They gave me the explaination that I didnt need extra time because I didnt have accomodations in undergrad and managed to graduate from a selective school.

With such a poor mcat score no med school will accept me. So I was considering applying to a Candian/ Caribbean school that doesnt require MCATS. Even if I go to med school will I have problems passing the USMLE and Board exam because I did so poorly on the mcat?
Any comments or suggestions would be really helpful. thanks!

 

[Aphtalyfe]

I've had clinical, administrative, and research medical experiences. My GPA was a 3.43 but I studied nearly obsessively in undergrad. I took the mcat like 7 years after all my pre-req's but couldnt score over a 17. I tried to have accomodations for extra time for the mcat. I provided psych educ reports describing a language processing impairment which makes it difficult to comprehend the passages under a time constraint but it was denied by AAMC. They gave me the explaination that I didnt need extra time because I didnt have accomodations in undergrad and managed to graduate from a selective school.

With such a poor mcat score no med school will accept me. So I was considering applying to a Candian/ Caribbean school that doesnt require MCATS. Even if I go to med school will I have problems passing the USMLE and Board exam because I did so poorly on the mcat?
Any comments or suggestions would be really helpful. thanks!

The correlation between MCAT and USMLE licensing exams is not very strong... however a 17 is very low.

I think you will have trouble with the USMLE... because a large portion of the questions are vignettes. They require you to quickly read the passage and pick out the vital information and be able to separate it from the non-vital information. If you really do have a language processing impairment, the USMLE would be your worst nightmare.

A lot of people in med school study pretty obsessively or nearly so... and that's to pull off passing grades. If you already did that and got a 3.46, your chance of success in medical school, where the volume quadruples, seems slim.

Have you been to a neurologist or psychiatrist? Perhaps you can get treatment?

 

[dragonfly99]

I agree w/above. I think that you probably would have trouble with USMLE, in my opinion. And that would create trouble with being able to finish med school and residency and get a license. I think that unless you could change something that would make it easier for you to process the information, med school and residency would be a real struggle.

I am a practicing doc (fellow/MD) and while it's a very good career, I think there are a lot of similar careers where the training wouldn't be quite so brutal and you would still be treating patients in a very similar way. Not that I feel like my career or life has been wasted at all, but I think the whole med school/MD thing gets a bit overblown. If you just want to treat patients, maybe you could do optometry school, or physical therapy school, etc. Not that these are easy at all, but there might be a bit more leeway in terms of having to pass so many brutal standardized tests, and maybe not quite so much cramming of information/forced high speed memorization.

 

[Groove]

I've had clinical, administrative, and research medical experiences. My GPA was a 3.43 but I studied nearly obsessively in undergrad. I took the mcat like 7 years after all my pre-req's but couldnt score over a 17. I tried to have accomodations for extra time for the mcat. I provided psych educ reports describing a language processing impairment which makes it difficult to comprehend the passages under a time constraint but it was denied by AAMC. Even if I go to med school will I have problems passing the USMLE and Board exam because I did so poorly on the mcat?
Any comments or suggestions would be really helpful. thanks!

That's a big red flag in my opinion. Only you know how big of an impairment this is, but even if you could get through med school just fine, the board exams are beasts and you have to process large amounts of information at a rapid pace. I don't want to be someone to kill your dreams, but I also would never wish on someone the experience of gaining an MD, incurring an enormous amount of educational debt, only to not be able to pass the boards and enter residency. That being said, a buddy of mine scored 21 and went to Ross but I don't think he tried very hard. He ended up scoring >95's on all his boards and went on to do a successful Gen Surg residency. It can be done... but know your limits and be realistic about the risks you are taking on.

 

[Richardh]

reading the previous post, its somewhat encouraging news to know 🙂

but then i know that i still need to study really, really hard for USMLE. i didn't do so well on the mcat. it doesn't mean that i would do poorly on USMLE but it also doesn't necessary mean that i would do well on USMLE.

bottom line all options are open and it's up to me to study and do well on the boards.

 

[schandan13]

There is not a very strong co-relation between the MCAT and USMLE scores, BUT there is a much stronger one between basic sciences GPA and step 1 score.
Again, stronger as compared to the MCATs. But I know plenty of people who turn it around with extra effort right before the exam. That said, If your "test taking skills" aren't good, focus on those.

 

[Richardh]

great advice schandan13!

i also heard that your sgpa and overall gpa plays a role not only in classes but also how you do on the step1.

put in the hard work and you will get your results 🙂

 

[schandan13]

Well it isn't rocket science. If you have a good GPA means you are a hardworking intelligent person meaning you'll do well on the step. Simple. However during undergrad there are many factors which contribute to your GPA and the material isn't as much as you cover in medical school (not even close). Also, SGU specific, there isn't a +/- system put in place (yet). That means if you loose a single point, you could come down from an A to B which is a potential drop of .6 or .4 depending on the course's credit value.

And from what I've heard from students who just gave the Step a few months back, they say it's almost like studying in a completely different new way and that things you cover in basics are way too much in detail. Then again, there is no argument, if you work hard during basics, you'll have a solid foundation in your concepts, and you will ace the step. Do poorly, you will just have to put extra effort to ace the step, but it can STILL be done.

 

[Richardh]

again i agree with the above post!

(and on the side good thing to know about the grading system at sgu being straight scale without any +/- 👍 )

 

[medflava]

MCAT results does not decide USMLE results. There are doctors who never took the MCATs and scored a perfect score in the USMLE.

USMLE is not related to MCATs in any way in terms of test content.

Some doctors even said, if someone hasn't mentioned it earlier, that the MCAT is harder than the USMLE.

 

[schandan13]

MCAT results does not decide USMLE results. There are doctors who never took the MCATs and scored a perfect score in the USMLE.

USMLE is not related to MCATs in any way in terms of test content.

Some doctors even said, if someone hasn't mentioned it earlier, that the MCAT is harder than the USMLE.

Maybe the scores have no relation, BUT there IS a similarity in the testing pattern of both exams. In order to ace the steps, apart from sound knowledge ofcourse, you need to have good 'test taking skills'. These include being able to sit in a chair for 8 hours, have peak concentration going, not get distracted and manage having mental ability to decipher trick questions EVEN in the 8th hour of the exam. So naturally, if someone gets <20 on the MCAT, they need to evaluate their ability to a) Learn ALOT of material and retain it and b) reproduce that information on an exam.

IMHO, it's just a way to tell if you are a good test taker or not. Again, if you score high on the MCATs = you're smart = good step score. But there isn't always a linear relationship.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

There's also the statistical problem that the people taking the MCAT are a different group than those taking the USMLE. Anyone can take the MCAT if you want. Hence you get a spectrum of scores from 3 to 45. Only those who go to medical school take the USMLE, and those are (presumably) the people with scores on the upper end of that scale. Hence, when you take the MCAT and get a 22, you "look better" than everyone else with a score less than that. When you then go and take the USMLE, you're "competing" against a group of people who mostly scored more than you on the MCAT -- hence you might find your score is low. But, as mentioned, I bet that although there will be some sort of positive relationship between MCAT and USMLE scores, there will be plenty of error / variability making any prediction impossible.