SAT preparation courses now free!! Is the MCAT next?

[GoldMember1]

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Announced today...

"For the first time, the College Board will partner with Khan Academy to provide free SAT test preparation materials, starting in spring 2015. Coleman also announced that all income-eligible students will receive fee waivers to apply to four colleges for free."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/living/sat-test-changes-schools/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Who thinks the MCAT should be next?

MCAT prep courses and application fees are more expensive for premeds than the process is for incoming college students. Should the same policies be adopted for premeds?

 

[rspatton]

the mcat is already being addressed by khan academy... we've spent this last year working on building the content
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/mcat

for free, for all, for always

 

[mehc012]

Of course SAT prep is free...there's nothing to study for the SAT!
Seriously, I had never even heard of studying for the SAT before I joined SDN.

 

[MedWonk]

Of course SAT prep is free...there's nothing to study for the SAT!
Seriously, I had never even heard of studying for the SAT before I joined SDN.

Pretty much. I never studied for the SAT. Never studied in high school at all. 1110 on the SAT and graduated with a 3.2. Good enough for my state school's engineering program.

 

[mehc012]

Pretty much. I never studied for the SAT. Never studied in high school at all. 1110 on the SAT and graduated with a 3.2. Good enough for my state school's engineering program.

I'm assuming you're talking old version?
I was dumb enough that I didn't know they'd changed the SAT scoring system, or what it was in the first place. When I told my score to my mom, she made me convert it to the old style, which was the first I'd heard of the change. You'd think it'd have been mentioned (I'm sure it was, I just wasn't listening) given that mine was the first year of the new system!

 

[hubriz]

Pretty much. I never studied for the SAT. Never studied in high school at all. 1110 on the SAT and graduated with a 3.2. Good enough for my state school's engineering program.

Same here - then I moved to the northeast for graduate school and saw that an entirely different world exists for many high school kids. I was and am still blown away by how much they prep for college - I wish I was exposed to that at a younger age. I could have ended up becoming a doctor or something.

 

[mehc012]

Same here - then I moved to the northeast for graduate school and saw that an entirely different world exists for many high school kids. I was and am still blown away by how much they prep for college - I wish I was exposed to that at a younger age. I could have ended up becoming a doctor or something.

I can legitimately say that it would have made zero difference to my life if such things had been prevalent where I went to highschool...unless I had somehow gotten caught up in them and been miserable.

 

[choyphin]

It's great they're making tangible structural changes in an attempt to bridge the socioeconomic gap. Will it work? Only time will tell.

 

[aspirantmed]

Seems the others have beaten me to the punch, but this happened to the MCAT first ..

Good move by the AAMC. Now if they'd only allow low-income students to interview by phone or Skype, and medical school would be much cheaper.

 

[mehc012]

It's great they're making tangible structural changes in an attempt to bridge the socioeconomic gap. Will it work? Only time will tell.

The socioeconomic gap doesn't come from the availability of SAT prep courses. It comes from the depressingly ingrained low expectations and poor exposure to good academic role models prevalent in low socioeconomic groups. An SAT prep course is little more than a band-aid by the end of highschool.
The SAT is a test which only requires ANY studying if you had a disadvantaged (note: there are several kinds of disadvantage which can come into play here, not just SE status) background...and that studying is nowhere near as effective as a lifetime of education, reading, high self-expectation, and ambition.

 

[choyphin]

The socioeconomic gap doesn't come from the availability of SAT prep courses. It comes from the depressingly ingrained low expectations and poor exposure to good academic role models prevalent in low socioeconomic groups. An SAT prep course is little more than a band-aid by the end of highschool.
The SAT is a test which only requires ANY studying if you had a disadvantaged (note: there are several kinds of disadvantage which can come into play here, not just SE status) background...and that studying is nowhere near as effective as a lifetime of education, reading, high self-expectation, and ambition.

Of course, but those are issues that require immense cultural/structural changes to remedy. The SAT overhaul only scratches the periphery of the SES gradient, but hopefully, many other efforts will follow it.

 

[mehc012]

Of course, but those are issues that require immense cultural/structural changes to remedy. The SAT overhaul only scratches the periphery of the SES gradient, but hopefully, many other efforts will follow it.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I think more free things is always good. I just don't think it will change a goddamn thing.

 

[Ismet]

This really doesn't change much, if anything. Khan Academy has always been free, now there's just a "partnership" and probably more/better material, but it's not a drastic new change or reduction in cost. If they had partnered with Kaplan or something to provide free prep, that would be news-worthy.

So yeah, the expensive MCAT prep courses will remain expensive. Khan Academy is growing in that area now, but again, if you want a real prep course, you're going to pay the big bucks.

 

[mrh125]

too bad they're doing it with khan academy =/ . i wish princeton review, kaplan etc could stop charging ridiculous amounts. hiring a private tutor costs as much as a visit from an md.

 

[rspatton]

Of course I'm biased, but I think khan academy will(is) compete(ing) for the real-ness

 

[rain4venus]

income eligible med school applicants already get a few applications for free

 

[MedWonk]

I'm assuming you're talking old version?
I was dumb enough that I didn't know they'd changed the SAT scoring system, or what it was in the first place. When I told my score to my mom, she made me convert it to the old style, which was the first I'd heard of the change. You'd think it'd have been mentioned (I'm sure it was, I just wasn't listening) given that mine was the first year of the new system!

Yeah, the old version (c/o '02!!!). I remember telling someone who just graduated from college my SAT score and they looked at me like I was the biggest ****. They didn't realize there was different version years back. Not that my score was all that great, anyway.

Same here - then I moved to the northeast for graduate school and saw that an entirely different world exists for many high school kids. I was and am still blown away by how much they prep for college - I wish I was exposed to that at a younger age. I could have ended up becoming a doctor or something.

Education is serious bizness here.