Statistics for medical school?

[pochi111]

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Quick question. So I need to take a math class as a pre-req for medical school that I'll be attending in August. Right now I'm in math 102 to just fulfill that requirement but it's killing me cause it's too easy. I never had to take statistics for my major and I'm tempted to switch over. So my question is how helpful do you guys think statistics will be in medical school? I have a basic understanding of statistics from reading science papers but would it be worth switching over?

 

[HH Holmes]

Medical school aside, always take a class for a challenge and that interests you. Will stats help you in medical school? No, but take it anyway.

 

[pochi111]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that math 102 does go over simple finance, tax and interest so it is somewhat relevant. Just wanting to see which is more helpful in the long run.

 

[allantois]

If you can understand statistics from research papers, then that's about all you should ever need.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Medical school aside, always take a class for a challenge and that interests you. Will stats help you in medical school? No, but take it anyway.

Well it does help to some degree. They have courses in bio stats/epi and there questions on USMLE. It even helps in research just having a basic understanding (as a medical student one maybe doing research).

Does stats help? Yes. Is it an absolute must for medical school? Not really, it depends on what you are doing.

 

[cliquesh]

A good understanding of statistics will allow you to critically read papers better than most. It is a skill I lac.

Also, as others have mentioned, statistics are on the usmle/comlex.

 

[MLaura]

Ask around your school to see who else took it and if they liked it. I didn't need it for my major but needed an extra class and ended up loving it, oddly enough, so go for it! You never know 🙂 I'm sure it'll help someday.

 

[becomingdoctor]

If u r okay with calculus, then take intro in probability. If you r still not satisfied, learn how to do R/ matlab