Weeding out poll

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What weeds pre meds out the most ?

  • Total voters
    281
Half of people that take the MCAT score below a 25 - that's thousands and thousands of people. I think, without a doubt, that it is the MCAT.
 
DrEnderW said:
Half of people that take the MCAT score below a 25 - that's thousands and thousands of people. I think, without a doubt, that it is the MCAT.
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+1, Definitely MCAT

however, the average exam grade in all of my orgo classes (I, II, and Lab) was consistently 60%, (my professors also didn't count the 10-20 people who scored 10-20%) so I could see how that would be up there too, assuming this was the trend at other schools
 
There are several levels of weeding out. There first level is the premed curriculum, And only those surviving the pre med courses go on to take the MCAT, if they only get an average GPA of 2.8, I don't think these people will even try taking the MCAT . It is hard to pinpoint which course is the worst though. Lots of people get weeded out in O Chem, but an equal amount of people don't survive Gen chem and biology classes...

At least for me, the premed courses almost weeded me out
 
I'm going to say other. I was a post bacc career changer before going to med school and watched so many pre meds and post bacc's fall off the back of the bus just getting through basic pre reqs. Some left school, some went to other majors, some started looking into nursing/PA schools. Many others were weeded out later by the MCAT but I would say there were a lot more who never even signed up for it. Maintaining motivation for over a long period of time as you grind through classes is more difficult than even the MCAT, and it is very important if you want make it through med school.
 
Jlaw said:
I'm going to say other. I was a post bacc career changer before going to med school and watched so many pre meds and post bacc's fall off the back of the bus just getting through basic pre reqs. Some left school, some went to other majors, some started looking into nursing/PA schools. Many others were weeded out later by the MCAT but I would say there were a lot more who never even signed up for it. Maintaining motivation for over a long period of time as you grind through classes is more difficult than even the MCAT, and it is very important if you want make it through med school.
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agreed, I feel that the MCAT is already a secondary weeding out step.
 
Do you think scoring in the teen range overall is common for the MCAT?
 
so no laziness, slack, and immaturity on that list? or is that the "other"? :naughty:

how often do we hear stories about people messing up early in college and having to climb out of an almost impossible situation?
 
It depends on what phase of the "pre-med" life you're talking about because I'd say the biggest factor in weeding them out is themselves (not self-driven, not committed, not intelligent, etc.) long before the application and MCAT phase. Think of how many "pre-meds" you had in your Freshman class vs how many you know of that applied. The number decreases substantially in most cases I believe.
 
Jlaw said:
I'm going to say other. I was a post bacc career changer before going to med school and watched so many pre meds and post bacc's fall off the back of the bus just getting through basic pre reqs. Some left school, some went to other majors, some started looking into nursing/PA schools. Many others were weeded out later by the MCAT but I would say there were a lot more who never even signed up for it. Maintaining motivation for over a long period of time as you grind through classes is more difficult than even the MCAT, and it is very important if you want make it through med school.
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I agree, I think the weeding out is a result of all of these things combined. The consistency and longevity yields those pre-meds who are in it from the long haul and those that just like the idea
 
MCAT is by far the best attrition mechanism used to to weed people out. If it wasn't for this test, I would be starting my OMS-1 in July.
 
TriagePreMed said:
...and to think we have pre-allo idiots wanting to retake a 34+.
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I seriously thought about it for an hour or two, then realized that it is an awesome score and I was glad to be done with the test even though I was certain (based on practice vs. test day) I would score several points higher on a retake.

But to answer OP, it is definitely the MCAT.
 
Totally the MCAT. The great equalizer in this random process....but even the MCAT can help/hurt applicants just by the topics on each specific test.
 
I think there are a number of weeders, and there isn't only one answer. At my school we had 200 people in Organic 1 and ~50 people in Organic 2. This lead to about 40 people that took Biochem. Obviously not all of them were pre-med/dental but easily 75% of them were self proclaimed pre-professional students.

I got a B in orgo 1, a C in orgo 2, and am averaging right at a 30 on my AAMC FL's so far. It's very school specific. My university really stuck it to us in orgo. I have a friend a school over that an 80% was an A in organic, AND they had a curve. Mine was a straight 10 point scale with a no curve policy.


But, with that said, the people that actually make it to the MCAT stage find a seat in medical school 90% of the time. Of all of my friends over the years that have taken the MCAT, most score very average (25-28) but all but 1 is currently in med school. He scored a 23 and gave up.
 
serenade said:
Probably, these recent mcats have made me somewhat doubt this potentially lol.
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This happens every year. People feel cheated the week after they take it, then once they get their score back they score around their average more often than not.

I'll probably feel cheated the day after I take my test (5/30) but I'll trust my preparation and practice test scores. I anticipate the test feeling much harder and longer, but also know that the harder it is the more cushy the scale will be. It's all good. 👍
 
Mehd School said:
This happens every year. People feel cheated the week after they take it, then once they get their score back they score around their average more often than not.

I'll probably feel cheated the day after I take my test (5/30) but I'll trust my preparation and practice test scores. I anticipate the test feeling much harder and longer, but also know that the harder it is the more cushy the scale will be. It's all good. 👍
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You moved it back again? Anyway, there's no doubt in my mind it is getting harder and more computational.
 
serenade said:
You moved it back again? Anyway, there's no doubt in my mind it is getting harder and more computational.
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I've only moved it back once.

How many times have you taken the exam?
 
Columbia09 said:
Do you think scoring in the teen range overall is common for the MCAT?
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Just wondering, have you take the test?

I found it annoying when people assume that just because 50% score above 25, scoring 24 should be easy. Although scoring 24/45 equates to 53%, one needs to answer 65-67% of the questions correctly to score 24. Another point is that bombing one section, namely the VR, could easily plummet the overall score. On my first take, I scored 20 thanks to verbal, regardless of my average performance on on the sciences.
 
Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Just wondering, have you take the test?

I found it annoying when people assume that just because 50% score above 25, scoring 24 should be easy. Although scoring 24/45 equates to 53%, one needs to answer 65-67% of the questions correctly to score 24. Another point is that bombing one section, namely the VR, could easily plummet the overall score. On my first take, I scored 20 thanks to verbal, regardless of my average performance on on the sciences.
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I've heard that depends on the test you take
 
Columbia09 said:
My school is listed haha
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After what happened with Dr. Seuss I prefer to remain as anonymous as possible. My gender and ethnicity is all that has and will be revealed. People are too creepy.
 
Columbia09 said:
What happened there ?
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He had his acceptance revoked due to posting questionable content on SDN and possibly other sites such as facebook. I may have forgotten some. That's all that should be said about it. The fad is still alive if you search for it.
 
The mcat is the only thing can totally hold you back. You can overcome crap orgo grades (been there done that) but the mcat is cut and dry.
 
I think every pre rec is a weedout. I think that the MCAT is the final slap in the face to those who are not prepared.

THere was a masters chick in my lab who was gun ho about going to medical school, DO school, that said that she got Cs in the Chemistry classes in undergrad. She took the mcat and said on facebook that she was "wallowing in self pity" a month later. She still works at the same bar as she did 2 years when I worked with her.
 
VinceViegel said:
I'm surprised at the number of people that think DO averages are like 29 now (Midwestern being my state school doesn't help). I bet she scored a 26 or something and is sad because she thinks it's too low.
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No, my guess is that she scored a 19 or something along those lines. She didnt apply and she still works at the same bar
 
VinceViegel said:
I was sad when I found that out. He was such a nice down to earth guy and got his acceptance revoked over something really silly.
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I was pretty bothered by it as well.

I rarely interacted with him, and he was a consistent asshat to me, but still - losing an acceptance over that and potentially blackballing yourself from a profession is incredibly extreme. Again, I don't know all the details so it's hard to make much of a judgement.
 
Pre-Recs weed out the most applicants.

MCAT is the worst one though. Despite how the MCAT section of SDN makes it seem like, scoring a 30+ (Or even in the high 20's) is within the 70+ percentile range and the students that make up the lower numbers are ones that have studied for this test, just to be decimated by a low score. I doubt most people in the teens didn't just go to the test cold turkey.
 
Mehd School said:
I was pretty bothered by it as well.

I rarely interacted with him, and he was a consistent asshat to me, but still - losing an acceptance over that and potentially blackballing yourself from a profession is incredibly extreme. Again, I don't know all the details so it's hard to make much of a judgement.
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My favorite part about it was the guy that signed his letter revoking his acceptance was arrested like a week later in Florida on a DUI. Speaking of unprofessional behavior....
 
Chamahk said:
so no laziness, slack, and immaturity on that list? or is that the "other"? :naughty:

how often do we hear stories about people messing up early in college and having to climb out of an almost impossible situation?
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on a daily basis in the DO forum :meanie:

I think its org chem. No one takes the MCAT till after Org, my class started out as 90 students (about 60% premed) and by the time we were finishing the second half it was down to ~20 with most of them now pre-pharm.
 
My College goes by quarters. For chemistry, we have 3 quarters. The first organic is without a lab, just intro lecture. That class starter full, probably 100 people. The next quarter, maybe 75, the next maybe 50. So, probably half the people taking it will switch majors or retake. At my school, the majority of takers were chem e majors.. Only a few of us were going into med.
 
I should have also said, not applying to the right schools
 
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