•••quote:•••Originally posted by relatively prime:
Mudd, again, not necessarily. The problem here is that students do not have balanced scores. Typically people who do well in verbal don't do as well in the sciences and vice versa.••••I apologize in advance, but I am a show me the fact type of person. Where are the statistical facts that show scores are not balanced? So much of the opinions flying around are based on rumors or surveys of one or two people. In looking at admissions data from some UC schools (their undergraduates that were accepted to various medical schools, I did not notice the high/low trend you mention any more than high/high.
•••quote:•••For example... suppose a student with a 10V 8P 8B is accepted as well as a student with a 8V 12P 12B and suppose two students with a 8V 10P 10B and a 7V 11P 11B are both rejected. The average score of the accepted student still comes out to be 9V 10P 10B. This average tells nothing of the weight put in the verbal score. However, looking at the individual scores, it looks like verbal is more important since ~ONE 10~ in verbal made up for TWO 8's in the sciences!! were as it took TWO 12s in the sciences to make up for ONE 8 in verbal.••••The word suppose takes away validity in the discussion, because all I need to do is take your same paragraph and switch VR and BS to present an equally hypothetical support.
Besides, the reality is that a 10V, 8PS, 8BS would not be accepted to medical school in all likelihood.
Also, I would argue that a 7-11-11 would have a greater chance of being accpeted than a 11-11-7, so again, I cannot buy into your supposition.
The statistical reality is that you will find more 7-11-11's accepted to medical school than 11-11-7's. If verbal was truly the most important, this would not be the case.
•••quote:•••I'm not saying that this example is likely a representative of most medical schools... my only point is that looking at the average score accepted doesn't necessarily show which section is favored.••••I agree that looking at the averages is not the perfect way, and it has many problems. But it the best method available, given that anything else is hearsay passed on from one group to another. AAMC data is the best information available.