Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Last Saturday, I spent about five hours staring into a computer screen, determining the ultimate destiny of my career. My months of preparation and years of study will be boiled down to a two-digit number, supposedly representing the entirety of my knowledge of physical sciences, biological sciences and verbal reasoning. This test is the apogee of every pre-medical college student’s experience and is both feared and respected. This test is the MCAT, and for all its influence and weight in medical school applications, this gauntlet of standardized test questions fails to evaluate the scientific literacy of students.
On the surface, the idea of testing a student’s general scientific knowledge and reasoning seems generally benign and useful, but the main flaw with the MCAT is not what it tests, it’s what it does not test.
The Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, is actually fairly new to the field of medicine. The whole idea of testing medical aptitude didn’t start until 1928, when an effort began to combat high dropout rates in medical school. Incoming medical students were not adequately prepared for the academic onslaught of intensive medical schooling, and medical school administrators created a standardized test as a method to screen incoming students for their educational potential.
To do well on the science portions of the MCAT today, one has to memorize thousands of facts and formulas. But this is not an accurate reflection of what a doctor actually does. There is more to science in the real world than what can be written on flash cards. The MCAT does not test a student’s ability to judge the validity of a scientific study or attack a problem using the scientific method. Instead it encourages pre-med students to blindly memorize terms and formulas without stopping to ask why they are important.
Scientific literacy is becoming more and more integral to the medical profession. With new drugs, novel therapies and dynamic biological concepts, doctors are more than just individuals following a user manual for patients. Doctors need to have the ability to understand whether a certain clinical trial supports the safety and efficacy of a drug and eventually administer it to the right people at the right time in the right dosage. Medical schools should evaluate incoming students on their ability to examine data for its scientific merit.
The MCAT does a great job at being what it is. It is mind-bogglingly difficult and gives medical admissions offices a clear number with which to rank their applicants. But it does not adequately prepare undergraduate students for the scientific rigors of a medical career.
The test needs to stray, at least in a small way, from the evaluation of a student’s memorization of facts to a measure of the student’s ability to make scientific decisions.
For example, instead of giving a passage concerning the function of the kidneys, the MCAT should give a section on the scientific study of a drug’s effects on the kidneys. Instead of forcing a regurgitation of kidney facts, the student should be tested on his or her ability to interpret the difference between whether a study supports or refutes a hypothesis.
Although I have already spent my five hours of taking the MCAT, future pre-med students should demand that their five hours have fewer formulas and more science.
— Folmsbee is Topeka junior in neurobiology.
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Comments
Folmsbee: MCAT forgets purpose, puts focus on flash cards
Unless the MCAT has changed since I took it 2 years ago, I think it does a pretty decent job testing for scientific literacy. If I can recall the details of my text correctly, at least half of the questions were based off of reading passages, which tests for one's ability to rapidly understand and utilize new scientific knowledge (scientific literacy.)
I think that both memorization and scientific literacy are crucial for doctors. It is important that they test both and the MCAT does a decent job of this. The GRE is the useless one.
Folmsbee: MCAT forgets purpose, puts focus on flash cards
I don't ever plan on taking the MCAT, but considering they haven't changed it since 1928, I can see how it might be time for an update.
On the other hand, I have yet to see reports of massive numbers of people dying at the hands of incompetent physicians who were actually too stupid for med school, but who got in anyway thanks to the MCAT. Like any standardized test (SATs, anyone?), the MCAT is an imperfect judge, and because of this most med schools require more for admission than MCAT scores alone.
Update? Perhaps. Terrible exam that results in mediocre medical practitioners? Probably not.
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