The MCAT and Lifelong Skills
"Why do I have to learn all this, anyway?"
This is the quintessential question we've all asked during prep for the Medical College Admission Test®. The test has four sections: Chem/Phys, CARS, Bio/Biochem, and Psych/Soc. It has four section scores and one summative score created by adding them all together. It has over two hundred questions - 230, to be exact. It is difficult, and it is important. That doesn't really answer the question, though, does it?
A bit about me: I am an MCAT teacher and tutor, and I'm currently in medical school. I've taken numerous exams, including shelf exams and STEP. Medical boards are tests of knowledge, yes, but above all, they are tests of understanding. What happens if we change x? What happens if we remove y? What would happen to renal hormone excretion if a patient with condition z is given drug a? You know the material, yes, but can you contextualize it?
This might sound familiar! The MCAT is a critical thinking and reasoning exam because medicine is a critical thinking and reasoning field. The skills that you are honing to eliminate answer choices on Chem/Phys are those that you will use to do the same on boards, and you will use them to formulate a differential diagnosis on wards. The tactics that you are using to determine the author's argument in CARS are those that you will use to read between the lines of a patient's chief concern and pick out the important bits of a long narrative. The Bio/Biochem techniques that you are adapting to pick out trends in data and apply them to your knowledge of biology and biochemistry directly translates to STEP 1 and patient lab reports. The habits you are forming to find moderating variables through the lens of socioeconomics and health systems in Psych/Soc will stay with you throughout your career as you work with people in your care to create a feasible, actionable healthcare plan that is individualized while remaining effective. Through our practice, we also learn courage, confidence, and the ability to accept that there will always be things we do not know. These are valuable, and they are the trappings of a great physician.
To answer the question, we learn these things to succeed on the MCAT. However, through our journeys, we learn and we grow. We form invaluable habits and we learn how to use what we know and what we're given to synthesize a plan to help. We learn how to be great physicians.
The next time you're faced with a question that might as well have been written in a different language or a figure that looks like someone dropped a box of rectangles on a checkerboard, think about what you're feeling. Think about how the ability to analyze, to reflect, and to persevere will help you throughout your medical career, and rest assured that this time is not going to waste.
You can do this! We're here to help.