Chances of St georges carribean medical?

[Shinken]

This is the key to the success of Caribbean medical schools in recruiting students. Everyone thinks they're going to be the exception, that they're a special snowflake. It's a human trait that is successfully exploited by those schools.

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[aformerstudent]

You said you don't work in anecdotes but YOU bringing up 1 person is an anecdote. I don't think you understand statistics very well. No one says you can't be successful in med school with a low MCAT, there are always individuals who are outliers, but what everyone is trying to get you to understand is that if you take a huge data set of thousands of students and look at their MCAT and STEP scores, a high MCAT is predictive of success based on looking at thousands of students profiles. This is important in predicting future success because you don't know how any one student will perform. So it is a red flag when a student has a low MCAT score, thus this is why it is used in admissions.

Everyone is using peer reviewed data to argue their point besides you, who is bringing up individual stories, no one is saying that a single individual can't do well on step w a low MCAT, but it is less likely based on years of data. It's like saying I know one person who went to this no name carribean school and became a neurosurgeon in the U.S. after, so you can do it too! That would be poor advice, and go against what the data suggests will happen.

So yes when someone can't break 50th percentile on the MCAT, after numerous retakes, it's probably not going to go well in med school.

I'm getting really tired of reading posts like this to be honest.

You basically say "you're wrong" but subliminally you are actually saying "you're right" with your crafty wording.

Yeah, you can look at statistics and come up with whatever but you know what, Donald Trump is President too so explain that to me? I guess statistics predicted that too right? Or no, you'll come up with some excuse for that too. Now I would think becoming a doctor in the Caribbean is a little easier than trying to run for the President of the US. Don't you think?

So if you feel that I don't understand statistics very well my friend then I would argue maybe you don't understand reality really well either because a crazy man is President lol and that is REALITY.

Anyone can get through medical school but they have to be ready for it. Unfortunately the MCAT is not a good predictor of that. The MCAT, as I have mentioned previously, is a standardized test designed IMO to level the field only. The MCAT is essentially useless for Caribbean admissions because some schools don't even require it or factor it into an admissions decision. If you can get a respectable GPA and maybe do reasonably well on the MCAT, I honestly believe anyone can succeed with the medical school curriculum if they are given the chance. US schools are competitive that they need an MCAT to level the field of applicants. That's not the case with some Caribbean schools and you still have people graduating from those schools. As I have also mentioned earlier, two years of basic sciences training which includes testing in the USMLE format is more than adequate to get anyone ready for STEP1. You can't possibly argue that someone who gets an 85 or better during basic sciences will somehow be limited by their MCAT score lol? I'm focusing on that group. I'm not focusing on the group that fails their first term of medical school. The argument I am making is if you give the right person a chance at a Caribbean school...SGU for that matter, then it is possible to succeed down that route without the "right" MCAT score. Personally I failed in this regard myself but not because of my MCAT score, I did not make it the first time around because I was not ready for that environment but there were people like me who were and succeeded.

As far as anecdotes, I don't think you understand the word. I provided facts and some of you just can't comprehend or digest that and you are merely in DENIAL so they appear as anecdotes to you. A unicorn is an anecdote; my friend is not a unicorn. He is a real person who just so happens to be an interventional radiologist.

For some reason you are trying to get me to change my stance on how I see the MCAT, I won't do that. I on the other hand am not getting you to change your stance, I am merely stating mine.

But feel free to believe what you want to believe if it makes you feel better. I've seen enough and I've spoken to enough people who are practicing physicians who seem to believe more of what I have been thinking all along; that the MCAT does NOT predict future success or anything really for that matter.

 

[aformerstudent]

This is the key to the success of Caribbean medical schools in recruiting students. Everyone thinks they're going to be the exception, that they're a special snowflake. It's a human trait that is successfully exploited by those schools.

Yes, some fail but some succeed. I think any reasonable person would look at my posts and others and say we are focusing on those who DO SUCCEED.

 

[aformerstudent]

duplicate post

 

[Skip Intro]

Yeah, you can look at statistics and come up with whatever but you know what, Donald Trump is President too so explain that to me? I guess statistics predicted that too right? Or no, you'll come up with some excuse for that too. Now I would think becoming a doctor in the Caribbean is a little easier than trying to run for the President of the US. Don't you think?

Nice strawman. You're a living, breathing textbook of logical fallacies. And, highly entertaining.

-Skip

 

[aformerstudent]

Nice strawman. You're a living, breathing textbook of logical fallacies. And, highly entertaining.

-Skip

I am sorry you feel that way.

By the same token, undergrad and medical school success should predict physician performance but you guys have a snarky way of calling those mistakes "medical errors."
...and there are a lot of errors.

 

[npappasan]

This thread, not unlike many other threads here, has escalated into a sparring match. Skip, thanks for your input and your points and citations are all well taken. Any study on MCAT metric value is observational at best and thus cannot be used to draw causality. There are data published out there which actually seem to infer that the MCAT is a weak metric overall as a gauge for medical school and post graduate performance. The largest of these that I am aware of in the Long Term Career Outcome Study performed by the military at its Uniformed Health Services University medical school. It looked at student performance over a 40 or so year period from what I recall. There was generally a weak association between MCAT scores and GPA, Step scores, and residency program director evaluations. Not to minimalize your citations, but just offering a counterpoint. In all fairness, this study was also retrospective so the results must also be taken with a grain of salt and one cannot draw any causality here either.

 

[shouldigomd]

Think the important thing to realize is the following. Obviously a better MCAT is correlated with a superior student in most regards and in most situations. We don't need stats to come to that conclusion... we can use common sense as it should be obvious. I personally think the MCAT is quite a different exam than the steps but regardless the higher scorers are more likely to score better on the steps.

That being said you take the MCAT when you are young and especially in nontrad paths .... not everyone is able to reach their true potential on that test. If you studied at 100% for the MCAT and did poor ... your odds of doing very well on the steps are lower than someone who gave the MCAT 50% and 100% on the steps. Usually by the time you are ready to take the steps you are more mature / more serious / etc etc so you approach the exam studying harder and more likely to reach your true potential. I am an anecdotal example of that. I am no genius or "special snowflake" but I didn't work hard enough during college but I was able to invest 100% during med school.

 

[shouldigomd]

What residency? IM?

yea