Just not smart enough or quick enough for medical school

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
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I am trying to decide whether or not to give up any attempt at medical school. I am nearing the end of a disastrous post-bacc, that has seen my science GPA fall to 3.1 or so. I’ve gotten mostly B’s, some A’s, but 6 C’s. To make matters worse, 3 of those C’s were in one class: Biochemistry II. I took it once, got a C; retook it with another professor, got another C; then took it again with another professor, and still got a C. In each case, no matter how much I studied, I could never finish the tests. This fact prompted me to seek out a learning skills counselor who determined after two weeks of extensive testing that I read at only 1/3 the rate of other students. When given enough time on their tests, I had 99% percentile, but when time is short or work load is high, I just didn’t finish and that percentile dropped precipitously.


In those few school classes in which I received A’s, much of the grade relied on term papers and other non-tests. The courses where the grade relied on tests solely or mostly were the ones where I fared the poorest.


I don’t know what to do about this, or if anything can be done.


I am wondering if it is even worth trying to improve my science GPA.


I am also worried about the MCAT. I’ve taken practice tests, and did below average when held to MCAT time lengths. But when I took extended time, I aced nearly every MCAT question. But the MCAT, like most other tests, does not just test what you know, what you can recall, it also tests how quickly you can think. Indeed, I also believe that I think slower than other students, too. When studying or doing mental tasks, time seems very fleeting, and I don’t get as much done as others.


When I was in undegrad, I did very well, received many A+'s, awards and accolades. But that was decades ago, and I was studying the humanities and social sciences, not hard core biology, chemistry, physics, genetics, etc.


My how things have changed . . .

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  • datsa Said:


I am trying to decide whether or not to give up any attempt at medical school. I am nearing the end of a disastrous post-bacc, that has seen my science GPA fall to 3.1 or so. I've gotten mostly B's, some A's, but 6 C's. To make matters worse, 3 of those C's were in one class: Biochemistry II. I took it once, got a C; retook it with another professor, got another C; then took it again with another professor, and still got a C. In each case, no matter how much I studied, I could never finish the tests. This fact prompted me to seek out a learning skills counselor who determined after two weeks of extensive testing that I read at only 1/3 the rate of other students. When given enough time on their tests, I had 99% percentile, but when time is short or work load is high, I just didn't finish and that percentile dropped precipitously.

In those few school classes in which I received A's, much of the grade relied on term papers and other non-tests. The courses where the grade relied on tests solely or mostly were the ones where I fared the poorest.

I don't know what to do about this, or if anything can be done.

I am wondering if it is even worth trying to improve my science GPA.

I am also worried about the MCAT. I've taken practice tests, and did below average when held to MCAT time lengths. But when I took extended time, I aced nearly every MCAT question. But the MCAT, like most other tests, does not just test what you know, what you can recall, it also tests how quickly you can think. Indeed, I also believe that I think slower than other students, too. When studying or doing mental tasks, time seems very fleeting, and I don't get as much done as others.

When I was in undegrad, I did very well, received many A+'s, awards and accolades. But that was decades ago, and I was studying the humanities and social sciences, not hard core biology, chemistry, physics, genetics, etc.

My how things have changed . . .



One of the reasons that I work so hard at OPM is I believe everybody deserve the chance, the hope, the belief that their dream to become a physician is not crazy and that there are paths to make the dream a reality. The opportunity does exists.

How, having the opportunity in post-bacc does not only give you chance to prove to medical schools that you can do the work, it also give you a chance to see if you can/want to work so hard to make the grade. This may seem a harsh way to phrase it but is it better to find out in Post-Bacc that the work, the lifestyle, the age factor are just not what you want. But its better to try, to learn and to make the attempt,

I was, for example doing well in a 60 credit plus DIY post bacc, highly prepped for the MCATS, but had to put things on hold for family and health issues. when I cam back a year of so later, it was if I had lost a piece of me for school. Part of this was an increasing one-sided back and headache condition. I knew I could make it thru medical school but it would have been tortuous time. That combined wit what else was needed, I choose not to apply to medical school.

It was a tough decision but it was correct
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  • datsa Said:


I am trying to decide whether or not to give up any attempt at medical school. I am nearing the end of a disastrous post-bacc, that has seen my science GPA fall to 3.1 or so. I've gotten mostly B's, some A's, but 6 C's. To make matters worse, 3 of those C's were in one class: Biochemistry II. I took it once, got a C; retook it with another professor, got another C; then took it again with another professor, and still got a C. In each case, no matter how much I studied, I could never finish the tests.



I sympathize with you. While still a premed-track microbiology major, I took a histology class over the summer and got a C+. The teacher was friendly enough and an okay teacher, but not top-notch. His grad student teacher, however, was awful -- not on a personal level, but on a teaching level. The guy, who was Chinese, could not carry on a conversation in English (seriously). He presented the labs in a memorized spiel that literally no one could understand. We all complained to the professor, but he obviously liked the student and would not have anyone else in the lab. Hence my C+.

Dissatisfied with that grade, I determined to retake the course. The soonest I could do it was the next year in summer. Same teacher, same lab assistant. The result? A C-. At that point I was seriously reconsidering my lifelong plans for med school, so I quit trying to make up the grade.

I bet if I went back and retook the class now, even with the same setup, I would get an A or at least a B. Failure to achieve something at one point in your life doesn't doom you forever.

  • datsa Said:
This fact prompted me to seek out a learning skills counselor who determined after two weeks of extensive testing that I read at only 1/3 the rate of other students. When given enough time on their tests, I had 99% percentile, but when time is short or work load is high, I just didn't finish and that percentile dropped precipitously.

In those few school classes in which I received A's, much of the grade relied on term papers and other non-tests. The courses where the grade relied on tests solely or mostly were the ones where I fared the poorest.

I don't know what to do about this, or if anything can be done.

I am wondering if it is even worth trying to improve my science GPA.

I am also worried about the MCAT. I've taken practice tests, and did below average when held to MCAT time lengths. But when I took extended time, I aced nearly every MCAT question. But the MCAT, like most other tests, does not just test what you know, what you can recall, it also tests how quickly you can think. Indeed, I also believe that I think slower than other students, too. When studying or doing mental tasks, time seems very fleeting, and I don't get as much done as others.

When I was in undegrad, I did very well, received many A+'s, awards and accolades. But that was decades ago, and I was studying the humanities and social sciences, not hard core biology, chemistry, physics, genetics, etc.

My how things have changed . . .



Here is my opinion. There are two core questions, which in order of importance are:

  1. Do you really want to be a doctor?
  2. Are you capable of succeeding in medical school?



If the answer to #1 is no, then quit wasting your time and find something you care about. How to tell? Try shadowing a few doctors for 200 or so hours. That should give you a pretty good idea of whether you would enjoy what they do. If 200 hours seems like a lot to you, consider the folly of sinking ten years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars into a career that you find out you dislike.

If the answer to #1 is yes, then #2 is all you need to worry about. Based on what you have written, it's obvious you are plenty intelligent enough to succeed. You simply need to learn how you, individually, best acquire knowledge, how to play to those strengths, and perhaps how to build new learning skills you would need.

Thinking "fast" is a skill, and much like any other skill, it can be developed with practice. Don't believe that you can't do it. It's almost certain that you can. Remember, success in medical school doesn't even require superior intellect, though I'm sure that it must help. Mostly it requires hard work and perseverence.

If medical school is really what you want, and you are sure of that, then don't allow yourself to be discouraged. You have all the abilities you need; you just have to develop them.
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  • spoxjox Said:


Try shadowing a few doctors for 200 or so hours. That should give you a pretty good idea of whether you would enjoy what they do. If 200 hours seems like a lot to you, consider the folly of sinking ten years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars into a career that you find out you dislike.



Thanks for the encouragement. Actually, volunteer work appears to be the only thing that I have in my favor. I have more than 14000 hours (yes, that is not a typo) of medical volunteer work both domestically and abroad. I've set up and run free clinics, and continue to set them up and run them. I do lab work, order supplies and stock the clinics, do intake, keep statistics, and assist in minor and major surgery. For the foreign clinics in which I volunteer, I gather supplies, help with the logistics of getting those supplies across borders, deal with customs agents, take medical equipment to and take medical samples from these clinics, transport patients to hospitals, and translate for doctors during appointments, procedure, and surgery.

  • spoxjox Said:


Here is my opinion. There are two core questions, which in order of importance are:

  1. Do you really want to be a doctor?
  2. Are you capable of succeeding in medical school?





So, I don't any one will question that I lack the interest in being a doctor; I just do not have the test-taking ability like that of my medical-school aspiring brethren. This is not to say that I've always been this way; it seems to be a recent development.
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And addendum: Most of the doctors with whom I work are fairly encouraging about me attending medical school. This is especially true of the foreign doctors that I work with, who believe that the U.S. has a bias toward their own medical schools. Of course, this is a natural, understandable bias. They rightfully point out that the majority of the world’s doctors are not Americans, did not graduate from a U.S. medical school, and are not practicing in the U.S. American medical training has somehow self-appointed itself as the arbiter and judge of what is state-of-the-art medical training and tends to put down all other non-American training as being of lesser quality and graduating doctors of lesser competency. So they are encouraging me to go to a foreign medical school that will look beyond grades and consider life experience. I’m not too enthusiastic about my chances, but at least for now I can focus on trying to ace that MCAT and find that one school that will say “yes.” I will still apply to U.S. schools, but I doubt I will get into any of them.