Hi there,
Sorry you had so much trouble with physics. I noticed that my school has a beginner’s course for someone like me who has zip for a physics background (maybe true of you too) even if your school doesn’t have it I would like to give you the ISBN number for the book and workbook we’re using in the class I’m in…it is called “Conceptual Physics” and the author is Paul G Hewitt, The ISBN is 0321052021. It has a companion website that has additional materials for helping you understand it and a really good workbook for practicing the concepts. The workbook ISBN is 032105153X.
Even if your college doesn’t offer a conceptual intro course before the two required physics courses you can definitely conquer this book on your own as the math and explanations used in it are worded so you don’t need to be a math whiz or a rocket scientist to comprehend this. Maybe you can work through this book and then go back and repeat your physics courses. I don’t think I’d have done so great in physics without some preparatory course first either. I think after this and taking calculus before the required physics I’ll probably do a lot better. The problem for some is the physics courses (I’ve been told) are geared to engineers first and medical types second so it is not going to be as much in our comfort zone, that’s why having the concepts down and getting good at the math first are important. If you can still score great on the MCAT and do well when you repeat the physics I bet you’ll still get in someplace.
You do sound a little overloaded right now…I think that it is better if you really think about your strengths and weaknesses when signing up for courses. If you have too many difficult courses at one time you may want to slow down a little. In the future if you happen to get less than an A in the first half of a two part series of classes maybe it would be better to repeat part one before tackling part two?
I may be wrong about this but it is my perception that at least some admissions officials look at how you handle your challenges with your prerequisites almost as much as whether you had any problems along the way. Almost everyone has some difficulty with some prerequisites, and many people who did have some problems along the way still recover and succeed, so I think you should just take a deep breath, resolve to do better and maybe research your courses more carefully before signing up.
Congrats on the returning family member from Iraq!
Samenewme, Natalie, and RetiringinMy80s,
Thank you for your replies.
Samenewme (love that name), I am registered to take Organic chemistry and Biology this fall. Though this may seem to be a huge load, I beleve I will be able to manage this schedule. I did very well in general chemistry, I will only work one or two day(s) per week, and as I mentioned in my first post, I will have help in caring for my grandmother.
And Natalie, you are right. I’d rather take longer and do well than rush through this material for the sake of keeping up with a timeline. I learned my lesson this summer. I am postponing taking the MCAT until April 2007 or until I am truly ready. I believe I had a decent grasp of the material. I believe, no, I know I fell short in mastering the material because I did not devote enough time and practice to applying the concepts to problems.
RetiringInMy80’s, thank you for the book suggestion. I will look into it. It sounds like a good book to aid in the review of physics.
Efex 101, I hope you do decide to continue visiting OPM. I enjoy your posts on your journey through Mayo immensely!! I also appreciate your insight in the discussions that arise on the site, even if they frustrate you 
!
I think you gals and guys are great!!!
Thanks again!
Quote:
As far as the MCAT goes in my opinion it is no more or less and a weeder tactic.
What it does do is determine 2 things:
1) See if you can handle serious volumes of information
2) Ensure that the people who get into med school really want it as evidenced by the hard work it takes to get in.
Howdy Mike!
In medicine, we do tests (or should anyway) because they have the potential to change the way we proceed with care. In other words, because they are predictive. The MCAT appears to be predictive.
Please forgive the following reiterative argument, it isn’t mine. Several papers have shown that the MCAT is an accurate predictor of performance on future standardized exams. Interestingly, these papers are fairly old. It seems that, despite the age of this evidence, it is taken as gospel that the MCAT predicts success on USMLE exams, particularly Step I as well as standardized NBME subject shelf exams (often given at the end of third year clerkship exams). In other words, doing well on a large, standardized, multiple-choice exam is a good indication that you’ll do well on other large, standardized, multiple-choice exams in the future.
Of interest (to me, at least) is the lack of predictive value between these types of exams and clinical care. I suspect this lack is because of the difficulty in defining and assessing the quality of clinical care. But I digress.
Anyway, the MCAT is seen as an indicator that of Step I performance and, since many see a college’s Step I scores as indicative of the quality of the institution, the school has an incentive to cherry pick those who score well on the MCAT.
Sorry for the verbose ramblings. I just wanted to toss out the justification that many use for requiring the MCAT. If you aren’t satisfied with these arguments, just wait until to read the ones justifying the Clinical Skills Assessment exam.
Take care,
Jeff
Excellent explanation.
I agree with you. In fact i didnt really think about the USMLE or COMLEX exams and standardized tests but obviously they are.
What I find really interesting is how non-science degree people do better one the MCAT (on average) than Science degree people. Is it because the non science people are so damn terrified of the MCAT they study more? Or is it simply that they dont have the presumably false confidence that being a science major brings to a science based test (which would only make sense but oddly dosent work out that way).
All in all the MCAT idea is an interesting one. Without an admissions test you would be flooded with applicants with no way to screen. It makes sense, i just dont know that its the best way to find those who might be the best physicians. Good MCAT scores might coorelate to USMLE/COMLEX but they dont correlate to Excellent Physician.
Good discussion!
My Dean of Students told us about that correlation also. Unfortunately for me, my MCAT score was awesome and my Step I score was so-so. I think part of it is that we spend lots of money to have a company tell us how to conquer the MCAT. It took me into third year of med school to finally figure out how to study for home-grown med school exams, the shelfs and Step 2. I was one of those people who foolishly entered medical school thinking that if I learned all of the material I could so I could do the best for my patients that the tests would work themselves out. How wrong I was.
This isn’t meant to discourage anyone, just a dose of the reality that took me a long time to learn and accept.
Tara
Quote:
My Dean of Students told us about that correlation also. Unfortunately for me, my MCAT score was awesome and my Step I score was so-so. I think part of it is that we spend lots of money to have a company tell us how to conquer the MCAT. It took me into third year of med school to finally figure out how to study for home-grown med school exams, the shelfs and Step 2. I was one of those people who foolishly entered medical school thinking that if I learned all of the material I could so I could do the best for my patients that the tests would work themselves out. How wrong I was.
This isn’t meant to discourage anyone, just a dose of the reality that took me a long time to learn and accept.
Tara
Hi there,
One of the great things that Tara points out is that medical school is a process that one goes through in becoming a physician. You figure out how to learn what you need to take care of your patients. That process starts as an undergraduate and continues well into your residency with your in-training exams (yep folks, you take exams every year).
As you move from undergraduate to medicine, more of the learning process becomes your responsibility. No longer is everything you need to know dropped in your lap for you to regurgitate on some future exam. You learn how to learn and if you are fortunate, you start to figure out how things are applied and tested. One of the funny “things” about patients is that that do not come with directions or neat little formulas. Often you have to do some real problem solving and often you may have to fly by the seat of your pants. It is often all about experience and you have one shot to “get it” while you are in undergrad, medical school and residency.
I am always intrigued at the number of curriculum “experts” that crop up in pre-med and medical school who have never actually treated a patient. Get out in the trenches in the middle of the night and you may find yourself hoping that some of that stuff you spent so much time “data dumping” would fly back into your head.
Can you use the HH equation to calculate your patients bicarb because the blood gas machine is broken and you only have three values? Can you figure out the FiO2 to Oxygen ratio and predict what PO2 your patient would have on room air? Is you patient in respiratory failure? Do you know how to figure out of your patient is in a persistant catabolic state? (No little test numbers on lab strips to help you out?) Do you know why you want to use chromic suture to close an inadvertent bladder injury as opposed to silk?
There are hundreds of little patient “problems” that crop up daily and you have to come up with a plan to get them taken care of. Your attending physicans and senior residents are not going to give you the answers so how are you going to figure out what to do? You can’t pull out a textbook and read in five minutes so how you you approach solving a problem?
In general, much as Tara has outlined above, you figure out how to put everything together and use your information as a tool for your tests. The earlier you do this, the better at this “medicine thing” you become. Big hint: It’s worse in surgery (and EM to a certain degree) because often I have to make decisions with less than a full complement of information or the patient dies. My attending doesn’t let me scrub out of a colon case (and consult a textbook) when I have inadvertently injured the bladder trying to dissect a colovesical fistula that we discovered during the case.
Natalie
