Scylla and Charybdis: The MCAT, USMLE, and Degrees of Freedom in Undergraduate Medical Education

In recent years, medical educators have been making meaningful attempts to rethink how premedical students are prepared for medical school, and how medical students are prepared for residency. Among the many challenges to redesigning premedical and medical school curricula, one that stands out is th...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Academic Medicine 2016-11, Vol.91 (11), p.1498-1500
Hauptverfasser: Gliatto, Peter, Leitman, I. Michael, Muller, David
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
container_end_page 1500
container_issue 11
container_start_page 1498
container_title Academic Medicine
container_volume 91
creator Gliatto, Peter
Leitman, I. Michael
Muller, David
description In recent years, medical educators have been making meaningful attempts to rethink how premedical students are prepared for medical school, and how medical students are prepared for residency. Among the many challenges to redesigning premedical and medical school curricula, one that stands out is the constraint imposed by our current methods of assessing aptitude, particularly our use of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). For much of the past century, medical school and residency admissions committees have relied heavily on MCAT and USMLE scores to evaluate and rank candidates to their programs. These high-stakes exams determine to a large extent what is taught, and what is stressed, in preparation for and during medical school—despite the fact that scores have limited ability to predict future success in clinical medicine or biomedical research. Additionally, evidence indicates that students from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds do not fare as well on these exams and, as a result, may be disproportionately excluded from the medical profession. While medical school admissions committees have made limited incremental gains in holistic review, residency programs appear to be increasingly focused on USMLE Step scores and veering away from the spirit of holistic review. The authors propose that substantive change will remain slow in coming unless members of the medical education community radically rethink how we report scores from these exams, and how we use them in our selection of future medical students and residents.
doi_str_mv 10.1097/ACM.0000000000001247
format Article
fullrecord <record><control><sourceid>proquest_cross</sourceid><recordid>TN_cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_1826692344</recordid><sourceformat>XML</sourceformat><sourcesystem>PC</sourcesystem><sourcerecordid>1826692344</sourcerecordid><originalsourceid>FETCH-LOGICAL-c4477-806b67f5df550120e07f27764b601a592f8ee95b98a124c73fa490b576fa82373</originalsourceid><addsrcrecordid>eNqFkEtPxCAUhYnR-P4HxrB0MVWgFKi7SR0fyUxcOJO4q7RcnGqnVWhj_PcyM2qMC2XDvfCdC-cgdETJKSWpPBtmk1PyY1HG5QbapWmsIkXU_WaoCScR41zsoD3vnwIkZBJvox0mWcIJkbvo4a58r2uNdWNwNtfuvTCVP8fTOeBJNpwO8OxuMh4NVvcX8OgAPG4tvgyFaRe4avCsMeAenTa97oIITFXqGo9MX-quapsDtGV17eHwc99Hs8vRNLuOxrdXN9lwHJWcSxl-LAohbWJskgQrBIi0TErBC0GoTlJmFUCaFKnSwWgpY6t5SopECqsVi2W8j07Wc19c-9qD7_JF5UsI3hpoe59TxYRIWcx5QPkaLV3rvQObv7hqEbznlOTLbPOQbf472yA7_nyhLxZgvkVfYQZArYG3tu7A-ee6fwOXz0HX3fy_2fwP6QpTSkWMUEFp6KLliYg_AO_akbc</addsrcrecordid><sourcetype>Aggregation Database</sourcetype><iscdi>true</iscdi><recordtype>article</recordtype><pqid>1826692344</pqid></control><display><type>article</type><title>Scylla and Charybdis: The MCAT, USMLE, and Degrees of Freedom in Undergraduate Medical Education</title><source>MEDLINE</source><source>Journals@Ovid LWW Legacy Archive</source><source>Alma/SFX Local Collection</source><creator>Gliatto, Peter ; Leitman, I. Michael ; Muller, David</creator><creatorcontrib>Gliatto, Peter ; Leitman, I. Michael ; Muller, David</creatorcontrib><description>In recent years, medical educators have been making meaningful attempts to rethink how premedical students are prepared for medical school, and how medical students are prepared for residency. Among the many challenges to redesigning premedical and medical school curricula, one that stands out is the constraint imposed by our current methods of assessing aptitude, particularly our use of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). For much of the past century, medical school and residency admissions committees have relied heavily on MCAT and USMLE scores to evaluate and rank candidates to their programs. These high-stakes exams determine to a large extent what is taught, and what is stressed, in preparation for and during medical school—despite the fact that scores have limited ability to predict future success in clinical medicine or biomedical research. Additionally, evidence indicates that students from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds do not fare as well on these exams and, as a result, may be disproportionately excluded from the medical profession. While medical school admissions committees have made limited incremental gains in holistic review, residency programs appear to be increasingly focused on USMLE Step scores and veering away from the spirit of holistic review. The authors propose that substantive change will remain slow in coming unless members of the medical education community radically rethink how we report scores from these exams, and how we use them in our selection of future medical students and residents.</description><identifier>ISSN: 1040-2446</identifier><identifier>EISSN: 1938-808X</identifier><identifier>DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000001247</identifier><identifier>PMID: 27254007</identifier><language>eng</language><publisher>United States: by the Association of American Medical Colleges</publisher><subject>College Admission Test ; Curriculum ; Education, Medical, Undergraduate ; Education, Premedical ; Internship and Residency ; Licensure, Medical ; School Admission Criteria ; United States</subject><ispartof>Academic Medicine, 2016-11, Vol.91 (11), p.1498-1500</ispartof><rights>by the Association of American Medical Colleges</rights><rights>2016 by the Association of American Medical Colleges</rights><lds50>peer_reviewed</lds50><oa>free_for_read</oa><woscitedreferencessubscribed>false</woscitedreferencessubscribed><citedby>FETCH-LOGICAL-c4477-806b67f5df550120e07f27764b601a592f8ee95b98a124c73fa490b576fa82373</citedby><cites>FETCH-LOGICAL-c4477-806b67f5df550120e07f27764b601a592f8ee95b98a124c73fa490b576fa82373</cites></display><links><openurl>$$Topenurl_article</openurl><openurlfulltext>$$Topenurlfull_article</openurlfulltext><thumbnail>$$Tsyndetics_thumb_exl</thumbnail><linktopdf><![CDATA[$$Uhttp://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&CSC=Y&NEWS=N&PAGE=fulltext&PDF=y&D=ovft&AN=00001888-201611000-00016$$EPDF$$P50$$Gwolterskluwer$$H]]></linktopdf><linktohtml>$$Uhttp://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&amp;NEWS=n&amp;CSC=Y&amp;PAGE=fulltext&amp;D=ovft&amp;AN=00001888-201611000-00016$$EHTML$$P50$$Gwolterskluwer$$H</linktohtml><link.rule.ids>314,780,784,4608,27923,27924,64565,65332</link.rule.ids><backlink>$$Uhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27254007$$D View this record in MEDLINE/PubMed$$Hfree_for_read</backlink></links><search><creatorcontrib>Gliatto, Peter</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Leitman, I. Michael</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Muller, David</creatorcontrib><title>Scylla and Charybdis: The MCAT, USMLE, and Degrees of Freedom in Undergraduate Medical Education</title><title>Academic Medicine</title><addtitle>Acad Med</addtitle><description>In recent years, medical educators have been making meaningful attempts to rethink how premedical students are prepared for medical school, and how medical students are prepared for residency. Among the many challenges to redesigning premedical and medical school curricula, one that stands out is the constraint imposed by our current methods of assessing aptitude, particularly our use of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). For much of the past century, medical school and residency admissions committees have relied heavily on MCAT and USMLE scores to evaluate and rank candidates to their programs. These high-stakes exams determine to a large extent what is taught, and what is stressed, in preparation for and during medical school—despite the fact that scores have limited ability to predict future success in clinical medicine or biomedical research. Additionally, evidence indicates that students from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds do not fare as well on these exams and, as a result, may be disproportionately excluded from the medical profession. While medical school admissions committees have made limited incremental gains in holistic review, residency programs appear to be increasingly focused on USMLE Step scores and veering away from the spirit of holistic review. The authors propose that substantive change will remain slow in coming unless members of the medical education community radically rethink how we report scores from these exams, and how we use them in our selection of future medical students and residents.</description><subject>College Admission Test</subject><subject>Curriculum</subject><subject>Education, Medical, Undergraduate</subject><subject>Education, Premedical</subject><subject>Internship and Residency</subject><subject>Licensure, Medical</subject><subject>School Admission Criteria</subject><subject>United States</subject><issn>1040-2446</issn><issn>1938-808X</issn><fulltext>true</fulltext><rsrctype>article</rsrctype><creationdate>2016</creationdate><recordtype>article</recordtype><sourceid>EIF</sourceid><recordid>eNqFkEtPxCAUhYnR-P4HxrB0MVWgFKi7SR0fyUxcOJO4q7RcnGqnVWhj_PcyM2qMC2XDvfCdC-cgdETJKSWpPBtmk1PyY1HG5QbapWmsIkXU_WaoCScR41zsoD3vnwIkZBJvox0mWcIJkbvo4a58r2uNdWNwNtfuvTCVP8fTOeBJNpwO8OxuMh4NVvcX8OgAPG4tvgyFaRe4avCsMeAenTa97oIITFXqGo9MX-quapsDtGV17eHwc99Hs8vRNLuOxrdXN9lwHJWcSxl-LAohbWJskgQrBIi0TErBC0GoTlJmFUCaFKnSwWgpY6t5SopECqsVi2W8j07Wc19c-9qD7_JF5UsI3hpoe59TxYRIWcx5QPkaLV3rvQObv7hqEbznlOTLbPOQbf472yA7_nyhLxZgvkVfYQZArYG3tu7A-ee6fwOXz0HX3fy_2fwP6QpTSkWMUEFp6KLliYg_AO_akbc</recordid><startdate>20161101</startdate><enddate>20161101</enddate><creator>Gliatto, Peter</creator><creator>Leitman, I. Michael</creator><creator>Muller, David</creator><general>by the Association of American Medical Colleges</general><scope>CGR</scope><scope>CUY</scope><scope>CVF</scope><scope>ECM</scope><scope>EIF</scope><scope>NPM</scope><scope>AAYXX</scope><scope>CITATION</scope><scope>7X8</scope></search><sort><creationdate>20161101</creationdate><title>Scylla and Charybdis: The MCAT, USMLE, and Degrees of Freedom in Undergraduate Medical Education</title><author>Gliatto, Peter ; Leitman, I. Michael ; Muller, David</author></sort><facets><frbrtype>5</frbrtype><frbrgroupid>cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c4477-806b67f5df550120e07f27764b601a592f8ee95b98a124c73fa490b576fa82373</frbrgroupid><rsrctype>articles</rsrctype><prefilter>articles</prefilter><language>eng</language><creationdate>2016</creationdate><topic>College Admission Test</topic><topic>Curriculum</topic><topic>Education, Medical, Undergraduate</topic><topic>Education, Premedical</topic><topic>Internship and Residency</topic><topic>Licensure, Medical</topic><topic>School Admission Criteria</topic><topic>United States</topic><toplevel>peer_reviewed</toplevel><toplevel>online_resources</toplevel><creatorcontrib>Gliatto, Peter</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Leitman, I. Michael</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Muller, David</creatorcontrib><collection>Medline</collection><collection>MEDLINE</collection><collection>MEDLINE (Ovid)</collection><collection>MEDLINE</collection><collection>MEDLINE</collection><collection>PubMed</collection><collection>CrossRef</collection><collection>MEDLINE - Academic</collection><jtitle>Academic Medicine</jtitle></facets><delivery><delcategory>Remote Search Resource</delcategory><fulltext>fulltext</fulltext></delivery><addata><au>Gliatto, Peter</au><au>Leitman, I. Michael</au><au>Muller, David</au><format>journal</format><genre>article</genre><ristype>JOUR</ristype><atitle>Scylla and Charybdis: The MCAT, USMLE, and Degrees of Freedom in Undergraduate Medical Education</atitle><jtitle>Academic Medicine</jtitle><addtitle>Acad Med</addtitle><date>2016-11-01</date><risdate>2016</risdate><volume>91</volume><issue>11</issue><spage>1498</spage><epage>1500</epage><pages>1498-1500</pages><issn>1040-2446</issn><eissn>1938-808X</eissn><abstract>In recent years, medical educators have been making meaningful attempts to rethink how premedical students are prepared for medical school, and how medical students are prepared for residency. Among the many challenges to redesigning premedical and medical school curricula, one that stands out is the constraint imposed by our current methods of assessing aptitude, particularly our use of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). For much of the past century, medical school and residency admissions committees have relied heavily on MCAT and USMLE scores to evaluate and rank candidates to their programs. These high-stakes exams determine to a large extent what is taught, and what is stressed, in preparation for and during medical school—despite the fact that scores have limited ability to predict future success in clinical medicine or biomedical research. Additionally, evidence indicates that students from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds do not fare as well on these exams and, as a result, may be disproportionately excluded from the medical profession. While medical school admissions committees have made limited incremental gains in holistic review, residency programs appear to be increasingly focused on USMLE Step scores and veering away from the spirit of holistic review. The authors propose that substantive change will remain slow in coming unless members of the medical education community radically rethink how we report scores from these exams, and how we use them in our selection of future medical students and residents.</abstract><cop>United States</cop><pub>by the Association of American Medical Colleges</pub><pmid>27254007</pmid><doi>10.1097/ACM.0000000000001247</doi><tpages>3</tpages><oa>free_for_read</oa></addata></record>
fulltext fulltext
identifier ISSN: 1040-2446
ispartof Academic Medicine, 2016-11, Vol.91 (11), p.1498-1500
issn 1040-2446
1938-808X
language eng
recordid cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_1826692344
source MEDLINE; Journals@Ovid LWW Legacy Archive; Alma/SFX Local Collection
subjects College Admission Test
Curriculum
Education, Medical, Undergraduate
Education, Premedical
Internship and Residency
Licensure, Medical
School Admission Criteria
United States
title Scylla and Charybdis: The MCAT, USMLE, and Degrees of Freedom in Undergraduate Medical Education
url https://sfx.bib-bvb.de/sfx_tum?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2025-01-09T07%3A06%3A28IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primo3-Article-proquest_cross&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Scylla%20and%20Charybdis:%20The%20MCAT,%20USMLE,%20and%20Degrees%20of%20Freedom%20in%20Undergraduate%20Medical%20Education&rft.jtitle=Academic%20Medicine&rft.au=Gliatto,%20Peter&rft.date=2016-11-01&rft.volume=91&rft.issue=11&rft.spage=1498&rft.epage=1500&rft.pages=1498-1500&rft.issn=1040-2446&rft.eissn=1938-808X&rft_id=info:doi/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001247&rft_dat=%3Cproquest_cross%3E1826692344%3C/proquest_cross%3E%3Curl%3E%3C/url%3E&disable_directlink=true&sfx.directlink=off&sfx.report_link=0&rft_id=info:oai/&rft_pqid=1826692344&rft_id=info:pmid/27254007&rfr_iscdi=true