The New and Kinder MCAT

Everybody knows that the MCATs is the biggest entrance exam to get into medical school.   What people may not know is that the people behind the test are also trying to ride the trends to fit the times.   In trying to be more politically correct they decided that “nearly half of the new MCAT will focus on squishier topics in two new sections: one covering social and behavioral sciences and another on critical analysis and reading that will require students to analyze passages covering areas like ethics and cross-cultural studies.”  Read this article in the NY Times where it talks about more and more students trying to get into a medical ethics class where in the past no one would show up. The Association of American Medical Colleges which runs the test wants to “improve the medical admissions process to find the people who you and I would want as our doctors. Being a good doctor isn’t just about understanding science, it’s about understanding people.”  So, it’s not about treating patients as numbers, huh?  Then why is our whole healthcare system moving towards all this quality crap and pay-for-performance bullsh$t?   Yes, the AAMC is right.  It is about treating patients as people and not numbers.   The problem is that changing an entrance exam probably does nothing to change the system.    And students just do what they have to do to ace the test.  After that, as the Talking Heads would say, it is same as it ever was.  After four years of medical school they will mostly want to make money to pay off their school debts and hardly any will choose to be  primary care doctors.