The Association of American Medical Colleges suggested dramatic changes to the Medical College Admission Test last week in an effort to balance scientific knowledge evaluation with critical analysis, reasoning and social skills.
Although the MCAT revisions won’t take effect until 2015 if approved, some University students have already begun to question the new test’s effectiveness in measuring the abilities of future doctors. Aryan Sarparast, a University psychology major and chemistry minor who plans to take the test on April 16, said that while he expects his background in psychology to aid him in medical school, he doesn’t think such a focus is necessary for every pre-med student.
“Not everyone learns the same way about social aspects of human beings,” Sarparast said. “You don’t necessarily have to study psychology to understand human behavior.”  
Sarparast reasoned there are pre-med students who excel academically but are not personable, and a standardized test may not make such a determination.
“This seems like a ploy to standardize the thought process of students to make it easier on admissions committees,” Sarparast said.
The changes will update the test’s natural science sections, add a new section on behavioral and social sciences and revise the current verbal sections to better address knowledge of ethics, philosophy and cross-cultural studies.
“(The new test will include) rapid changes in all scientific fields, the impact of behavior on health and a more diverse population (to) require tomorrow’s doctors to be more broadly prepared,” said Ronald D. Franks, vice chair of the committee that proposed the changes to the AAMC, in a press release regarding the new, 90-minute-longer version.
Because these new sections would test content from philosophy, sociology and psychology courses, students who have focused solely on courses in the natural sciences — like biology and chemistry — might need to expand their course selection in preparation. The committee has accounted for this increased pressure on students by including in their recommendation suggested resources to better prepare pre-med students, including potential fee waivers and low-cost preparation materials. Like Sarparast, Srdjan Kamenko — a University biology major scheduled to take the MCAT on the same day — was also skeptical about the proposed changes.  
“Your admission isn’t based off your MCAT or (grade point average),” Kamenko said. “That just gets you the interview.”
From there, Kamenko said, medical schools have an effective process to judge which applicants to accept.
“Some schools ask things like, ‘What is your definition of humanity?’” Kamenko said. “It you’ve spent all of college stuck in a library studying molecular genetics, you won’t be able to answer that.”
Sarparast and Kamenko agreed it’s important for future doctors to know some of the reasoning and social skills the proposed MCAT is aiming to test.
“It’s important for students to be well-rounded,” Kamenko said. “I just don’t see how a multiple-choice section of an exam would reflect that.”
To Sarparast, relying more on standardized testing to weed out applicants before the interview process — as the AAMC is trying to do — perpetuates an unfair trend he has noticed in the medical industry.
“There’s already a tendency for (medical) schools to look at a student as if they are a culmination of points,” Sarparast said. “Minimizing a human being into a series of numbers is not an accurate way to predict the success of a future doctor.”
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