Introduction: Numerous studies currently evaluate medical school success and performance using college Grade Point Average (GPA) and Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) scores. These studies demonstrate that students who score low on the MCAT will continually perform worse than their peers on medical school exams and board exams. We investigated where a student attended high school and how that factor can affect medical school performance because most studies evaluated performance based on college attendance.Methods: Our retrospective study evaluated 184 students at Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine (KSOM) and showed higher-quality high schools, in comparison to lower-quality high schools, affected medical school performance. We categorized two groups for high school quality based on the U.S. News scorecard for programs within Nevada: those students with a high school reading proficiency (HSRP) >50% and those with an HSRP <50%. These two groups were then standardized based on percentile within the school and averaged using HSRP, MCAT, pre-clinical, step 1, clinical, and step 2 scores. A line chart was graphed to demonstrate the difference between the two groups.Data/results: As might be expected, our results showed significantly higher MCAT scores from students who attended high-quality versus low-quality high schools. Our results also showed that although students from low-quality high schools performed worse for the first part of medical school, by step 2, students will score similarly in both groups.Conclusion: Students who performed poorly on the MCAT and attended lower-quality high schools will score as competitively as their peers by step 2.
BackgroundStudents from lower socioeconomic groups tend to underestimate their chances of acceptance to medical school and their likelihood of success once admitted. ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to determine if socioeconomic disadvantage status is linked to lower medical college admission test (MCAT) scores and academic performance in medical school. MethodsUsing the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) education/occupation (EO) indicator, we compared economically disadvantaged students to students with no financial disadvantage on the MCAT, Phase 1 National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1, Phase 2 NBME, and USMLE Step 2 test scores. ResultsMedical students in the disadvantaged group scored significantly lower on the MCAT than students with no financial disadvantage. The disadvantaged group showed a non-significant lower trend in performance until USMLE Step 2. ConclusionsApplicants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may perform lower on their MCAT and early medical school benchmark exams, but they appear to catch up with and even surpass their peers on their USMLE Step 2 examination.
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