Medical Students’ Socioeconomic Status and Academic Performance in Medical School

Abstract

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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“…Diversas investigaciones coinciden en que los hábitos de estudio son significativos para asegurar un buen rendimiento académico, entre más organización y estructura demuestra un estudiante en sus tareas, trabajos sincrónicos y asincrónicos, así como la utilización de mapas mentales, realización de horarios para el estudio, cuadros sinópticos y otras herramientas que les apoyen en el proceso académico, más probabilidades tendrá de obtener buenas evaluaciones escolares. (Ely, K, et al, 2023) Se debe tener en cuenta que los estudiantes en un gran porcentaje tienen la tendencia a presentar actitudes conformistas que conlleva a criterios y análisis plenamente subjetivos y no reflexivos, determinando sus vidas bajo este patrón, por eso planifican menos el futuro y esto predisponen a un bajo desempeño escolar (Falch y Naper,2013).…”

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