Investigating Group Differences in Examinees’ Preparation for and Performance on the New MCAT Exam

Abstract

In 2015, the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) was redesigned to better assess the concepts and reasoning skills students need to be ready for the medical school curriculum. During the new exam’s design and rollout, careful attention was paid to the opportunities examinees had to learn the new content and their access to free and low-cost preparation resources. The design committee aimed to mitigate possible unintended effects of the redesign, specifically increasing historical mean group differences in MCAT scores for examinees from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds and races/ethnicities underrepresented in medicine compared with those from higher SES backgrounds and races/ethnicities not underrepresented in medicine. In this article, the authors describe the characteristics and scores of examinees who took the new MCAT exam in 2017 and compare those trends with historical ones from 2013, presenting evidence that the diversity and performance of examinees has remained stable even with the exam’s redesign. They also describe the use of free and low-cost MCAT preparation resources and MCAT preparation courses for examinees from higher and lower SES backgrounds and who are enrolled in undergraduate institutions with more and fewer resources, showing that examinees from lower SES backgrounds and who attend institutions with fewer resources use many free and low-cost test preparation resources at lower rates than their peers. The authors conclude with a description of the next phase of this research: to gather qualitative and quantitative data about the preparation strategies, barriers, and needs of all examinees, but especially those from lower SES and underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds.

Postbaccalaureate and graduate applicants to dental school: An analysis of holistic review

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“…Such candidates may be impaired by lack of access to educational resources, whether it would be quality of teachers, access to free or low‐cost preparation materials, guidance from strong mentors or role‐models, or financial/personal constraints that require applicants to be employed for a significant amount of time prior to pursuing postbaccalaureate preparation 14 . Such disparities may affect thousands of applicants to dental, medical, and other professional fields and create structural and institutional barriers that work against ideal diversification and creation of an inclusive and effective health care workforce 15,16 …”

Examination of Medical College Admission Test Scores and US Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 and Step 2 Clinical Knowledge Scores Among Students With Disabilities

“… 2 , 3 Historical literature suggests that students with disabilities (SWD) have lower USMLE pass rates 2 and lower Step 1 and Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) scores. 3 Despite recent attention to differential MCAT performance among students with lower socioeconomic status backgrounds and those identifying as races/ethnicities underrepresented in medicine, 4 disability has been conspicuously absent from these discussions. If the MCAT is to remain a useful tool for assessing the likelihood of success in medical school, data on performance outcomes in diverse cohorts of students are needed.…”

The Consequences of Structural Racism on MCAT Scores and Medical School Admissions: The Past Is Prologue

“…This spring, Academic Medicine published a collection of articles summarizing the MVC's research so far. These articles describe how well MCAT scores predict students' performance in the first year of medical school, 17 how examinees prepare for and perform on the exam, 18 how admissions committees can admit more diverse classes by considering applicants with a wider range of MCAT scores, 19 how to help students strategically prepare for the exam, 20 and how structural racism and inequality affect educational opportunity academic achievement. 29 Visit aamc.org/mvc2020articles to read the articles.…”