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

Bibliographic Data

ID21615080
AuthorsJorge A Girotti (was associate dean for admissions and special curricular programs, and director, Hispanic Center of Excellence in Medicine, at the time this work was completed. He is research assistant professor, Department of Medical Education, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, now.), Julie A Chanatry (Colgate University), Daniel M Clinchot (0000-0002-2810-7227, is vice dean for education and associate vice president for health sciences education, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio.), Stephanie C McClure (is senior associate dean for student and academic affairs, professor of internal medicine, and program director, Center of Excellence, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee.), Aubrie Swan Sein (0000-0002-3139-4626, is assistant professor of educational assessment in pediatrics and dental medicine and director, Center for Education Research and Evaluation, Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York; ORCID:.), Ian W Walker (is clinical associate professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, and past director of admissions, University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.), Cynthia A Searcy (0009-0007-8588-5440, is senior director of MCAT research and development, Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC., corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume95
Issue3
Pages365-374
Publication date2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAcademic Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1040-2446 • E-ISSN: 1938-808X
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1097/acm.0000000000002940
PMID31425183
OpenAlexW2968101770
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited21

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

Curriculum · Ethnic group · Higher education · Medical education · Medical school · Pedagogy · Political science · Socioeconomic status · Underrepresented Minority · Diversity and Career in Medicine · Innovations in Medical Education · Medical Education and Admissions · Medicine · Psychology

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