It’s bad enough that college students can earn a degree without having developed a writing skill. Now we learn that future doctors may not be expected to write an understandable document either, if new standards for the Medical College Admission Test are any indication of what’s to come.
New MCAT proposals released by the Association of American Medical Colleges eliminate a writing section and focus more on social sciences.
These new testing procedures, which will go into effect in 2015, are different from the currentMCAT sections, which include a biological science, physical science, a verbal reasoning section and a writing sample.
Karen Mitchell, director of the MCAT program, said the new test reflects science in a way that is up to date.
“It will communicate the need for students to be broadly prepared,” Mitchell said.
The new version of the MCAT will test scientific knowledge in addition to how that knowledge is used, Mitchell said.
“It will test the human and social issues of medicine,” Mitchell said.
