Domains of Learning and the MCAT-The Affective Domain

The pertinent literature makes it clear the MCAT is pretty good at predicting early medical school success, only fair to poor at predicting late medical school success and virtually worthless in predicting success as a physician (Evolution of the MCAT, Validity of MCAT). 

Beginning in the late 1940’s an extensive effort was undertaken to try to classify education goals and objectives and how learning occurs. This effort resulted in three domains (or see domain details) of how students learn. How do these relate to the MCAT and the prediction of who will become a successful physician? 

Now, lets focus on the Affective Domain.

The Affective Domain includes the manner in which one deals with activities, objects or others emotionally. The emotional arena includes your feelings, values, appreciations, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. There are five dimensions (listed from the simplest to the most complex):

1.  Receiving Phenomena(Awareness, willingness to hear, selected attention),

2.  Responding to Phenomena(Active participation on the part of the learners. Attends and reacts to a particular phenomenon.  Learning outcomes may emphasize compliance in responding, willingness to respond, or satisfaction in responding (motivation)),

3.  Valuing(The worth or value a person attaches to a particular object, phenomenon, or behavior. This ranges from simple acceptance to the more complex state of commitment. Valuing is based on the internalization of a set of specified values, while clues to these values are expressed in the learner’s overt behavior and are often identifiable),

4.  Organization(Organizes values into priorities by contrasting different values, resolving conflicts between them, and creating an unique value system.  The emphasis is on comparing, relating, and synthesizing values),

5.  Internalizing values(characterization): (Has a value system that controls their behavior. The behavior is pervasive, consistent, predictable, and most importantly, characteristic of the learner. Instructional objectives are concerned with the student’s general patterns of adjustment (personal, social, emotional)).

How do the learning domains relate to success as a physician and the role of the MCAT? See: MCAT Validity in Perspective

Refer To: Why MCAT Fails to Predict Physician Success, MCAT and Cognitive Domain, MCAT and Psychomotor Domain

Trick Questions on The MCAT?

I was recently in a session where two of the brighter students from a major university (a Pac-Ten university) were discussing their experiences with taking a MCAT prep course and their experiences on the MCAT exam. Both students had taken the same one of the big TWO commercial MCAT preparation courses.

When one of the students described that the instructor, and based on the course’s philosophy, had told him that the MCAT tries to trick you by how they write their questions…its putting it mildly to say that I was profoundly awakened from the momentary snooze that had beset me. So, I later Googled “trick questions on the MCAT” and found that there is a belief by many that the MCAT has trick questions. The Student Doctor Network has a forum discussing this question.

Categorically, my belief is there is no reason for the AAMC to trick anyone…the test is difficult enough without tricks. And, based on my experience of analyzing real MCAT’s in detail, I cannot honestly recall one question that I would seriously call a trick question. So, what might this course and instructor mean by making this statement? Whereas I cannot speak for them definitively, I will offer my thoughts:

  1. There are no trick questions on the MCAT
  2. If there were truly “trick questions” on the MCAT,
      1. There would be no effective way to prepare (too many ways to trick you)
      2. AAMC would have been sued already
  3. Any perception of trick questions is
      1. a reflection of the lack of understanding of the structure of the MCAT
      2. lack of effective preparation for the MCAT
      3. lack of skills appropriate for taking the MCAT
  4. Relying on mock or simulated exams will increase this misperception of “trick” questions on the real MCAT.
  5. So, don’t waste your time trying to determine if a question is a trick question…because there are not any.

My belief is simple. When there is appropriate preparation of content and skills using real MCAT’s, the specter of “trick questions” will magically disappear.