Posted by alexandra_k on December 31, 2014, at 18:24:09
In reply to Re: wrecked the bar, posted by alexandra_k on December 29, 2014, at 22:12:55
I found a news clipping from The University of Queensland (Australia). About how the VC's daughter got offered a place into Med School even though there were around 300 applicants that scored more highly than her. About how once this was found out... Her father resigned... But about how they were going to let her keep her place because (quote) it 'wasn't her fault'.
I guess it is nice and clear about where the allegiance lies. Once you are accepted in to the wonderful magical circle then you are accepted in to the wonderful magical circle. Perhaps you stuff up mightily. Worst case you have to leave the country and set up shop someplace new. Like how US doctors who are barred from practice because of sexual abuse or negligence or maleficence or whatever get to go set up shop in Australia...
It isn't at all about how patients deserve better. About how some patients are going to get her (not the best) as their doctor.
Of course... The deal is that probably around 2x the number of people want to do it than there are places available. And that most of any of them would go on to be perfectly fine. So she most probably is fully competent. She could even me more competent than the majority of her cohort since most of the cohort is probably only around 18 / 19 / 20 and it is next to impossible to judge how students who do well in their first year at uni are going to turn out 5 or 10 years down the track compared to students who bloomed a bit later...
The ACER consortium gets a significant role in allocating UMAT scores. The scoring is all very hush-hush. I'd love to see some stats... I'd love to see UMAT percentile scores mapped against socio-economic class. Against race. Against the decile (poverty) rating of the last secondary school attended. I bet the test is HEAVILY biased. Which is (of course) precisely why they don't make such data available. The GRE is also heavily culturally biased. US students (from US secondary schools / US undergraduate universities) do better than international applicants. DESPITE this we are told over and over and over again that the test is a test of innate ability. I guess many people out there still do believe that some racial / cultural / socio-economic classes are intrinsically better / more intelligent / whatever than others.
How did Medicine manage to uniformly ignore most everything that has been learned about such tests in psychology?
I think the medical schools have a lot more discretion available to them than than they let on. They don't make cut off scores available either. But people will post their scores on websites and the like. Interesting to see how people who do badly on one aspect (but went to a private / high decile school) still seem to end up with offers of place... I must have got a definate 'no' from my Otago interview to not have been waitlisted. And yet I was informed I did really well at answering their questions... It doesn't make sense.
They should have base cut-offs. There should then be a randomised / lottery process for offers. It would be fairer than the current stacked lottery system.
But of course everyone who gots in under x system has preference for x system. In philosophy... Professors who went through hellish (hazing) rituals as part of graduate school / junior positions tend to want to keep the same process for future generations. US job market (aka: meat market) books out an expensive hotel in someplace expensive like NYC and expects those on the job market to go to conference. They used to have job hiring interviews in actual hotel rooms where faculty were sprawled out over beds and where committees asked inappropriate questions like whether the applicant was planning on having babies and whether they might be expected to want time out to do so over the next few years...
One can't opt out of everything, I suppose.
I feel sad.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1058481
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20141123/msgs/1074642.html