6.4 Getting the Edge in Skill 4 Questions
6.4 Getting the Edge in Skill 4 Questions
Skill 4 requires an understanding of how research data are evaluated. The best way to identify your strengths and weaknesses in this area is actually to read academic papers. However, just reading academic papers is not enough. You have to go through each calculation that has been performed and interpret each paper in light of your own statistical analysis. Think of yourself like a teacher grading a research paper. Read critically, and identify any flaws in the authors' analysis of data, including miscalculations. Finally, after reading each paper, summarize the value of the information. If you had a patient whose disease or treatment course could be affected by the information in the paper, do you believe that the information in the paper is reliable? Is it statistically significant? Did the discussion in the paper actually address the questions set forth at the beginning of the paper? As you read more papers, these questions will become easier to answer.
In addition to reading papers, it is essential that you answer a considerable number of practice questions in this area. Often, passages that are steeped in research also present a number of Skill 3 questions. Although we present these skills separately here, both are essential to understanding academic research papers. By seeking out practice passages and question sets that use both of these skills, these question types will become easier. You will then be able to maximize your score on Test Day.
When the AAMC released the specifications for the current version of the MCAT, it established the expected distribution as 10 percent Skill 4 questions for each science section.