Medical admission by literature: Should or shouldn't?

IMITATE BUT NOT ENOUGH…

According to Associate Professor Le Dinh Tung (Training Department, Hanoi Medical University), through monitoring on mass media, he realized that it seems that private schools that include literature in the combination of 3 subjects for university admissions want to "follow" the medical admissions method of countries with developed medical training. However, this "following" is not thorough, causing the basis for medical admissions to be distorted, thereby leading to the risk of not ensuring training quality. "For a long time, medical schools in English-speaking countries have often used the results of the UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) and BMAT (Biomedical Admission Test), MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) exams for admission. These exams often include a mandatory language test. The basis for this test is the requirement that doctors must be able to advise on health care for patients, so they must be able to use at least one language well (both speaking and writing). To evaluate this criterion, it is necessary to design a separate test that is suitable for the requirements of the medical profession, not just the literature score. Because in reality, the current high school graduation exam's literature score is not a measure of language intelligence, nor does it confirm whether candidates have mastered the use of language (Vietnamese) or not," he said.

According to experts, it is necessary to design a competency test for medical admission.

Associate Professor Tung also emphasized that assessing language thinking is only one of four requirements in medical school entrance exams. There are three other very important factors that, if you "learn", you must follow them completely, including: quantitative thinking (usually using mathematics as a measure, some schools evaluate through logical thinking tests and consider mathematics as a reliable measure); knowledge of natural sciences including chemistry, biology, biophysics (not just physics); decision-making ability.

CHOOSING THE WRONG WILL BE A WASTE FOR STUDENTS AND SOCIETY

Dr. Vu Quoc Dat, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Hanoi Medical University, stated that almost all medical schools in major countries require entrance exams, because this is a very important factor in the medical training process. This is to help schools select the best students and students choose the most suitable school.

Dr. Dat explained: "Medical education is an expensive and long-term program. For example, in the US, a medical student training program can cost up to 500,000 USD. Not filtering out unsuitable candidates from the beginning will lead to a huge waste. If the right candidates are chosen, the family and society's resources will be saved. In other fields, students can work in a different field after finishing their studies, but no one studies another field and then works in the medical field (because it is impossible), and there are also very few cases of studying medicine and then working in another field. Therefore, the entrance exam needs to be done carefully, mainly because the training costs are too high and the training time is too long and too complicated."

According to Dr. Dat, in addition to assessing scientific knowledge and application ability, entrance exams mainly assess mental and behavioral abilities related to the profession, logical thinking ability, numerical problem solving ability, decision making ability, situation assessment ability, as well as reasoning ability from the perspective of social sciences and humanities and natural sciences.

Studying medicine, the training cost is very high and the training time is long and complicated.

NEED TO DESIGN A COMPETENCE TEST FOR THE MEDICAL INDUSTRY

Associate Professor Le Dinh Tung said that in Vietnam, because there is no separate exam to assess the capacity for medical students, schools still have to use a combination of 3 subjects, the main measure of which is math knowledge and natural science subjects, in which biology is the core subject. "If we only rely on the combination of 3 subjects, the combination of math, chemistry, and biology is the most practical requirement for medical students," Associate Professor Tung commented.

From a personal perspective, Dr. Vu Quoc Dat does not oppose the inclusion of subjects such as literature, foreign languages, computer science, and even physical education in medical admissions. But the important thing is to design a competency test. Other factors cannot replace this test. "If we think that because there is no competency test, the traditional combinations for medical admissions are not capable of classifying candidates and must use an additional literature score as a criterion, then it is not convincing. Because if literature is needed for doctors, it should be included in the admissions, then similarly, we also need to affirm that physical education, foreign languages, music, computer science, economic and legal education... are all needed for doctors," Dr. Dat emphasized.

The Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Health need to comment soon.

According to Dr. Le Dong Phuong, an independent expert in university education research, in the US, there is the MCAT exam for medical school admission. This is an exam for candidates (with a premed degree) applying to medical schools in the US, Canada, and Australia. This exam is developed and managed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). MCAT is considered a tool to predict the success of medical master's candidates for admissions committees.

The MCAT exam covers logic, biology, physics, general and organic chemistry, biochemistry, psychology, and sociology. The MCAT exam has four subscores: biological and biochemical foundations of living systems; chemical and physical foundations of biological systems; psychological, social, and biological foundations of behavior; and analytical and reasoning skills.

In Vietnam, because there is no separate exam for medical students, schools still mainly use a combination of math, chemistry, and biology for admission. In relation to using the high school graduation exam for admission, this is a subject combination that is considered to have a certain reasonableness in medical admission. It helps medical schools select candidates with suitable knowledge strengths for training. Therefore, the fact that some private universities consider admission to the medical field based on literature exam scores is making society extremely worried. "I hope that the Ministry of Education and Training as well as the Ministry of Health will soon respond to the admission of medical university students based on literature so that society can be assured of the quality of human resources in the medical field," said Dr. Phuong.

Applying for medical school in Italy

According to Mr. Ly Dat Thu, a medical student at the University of Rome (Italy), the Italian medical entrance exam is a national and international exam, the IMAT (International Medical Admission Test).

The exam is organized by a third party, the Cambridge University Examination Center, and is held in Italy and at examination councils around the world (the closest examination councils to Vietnam are in China: Beijing, Hong Kong and New Delhi - India). Candidates will take exams in math, physics, chemistry, biology (general knowledge similar to what students in Vietnam still learn); exams on anatomy, physiology, embryology (knowledge of the first years of basic subjects of medical school in Vietnam)... The most difficult part for Vietnamese students is critical thinking and knowledge of world history and culture, because Vietnamese students (and university students) do not learn it, the scope of content asked is also very broad.

The exam takes place once a year in the first half of September every year. Candidates who have graduated from high school or university can register for the exam (Mr. Thu himself was in his 4th year at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City when he took the exam). The results are available in October, if he passes, he can enroll in school in late October or early November.

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