MCAT and Racism

Hi blog! I'm still figuring out what I want my writing style to be like. I like to keep the audience in mind to plan how to communicate myself, but I should also realize 1) this is a personal blog and 2) I don't think I even really have an audience. Therefore, I'll simply continue writing somewhat unplanned and in a free-flowing fashion.

I just took the Medical College Admissions Test yesterday. If you're wondering, I used the Princeton box set of preparation material for content, but used practice questions from the AAMC (the organization that administers the MCAT). The explanations from Princeton are better, but the AAMC questions were more reflective of the actual exam. I took a free practice exam from Kaplan, which was more difficult than the actual exam. All in all, I highly recommend using Khan Academy, since it's a free resource and access to quality education should be free in our society (but more on that conversation later). If you're somewhat poor like me, please apply for the Fee Assistance Program from the AAMC. If you qualify financially, you'll get access to 14 of their preparation products, including 4 full-length practice exams. I'm insanely grateful for that.

What I hope my medical school class looks like

I want more space to dedicate to important topics, so I think I'll make another post in the coming future on this, but I want to make a quick comment. Black Americans are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States, and are, more often than other racial or ethnic groups, victims of police brutality. I'll address counterarguments in another post, but for now, I want to cite racism as the most significant perpetuating factor in these trends - not the only factor, but the most important one. Individual racism is when you hold thoughts or attitudes that one race is superior to another. You discriminate when you act on these racist beliefs. Systemic or structural racism, on the other hand, is when a social institution facilitates existent individual racism. I'll revisit this topic in depth at another time.