Do I have the marks to become a doctor?

[xCanx]

I'm hoping that I can get some honest answers here. I'll start off by saying that I wanted to be a doctor since I was very small, and that it is like a dream job for me. I have a passion for biology and health. But the only thing standing in my way is grades. I am not a bad student but I'm not a great great student either.

Right now I am in grade 11 and I study in Ontario, Canada. These are the classes I currently have, I don't know whether these marks are good:

Grade 11 University Biology - 92%
Grade 11 University Physics - 82%
Grade 11 Univerisity English - 84%
Grade 12 Univeristy Advance Functions (math) - 62%

My average come out to an 80%.

I have very high standards, and right now I feel my marks are very low.

As you can see my math mark is 62% and I myself is shocked because I NEVER got below 75% in math, this is the first time. Will this affect my chances of getting into a good university? I have one more math course to take before I enter univeristy, It is Calculus and Vectors.

So my main question is, Do I have the grades to become a doctor?

 

[user101]

HS grades will barely impact your admission into medical school.

To get into medical school, it will be strongly dependent on the following areas:

* College GPA
* Grades of your biology/chemistry courses
* Experience (For ex: interning at a hospital, or volunteering)
* MCAT scores
* Interview (if the medical school chooses to have one)

These are in no particular order.

Don't sweat it over HS grades, just make sure you kick butt in college. I would only look at your HS grades for admissions into an undergraduate program, NOT admissions into medical schools.

 

[mr_coffee]

totally agree with user101's advice.

Highschool grades are pretty pointless once you get into college, but the high school grades are what get you into college.

 

[xCanx]

Thanks! That was very help full :)

But now I'm worried about my admission into a good university.

Do you guys think I have the potential to be a doctor judging on my marks? Basically do you think I'm smart enough? lol

 

[Math Is Hard]

Do you guys think I have the potential to be a doctor judging on my marks? Basically do you think I'm smart enough? lol

The only thing that really matters is what you think. We don't even know you.

My boss tells a story about a girl in his chem lab in college. Every single lab she did was a disaster, and her grades were pretty bad (at least that quarter). But she loved chemistry.

And she was the only one out of that class who became a chemist.

 

[user101]

xCanx, you must realize we cannot tell you if you will be a good doctor or not. Once you pass your undergraduate education, you'll enter medical school. Medical school is very interesting in that they do not ask you to blatently memorize facts... instead you'll be posed with a scenario and will have to pose your answer around that scenario. My friend told me this (who is in medical school) and I was quite impressed.

Typical exam question (I don't know what he said word for word, but I'm just making up stuff here):

A 45 year old woman walks in with a heart murmur. She has high blood pressure and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. What is the cause of the heart murmur and what is the appropriate action?

^^ That was probably a bad rendition of what he told me and I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than that, but you get the point. Isn't that a whole lot different than "what function is the mitochondria?" ... "to produce ATP".

 

[Mororvia]

Medical school is very interesting in that they do not ask you to blatently memorize facts... instead you'll be posed with a scenario and will have to pose your answer around that scenario. My friend told me this (who is in medical school) and I was quite impressed.

Overall, good stuff. But this (quoted) really depends on the school you go to and probably what year you're in. There is certainly a lot of memorization in courses like anatomy, for example.

(Assuming a US school)

Good luck to the OP!

 

[user101]

Oh yeah, no doubt about that. My friend said they like to ask more practical questions (not that knowing what bone is what is impractical...). Scenario-based questions is the way they test them the most, due to the fact that they'll be in a situation where they will have to analyze everything about the person's medical history.

My friend is Harvard's extension program and they ask similar type questions... more like, if you reduce ____ in the body, what other functions will it disrupt? Instead of what does ___ do? You're expected to know what it does and it's other affects...

IMHO, that's the way to teach. I've found the secret to success in studying is being able to link all the things you've learned and map them together, rather than brute memorization. I read it in some blog post (zenhabits.com?) and tried it after that, and boy it worked. I spend a little less time studying and still get the same or better grades. Anyway, sorry for digressing.