Session 144

This week, we continue our breakdown of Blueprint MCAT (formerly Next Step Test Prep)‘s full-length 10, as we’re joined by Clara from Next Step week after week. Meanwhile, be sure to check out all our other podcasts on MedEd Media Network as we provide premeds, medical students, and residents with resources that will hopefully help them on their journey through medical school and beyond!

Clara gives this helpful tip when it comes to answering psych/soc is to don’t pick an answer choice if you don’t know what it means. The AAMC uses answer choices where you’re not supposed to know what they mean. So if you see some random choice of some word you’ve never seen before, it’s pretty likely to be wrong, unless all the other choices have been proven wrong. So don’t fall into the trap that you’re stupid because you don’t know the word.

[03:55] Question 44

When medical faculty members engage in professional behavior towards patients and students, what type of norm do they violate?

1. Edicts
2. Laws
3. Folkways
4. Mores

Clara’s insights:

The correct answer here is D. B doesn’t have a special psych/soc definition, where a law is just a law. But it could be the right answer if they talked about something that was more formal and there were consequences for breaking them. Folkways are norms but they’re very informal. An example would be holding the door open for somebody or not eating your hands. If you violate them, no one really gets hurt. There are no consequences. But they’re like manners. “Mores” falls in the middle. Such as the question above where the faculty member was being unprofessional. So it was more serious than with eating using your hands. But it’s not as serious as breaking a law. “Edicts” is not a formal psych/soc term. It’s like a proclamation.

[07:02] Question 45

A board of trustees investigated rising costs at a hospital and found that employee turnover was rising, causing deficient, unskilled care and leading to increased cost and lower revenue. The hospital board, citing the hospital’s tradition of excellent care and happy employees, decided to ignore this report’s recommendations in favor of those given by an outside consulting group, who said the cost rise was due to local economic conditions. This choice exemplifies what kind of bias?

1. In-group bias
2. Confirmation bias
3. Out-group bias
4. Attribution bias

Clara’s insights:

The correct answer here is B. You should just know all the types of bias in whatever material you’re using. Students could pick either in-group or out-group bias. In-group bias would be if they went with their own report. Out-group bias would be if they think their own people are terrible so they prefer external resources or people. But neither of the two is happening here. Attribution bias is a broader term that refers to our own tendencies to explain others’ behavior.

[11:55] Question 46

Studies show that a factor in the development of groupthink is insulation from outside opinions. Which of the following hospitals would be LEAST likely to be prone to administrative groupthink?

1. A hospital where the chief administrators arbitrarily override staff decisions
2. A hospital where a team of MBAs has been brought in to replace its previous management
3. A hospital where nurses and physicians have a tradition of seeing “whining to management” as unprofessional
4. A hospital where administrators are promoted internally from clinical and clerical staff

Clara’s insights:

The correct answer here is D. In fact, this is one of the most missed questions of Next Step’s entire section and they pick B. And when you’re stuck between two answer choices, go back to the question and reread it since they can’t both be right. There must be some word or adjective that tells you which is better.

[16:25] Question 47

Many sociologists predict that cardiovascular disease will affect a larger proportion of the population as the average age of the U.S. citizen increases. The statistic of cardiovascular rates per 1000 people is known as the:

1. Sufferance rate
2. Mortality rate
3. Incidence rate
4. Appearance rate

Clara’s insights:

Answer choices A and D are not real things and B denotes the rate of death. So the answer here is C.

[17:50] Blueprint MCAT (formerly Next Step Test Prep)

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