The Importance of Setting SMART Goals

During my life as an educator in K-12, in college, and in the test-prep world, I have found there are two types of goals people set for themselves. The first is the “I want to try to get as high as possible, because I won’t get it, and I’ll still get a pretty good score.” The second is the “I just need to get the minimum score I need, and anything above that will be bonus points.” Which one do you think I have observed is the most common? Unfortunately, it is the former.

Why this is unfortunate is that it is a mindset based on failure to achieve one’s goal. Shooting for the stars so you can hit the moon is based on the certainty that you will NOT achieve your goal. This is a very discouraging plan. As you take practice tests you will always feel so far away from your goal, and any improvements you do make are such a small percentage of the total change to your target score it will feel as if you are not making progress.

Let’s take the MCAT as an example. A common cold score (i.e., taking a practice MCAT without preparation) is in the 490s, so let’s use 495. In the “as high as possible” mindset, the target score is 528, the maximum score on the MCAT. After some studying you take another practice MCAT and score 500. That’s a 5-point improvement; that’s huge! However, when you compare that to the 33-point improvement you are set up to need, that’s only a 15% improvement (5/33). That doesn’t seem as big an improvement as it really is.

So how does flipping the script and setting yourself up with a minimum required score to get into a program of your choice? Let’s say you want to get into an MD program. In general, a score of 508 will get you interviews for MD programs (if you have an interview, you can consider that as good as a spot in the program). With the same cold score of 495, you now only need a 13-point improvement. The same 5-point increase is now a 38% improvement (5/13). That’s 2x the improvement and 1/3 of the entire change you need to make. That is a whole lot more encouraging when studying for something as intimidating as the MCAT.

What I am talking about here is the idea of SMART goal setting. Years ago, I worked with a wise individual who introduced me to this concept, and I have never turned back. I helped this person develop a program for students entering college and this was one of the core tenets of the program. SMART is an acronym: S = Specific; M = Measurable; A = Achievable; R = Relevant; T = Time-Stamped (although the T is pretty variable depending on whom you ask). Right now, I am focusing on the A.

Creating Achievable goals for yourself helps with your motivation! Anything you can do to help motivate you to study will make the process that much easier. One example of a student I had that set an achievable MCAT goal was a student I had a few years ago that wanted to go to DO school. We discussed their goal and settled on 504 (the then average DO score for matriculants that year). Their cold score was 496. After 4 practice MCATs, they scored a 505. At that point, the student was VERY confident they would get what they needed to go to DO school. When they took their real MCAT, guess what they scored… 509! Far more than they needed to score to get to where they wanted to go and it opened up some new doors, they didn’t know they wanted.

How did this happen? The student knew they would get what they wanted and because of this, they went into their real MCAT relaxed and confident! This is the best way to be walking into a testing center and I want everyone to have this kind of confidence. So please, disregard all those things you see on Reddit and Student Doctor Network about MCAT scores you NEED to have to get into medical school and talk to someone who knows the data like a pre-health advisor or an admissions officer.

Set those SMART goals and succeed!