An inspiring story of how an institution partnership propelled students towards success and confidence leading up to their MCAT dates

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Joining Forces

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Marian University, situated in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a faith-oriented institution offering a competitive and well-rounded program for pre-medical and medical students via the Tom and Julie Wood College of Osteopathic Medicine (MU-WCOM). With a 9:1 student-faculty ratio and a 100% residency placement rate, many undergraduate students, at and outside of MU-WCOM, seek out this program to prepare them for their future medical careers. For MU-WCOM pre-med undergraduates, the institution offers a linkage program allowing students to move seamlessly from their undergraduate to a doctoral degree; however, applications are highly competitive, with only ten available spots per yearly cohort. Students wishing to apply to MU-WCOM via the linkage program must achieve an MCAT score of at least 504, which is high compared to the general MU-WCOM requirement of 494.

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In order to best support students in becoming eligible for the linkage program and boost enrollment, MU-WCOM partnered with The Brem Method in late spring 2024 to offer a for-credit, five-week intensive MCAT preparatory course to their undergraduate students and graduate students in their master's program. Their goal was to help each student increase their MCAT score by at least 5 points and reach an average of at least 500 points across the cohort. Kyle Hattenburg, Assistant Vice President of Health Professions Enrollment Management, and Dr. Trisha Staab, MU-WCOM’s undergraduate advisor, first came across The Brem Method at the June 2024 National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions (NAAHP) conference in Indianapolis. While there are several MCAT preparatory course options in the market, Hattenburg and Staab, along with Dr. Julia Hum, Director of the master's program at MU-WCOM, chose to work with The Brem Method due to its unique customizability to suit their needs. It was imperative that this course was live as opposed to on-demand, as research shows on-demand courses and self-study are less likely to prepare students to achieve the scores they want on the MCAT compared to live courses. In addition, MU-WCOM was aware that historically, many of their pre-med students suffered from test anxiety and stress; therefore, they wanted to focus not only on MCAT content and performance but also on skills related to stress management, healthy habits, and sustainable goal setting. The Brem Method offers intensive live courses with an emphasis on mental fitness, along with in-depth, weekly data reporting to track students’ progress in the course across a multitude of platforms. These characteristics stood out against other MCAT preparatory programs to the MU-WCOM representatives and uniquely fit their needs; thus, the partnership was born.

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Setting Students up for Success

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Together, MU-WCOM and The Brem Method launched a for-credit, five-week live online course as a capstone project for their undergraduate and graduate students intending to take the MCAT in the summer of 2024. Amanda Brem, founder and CEO of The Brem Method, along with Hattenburg, Hum, and Staab, designed a detailed rubric incorporating performance components, attendance, and engagement metrics. Doing so encouraged students to not only complete the course materials but to stay active and engaged throughout the course. Students were provided with weekly progress reports, which informed them on their study plan execution, held them accountable for their performance, and aggregated individualized data from multiple platforms. These reports were then consolidated into midpoint and final results that were presented to MU-WCOM, enabling stakeholders to intervene in real time to ensure students were getting the support they needed. Moreover, MU-WCOM and The Brem Method agreed to a three-year contract with new iterations each year based on results and feedback, ensuring the resources the institution provides to students are of the highest quality.

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The progress reports combine data from multiple sources to track students’ progress in key metrics aimed at supporting their success. One offering of The Brem Method is access to the UWorld MCAT QBank, which contains challenging questions for each content category of the MCAT. Students are advised to complete at least 3,000 questions before their test date, which is then broken down into aggressive yet achievable weekly goals. In addition, students are encouraged to take multiple practice MCAT exams and report their scores so that they can identify the areas in which they need the most improvement as they progress through the course. Lastly, the course utilized a gamified learning management system, Xperiencify, to track course assignments and activity, allowing stakeholders to cross-reference students’ achievements with their course engagement.

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Smashing Goals & Breaking Barriers

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By the end of the course, 31 of the 33 MU-WCOM capstone students (94%) reached their question completion goals, and 29 (88%) students completed at least 80% of the course materials in Xperiencify. In terms of attendance, 15 students attended all 11 class sessions, and students who missed classes committed to watching the recordings within three days of the class occurring (Figure 1). These results are remarkable when compared to a similar institution’s course that didn’t offer credits (Figure 2). In addition, students grew by an average of 6 points from their lowest to their highest practice exam score (Figure 3), and nearly half reached a peak score above 500—all within just five short weeks.

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These results are remarkable when comparing them to a similar institution course that didn’toffer credits (Figure 2). In addition, students grew 6 points on average from their lowest to their highest practice exam score (Figure 3), and nearly half reached a peak score above a 500- all within just five short weeks**

MU-WCOM and The Brem Method’s continued partnership is proving the effectiveness of a student-centered, holistic approach to MCAT preparation that is rarely seen throughout the test prep market. With the combined use of intrinsic motivation from The Brem Method and credit-based incentives offered by MU-WCOM, these students gain access to high quality opportunities for growth and improvement, not only on their test scores, but on their overall mental fitness as they continue their medical careers.