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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
E-mails and Information Security
General
E-mails and Information Security
How can I make sure that I'm
invited to take the Pre-MCAT Questionnaire after I register for
the MCAT exam?
Be sure to add "aamc.org" to your "approved sender" list in your
e-mail account. Also, check your "Junk" folder for an e-mail from
aamc.org that might have been misidentified as spam. If you find
our e-mail there, mark it as "not spam" or remove it from the list
of blocked senders. This ensures that your e-mail provider will
not block e-mails sent you from the AAMC, including the PMQ survey
link, which is unique to each MCAT exam registrant.
After I registered for the MCAT exam,
I received an e-mail asking me to click an embedded link to the
PMQ. Is this link legit, or is it someone phishing for my information?
If the e-mail came from pmq@aamc.org, it is most likely legitimate.
After you registered for the MCAT exam, you received an e-mail that
confirmed your registration; it also contained information about
the PMQ, the e-mail from pmq@aamc.org, and the link to the survey.
Currently, the PMQ is engineered to send out an e-mail invitation
from pmq@aamc.org to the e-mail address you submitted to MCAT.
Why does my survey link have "surveys.aamc.org"
in the URL instead of "aamc.org"?
Many AAMC surveys are now hosted at secure Web sites that have
"https://surveys.aamc.org" in the root URL address. We're sorry
if this confused you. The AAMC is the sole administrator of all
surveys with the surveys.aamc.org address.
Does the PMQ ask for any personal information
that could put me at risk?
The PMQ survey does not ask for any personally identifiable
information. Because you already gave personal information during
the secure MCAT exam registration process, the PMQ doesn't require
it. Instead, the survey asks for information about your undergraduate
experiences, your plans for graduate study and future career, and
your estimated costs of, and plans to pay for, your current and
future education. Just to be safe, however, the PMQ Web survey is
also secure.
How can I stop getting e-mail reminders
to take the PMQ?
Once a participant completes the PMQ, the reminders stop. This
is true even if one chooses the "I do not wish to participate in
the survey" option at the beginning of the survey. If you do not
wish to participate in the survey, the quickest way to stop the
reminders is to open your survey and click the "I do not wish to
participate" option. If you believe you have completed the questionnaire
but are still receiving e-mail reminders in error, e-mail us at
pmq@aamc.org and we will take
care of it.
Note: In your e-mail, be sure to include the e-mail address that
you submitted when registering for the MCAT exam.
Who uses PMQ data, and why? Will they
see my personal information? What are the AAMC's data security policies?
Researchers from the AAMC, medical schools, and other educational
organizations may request PMQ data to monitor national trends in
medical education, to understand the needs of those considering
medicine and other health professions, to anticipate the needs of
prospective students, and to help undergraduate advisors on college
campuses assess the impact of career advising resources. Your information
is retained in perpetuity by the AAMC in a secure database and kept
confidential. This means that we make every effort to keep your
information confidential, and we share it only with people who have
agreed to keep it confidential, such as AAMC project staff, who
are trained in data security, and education researchers. Whenever
your responses are released, your name will not be revealed but
will be replaced with code numbers. A data file that links you with
your code number will be kept in a password-protected file that
only senior-level AAMC Data Warehouse staff can access. There may
also be times when federal or state law requires disclosure of PMQ
data. This is very unlikely, but if it ever happens, we will make
every effort to protect your personal information.
General
I already took the PMQ last year. Can
I take the PMQ again this year?
Yes. MCAT exam registrants are eligible to participate in one PMQ
survey per MCAT year. For example, if you register for a 2009 MCAT
exam and subsequently register for a 2010 MCAT exam, you may take
both the 2009 PMQ and the 2010 PMQ.
Is taking the PMQ a requirement for the
MCAT exam or for application to medical school?
No, the survey is not required; it is voluntary. However, the AAMC
strongly encourages you to take the PMQ in order to maintain the
quality of the research. Moreover, the research is important: it
helps inform local and national policies that could impact the future
of, e.g., student loans and debt reduction programs, medical school
expansion, and the diversity of the healthcare workforce.
I'm having problems taking the survey.
My responses don't show up or I cannot go forward.
This problem is most likely due to settings in your browser. The
survey requires a Web browser that has both cookies and Java enabled.
Try changing your browser settings to enable cookies and Java. If
that fails, try to use a browser on a different computer.
Why did my friends see different questions
on their PMQ than I did?
Your time is valuable, so to keep the PMQ as brief as possible,
we sample different questions to different participants. If you
understand statistics, you will also understand why this makes it
even more important that as many people as possible complete the
PMQ. Also, some questions are dependent upon previous answers, which
helps to keep the survey shorter.
I saw questions on the PMQ about my parents'
income and my estimated college debt. Will my responses be used
by admissions committees or considered in my fee reduction application
or financial aid requests?
No. Your individual responses are never forwarded to such committees.
When we respond to a request for PMQ data, we only give de-identified
data that is stripped of all information that could identify you
with your responses. This makes it safer for you to answer all questions
as honestly as possible, including the questions about educational
cost. To inform policy, it is vital that we learn about the growing
costs of education and whether these costs are inhibiting anyone
from pursuing medicine as a career.
Can I see the results of the PMQ?
Stay tuned: We hope to publish live data snapshots and annual results
right here on the PMQ Web site. Although the PMQ is a new AAMC Web
site, the PMQ data go back many years, so we expect you will be
able to compare your answers to your peers today as well as to people
who took the PMQ five or ten years ago. If you are especially interested
in the results to a particular question, let us know at pmq@aamc.org.
We will try to highlight results of questions that interest you
most.
I've heard the PMQ referred to as the
"Premedical Student Questionnaire." Is the Pre-MCAT Questionnaire
something different?
They are the same. The PMQ used to be called the Premedical Student
Questionnaire. The name was changed in 2008 to acknowledge the fact
that people take the MCAT exam for various reasons—not just
to get into medical school but also into programs for public health,
dentistry, nursing, and others. The PMQ is interested in the responses
of all MCAT exam registrants. If you are considering medicine, you
are likely to see more questions pertaining to medicine.
Has the PMQ been IRB-reviewed?
Yes. Whenever the AAMC conducts research using personally identifiable
data (human subjects research), that research is reviewed according
to AAMC policies governing research. If you have any questions about
this review or your participation in the research, please contact
the AAMC Office of Human Subjects Research Protection
at hsrppadministrator@aamc.org.
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