The Imperialism of Mathematics

Abstract

There exists a theorem that states: “Whenever an entrance examination is instituted in a scientific discipline, it invariably becomes an exercise in mathematics. ” I have witnessed this theorem in action when a selection process by entrance examination was put in place in medical school. Within six months, mathematics had phagocytized the system. Before that time, premed studies encompassed a very flexible program of biology, physics, chemistry and math. Students operated in a kind of academic lottery, in which professors would choose to teach what they considered important, a little bit according to their own taste. Sometimes they made the right choice, sometimes not. The hallmark of the first year of medical school was a certain creative effervescence. But from the moment an effort was made to regulate the number of future medical doctors by means of an entrance examination, everything changed. Students started plodding through the same mathematics exercises (“superelementary mathematics” would describe them best). The physics exam became an exam in applied math. The chemistry exam suffered the same fate, requiring complicated calculations of equilibrium chemical reactions. Even biology degenerated into a miasma of combinatorial analyses involving the genetic code. Within a couple of trimesters, the institution of the entrance examination had managed to turn the entire premed arena into a desert.