re: How smart do you have to be to be a brain surgeon?

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Interestingly, though, as I've previously quoted, here's what one neurosurgeon, himself, says:

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he finishes off with:

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but I also know a lot of neurosurgeons who are not real smart. I mean they’re not geniuses.

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so even by your own evidence, his level of "smart" means "genius", which is a bit elevated compared to the context you're using

why would he qualify his statement with this level of intelligence if he was referring to a general commentary on intelligence and not a biased view based on a very specific grouping of people?

racist dick

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How smart do you have to be to be a brain surgeon?

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Very smart when compared to your medical peers.

Extremely smart when compared to the general public.

Neurosurgeons are no smarter than Dermatologist, ENT, Ortho, Urology, people who go into integrated plastic surgery or vascular surgery, Radiologist, Radiation Oncologist. All of the above specialties have average Step 1 scores above 240.

Additionally, anyone in any specialty who matches into a top 10 program in their respective specialty is just as smart. For example, someone who matches at Mass General in Internal Medicine is likely just as smart as any Neurosurgeon.

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Extremely smart when compared to the general public.

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I presented expert testimony that says otherwise.

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Who did your lobotomy Rex?







They must not have been very good.

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Actually, if you're going that route, you would want to say they were a little TOO good

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How does having a socialist accountant work?

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Rex hasn't worked in years....

I find it fascinating that people can get so emotionally hurt over challenges to their presumptions and preconceptions.

Education and enlightenment are GOOD things.

I don't really care. I'm not a neurosurgeon, but to say that neurosurgeons do not have above average intelligence (at minimum) is disingenuous.

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I don't really care. I'm not a neurosurgeon, but to say that neurosurgeons do not have above average intelligence (at minimum) is disingenuous.

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I am sure that neurosurgeons have higher intelligence on average than the general population.

Rex, shite like this just pisses me off. The downgrading of the physician in America is a long term ploy by the government. And they have their media cohorts involved as well.

I have seen articles that said when you are sick, you don't really need to go see a doctor. A nurse is pretty close to the same thing. Heck, you break a bone? You don't need an orthopod. You just need a nurse who has been trained to set the bone. You have to have a biopsy? Heck, that is simple hand eye coordination that anyone can do.

And now we see an article saying Brain surgeons aren't smart.

First off, most med schools require two years of college physics, general chem, organic chem, bio, and Calculus.

Discounting bio, the others are hard core science/math classes. And since schools require these, they tend to look to see how applicants have done in these courses and count them heavier than the grade they got in walking jogging course.

So, you have to succeed in highschool. You have to succeed in College. Anyone in med school is book smart to a pretty high level. The people who couldn't handle it have been pretty weeded out at this level.

Everyone is pretty smart. Everyone has a high IQ at this point.

Typical college grad is 110-119. Typical doctorate is 120-129. But these are phds. I would venture forth that most doctors are at least at this level and likely in the gifted level which is 130-144 or higher.

Genius is over 145. OK. I don't doubt that many aren't quite to that level. But hell, if they average out between 125-140 or so, that means they are pretty damn smart. Now there will be those above and below that level as in any bell shaped curve.

Interestingly a study in 2008 found that doctors had the highest average IQ of any field out there. So there is that as well.

The question when asked to doctors means something different than the general public.

Lets look at this.

Do you need to be smart to be a doctor? Well as I said a previous study found that doctors on average have the highest IQ of any field out there, including retired accountants. So you have to be pretty smart to be a doctor.

Do Brain surgeons need to be smarter than the average doctor is more along the lines of the question you are asking. And that is a complex issue. On average, the answer is yes. Do they need to be that much smarter? No. Choices of where med school graduates are driven by lots of factors, but average pay in that particular field is a big deciding factor. Many of the surgical fields are among the higher paying and thus take the better medical students.

So there you have it. Only really smart people get into medical school and then the better to best of those get into the surgical specialties. So, yeah, you need to be pretty damn smart to be a brain surgeon.

And remember what you are paying for is not just the surgical skill, because that is hand eye coordination. You are paying for the decision of whether you need surgery or not and what the best type of surgery for you is. Along with the post op care you get.