USMLE
Here is another link to the Step 1 policy change announcement
https://www.usmle.org/announcements/?ContentId=264
According to this – "These new policies strengthen the integrity of the USMLE and address concerns about Step 1 scores impacting student well-being and medical education,”
Student well-being is one key driver.
On Twitter, someone mentioned student suicide attempts and likely lawsuits as drivers for change.
This change certainly affects more than BS/MD applicants. It affects any med student entering this fall since they will be the guinea pigs for this change.
The rationale had to reducing stress of med students and reducing the amount of “cramming” that’s happening at some schools where students choose not to attend lecture, but spend all their time cramming from UWorld, Amki, Pathoma, First Aid, QBank, etc. so they can score high on Step 1.
I see several things potentially happening:
1) increasing med school admission requirements to include coursework in advanced biochem, A&P, perhaps even adding grad level course requirements in histology, embryology, etc. This mean the end of non-bio major pre-meds.
2) compressed didactic years with all classroom work done by the end of MS1 or mid-way through MS2 at the latest, followed by early entry into clinical training
3) Students taking Step 2CK much earlier--maybe as soon as MS2. Currently med student take STEP 2 CK near the end of MS3--much too late for students to prepare a strong residency application. Residency application are submitted in Sept of MS4. Students who spend years prepping for ortho or ophtho or derm won't know until mere weeks before they submit to ERAS whether they are a competitive applicant or not, Since all of their critical rotation and sub-I are done, it will much more difficult to re-tool and get appropriate LORs to apply to another specialty.
4) extending medical school from 4 years to 5 years to allow for a mandatory research year for students who hope to enter competitive fields or apply to competitive residency sites. (And increasing the cost of medical education by 20-25% at the same time.)
5) a reversal of the trend toward P/F grading during the didactic portion of med school. Grades--both didactic and clinical--will become much more important.
Residency directors will use academic other markers--Step 2 CK, class rank, AOA membership, GPA---to filter residency applicants.
6) applicants coming from less well known (I hate the term low ranked) MD programs will be disadvantaged if having LORs from preceptors w/ national reputations become important. As will DO applicants and IMGs.
Networking, audition rotations, membership in specialty-specific professional organizations and specialty-specific research productivity (i.e. publications/Posters/presentations) will become more important.
The most outrageous proposal I've seen eliminates didactic medical education completely with med school hopefuls attending 2 year "cram schools" that focus on passing the Step 1. If a student passes than other metrics (ECs, MCAT scores, LORs) will determine if a student will be provisionally accepted for MS32/3--with trial period of 6 months during which a student can be dismiss for any reason without recourse and without explanation.
One comment I've seen from several current residents is that a P/F Step 1 changes very little in terms of knowledge required by physicians since every doctor has a subscription to UpToDate on their phone for basic medical information. There's no longer any need to memorized reams of basic science. Step 2 tests how well a student is able to diagnose and develop treatment plans-- "Think like a doctor"-- and is more valuable metric. USMLE program announces upcoming policy changes has this paragraph about secondary use of USLME Step 1 for residency screening.
“These new policies will continue to enable the USMLE program to provide high-quality assessments for the primary user of exam results (state medical boards) while also addressing other considerations, such as exam security and unintended consequences of secondary score uses. The secondary uses of Step 1 scores for residency screening, in particular, have been the focus of extensive discussion over the past year at the FSMB and NBME, within the USMLE program, and with multiple stakeholders within the broader medical education and regulatory communities.”
Basically eliminate USLME Step 1 score from residency screening and allocation.
@live2give Congrats!!
I was also accepted, we should make a group or something to talk with everyone else accepted
USMLE pass fail change is interesting. Hard to say definitely the impact but on face value it favors pedigree. So Top 40 med schools it benefits… foreign med grads and osteopathic it hurts (again on first glance). When I say hurts, I mean in terms of competitive residencies. Working the process backward now this favors Top UG schools particularly Ivies as the Top 20 med schools are Ivy matriculants heavy. Doesn’t mean can’t get there from a non ivy but certainly it becomes easier if you have the ivy pedigree. As far as the BSMD world it make places like Brown pmle and NU hpme now even more attractive regardless of cost. Again this is in relation to a target of highly competitive residency. Not to get too philosophical but it’s fairly well known Ivy admissions favor wealthier family’s, now this pipeline feeds into Top20 med schools which now feed more favorable to higher paying residency specialties…wealthy to wealthy…the scoring of step 1 allowed for the really smart high scorer who was at a lower tier school to equal the playing field…same true for the foreign medical grads…now this is gone…again nothing is absolute and there are exceptions to every rule so it’s not a total exclusion…but it definitely seems to help the top schools both UG and medical schools
Any one know if NJMS acceptance is on rolling basis? Thanks!
They announce towards the end of March almost at same time. You will get a call/email from your feeder school.
When will the last batch of interviews be? I’ve heard that NJMS allows 4 weeks between an invite and an interview. It’s already mid Feb. If someone got invited to an interview now, he/she gets an interview mid March. That leaves about 2 weeks before announcement. Is NJMS coming to the end of sending out interview invites? C is really hoping to be invited to NJMS. Should we give up hope?
USMLE Step 1
Someone on Twitter:
“ i wonder how much of the USMLE step 1 pass/fail decision was motivated by kids at elite med schools deciding that they didn’t want to compete against all the smart asians they didn’t let in”
NJMS does do interviews till middle of March.
Hang in there.
Before deciding to change step 1 score, they should have watched Parasite. This change will create inequality more profound when it comes to matriculating into more competitive specialties and programs within each programs.
Congratulations!
Just a suggestion, so far only two announcements here of acceptance into PMM. Guess there may have been others who either forgot to post in their celebratory mood or don’t want to share the news for their own reasons.
So if and when you create the group, share the details here so they may also join.
Have you checked last year’s thread for their last interview schedule timelines?
USMLE Step 1
One of the argument is that Step 1 is not intended to be measure for residency programs. Yet, that happened. so who is at fault for its misuse? USMLE or residency programs?
I am sure if this was changed other way around, it may have caused similar uproar. May be it is time for residency programs to correct their act, evaluate based on something intended for their use.
I suspect some of sentiment about ORM vs URM vs privileged vs non-privileged vs brand vs non-brand vs what else are blown up dis-proportionally as residency programs will move on to something new to evaluate and hopefully that is good for everyone. Leadership in those decision making body comes from all walks of life.
Current students who are caught in cross-hairs are the ones most affected.
Hofstra Interviews are out! Good luck.
got a hofstra interview let’s get it
This is all about social justice movement. They are claiming that people are spending too much time on test prep vs “learning”. For UG admissions they blamed on students spending thousands on test prep there by disadvantaging low income students. I don’t think US medical students spend thousands on USMLE prep so they are blaming it on cramming vs learning (and service) and advocate for more “holistic” approach.
I’m assuming that those who don’t get interview invites from Hofstra today have been rejected from the program. Am I correct?
PMM:
There is a Facebook page for PMM admitted students.
Join that group on FB.
congrats!!!