<p>Which specialties are competitive enough to require a Step I score of 240+?</p>
<p>grisam, before anyone who knows answers the question…I’m gonna guess “Any specialty my kid has any interest in at all”. Final answer. ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Average Step 1 scores of successful applicants from [Charting</a> Outcomes in the Match, 2009](<a href=“http://www.nrmp.org/data/chartingoutcomes2009v3.pdf]Charting”>http://www.nrmp.org/data/chartingoutcomes2009v3.pdf):</p>
<p>Dermatology: 242
Diagnostic radiology: 238
Neurosurgery: 239
Orthopedics: 238
Otolaryngology: 240
Plastic surgery: 245
Radiation oncology: 238</p>
<p>From the [Ophthalmology</a> Residency Match Report – January 2010](<a href=“SF Match - Residency and Fellowship Matching Services”>SF Match - Residency and Fellowship Matching Services) provided by the SF Match:</p>
<p>Opthalmology: 236</p>
<p>Again, keep in mind that these are average scores for all programs nation-wide. This means that a residency program in Podunkstown in the middle of nowhere might take people with slightly lower scores, while highly desirable places to live like NYC or San Francisco may have average scores 10-20 points higher.</p>
<p>Yup. All 3 things she’s mentioning are there, plus 2 she’s mentioned in the past.</p>
<p>I find this current medical student emphasis on USLME boards fascinating. The only boards anyone used to study for were your specialty boards. Everyone passed parts 1-2 and 3 in medical school. We were however graded and ranked so it appears that the removal of pressure for grades has just transferred to pressure for the USLME.
There was a recent paper on residency selection in my specialty and it was noted that the USLME did not do very well as a predictor of residency performance. Nevertheless the USLME was used by most programs as one factor in selecting residents. It was ranked 5th in importance as a way to predict future perceived performance.</p>